Good morning!  Greetings from over 1200 pastors, seminary professors, and church leaders who gathered Friday and Saturday in Indianapolis to pray and discuss how the Lord would have us respond to the ELCA’s recent shift in how we interpret the Bible regarding marriage, family, and human sexuality. Our text today in Daniel 3 is helpful.

Thank you to everyone who contributed so that Grace and I and Pastor Boyer and Stephanie could attend. We left before 6 on Friday and made it home last night after midnight. So we need a little time ourselves to process what we experienced. We will make that information available to you next Sunday.  Now, let’s open our Bibles to Daniel 3.

Today’s story is about 3 young men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Will they go with what they have learned as children or will they “contextualize” Biblical truth to conform to the culture around them?

These Hebrew boys have been taken into exile from their homes in Jerusalem and moved 1000 miles east to the desert sands of Babylon.  They are being trained in the king’s college for service in his government. They’ve been stripped of everything associated with their home, including their names.  All that is left is the truth written on their hearts as children.

The first is this, “I am the LORD, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” Ex 20:1-3

Have you ever made an idol of something God created?  Idolatry flows out of a misplaced search for security/significance.  Instead of looking to God, we try to find them in the things God provides - primarily money, sex, and power.

Daniel 3:1 “King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet tall, nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.”  Remember Nebby’s dream in chapter 2?  In chapter 2 Nebby tells Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings!”  Then he turns right around and builds an idol and demands that everyone worship it.  Instead of getting the point that there is a true God in heaven who reveals dreams and is worthy of our worship, Nebby uses the dream as a blueprint for building a statue to himself. Sounds thoroughly post-modern!

Post-modernism is “believing two absolutely irreconcilable positions are equally true”.  Many Americans today claim to be born again Christians.  They say they believe the Bible is the Word of God yet at the same time they believe in re-incarnation and karma. Many Americans today claim to be born again Christians yet completely ignore God’s commands about moral purity. They claim to know Jesus but reject or ignore his dire warnings about judgment and hell.

Now I have to give Nebby some credit. His empire is made up of all these diverse people he has conquered. Different religions, different languages, different customs and he’s trying to unite them all. Worthy goal!  But he’s trying to solve his problem out of his own human wisdom. We learned last week that human solutions all too often fall short of their intended goal.

Nebby comes up with a plan. A huge idol built over the top of a giant furnace, and a national anthem.  He gathers his leaders together and announces, “When you hear the national anthem, you must all bow down and worship – show allegiance to the statue. Anyone who refuses will be considered a terrorist and an enemy of the state and be instantly thrown in the furnace and cremated alive.”

Now Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have a problem. They are cross-wise with the culture. They can either contextualize the commandments they learned as children and explain them away as no longer relevant in this new time and place. Or they can obey God and die.

Imagine how lonely, how conspicuous these three boys felt as thousands around them bowed down to the statue and they were left standing alone. Where were the other Hebrew exiles? Probably pulling on their robes saying, “Get down, you idiots, you’re making us all look bad! This isn’t the way to reform the system! You’re going to get us all killed!”  I wonder if they second guessed themselves?  I wonder how awkward and unsure of themselves they felt?

It wasn’t long until word got around to the king. Remember they were the king’s favorites. Chapter 1 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar found them 10 times better than the other wise men. Now suddenly they find themselves shifted from the king’s favorites to public enemy #1. From hero to scoundrel. Sounds like what happened to Jesus! If you take a stand for the Lord, you’re going to draw Satan’s fire. You will be miss-understood and falsely accused and maybe crucified or burned alive! It’s still happening in many places in the world today!

Vs 12 The other wise men accuse the boys of being unfaithful to the king.  True? No!  They were among the most faithful servants the king had! “They neither serve your gods or bow down to your image of gold!”  True, sure is!  Satan will always mix a little truth with a lot of lie.

The king is enraged and he calls the boys on the carpet – Babylonian, not Persian. “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego that you refuse to serve my gods or bow down to my image of gold?”

Put yourself in Nebby’s sandals. “Boys! After all I’ve done for you, all the special favors and positions; you respond to me with this kind of public treason!  You embarrass me in front of all my officials and officers!”

We said in Ch 1 that decisions have ripple effects and the boy’s decision has thrown a huge monkey wrench in Nebuchadnezzar’s political machine.  Like Luther’s 95 thesis did 500 years ago!  Then comes the ultimatum!  “Let me go over it again, boys, when you hear the national anthem, either you bow down or get thrown in the furnace. What god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”  Da 3:16

Great question!  In fact, maybe the very question that caused the Lord to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from their home Jerusalem to this very place and time in all of human history!  Underneath the surface of Nebuchadnezzar’s question is a deeper question that must be faced by every human being. “Is there a God who is greater than me to whom I am accountable?”

Nebby doesn’t have the answer for that question. Maybe he’s never asked it. But it’s there, deep in his heart. And he would never know the answer if God hadn’t sent these 3 teenage boys into his presence. Let’s look at their answer. Vs 16 “O King, we do not need to defend ourselves in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it. And he will rescue us from your hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  Dan 3:16-18

Nebby has never had anyone speak to him like that! Here is the unvarnished truth that sets prisoners free. This isn’t only about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – this is about God using the testimony of these boys to reach this pagan king.  Nebby’s eternity rests in the courageous obedience of these three boys and their faithful witness to the LORD.

How did these boys have nerve enough to do this? As I said; somebody had taken time to write the word of God on their hearts. Not only the first commandment, but maybe this promise in Isa 43 “But this is what the LORD says, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior!” Is 43:1-3

God created us, called us, empowered us and sent us to bear witness to him in the world. And if we step into that, we will walk through the fire! Nebby is so enraged at their refusal to buckle that he orders the furnace stoked up seven times hotter than normal. So hot that the flames pour out and kill the poor guards charged with throwing the boys into the fire.

But when the king looks into the furnace to watch the boy’s get cremated, he sees them walking around in the fire and a 4th person there with them. I believe it was Jesus! In the Great Commission he promises to be with us, even to the end of the age!

Nebby shouts into the furnace, “Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego – servants of the most high God, come out!” And they did, and all the king’s men gather around them and give them the sniff test. No singe, no scorch, not even a whiff of smoke.  I don’t know what you think, but it got Nebuchadnezzar’s attention!  He makes a royal proclamation – which is what kings do!

"Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way."  Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Dan 3:28-30

God isn’t finished with Nebby. He isn’t finished with us either. The faithful witness of these 3 boys changed his life. But it never would have happened if they hadn’t taken the risk to walk through the fire. Unless we take the risk to stand and be a faithful witness to both the Law and the Gospel in the place and time we are given, we will abandon those around us to the way of the world which has no power to save and they will die in their ignorance and sin. AMEN