Our God is faithful! Oh, what a faithful God!
So often, we say that God is good when things go well or we see His amazing hand in something. This is true. He is faithful then. But, when things go wrong, He is also faithful.
“I See Four” was one of my favorite Bible story books as a child, telling the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from Daniel 3.
King Nebuchadnezzar had made a huge image of himself for everyone to worship. Those who did not worship would be thrown into the fiery furnace.
We so often focus on how God miraculously saved them from the fiery furnace when the soldiers who threw them in did not survive. Yet, those three young men didn’t know the end of the story when they were tossed in. They only knew that they must not worship anyone but God. Look at what they said in verse 18 (emphasis mine…)
“16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17 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.
18 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.“
They trusted God no matter what. What did they think when no one came to rescue them before they were to be thrown into the fiery furnace? What did they think when the king commanded it be heated seven times hotter? What did they think when the soldiers tossing them in died? They didn’t know the end. They didn’t know what God was about to do. They knew only that they would obey their faithful God.
“23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.”
It seems that God has abandoned them, but that is not the end of the story. My imagination takes over here. Can you imagine as they are laying bound in the furnace waiting for death when they realize that nothing is happening? When Jesus taps them on the shoulder and say, “Hello!” Oh, they may think… Jesus is here. God did not disappoint!
King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed! He could not believe what he was seeing.
“24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.”
Do you see it? Our faithful God was there. In one sense, the fire did not change them at all. (v. 27) In another sense, I believe they were changed spiritually. I am sure that their faith in God grew exponentially. After that experience, they would know more and more that God was faithful no matter what they faced.
Wow.
What are you facing? Are you facing a medical reality that is looming large and not changing? Will you trust God no matter what? Are you waiting for test results which could go very wrong? Will you trust Him either way? Will you trust Him “if not…”? Will you trust Him when you can’t see Him as you are tossed in the furnace so to speak? Will you trust Him even if?
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