 One of the most well known stories of scripture is recorded in Daniel 3:5-30. It tells of the great faith of three young Hebrew men known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king had put God's people in captivity. He than gave an order that all the people must bow down and worship a golden image that was built on the plain of Dura in Babylon. If anyone did not bow down and worship the image, they would be thrown into a burning, fiery furnace and die a very painful death. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow down!
Showing them great favor, the king gave them one more chance to submit to his command. He again said that if they refused, they would be cast into the furnace. Their response to the king was one of the greatest displays of faith ever seen by man. I believe it is also one of the most misunderstood responses in scripture. They said, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."
Many believe they said that God would deliver them, but even if He doesn't rescue them, they still would not serve the Babylonian god by bowing down to the image. The idea being that they were willing to die for their God. I'm sure that they were willing to die if needed, but if we interpret the scripture that way, we are also saying that those young men were double minded, because they would be saying "He will deliver us...but maybe He won't deliver us." James 1:7-8 tells us that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways and will not receive anything from the Lord. Were they double minded? Absolutely not!
They were saying, "If you throw us in the fire, God will get us out. But if you don't throw us in the fire, we still won't bow down to your gods!" The reason the king "might not" throw them in was because they were his best advisors and he would not want to lose his finest source of wisdom and counsel. Their response caused his "visage to change" against them. It changed from showing them great favor, to anger and rage so great that he increased the heat of the furnace by seven times! The king had them thrown into the fire. God did exactly what those young men said He would do and delivered them from the fire.
Remember that scripture won't disagree with other portions of scripture. Study for yourself and be like the Berean Church of Acts 17:11. Search the scriptures daily to see if what I say is true. Have a great week!
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