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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Rodney den Boer > God demonstrates his rule by rescuing his servants from the fire | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Read Daniel 3 Sing: Ps 42:1, 3; Hy 82:3; Ps 17:3; Ps 66:2, 4, 5; Ps 46:1, 3, 5 Questions for reflection/discussion
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Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Our Jewish friends in Babylon seem to go from one trial to another. In chapter 1 they were tempted to conform to the world. In chapter 2 their lives were threatened because no one could interpret the king’s dream. These trials have prepared them for what seems to be a greater trial in chapter 3. Living in Babylon doesn’t get easier. There is relentless pressure from the kingdom of darkness, and in our text, we see a tremendous pressure to conform to Babylon’s worship. It’s a great trial. They need to trust God, again. They have need of endurance.
And isn’t that also our need, today? It may seem as if we barely get through one hardship in our life and God sends another one our way. As we live in the world, the kingdom of darkness continues to aim its heavy artillery at us. When everyone around us is living for self and for the things of this world, we are tempted to conform to the world, to take our eyes away from what is unseen and eternal, and to live like the world. Living in Babylon is a continual challenge. And the relentless nature of it can wear us down. Living in modern Babylon can be tiring. We have need of endurance. How can we endure?
The Holy Spirit teaches us in Daniel 3 that we can continue trust God’s word, that he is ruling, and his kingdom is eternal. God is king, even when it doesn’t seem like it, when everyone else bows down to an idol. God demonstrates his rule by rescuing his servants from the fire.
God demonstrates his rule by rescuing his servants from the fire
- The question of worship (v1-7)
- The courage of faith (v8-18)
- The commitment of God (v19-30)
1. The question of worship
After the dream of ch2, did Nebuchadnezzar really acknowledge God? He did in words, but his actions speak more loudly about his heart. It seems that he is full of self-admiration at his own kingdom and his position in the world as the head of gold. The statue is a response to the dream he had. He wants everyone to bow to this statue, representing his god, maybe even himself. It was an impressive statue, and it would be an impressive ceremony. He gets together all the top people of his kingdom. You may remember when King Charles was coronated, all the officials were there. This dedication ceremony had that type of grandeur.
And notice, as they all stand before the statue, the universal call to worship. This is a religious ceremony. The herald addresses all peoples, nations, and languages. It will be a worship service where the whole world will bow to the king’s statue. There is a great variety of music, and there is the call to fall down before the statue. What did it mean to bow down? It meant, I acknowledge that Babylon’s gods are the greatest, Babylon’s king is the greatest. That is precisely what the puffed-up Nebuchadnezzar wanted, universal worship to him and his kingdom.
Imagine the challenge posed to the Jewish exiles. Is it really true that God is king? Is it really true that his kingdom will be like a stone filling the whole earth? It doesn’t seem as if God is king, everything points to the sovereignty of King Nebuchadnezzar. Is God really going to preserve us through this exile? It seems as if the only logical thing to do is to bow down right now. Whom will they worship, when everyone around them is worshipping an idol?
This is a relevant question for us, too, as we live in the modern world, with Babylon all around us. The book of Revelation speaks about the end times in which we live. In Revelation 13, the apostle John speaks about a beast, who blasphemed God, and says that authority was given to him over every tribe, tongue, and nation, and “all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb.” This beast is called the anti-Christ in 1 John 2 and is the incarnation of evil. God tells us that everyone will worship him, people of every tribe, tongue, and nation. This is a moment coming in the last days, just before Jesus returns, a moment similar to this worship service in Daniel 3. Everyone will bow to the Anti-Christ, except God’s chosen ones.
Today, we do not yet see the whole world worshipping one person, and so it is impossible to identify the anti-Christ as a specific person (at least, for now). But we can see idolatry all around us. We are surrounded by false worship. When we think about our world and the way it is going, it can sometimes seem as if God is not ruling. Is his kingdom really coming? It may not look like it. Think of the awful wars that are happening right now, around this world. Think of the persecution of God’s people in places like North Korea, Nigeria, the Democratic Rebublic of Congo where Christians were recently murdered. In these countries, the lives of God’s people are in danger simply because they confess faith in the Lord Jesus. Open Doors estimates that more than 380 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution or discrimination for their faith. Is God really ruling?
Or, think of the growing hostility to Christianity in our own country. Think of the apathy you face when you try and speak about your faith. Does anyone care? It doesn’t seem like it. The world around us is bent on worshipping idols: entertainment, pleasure, sports, money, sex, and self. The Australian newspaper ran an article with this headline: “The new religion of me, myself, and I.” Whom does the world worship? It may not be one anti-Christ beast, but there is a widespread rebellion against the one, true God. Is God really ruling?
