Daniel 3:13-30

We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and today is no different as we close out our year with the third chapter of the book of Daniel.

So typically, this last Sunday between Advent and the first week of the new year, you know, it's it's a good time to take a deep breath and look around at our surroundings, to look back at the year that's behind us now in the rear view mirror, and to look at the year that is coming straight for us through the windshield.

At our staff Christmas party, which was on Zoom, and actually way more fun than you might expect.

We had a look back at 2020 slideshow, and man, it was stunning to look back at everything that has transpired in 2020 and just see how much has changed in such a few short months.

And I think this year, more than ever, this idea of looking back and looking ahead, it's not just a cute little exercise, and it's not a New Year's resolution that we'll abandon in a week or two, but I think it's a real chance to dig into a deeper walk with the Lord.

You know, God's never afraid of our honest emotions, our celebrations, and our lament.

He's not afraid of any question we might ask, whether in doubt or in faith.

And I think some questions that our text today might raise are probably some that we've already been wrestling with this year.

You know, so many of us has have experienced especially hard times this year.

And we we could very well be asking, how can we remain faithful in the wake of disaster and tragedy and isolation?

How can we keep our faith growing?

How can we allow our eyes to be opened to also see the unexpected fruit that's blooming and growing alongside the thorns of this past year?

How long, O Lord, how long will this season endure?

And how can we move forward into 2021 trusting the Lord when all seems so very tenuous?

Well, from our text, we'll see that Daniel and his three friends, they lived their whole lives in exile.

Once they were carried away into exile, they lived the whole rest of their lives in Babylon.

And while we in Nashville aren't in exile today, there is a sense, isn't there, of being exiled from our old normal lives and being whisked away to live in an alternate new universe.

Memories of what Tommy Bailey calls the before times just seem almost surreal, and yet, and yet I think it's in the midst of this, it's possible to still live in a way that brings honor and praise to God.

It is possible to lament, like King David did in Psalm 13, that starts out asking, How long, O Lord, but finishes that lament with a response that's so filled with faith, I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.

And it is possible to lament, like the psalmist in Psalm 137, by the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

Our captors asked us for songs.

They said, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

And how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?

And I think that that's how a lot of us feel right now.

And I want to encourage us that it's possible to sing that lament, but also live a Psalm 1 life while in the midst of exile.

His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

Friends, we can draw faith from the knowledge that God is sovereign over human affairs, that he is in the process of building his kingdom, and that our times are indeed in his hands.

No matter how disconnected we might feel from our old normal, no matter how alienated we might feel from modern culture, it's possible, even essential, I would say, to live a faithful life in exile.

Several times we're told in Scripture, do not be afraid, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

And friends, it's really good to remember who the battle belongs to, who has authority.

Ours is not to carry the weight of the world, but to follow the one who does.

So here's a super brief flyover of the book of Daniel as we get into our text.

So the book of Daniel, he's named, it's named after and written by the prophet Daniel, records the events of his life and visions that he saw from when he was a youth and taken into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian Empire.

And he was first carried off in the year 605 B.C.

And he stayed there in exile till the third year of the reign of the Persian king Cyrus in 536 BC.

Pretty much 70 years there.

So the book is a bit of an outlier in that it's really written in two genres.

The first half, the first six chapters, contain historical narratives from the lives of Daniel and his three friends.

And the second half contains apocalyptic visions meant to reassure God's people that in spite of their current suffering, God is in control and will ultimately be victorious.

Much like the book of Revelation, the visions in the apocalyptic portion of the book, they're not exactly chronological in sequence, but rather they employ progressive parallelism, which we can compare to climbing a spiral staircase in a room, and as you climb around the staircase, you keep getting higher.

You keep coming back around to that same hue again and again, but you're higher up in the room each time you come around, and your vantage point is just a little bit better.

The central theme of the book is God's sovereignty over history, sovereignty over kings and empires, over us, and all the events of our lives.

We can be faithful to the Lord through whatever circumstances we find ourselves navigating, knowing that the Lord is in control and will ultimately be victorious.

That's some good news that we need to hear right now.

So Daniel and his three friends, they're really kind of like the four musketeers in a sense.

They were of noble blood.

