A Fiery Furnace

By Hope Thompson

We welcome my daughter-in-law, Hope Thompson, as our guest blogger again this week. Hope loves the Lord and has a way with words in sharing this needed timely blog concerning facing trials. Allow these Holy Spirit inspired words to encourage your heart.

Daniel chapter 3 contains one of my favorite Bible stories. It is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into a fiery furnace because of an angry king. 

The story begins with God’s people being defeated by Babylon and captured as slaves and stripped of their identities. They are forced to relocate from their homes in the Promised Land to a strange country. A Hebrew child named Daniel (renamed Belteshazzar), along with his three friends, Shadrach (Hebrew name Hananiah), Meshach (Hebrew name Mishael), and Abednego (Hebrew name Azariah) are among those sent to Babylon. While there, the king builds a golden statue and makes it a law for everyone to bow down and worship it. When the time came to bow down and worship the statue, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse and remain standing for their loyalty was to God and God alone. Furious, King Nebuchadnezzar turns the furnace up seven times hotter than normal and orders the Hebrew children to be thrown in. 

At this point, all hope seems lost. Who ever heard of anyone surviving being thrown into a fiery furnace? Knowing full well that their actions would likely result in death, they knew who they were as children of God and stood firm in their beliefs. They absolutely refused to bow down and worship anyone other than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God commanded. When faced with what seemed like impossible odds, their response was nothing less than astounding. Let’s take a closer look at Daniel 3:17-18 NIV. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 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 you have set up.” (Emphasis mine)

I must admit that I tear up just about every time I read that.  I am convicted by those words - but even if he does not. How many times have I been angry with God for not delivering me from my pain? How many times has my faith wavered when faced with a mountain I could not climb? But when I look back, I can see that God has indeed delivered me from my pain. He has carried me up the mountain and I am writing to you while standing on the other side. 

Though nothing in my life has been as serious as what these Hebrew children faced these were my fiery furnace moments. I think of it as any circumstance where a way out seems impossible in the natural.  We all have moments when we are standing in our own version of a fiery furnace. Maybe it’s an illness the doctors have no treatment for. Maybe it’s a financial debt that cannot be paid. Maybe it’s a broken relationship that cannot be reconciled. Maybe it’s the pain of loss of a loved one. Whatever your fiery furnace is, I encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the only one who can bring you out of the darkness and into the light. First Peter 2:9-10 states, 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (NIV)

My dear friend, do not lose sight of who you are in Christ. You are chosen. You are loved. No matter the circumstance.  God is not holding out on you. He has a plan that is unique to you. Trust Him through it all. Remember the Hebrew children and their response, “…but even if he does not…” 

I am praying that God will cure me of this disease. 

     …but even if he does not. 

I am praying that God will help me get that job. 

    …but even if he does not. 

I am praying that God will change my husband’s heart and he will love me again. 

     …but even if he does not. 

And then we go on to say, “But even if He does not I will still trust Him.”

Just like we must never lose sight of who we are in Christ, we must also never lose sight of who He is. He is the one who created us. He is the one who saved us when we decided to do things our own way and made terrible mistakes. We deserved to die for our mistakes but God took that punishment on Himself. He loves us that much. 

As we live our lives here on earth, we can only see our small portion of the world. God can see it all. Imagine driving in bad weather and visibility is only a few feet in front of you. But then imagine driving on a clear day with visibility for miles and miles. You would definitely prefer to drive in clear weather, right? You would be able to see turns in the road so much faster and adjust appropriately to stay on the road. You would feel a lot safer if you had clear visibility. 

Even better than high visibility on a clear day is God’s clear view of your entire life. From beginning to end, He sees it all. He has celebrated with you and He has wept with you. There is nothing about you He does not know. This can be extremely difficult to do, but we must relinquish control to the One who is willing and able to direct our paths perfectly. At first it will be very uncomfortable and we will want to take back control again and that’s ok. Just keep relinquishing. Keep yielding. Things may not happen the way we want them to but we must remember God is in control and He will work things out according to His will and plans. We are never safer than when we are in His arms. 

At the end of the story of the fiery furnace, God performs a miracle and the Hebrew children step out of the fire completely unharmed. This was likely just as shocking to them as to the Babylonians! When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prayed for God’s deliverance, they probably thought maybe God would save them from getting thrown in to begin with.  God is an all powerful God who can and will save us from horrific predicaments, but sometimes He takes us through them.

Oftentimes our deliverance will come while we are inside the fiery furnace and we can be assured that He will be there with us the entire time. 

The Bible is full of miraculous stories like this one that showcase God’s wonderful miracles. But the most important miracle God performed for us was leaving heaven to come to earth, to be born in a manger as a defenseless baby, to take upon Himself all the sins of the world and pay for them with His own life. He didn’t have to do it, but He did. All because of His love for us. 

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭91:2‬ ‭NIV‬‬