Toward his second step, Nebuchadnezzar had a huge image built on the plain of Dura. For the dedication, he recalled all the ambassadors, governors, satraps, premiers and top-level bureaucrats from his far-flung provinces. He probably also ordered all the students out of his colleges, and the pages from all his local government offices to appear . “To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up.” As you know Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, although forced to be present at the unveiling – these men refused even to pretend to worship the king’s idol.
Immediately these three Jews were accused of treason by their rivals – those Babylonians who wanted to take their offices over the province. When Nebuchadnezzar heard about their act of conscientious objection, he had them brought before him. Probably because he was favorably inclined toward them, despite being angry, he gave them a second opportunity to obey. “Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the … musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” Then the king made one more step into the quicksand of the wrath of the one true and living God – “and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” Of course, as an unbeliever, he didn’t think there was a God who could deliver Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He probably thought that this comment might help them to make the right choice in his eyes. But actually it might have helped them to make the right choice before the Lord. Then one of the three, acting for all of them replied with the words of our text.
Even though we have already touched upon the courage and character which prompted these words. And even though we have read them a couple of times. I think they are so marvelous, so true and so helpful, that we need to spend another thirty minutes on them. For the sake brevity let’s say that Hananiah answered for the trio.
I have been a missionary, traveling between churches trying to raise support for the work of the Lord. I also talk to missionaries from time to time, who call, trying to arrange appointments to come and visit. There are usually a few questions which help both the pastor and the missionary to understand each other. “What do you believe about the Word of God; what is your position on the Second Coming? What do you believe about election? What constitutes a New Testament Church?” It seems to me that most missionaries are “careful” in the way that they answer such questions. They do their best to put their answers in the best possible light. For example, they will often hesitate, trying to determine the tone that I used in asking the question. Then they will choose words that are the most effective in maintaining their honesty, while at the same time giving me the answer for which they think that I am looking. They are “careful” in their answer toward the matter in question. Today, when the missionary calls me, and we talk for a few minutes, he may carefully answer my questions, but I’m in a position where care doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to win friends and influence pastors. I am direct and forthright – the way that Hananiah was that day.
Wednesday there was a message on our machine down stairs, asking me to call a lady in Spokane. The message said that she was looking for a church to attend. I called and talked with her, and she asked a single question. Like Hananiah, I was not careful about my answer – I just gave her the simplest, most direct reply. If it wasn’t what she was looking for, I wasn’t going to loose any sleep or any missionary support either. Yesterday, another lady called the house, and I answered her one specific question with an unequivocal “no, we don’t believe that the Bible demands pacifism.”
What is election? It is the sovereign choice that God made before the foundation of the world, based on nothing else, but His own heart? I totally reject the idea of a Universal Invisible Church. Jesus Christ could come for his saints before we take our next breath, then will begin seven years of tribulation followed by the actual return of Christ to establish his literal one thousand year kingdom on earth. Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah didn’t try to play with their words in order to salve their consciences while trying to sooth the king’s wrath. They told it exactly as it was.
But at the same time, they were polite and respectful. There wasn’t the arrogance which pops up in the tone or the posture of some Christians. “We wouldn’t get on our knees before your monstrous idol if you broke our legs – because we love and serve Jehovah only.” “I wouldn’t drink one of your filthy, poisonous beers if my life depended on it, because I am a saint of God.” “Get that cancer stick out of my face, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and I will not let you pollute it with smoke like this.” “I will never give the gospel to one of those rag-headed Muslims; they don’t deserve the gospel ever since they blew up the Twin Towers.” If you stop and analyze each of these statements, they contain some truth, but at the same time they stink with the sin of that professed saint of God.
I don’t think that Hananiah was “careful” to be polite and respectful – it was just a part of his nature. Nor was he “careful” in forming the words of his reply. He just gave the answer which the Lord placed in his heart.
Is there any indication here that the Lord had come to these men and warned them about all of this? Are we told, or is there the slightest hint, that Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were in prayer after they had been ordered to attend the dedication of this image. Had an angel of the Lord bore a message from the Lord that they should attend, refuse to bow and that God would visit them in the midst of the flames? There is no indication of that sort of thing. So then from where did this conviction come?
It came from the scriptures that their parents had taught them in their childhood. There was Israel in the burning fiery furnace of Egypt, but God miraculously delivered them. And look at Joseph locked into the Egyptian Federal Prison, but see how he was miraculously delivered. Noah may not have been in a furnace, but he was delivered out of an incinerator of water. Those men had sat in awe, as children at the knees of their parents, learning about David facing Goliath. Lot had been delivered – Israel escaped the enemy dozens of times during the days of the Judges. Look at little Josiah – spared, protected and enthroned. The Lord had saved multitudes of saints both physically and spiritually. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished’ – II Peter 2:9. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” – Jude 24. The Bible taught these men that the Lord was able to deliver them from the burning fiery furnace.
