This week was our Fifth Sunday pulpit swap. Below is the message that Pastor Debbie shared.
_________________
INTRODUCTION
Are you a people watcher? I like to go places and watch other people sometimes because their behavior is so fascinating. The last time I went to the dentist, I was sitting in the waiting room for about twenty minutes. There were three other people there. The first was a middle-aged man who was evidently reading a business report; I could see his lips moving as he absorbed the contents. He never looked up from his paper. There was another young man who spent the time flipping through magazines. Every so often he would look up and shyly glance around the room. And in another corner there was an older woman who stared at the wall, avoiding eye contact with anybody.
I do the same thing when I read the Scriptures: I watch people. Even a list of names can be interesting when you dream about the personal history that may be behind each name listed. The Bible is not just stories about saints; it’s full of personal histories of folks exactly like us. That’s the reason it’s a great place to people watch. There’s are three men in the Old Testament whose story always makes me think about integrity and they have much to teach us about taking a stand for what we believe in, even when that isn’t popular.
BIBLE BACKGROUND
In order to understand their story, we have to go back a few years in history. A few weeks ago when we talked about Esther, the Jewish people were captives in Persia. But before their Persian captivity, the Jewish people were exiles in Babylon. When the Babylonians invaded Judah and destroyed Jerusalem, they also carried away many of the people into captivity in Babylon. Their king Nebuchadnezzar was especially interested in finding people who he could teach to serve in his palace and government. He was looking for young noble men who were handsome as well as intelligent. Among the men that were chosen were Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The Babylonians changed their names: Daniel became Belteshazzar and his friends became Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These four young men were to be trained in the language and literature of the Babylonians for three years, after which time they would enter the king’s service. They were to have only the best – they were given food and wine from the king’s own table to eat.
But Daniel and his friends knew that the food from the king’s table was offered as sacrifices to foreign gods before it was served. And because of that, they knew that God would not be happy if they ate the food. So they approached the official in charge of them. But he was scared to disobey the king. So the young men came up with a proposal. For ten days, the four Jewish friends would eat nothing but vegetables and drink nothing but water. Then the official could compare their appearance to the other men who were eating the royal food and make a decision. The man agreed. At the end of ten days, the four friends looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who had eaten the royal food. So the official agreed that they could continue to eat vegetables and drink water, thereby honoring their God.
Because of their faithfulness, God blessed them with knowledge and understanding beyond their years. At the end of their three years of training, when they were presented to King Nebuchadnezzar, the king could find no one equal to these four Jewish friends. In fact when he questioned them, he found them ten times more knowledgeable than all the magicians and wise men in his kingdom. So they entered into the king’s service. Daniel became the chief ruler over the province of Babylon, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego became his chief administrators.
That brings us to our Old Testament lesson from Daniel this morning. After a while, King Nebuchadnezzar got it into his head to build a golden statue of himself 90 feet tall and set it up on a plain in the province of Susa, from where it could be seen for miles. Then he ordered all his officials to come to the dedication of the statue. Everyone was instructed that when the music sounded, they were to fall down and worship the statue. The punishment for disobeying was being thrown immediately into a fiery furnace.
On the day that the statue was put up, everyone around kneels down, with the exception of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Daniel isn’t mentioned; but my best guess is he might have been away ome where on official business when this all happened. There were three Babylonian astrologers who were jealous of these three Jewish men who had risen to such power in their country. They ran to tell Nebuchadnezzar of the Jewish friends’ failure to worship the statue of the king.
Nebuchadnezzar was very angry. He called the men before him and asked if it was true. And they said it was. And that they didn’t need to defend themselves before Nebuchadnezzar. They worshipped the true God who was able to rescue them even from the king’s fiery furnace. And they tell the king, that even if their God decides not to save them, they still would not worship the statue of the king or any other of the Babylonian gods.
So Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. He had Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego tied up and thrown into the furnace. The heat was so intense that the guards who threw them into the furnace were killed by the heat. But the three men went into the furnace fully clothed and bound. Nebuchadnezzar was watching from a safe distance and suddenly he began shouting at his advisers, “Didn’t we put three men in the furnace?” “Yes,” they said. “Well I’m looking in the furnace and I see four men walking around unbound and completely unharmed. And the fourth person looks like the son of a god.”
So then Nebuchadnezzar walked closer to the furnace and shouted into it for the men to come out. And Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked out of the furnace. All of the king’s officials crowded around them in amazement because the fire hadn’t hurt them – not even a hair on their heads had been singed, nor were their clothes scorched – and there was not even the smell of fire about them. Then Nebuchadnezzar praised the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who sent an angel to rescue his servants. He decreed that anyone who said anything negative about their God would be cut into pieces and their houses turned into piles of rubble for no other God can save in this way. And then the king promoted them for their dedication to their God.
LESSONS FOR LIFE
It’s extraordinary circumstances that make a fascinating story. There’s a few lessons here I want us to pay attention to this morning.