And when Nebuchadnezzar first carried people off into exile in the year 605, they were taken to live in the king's court in Babylon because they were, as we're told in chapter 1, without blemish, of good appearance, and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace and being taught the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

While they were there, the king's eunuch renamed the three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and forevermore, that's how we know them.

So in the very first chapter, we see our four friends, Daniel and the three other guys, uh, they display faithfulness in that they resolve themselves not to eat the king's food nor drink his wine, and they quietly received permission to eat only vegetables and drink water, and at the end of a ten-day fast period, they were told better in appearance and fatter than all the youths who ate the king's food.

I'm not endorsing a vegetarian diet, nothing wrong with it.

However, it did work for Daniel and his three friends, and we're told at the end of chapter one, the king interviewed them, and he found them to be ten times smarter than all the magicians and enchanters in all his kingdom, which is a good thing because in the second chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar has this bizarre dream that he wanted interpreted by his wise men.

But here was the catch.

He wouldn't tell them the dream.

They had to come to him and tell him both the content of the dream without any knowledge of it from him, and tell him the interpretation, or else face certain death.

Daniel and his friends sought the Lord, and the Lord revealed to Daniel the contents of the dream and its interpretation.

So Daniel told this to the king, and he saved the lives of all the king's wise men and brought glory to the Lord.

Well, in response, Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel head over all the wise men of Babylon and appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over all the affairs of the province of Babylon.

So just about now, you'd probably think that our friends were locked in to the good graces of old King Nebuchadnezzar.

Ah, not so fast.

So in chapter three, with his massive ego, the king decides to build a huge statue out in the desert on the plains of Durah, 90 feet high and nine feet wide.

That is a nine-story building, folks.

All the people were commanded when they heard the sound of music to bow down and worship the golden image.

And if they didn't, they were to be cast into a fiery furnace.

Kind of get a sense of where this is going, don't you?

So the three friends would not do this, and so some of the other wise men, certain Chaldeans, came forward and accused the three friends before the king, saying that the men would not serve the king's God or bow down to the image.

So this, my friends, is where we're going to pick up our text.

The book of Daniel, chapter 3, starting in at verse 13, and I'm going to read out of the NIV version today.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Oh, and parents, this is one of those kind of graphic scripture passages.

So if you have little ones in the room, just fair warning.

So here we go, starting with verse 13.

Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

So these men were brought before the king.

And Nebuchadnezzar said to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold that I have set up?

Now, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good.

But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace.

Then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand?

Verse 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

If we are thrown into this blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand.

But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up.

I think we need to take notice of the quiet dissension of Daniel and his three friends.

Because there's a pattern here.

In the first chapter, Daniel asked permission to eat just the vegetables and water.

They were not being disrespectful of the king or his officers.

And then in the second chapter, notice that Daniel spares the lives of all the other wise men, and he quietly deflects praise in God's direction.

And then here in this third chapter with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they're not being arrogant or defensive.

They simply state their case and put their trust in the Lord.

They let Nebuchadnezzar know that God was able to save them from the fire, but even if they were to perish, they would serve God and God alone.

Well, if Nebuchadnezzar was angry before, he pretty much blows his top at this point.

Verse 19, then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed.

He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.

So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.

The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing service.

Man, it is a rough day to be one of the king's soldiers.

You know, on the one hand, we know from our perspective looking back that the friends were delivered, but they did not know that at the time.

You might argue, well, they didn't really suffer because they weren't burning the fire.

Well, you know what?

They did suffer emotionally on the way into the fire.

It had to have been terrifying for them as they got closer and closer to the blazing furnace and seeing the soldiers around them incinerated.

Back to verse 24.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?

They replied, Certainly, your majesty.

And he said, Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed.

And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

We don't know for certain who was walking around in the furnace with our friends.

It could have been an angel, it could have been the Lord, but in a sense, the emphasis is not on the who, but more on the complete protection that was afforded the three men and the fact that although they had been thrown into the fire, they were not abandoned.

They were not left on their own.

Verse 26.

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out, come here.

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire, and the Satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisors crowded around them.

They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed, their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Friends, this is absolutely miraculous, right?