Not only that, but they could look back into their own lives and see that the Lord had delivered them before. There had gone out an edict that all of the wise-men – and apparently the wise-men-in-training – should be killed, because some of them had been unable to give the king his earlier dream and its explanation. When these men joined Daniel in prayer about that matter the Lord miraculously revealed the dream and the spectacular meaning. If they had not been given the word that night, they all would probably have been slain the next day. Both through the scriptures and in their personal lives, they had reason to trust the Lord.
Whether anyone else believed it or not, they had reason to trust in the Lord. In a sense, this is all that we have – our faith. Now, let’s lift this chapter to a different plane. We could preach a gospel message from this chapter – it could be made to illustrate salvation from sin. A wicked king has ordered our destruction – no, it’s not Satan, it’s the Law. There is no way for us to bow down and to obey all it’s precepts; it is contrary to our depraved natures. The burning fiery flames of the Lake of Fire is our destiny. Oh, but our faith and trust is in the “Son of God” who is to be seen in verse 25. Not only is He to be seen in that verse, but He is seen in the flames themselves, suffering there on behalf of his people. And what is required of those people? What is the only thing that they can do? They have to humbly trust this Son of God – this Saviour – to bring them out of the flames. There is absolutely nothing that they can do themselves to facilitate their delivery. There is no salvation apart from Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Hananiah spoke with conviction about God’s ability to save them – it came out of genuine faith.
And that faith was built upon the character and promises of the Lord. Not only were they convinced of the Lord’s ability – his power and authority over the burning fiery furnace, but they were convinced of so many other things about the Lord. For example there is the Lord’s eternality and consistency – “He is the same yesterday, today and for ever.” And they were convinced of His love – which was not only expressed through the Word, but also by the spirit of God into their hearts. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah replied with absolute conviction that their God – Jehovah – could deliver them. Do you share this kind of faith with them? Sure you do. But remember it is one thing to talk about it when there is no furnace – it’s another matter when death is staring you in the face.
Hananiah knew for a fact that God could deliver them from the flames of the king’s incinerator. And it was his hope that He would do so. When he said, “but if not…” – that was not an expression of unbelief. It was and expression of humility and honesty.
It is said that fish in an aquarium will grow to fit the size of their accommodations. It’s not that a guppy will become 10 gallons in size if kept in a 10 gallon tank. It’s that he will become larger in a 50 gallon tank than he will in a 10 gallon tank. And the cichlids will be larger in the larger tank than in the smaller, even though they will always be larger than the guppies. It’s natural for people to be like those fish, even though it will not be physical. We tend to picture ourselves as bigger than we really are. But Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were realistic, if not actually quite humble. They considered themselves to be small fish in a huge pond. They considered themselves expendable in the service of God. The Lord didn’t need them in order to bring glory to Himself. He was under no obligation to deliver them from the burning fiery furnace.
Ah, but no man in the prime of his life, and with opportunities to serve God actually wants to die. It was their hope that the Lord would grant them a deliverance from this terrible death. And yet, it is quite obvious that they were willing to accept the Lord’s will whatever it might be. Faith is one thing, hope is another, but surrender to the will of the sovereign God is a third.
As we said last week, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were convinced that what Nebuchadnezzar was demanding of them was in direct opposition to the will and command of God. There was no amount of cajoling, blustering, ordering or haranguing which would make them sin against Jehovah. If the king threatened to strip them of their jobs, make their homes dung-hills, and kill their families back home, there was no way that they were going to bow before his idol. Even if he made the furnace seven-times hotter than it was wont – accustomed – to be heated, they still would not back down from their promise to the Lord. That of course is what the king ordered his servants to do – make that furnace even hotter. On the other hand, when Nebuchadnezzar turned up the gas, tossed in more coal, pumped in more oxygen, or whatever it was that the did, and the Lord still went on to deliver his servants, wouldn’t that just increase God’s glory?
And the Lord is going to honor everyone of his elect. “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.” Hananiah couldn’t say before his execution, whether or not he would live through the flame. But even if he died in that furnace, and his soul passed on into the presence of his Saviour, he would have still be have been delivered out of the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
None of us, here in this room, know the day of our death. I know some people who are reasonably sure that death is quite near, but most us have no dates or times. And yet, it doesn’t matter whether we do or we don’t know the particular date that the Lord hath put into His own heart, if we know the Lord… If we are sure that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is our Saviour. If we are living in repentance before God and with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when the day comes that we are cast into the burning fiery furnace, we may have confidence that the Son of God will walk there with us.
If you are unsure of these things, read the words of Hananiah’s testimony over and over again. When you get up in the morning, read them again, until you have memorized them. Meditate over them and pray them; pray also that you might have the same conviction, faith and hope. When we have the Son of God as our Saviour it won’t matter what the world, the flesh or the Devil might throw at us. “He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.” Is Hananiah’s Saviour your Saviour – Is Christ Jesus your Saviour?