As we live in this world, we face relentless pressure to conform to it and join in their worship. Satan wants us to worship like the Babylonians, to make our lives all about ourselves rather than our God. He wants us to live for our own pleasure rather than for him. It can happen slowly: we start to relax our convictions about Sunday worship. It doesn’t matter if we skip an occasional service. Actually, my holidays are more important than Sunday worship, so I might head away for the weekend and just livestream on the campsite. It can happen in our free time, we allow the pursuit of pleasure to take first place. I need me time, I deserve it, if you talk about thirty minutes or an hour with the Lord I’ll give you a funny look. I mean, it sounds good, but who really does that? (Just, please, don’t ask me for a report of my screen time!)
Dear brothers and sisters, whom do you worship? You see that is the question, here. When the world worships self, do we cave in, do we conform, do we bow down to the image? If you are conforming to the world now, you are on the path to bow down to the anti-Christ when he is revealed, along with all those whose names are not written in the book of life. The question is: whom do you worship, and whom will you worship? Do you trust that God is ruling, that he alone is worthy of your worship, and he is returning to judge the living and the dead? Whom do you worship?
2. The courage of faith (v8-18)
Our friends in Daniel 3 show a courageous faith, and they do not bow down. Remember, they’ve been taught ever since they were boys in Jerusalem that the LORD our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And they were taught the first commandment, you shall have no other gods but me, and they’ve been taught the folly of bowing to an idol, because that idol is dead, it can do nothing, it cannot help you at all and give you comfort or fulfilment or joy or peace. What good is a piece of stone, even if it is impressively covered with gold and sixty cubits high?
And yet, consider how courageous they were. Just not bowing down, when everyone else bowed down is massive. You feel that pressure, too, don’t you. When everyone else swears on the job site, you feel as if you need to join in, just to belong. When everyone else laughs at a joke, you feel a need to laugh too, just to fit in. And even more than standing alone, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were brought before the greatest king in the world, the one who had the power to snuff their lives out with a word, and who threatened to do just that, by throwing them into that blazing furnace. The pressure was massive.
And yet, they did not bow down. We have no need to answer you, o King. You already know the allegiance of our hearts. We obey God, rather than men. Our God is stronger than you, and he can deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. You see, they remembered the fundamental reality that God is one and all other gods are nothing. They believed the word of God that had been revealed to their friend Daniel in that dream. They trusted that God’s kingdom is eternal.
And notice, in v18, that it was a commitment they backed up with their whole life. They said, “God will deliver us, but if not, we still won’t bow down.” If our God does not rescue us from the fire, we will not worship your false gods. They did not know whether God would save them from the fire or not. But they remained faithful to him, based on what they did know. They knew that God’s kingdom is eternal, so they trusted him. They showed a courageous faith.
And this is the courage of the faith that God gives to us, too, brothers and sisters. By faith we believe in God’s eternal kingdom, and by faith we have access into that kingdom. And with the knowledge of God, with the knowledge of who he is and his mighty deeds of salvation, comes great courage. Hebrews 11 speaks about the faith of many of God’s children, who received the promises of God and lived contrary to their culture. Just think of Moses, who lived in the palace of Egypt, but he chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy those fleeting pleasures of sin. The end of the chapter refers to many other heroes of faith, who through faith, conquered kingdoms, escaped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire. That’s our three friends, faithful in the face of a fiery furnace. This is the courage of faith.
This is the courage of faith because it is given to us by a great and awesome God. It is his powerful Holy Spirit who works in us and gives us courage to stand in the face of pressure. The Holy Spirit is true and eternal God, and he lives within each of God’s children.
And, because you believe in God, you can also show this great courage, continuing to trust him and worship him alone. How? It is knowing God through his Word that gives you this courage. It is knowing his rich promises that gives you endurance through another trial. It is knowing him and his Son Jesus Christ that gives you the courage to continue to worship him alone, even when no one else does, even when you need to stand alone. It is trusting in the power of his Holy Spirit who lives within you. So dear brothers and sisters, believe that God’s word is true and his kingdom is eternal and he will preserve you. And God wonderfully confirms that to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
3. The commitment of God
They are thrown into the fire, bound, with all their court clothes. The text emphasises the intense heat and danger, so that even those who throw the men into the fire are killed because of its heat. There is no chance of survival. Notice that God does not prevent them from being thrown into the fire. They are thrown in. God did not promise a life free from danger. That’s not what he has promised his children. That’s not what he has promised us. He didn’t promise us a comfortable life. In fact, he tells us we can expect suffering and persecution. Our Lord Jesus said, they will treat the servants like they treat the master. They’ve persecuted me and they will also persecute you. He does not prevent them, or us, from going through fiery trials.
