Scripture

Daniel 3:24-26 NLT

But suddenly Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?” “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied. “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!” Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire.

Consider

We remember from Sunday school the story of Daniel and his three friends—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—who were captured during the destruction of Jerusalem in 605 B.C. and hauled off to Babylon as young men. Although their moral and spiritual integrity earned them the respect of their Babylonian captors, fortunes reversed for these three friends when they refused to betray the God of Israel by worshiping a golden statue erected by King Nebuchadnezzar. Their punishment was to be bound by the king’s strongest soldiers and thrown to their deaths inside a blazing furnace. But the young men survived, and upon their release witnesses crowded around them and saw that the flames, turned up seven times their normal heat, had not harmed them. Scripture makes the point that they did not even smell of smoke.

Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth man in the flames, whom he described as looking “like a god.” The miracle he witnessed shook him into a public declaration of the power and supremacy of Israel’s God. We don’t know, however, whether anyone else saw the fourth person. Did the officials and advisors with the king also witness what he saw? And what about the three men in the furnace? Did they see the divine being walking with them, untying their bonds and holding back the flames? Or was God an unseen Presence they knew and trusted only through the eyes of their faith?

“God is spirit,” Jesus declared to the Samaritan woman at the well. We know God walks with us, invisible to our physical eyes and often invisible to the senses of our hearts as well. When crisis hits, when danger threatens or the world seems to go wrong, we may look for God and think we have been abandoned because we can’t see God with eyes that have grown accustomed to things going well for us and prosperity within our grasp. Like those innocent young men, we may find ourselves suddenly bound by external forces and forced into situations and choices that threaten and frighten us. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego cultivated faith in God that gave them peace and confidence in the very face of external threat. Whether or not they “saw” Divinity walking with them in the flames, God used their faithful obedience to make his glory visible to an arrogant pagan king and demonstrate his power to save.

Even when we can’t see God with us, our faith informs us of his Divine Presence, walking with us as we navigate relationships, political and economic choices, and challenges that test our moral fiber. Through the miracle of the faith God gives us, God can make his glory visible to others who are watching us and may see evidence of God’s Presence as we live our lives with truth, love, and generosity.

Pray

Holy One, in your great love you have chosen to walk with me through every joy and every trouble, faithful to help me despite my unsteady faith. May others see You as your blessings flow from my hands into the lives of family and neighbors. May I emerge from a difficult circumstance as those three young men emerged from the furnace, smelling not of smoke but of the sweet fragrance of your grace upon my head.

Reflect

Matthew 28:20; John 1:14; 4:24

Ponder

When has God made Himself visible to me through the acts of another person?