"Into the Fire" November 23 Readings: Daniel 3-4, Hebrews 13:20–25, Psalm 130:1–4, Proverbs 28:22–24

 

 

Reading the Bible in 2023

Each day this year we will read a selection from the Old Testament, the New Testament, a portion of the Psalms, and part of Proverbs. By the end of the year, you will have read the entire Bible. We read this way to give you a bit of variety. In reading four portions of God's word in a day, one of them is bound to speak to your life!

NOTE: If you get behind, do not give up. Read today's readings and try to catch up when you have a chance. The goal is not to "accomplish a task" but to meet God in his word. Read the word. Also, if you are short on time, READ GOD'S WORD and skip my devotional!

Bible Readings: Daniel 3-4, Hebrews 13:20–25, Psalm 130:1–4, Proverbs 28:22–24

    Scriptures linked to Bible Gateway in ESV version 

Daily Devotional:  Into the Fire

It is one of my favorite stories in the Bible and has been since my youth. It has drama and tension and intrigue - everything that makes a story grand.

It begins in the mind of a megalomaniac named Nebuchadnezzar, who constructs a 90-foot-high golden idol and demands that everyone in his kingdom bow down before it when the music sounded. Babylon was filled with captives, people from all over the world who still worshiped their own gods. The king didn't care about that as long as they kowtowed to his demands and when the instruments played demonstrated their loyalty by bowing before his god.

There was a problem, one that was fairly easily identified, and one that Daniel 3:8-9 tells us was reported to the king. If when the music sounds everyone falls on their faces, it becomes pretty hard to hide the fact that three young Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were not bowing down. They were faithful servants of the king, but they refused to bow to his gods. When Nebuchadnezzar heard about their refusal, he hit the roof. In verses 14-15, he offered them one last chance to bow down and to save their hides, but their response was forceful (verses 16-18).

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

They would serve him. They would honor him. They would seek to please him in any way they could. But they would not bow down to his gods. There was a limit to their submission. They faced the king in faith and confidence, believing that the God they worshiped was stronger than the most powerful man on earth, but they were also willing to face torture and death rather than serve the false gods of Babylon. 

This infuriated the king. He ordered the fire in the furnace heated to a temperature seven times its norm. He was going to show these impudent Jews what happened to dissenters and make an example out of them to everyone. No one would defy him! Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were bound and carried to the fire to be thrown to their deaths. It was so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were incinerated - a tragedy, to be sure, but at least Nebuchadnezzar had gotten his message across. 

But, wait! He looked into the fire to see to satiate his wrath and see the three young men writhing in agony, but he saw something very different. He saw the men who had been cast into the fire walking around, unbound, and there was another being with them, one he described as "like a son of the gods." I have a theory about who that might have been, but I'll let you guess that on your own! 

He called to the men and they walked out of the fire, unharmed, without even a whiff of an odor of smoke on them. Suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar knew the truth. There is a God in Israel, one unlike any other god. This God is real, not an idol. He's not some impersonal force to whom supplication is made to receive favors. He is a real God, a powerful God, a miracle-working God. 

How Nebuchadnezzar's attitude had changed. He may not have been "converted" but he suddenly had an amazing respect for the God these men worshiped. 

This all happened because three young men believed God enough to obey him, even at great cost, at the threat of their own lives. But because they believed, a wicked man saw the power of a mighty God. May we believe God and obey him so that the world may see his power and tremble!

Father, may I live in faith and obedience to you in such a way that the world may see your power and tremble before you!

Consider God's Word:

Did one of these passages speak strongly to you today? Which one? 

Is there sin in your life that needs to be confessed and dealt with that was revealed in one of these passages? 

Is there a struggle in your life that one of these passages spoke to? 

Are you willing to suffer for the cause of Christ?
Do you trust God enough to "go into the fire" in serving him?