But he is with us through every trial. King Nebuchadnezzar was in for a surprise, as, no doubt, were the three Jews. The king saw, not three, but four men, loose, walking, and they are not hurt. Everything here is a surprise. They are not bound anymore, somehow the handcuffs have fallen off. And they are walking, and finally there is this mysterious fourth man, who looks like a son of the gods.
We don’t know who this man was. Later Nebuchadnezzar thinks he was an angel. Clearly, he has been sent by God, and he is either an angel or he is the angel, the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Son of God. The text doesn’t say. But what this does show is that God is with them in the flames, either by sending an angel or by sending his messenger. It confirms what God had said some generations before through Isaiah about the exiles in Isaiah 43, “Fear not, for I have redeemed… when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.” The floods and fires of life in Babylon will not destroy you. Even in the furnace of King Nebuchadnezzar, I will be with you. At the time you least expect it, I am right there, in the flames, with you.
This is even more amazing when we consider that the exile was God’s hand of discipline. You remember where God’s presence was in the OT, symbolically in the temple. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied about the exile and he depicted God’s glory leaving the temple as God allowed the nations to plunder it. Was God, then, not with his people? Indeed, he remained committed to his people, even in the fires of Babylon.
You see, beloved, this proves that God is ruling. He demonstrates his rule by rescuing his servants from the fire and being with them. Even when it seemed that God wasn’t ruling, he was. Even when the whole world bowed to a false god, he alone remained worthy of worship.
The ultimate demonstration of this truth is shown in our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus hung there on the cross and died, it didn’t seem as if he was king. He said he was the King of the Jews, but what about that then, when he was being crucified? What sort of king will die? It didn’t seem as if he was king, as if his claims were true. But it was precisely through the weakness of the cross that his kingdom was coming. And God demonstrated this decisively by raising him from the dead. As Paul says in Romans 1.4, he was “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Jesus is king, and his resurrection proves that.
And after he rose from the dead, you remember what he said to his disciples, when he gave them the commission to make disciples of all nations, when he gave them the commission to make disciples of every tribe and people and language? He said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And he came in the person of his Holy Spirit at Pentecost, his Spirit who would remain with his church forever. This is the promise of God: that Jesus Christ is always with us, in the person of his Holy Spirit. I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
This is true, for us, as we live in a world that is full of violence and increasing opposition against God. We can be sure that God is king, his kingdom is eternal, and he is with us in this world, through every trial we experience. We may not be delivered out of the fire, like our Jewish friends. In fact, many Christians have been killed by fire, or other gruesome deaths, because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Think of the early church in the Roman empire, when everyone bowed to Caesar, and Christians were killed for saying, “Jesus is Lord; we will not bow to Caesar.” They were not delivered from the earthly flames.
But they knew their God, their God who demonstrated his rule to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and they knew by faith, that God is king. They knew that Jesus is ruling in heaven, they knew that he was with them in the power of his Holy Spirit.
So, we, too, can be sure that Jesus Christ is king, and he is with us. That gives us the courage to continue trusting him, through whatever new trials God gives us. He may have strengthened our faith through one trial, only to bring another test to us. We may feel burdened by the relentless pressure to conform to this world. We may feel the heavy barrage of the evil one, assaulting our faith. Indeed, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all, and he is with us through the fires. This truth is beautifully captured in a hymn that puts the words of Isaiah 43 to music, the hymn, “How firm a foundation,”
When through fiery trials, your pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply.
The flame shall not hurt you, my only design,
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
And in fact, all those souls who trust in Jesus will be brought through the fiery trials, and join the great crowd of worshippers before the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus whom we worship today. The beast of Revelation 13 will be worshipped by everyone except those whose names are in the book of the Lamb. That’s us, who belong to God’s kingdom. We have someone far greater to worship, the only one, in fact, who is worthy of our praise. One day, there will be many people of every tribe, people, and language, joining with us in universal worship to God and to Jesus Christ, the one who is worthy, the one who lives and reigns forever. So, let’s worship him alone, showing a courageous faith in him, trusting that he will never relinquish his commitment to save us. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Rodney den Boer, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2025, Rev. Rodney den Boer
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