The fire had no effect on the men except to burn up the ropes that bound them.

Their bodies weren't burned, not a hair was singed.

I just, I singed my hair with a hairdryer in the morning when I'm drying my hair.

They didn't have a hair singed.

Their clothes had not even a burn mark, and there was no smell of fire on them.

I mean, really, no smell of smoke at all.

If you go into Martin's barbecue here in Nashville when they're smoking a whole hog, even if you're just getting takeout, man, by the time you leave, you reek of hickory smoke, which frankly I don't mind because I love smoke.

But you reek of smoke for the rest of the day, and these guys didn't have any smell of smoke or fire on them.

Can somebody say amen?

Verse 28.

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants.

They trusted in him and defied the king's command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any God except their own.

Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be cut into pieces, and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other God can save in this way.

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

Wow! Well, this passage ends on a very different note than it started, because in the beginning of the chapter, Nebuchadnezzar wants everyone to worship him, the image he created, and all of his little g gods.

And here at the end, he's so impressed with how mighty to save is the Lord that he commands that no one is to speak out against the God of Israel upon penalty of death.

So, friends, what can we what can we glean from this passage this morning?

What can we put in our back pocket and carry with us?

How can this passage help us look back at 2020 without uh regret or bitterness or guilt and and help us look ahead to 2021 without fear?

I've got three thoughts on that.

And the first one is we can trust the past to the perspective of God.

Friends, we need to view the past in the same context in which God views the past.

When Jesus died for our sins on the cross, Hebrews tells us we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And also by a single offering, he is perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified.

Micah 7.19 tells us you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

And 1 John 1.9 tells us if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And that is a mighty good use of the word all in those verses, isn't it?

So, friends, here's how God looks at our past.

God doesn't love you anymore because of your successes.

God doesn't love you any less because of your failures.

God's love for you is based solely on his character.

And I'll say that again.

God doesn't love you anymore because of your successes.

God doesn't love you any less because of your failures.

God's love for you is based on his character.

In his book, in the name of Jesus, Henry Nowen says the great message that we have to carry as ministers of God's word and followers of Jesus is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and chosen us to proclaim that love, that love as the true source of all human life.

Friends, if God loves us and wants the best for us, He wants that same thing in times of plenty and times of leanness.

God doesn't only love us when we are healthy and successful.

God loves us, period.

And there's no qualifiers to that statement.

God loves us.

God loves you.

There's no qualifier to that statement.

Anything that we add to that statement is a lie.

And we try and do it all the time.

God will love me if I do this or that better.

Or God will love me if only I don't do that.

Jesus went to the cross for our sins, past, present, and future.

He loved us.

Loves us in spite of what we did last week, or what we will do today, or what we will do next week.

The one who knows us the best loves us the most.

So many of us have experienced such tremendous grief and loss this year.

And God's heart is not for this brokenness to be.

We're not meant to have to carry this burden, and we're not meant to carry it alone.

Friends, if you have walked through the fire this year, you are not alone.

In his book, Gentle and Lowly, which I've got to tell you, most of us on staff have read, and we highly recommend it.

But in this book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlands says, he doesn't simply meet us at our place of need.

He lives in our place of need.

He never tires of sweeping us into his tender embrace.

It is his very heart.

Friends, that is the heart of Jesus for us to walk with us through the fire, to sweep us into his embrace at our lowest of lows.

That is his heart for us.

If we can trust our past to the perspective of God, we can trust our present to the provision of God.

Friends, we can trust our present circumstances to the provision of God.

Psalm 23 firmly states that you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

That is how the God that we love and serve handles our present difficulties.

Loved ones, our circumstances, whatever they may be, come as no surprise to God.

Our troubles will not derail God's plan for those who steadfastly love Him.

Romans 8, 28 says, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Sometimes we don't know what those purposes are or how they can possibly work together for good.

There's just so much that happens this side of heaven that we just don't understand, but we can trust in a sovereign God.

We just came through the Advent season, and O come, O come, Emmanuel, God with us, has been on our lips for these last few weeks.

Emmanuel, God with us in the manger in Bethlehem.

Emmanuel, God with us in the fluorescent green of Nashville springtime.

God with us after an early March tornado.

