Standing in the Furnace (Daniel 3:20-25)

Then he ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.  So they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes, and other garments.  And because the king in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in.  So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames.

But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, "Didn't we tie three men and throw them into the furnace?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did," they replied.

"Look!" Nebuchadnezzar shouted. "I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god*

(Aramaic 'like a son of gods', who is thought to be Jesus, the Son of God which this appearance in the Old Testament of Christ is called a 'Christophany'.

First of all, let me explain why I stopped in Proverbs.  It's because the ratings are lower which shows me that many are no longer interested in the blog.  Thus I have had no comments from overseas but only from Canada.  So I feel that I might renew the interest of people by changing the format of the blog and continue what I was doing before.  We might get back to Proverbs later.

Nebuchadnezzar's anger was as hot as a furnace heated seven times.  He had demanded everyone to worship a gold statue of himself.  Only there was one problem, three of the Hebrew men who were still fairly young didn't bother worshipping the statue even after a furnace had been erected to burn anyone who wouldn't worship.  They were determined to be faithful to God no matter what and we see that God came through by being with them even in the fire.

He is also with you in the furnace no matter how it might look to you.  In some countries, the fire might mean persecutions, in some others it might be the virus or for still others it might be economical.  Hope is in the fire with you he will walk you through un harm.

Look at verse 27: Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them.  Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched.  They didn't even smell of smoke!

You might look at this true story that really happened and claim that it is 'unbelievable but look at who is in the furnace!  He is the one who makes what is 'unbelievable' into faith.  You have to believe in the Author of a story to believe a story is what it is.  The whole Bible is made possible by faith.  'Without faith it is impossible to please him'  (Hebrews 11:6)  The start of it all is to believe that God exist...

Without Jesus there is no hope within the fire.  God could have put the fire out but he chose to be with them instead.  He wants to be a Comforter, a Healer as you go through any fire.  He wants you to experience him in the fire of adversity.  Go ahead take him along!

He will be with you.

Have a good day!