My Fiery Furnace

One of the most remarkable stories I have read in scripture is found in the book of Daniel. It’s the story of three young men. I’ll refer to them by the names they were given in the beloved Veggie Tale version called “Rack, Shak and Benny”. These three brave boys refused to follow the Kings command to bow down to the golden image he created of himself for worship. These boys knew there was only one God and this king wasn’t him. The king was so outraged at their “disobedient” that he ordered them to be bound hand and foot and tossed into a fiery furnace. (see Daniel 3)

These three faithful young men went into that fiery furnace with it being heated seven times hotter then normal. The kings’ own men were killed just opening the furnace to throw Rack, Shak and Benny in! He never left the scene of the furnace but wanted to watch what happened to these rebels. What he thought would happen, did not happen.

Have you walked through a fiery furnace of your own? Have you felt like the flames were hotter then normal and that you would be consumed by them? Yeah, me too. After my recent diagnosis of breast cancer, I have felt the flames lick my soul and threaten to burn me to ashes. But this story brings me comfort while in this furnace. May I share with you what that is?

Now the boys were bound before getting thrown into the furnace. As the king is watching things unfold, he sees that there are now four men in the furnace and none of them are bound. But let’s not cruise right past the fact that these three boys were not consumed before entering the furnace like the kings’ men were! They are now “waling in the midst of the fire”. Are you waking in the midst of the fire? Is it all around you at this moment? God has loosened the ties that an enemy placed on these boys. God will loosen the ties the enemy has placed on you too friend. You will be able to “walk” in the midst of the fire. Not crawl… not stagger, not stumble… walk. He will give you the strength to walk.

Then we see that there is a fourth man in the furnace who is identified as looking like “the son of the gods”. The king knew there was something super-natural about this forth being but he had it wrong on who exactly it was. This was the Angel of the Lord. God Himself. God will walk with us in the midst of the fire. He will be by our side. Then the king recognizes that this is no son of the gods, this is a miracle from the most high God, the God these three boys served. While we walk through the fire, people will recognize how God is working if we remain faithful to God’s promises of His word. Our witness is powerful! It can speak silent words of faith and strength and miracles. This council of king and company gathered around these three boys and saw that they were protected by their God. They remained unharmed by the very same flames that destroyed the kings’ men only moments before.

This fire not only had not consumed them… it didn’t even give them a tan. Not one hair on their body was singed and they didn’t have their garments of smoke on their clothes. I don’t know about you but I’ve sat around many a camp fire in my day and I’ve never walked away without a strong smoke odor clinging to my clothes and hair for dear life! How is it possible for these boys to not have any ashes or smoke smell or appearance of char on them at all? Because God stepped in! They walked through this fire but God brought them out with more faith than ever. The remnants of that fire were not detected on them. The remnants of your fire will not be detected on you either when we’ve given God the fire extinguisher. Our faith gets so much stronger that people think we must not have faced anything big because, how could someone cling so hard to God when something awful happens?

I’ll tell you; God is THE ONLY way I get through something awful. I must walk through this fiery furnace but I know there will be another person in the furnace with me. My prayer is that I will come out of this furnace without any smell of smoke on my spiritual clothing. I will learn from this experience for certain and I will grow in my spiritual walk. But that’s what I want to be seen… not the smoke and ashes. Praise be to God who walks through the furnace with us.