1 – Principles Only Mean Something When You Stick To Them
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego showed great integrity while they were in Babylon. First there was the dilemma of eating the royal food. As Jewish exiles in a foreign country, they had the potential to be elevated to high status in the government and exert influence for the good of their people. But they realized that any benefit achieved by compromising what they believed in wouldn’t be worth it – especially because what they were being asked to compromise was one of their fundamental religious beliefs. They chose God over anything else that might come their way. And God blessed them with great wisdom because of their choice – and eventually Nebuchadnezzar elevated them to positions of power within Babylon.
Then there came another challenge. Would they worship the statue as ordered, or would they risk death instead? Again, they were being asked to compromise one of their most fundamental religious beliefs and they stuck to what they believed. Even though they were thrown into the fiery furnace, God rescued them and again Nebuchadnezzar elevated their position within Babylon out of respect for their choice.
What we’re talking about here is personal integrity – sticking to what you believe even when it means personal sacrifice because it’s not popular. How many times a day do we make even little compromises on what we believe? We do it a lot, sometimes without even realizing it. We invent these wonderful little rationales for our behavior. But principles don’t mean anything unless you stick to them.
Some years ago the TV program “Candid Camera” played one of their famous tricks on people. They placed four actors in an elevator. These actors were all turned facing the back of the elevator. Guess what most people did who boarded the elevator? They turned and faced the back of the elevator. Other people have a huge influence on us. And we need to be careful not to give into peer pressure.
All Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to do was to bow down to the statue. It may seem silly for them to refuse because you might say that they could have bowed down and not meant it in their hearts. But they would have compromised what they believed. When our actions don’t match up with the things that we say we believe, we often become a stumbling block for others out there. Too many times non-Christians see believers leave church on Sunday and then do and say whatever they want all week long. They don’t see a difference – they don’t see a need to be a Christian – that’s why people outside the walls of churches often say that churches are so full of hypocrites. Because principles only mean something when you stick to them.
One thing that can help us stick to our principles, is to decide in advance, what it is that we believe. It’s the decisions that we make in our best moments that protect us in our worst ones.” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had prepared in advance for the tests they faced at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar – they knew what they believed and decided to stick to it.
The amazing thing about this is, that when you stick to your principles, people respect you more than if you give up on things. King Nebuchadnezzar wanted the young men to eat his food and to bow down before his statue. But each time after they explained their own beliefs and stuck to them – even with the fear of being killed – King Nebuchadnezzar gave them more power and privileges in Babylon.
2 – When The Heat Is On, God Is Present!
The second lesson I think we can learn from these three Jewish men is this – “When The Heat Is On, God Is Present!” The prophet Isaiah once said, “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned” (Isaiah 43:02). Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego certainly experienced that. When they were thrown into the fiery furnace for their integrity and faith, they were not burned and what’s more, God did not leave them alone to face their punishment, but was there in the fire with him.
The same is true for us. When you don’t get a promotion because you don’t play office politics, God is there with you. When some of your colleagues at work say you’re too narrow minded when it comes to morality, God is there with you. Or for you teenagers, when you don’t get nominated for something at school that you really want because people ridicule you for your beliefs, God is with you. It may not always feel like it, but if we take some time to step back and really look at things, we’ll be able to see God’s hand helping to hold us up. He never abandons us, especially when we’re taking heat because of Him. Jesus will not always keep you out of a fiery furnace, but he will always meet you in the middle of it.
3 – After the Fiery Furnace, A Disciple Is Better
Here is the third and final life-lesson: “After the Fiery Furnace, A Disciple is Better.” An athlete is better after he or she has been in some high-pressure games. A soldier is better after he has endured combat. A Christian is better after he or she has been through some fiery furnaces.
In that last little book in the Old Testament, Malachi, we have an interesting description of God as a refiner of precious metals. In Malachi 3:3 we read, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver…" God is like a silversmith. The silversmith heats the silver, not hot enough to damage it but hot enough so that the impurities are released and float to the top. Then the silversmith clears away those impurities. Guess how the silversmith knows when the silver is pure? It is when he can see his reflection in it. When Jesus can see his reflection in us, we are becoming mature in Christ. When our character, our attitudes, our lifestyles, and our priorities reflect our Lord, then we are his disciples indeed.
Let me be very clear here. I do not believe that God causes all of the bad things that happen in our lives. Evil operates in our world – Satan is hard at work all around us. But God, our Creator and Savior and Redeemer, can take the bad times and circumstances and redeem them in his love and grace to help make something good come from them – clearing away our impurities so that we can better reflect his love and grace to people.
CONCLUSION
The lives of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are often glossed over in favor of the stories about their more famous friend Daniel. But clearly the lives of these men deserve to be remembered and for more than just the miracle of their escape from the fiery furnace. From their examples, we see the value of maintaining our personal integrity – because principles only mean something when you stick to them. We can also see that God never leaves us alone – even in the midst of a fiery furnace He was there and present with His faithful servants. And finally we see that after the fiery furnace, a disciple is better. God can work through even the painful trying times of our lives and find a way to help make us so that He can see His reflection in us. May we always remember their impact and legacy. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment