Daniel (Greek) 3:90-97: a reflection

90O all you who worship the Lord, bless the God of gods, praise him, and give him thanks; for his mercy is forever!” 91Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste. He spoke and said to his counselors, “Didn’t we cast three men bound into the middle of the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” 92He answered, “Look, I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are unharmed. The appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 93Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. He spoke and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the middle of the fire. 94The local governors, the deputies, and the governors, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies. The hair of their head wasn’t singed. Their pants weren’t changed. The smell of fire wasn’t even on them. 95Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. 96Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, who speak anything evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.” 97Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the blazing furnace for refusing to worship the king's idol, Nebuchadnezzar looks in and is astonished: he had thrown in three men bound, but now he sees four men, unbound, walking in the fire unharmed, and the fourth, he says, has the appearance of a son of the gods. When the three come out, not a hair is singed, not even the smell of smoke on them. God had not kept them out of the fire, but he was with them in it, and brought them through unharmed.

Notice where God was: in the fire with them. He did not spare them the furnace; they went into the flames. But he did not leave them alone there; a fourth figure walked with them in the fire, God's own presence in their trial, and they came through unharmed. The promise was not that they would be kept from the fire, but that they would not be alone in it, and that the fire would not consume them.

That is a profound comfort for our own fiery trials. God does not always keep us out of the furnace; sometimes he lets us go into the fire, the suffering, the trial, the hard place. But he does not leave us alone in it. As surely as the fourth figure walked with the three in the flames, God is with his people in their trials, present in the fire, and the fire will not finally consume those who are his. When you are in the furnace, look for the fourth figure. God is with you in the fire; you are not alone in it, and it will not consume you. He who was with the three in the flames is with you in yours.

Lord, when the three faithful men were thrown into the blazing furnace, you did not keep them out of the fire, but you were with them in it, a fourth figure walking with them in the flames, and they came through unharmed. When I am in a fiery trial, when you do not spare me the furnace but let me go into the fire, remind me that you do not leave me alone in it. As surely as you walked with the three in the flames, you are with me in my trial, present in the fire, and the fire will not finally consume me. Help me look for you, the fourth figure, in my furnace. Be with me in the fire, Lord, and bring me through. I am not alone in the flames while you are with me.