“The Three Men in the Fiery Furnace”
         
We find this event in the Book of Daniel, chapter 3. The Jewish people had been hauled off to Babylon in captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar had built a large golden statue representing his god.

During a special ceremony, all the people were to kneel and worship the golden statue. Those who did not were to be cast into a white-hot furnace.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as Jewish men, were accused by some Chaldeans of refusing to worship the king’s god.

Being brought before the king, the three were questioned by him. The king asked them “Who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?”

They responded, “If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, you should know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.” 

At that, they were thrown into the furnace. “But an angel of the Lord went down into the furnace … and drove the fiery flames out of the furnace. (…) The fire in no way touched them.” (Daniel 3:49).

The prayers and the hymns we read in chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel are some of the most beautiful praises to God in the entire Bible. Use them, especially in times of trial.

© 2017 Clyde Rausch, OMI