God with us in youth and health and summer's day.

God with us in cancer treatments and ventilators and loneliness.

God with us in election triumphs.

God with us in bitter defeat.

God with us in holiness in our daily walk.

God with us in deep despair at falling again and again.

God with us in the king's palace, God with us in the fiery furnace.

God with us in community, God with us in isolation.

God with us in life, God with us in life after life.

Isaiah 26, 3 says, You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

Friends, the answer to perfect peace is not perfect circumstance, but a heart trusting in the Lord for provision and guidance.

I can get so worked up trying to understand what is going on in my life, what the circumstances mean, and the answer is never there.

It's never gonna be there.

The answer lies in a heart and mind stayed on the Lord.

That's where the answer is.

Kristen found this J.I.

Packer quote earlier this summer, and it is so appropriate.

If you ask, why is this or that happening?

No light may come for the secret things belong to the Lord our God.

But if you ask, how am I to serve and glorify God here and now where I am, there will always be an answer.

Friends, I encourage, man, I'm speaking to myself right now.

This is the way to live in the midst of our current circumstances and looking ahead to the future.

Just ask the Lord, Lord, how am I to serve and glorify you this very day, right where I am?

And He will definitely answer that question.

So, friends, we can trust our past to the perspective of God.

We can trust our present to the provision of God, and we can trust our future to the providence of God.

Pastor Jim has mentioned several times over the last few months that error with outcome-based thinking and how we can move away from that.

And I think it's really important.

Outcome-based thinking is dependent on circumstances going our way in order for us to be happy, to be satisfied or fulfilled.

You know, we wanted the elections to go a certain way, one way or the other.

And we want the Titans to make the playoffs and win the Super Bowl.

We want our plans to succeed.

We want things to turn out in a specific manner.

We're focused on strictly the outcome for our satisfaction and our happiness.

2020 surely should have helped educate us that we cannot trust circumstances.

And in that same sense, just because the calendar is going to read 1-1-21 at the end of this week, it doesn't mean that things are magically going to revert back to the fall of 2019 or even January of 2020.

In our passage today, the three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they had an eternal mindset rather than a temporal circumstantial mindset.

Their first goal, their first desire was to be obedient to God regardless of the outcome.

Once they chose obedience, the outcome was left in God's hands.

They didn't have to think about that.

They believed God could save them, but they didn't know if he would.

When they went into the fire, they had no idea if they would be delivered or not.

They were making a stand for God, trusting in him to be able to deliver and rescue them, but making a stand all the same, not knowing if he would.

And as we look ahead to the future, I want to encourage us that there's a difference between expectation and presumption.

We don't presume to know or demand what God will do.

We don't demand an outcome, but we know his character and his heart.

And we can expect, we can live in expectation, we can expect to be loved by a sovereign God who knows us intimately.

God is sovereign over the course of history, even over those who rebel against him and seek to destroy his people.

God rules over all conflicts and events.

He limits their scope, and he has a precise timetable for our trials to be completed.

If you remember back to Revelation, we talked about this several times.

We learn about how even God's wrath is precisely controlled.

God is sovereign, friends.

John Piper says this about the combination of God's providence and his sovereignty.

The providence of God is his purposeful sovereignty by which he will be completely successful in the achievement of his ultimate goal for the universe.

Man.

Purposeful sovereignty.

I like that, don't you?

It speaks boldly of God's intent to make all things right.

We can look forward to 2021 because we can look for more of God.

We set our hope in God, not a vaccine, not a new administration, any new circumstance.

We put our hope and trust in God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, May God in his mercy lead us through these times.

But above all, may he lead us to himself.

He could have written that last week.

Friends, because we know God's heart for us, we can trust him fully with our past, with our present, with our future.

Jesus doesn't promise us a trouble-free life, but he promises us himself.

He said, In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart.

I have overcome the world.

And this is such this whole story and that promise of Jesus is such a beautiful fulfillment of Isaiah 43.

Now thus says the Lord, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name.

You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Friends, I just would seek to persuade all of us, myself included, that God is worthy of our trust.

We can trust our past, our present, and our future to him, knowing that he is sovereign and in his providence.

Amen, church.

Amen.