OG Burning Man Festival (Daniel 3:1-7, 16-30)

We don't need to give you an answer to this question. If the god we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you, as king, to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up. — Daniel 3:16-18

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, and he commanded some of the best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. So these men in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire.

Since the king's command was so urgent and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell bound into the furnace of blazing fire.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, "Didn't we throw three men bound into the fire?"

"Yes, of course, your majesty," they replied to the king.

He exclaimed, "Look, I see four men, not tied, walking around unharmed in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and called out, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most high god, come out." So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.

When the satraps, prefects, governors, and the king's advisers gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not a hair of their heads were singed. The robes were unaffected. There was no smell of fire on them.

Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, "Praise be to the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted him. They violated the king's command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I issue a decree that anyone of any people, nation, or language who says anything offensive against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb and his house made a garbage dump. For there is no god, no other god, who is able to deliver like this."

Then the king rewarded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The Fiery Furnace Isn't Just a Children's Story

The fiery furnace. I know that this is, for some of you, a super familiar story. This is very often taught in children's picture bibles and, of course, VeggieTales. And yet, this is really anything but a kid's story. Both the themes and the history fit a lot with what we know of modern despots and dictators.

After just receiving from Daniel an interpretation of the vision that he saw in his dream—of the statue with a head of gold, shoulders and upper torso of silver, lower legs of bronze, and feet of clay—and being told this statue is going to fail, I think it's odd that Nebuchadnezzar II says, "This is a great idea," and has such a statue built. He's not so different, I think, from modern despots and dictators today. I think particularly of Kim Jong Un in North Korea. You could very easily see him commissioning a giant statue set up in his honor.

The king not only builds the statue, but then issues the command that everyone worship, fall down in fealty at this state-sponsored, quasi-religious festival with all the music and all the trappings. Everybody is to fall down. And the penalty for not doing so is death. Again, not that far from Kim Jong Un. This is not that hard to imagine.

And yet, when we hear about people being thrown into the furnace, this also fits history, doesn't it? In just the twentieth century, the world heard of other Jewish young people being put in furnaces. The Nazi death camps. All too real. And so think of the recoil that we have about hearing the atrocities of Nazi Germany. This is how the Jewish people heard this passage. This is how Jewish people today still hear this passage. This is horrific.

The Central Question

The passage not only sounds like modern history, it also brings up the questions of modern philosophy. In the center of this whole passage is a question. And it's a question that comes out of the mouth, ironically, of Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand? — Daniel 3:15

That really hits at the very center place of modern philosophy. The major question of modern philosophy is: Why suffering? And particularly for people of faith, how is it that we have a God who is good who allows such suffering? These men have been through incredible difficulties.

We could say they've been through a number of fires before this. I doubt any of us have faced or will face a situation where we are forced to make a decision about our faith or death. And yet, their dilemma, their hard place, is not that different from where we find ourselves.

I want you to think about how we use the word fire in our culture. We use the word fire all the time to refer to dangerous or discouraging or stressful situations. We talk about going from the frying pan into the fire. That's a saying, an idiom that signifies going from a really hard situation to an impossible situation. If you're terminated at work, that's called being fired. We speak of putting out fires in your office—dealing with all the urgent things that are crowding in, maybe more urgent than important. We talk about the heat being turned up on me right now. High stress.

And while we may not face physical fires, we may not face threat of life, I think that question remains very poignant and important to us: What God can rescue? What God can deliver me? Can God help? Will God help?

So this morning, I'm going to look at this passage under three headings. First, the God in the furnace, then the savior from the fires, and then the Lord of the furnace.

The God in the Furnace

Nebuchadnezzar looks deep into the furnace, and very famously, he sees not three people in there, but four. He sees four figures unharmed, and it's like the three of them brought a friend with them. Verse 25 says:

I see four men walking around the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

Evidently, through the flames, he could tell this is a person of tremendous power. If you watch the VeggieTales version of this, they say there's another one in there, and he looks real shiny. Who was it? It's the angel of the Lord.

In Hebrew, the word for angel and the word for messenger are the same word. So there's a messenger in there. There's some help that is in the fire. And of course, the Bible uses this image of a messenger or an angel over and over throughout the Old Testament. The angel appears at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and appears to Hagar in the desert, and to Gideon, and to Balaam, and to Samson's parents, and then to this young teenage mom who's pregnant with a baby. And it most famously appears to the general of the Lord's army, Joshua, as they're about to enter into the Promised Land.

In that scene, Joshua bows down to worship this messenger, this angelic being. And the messenger says, stop—no, it tells him this is appropriate. Everywhere else, we're told stop by the messenger. But with Joshua, he receives the worship. And over and over again, biblical commentators have said that is very likely a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus himself come in the flesh to be with Joshua in battle. And in here as well, commentators over and over say this one who looks like a son of the gods, the one who appears and walks around with them in the flames, is at least a representative, if not God himself.

And I want you to think about what God is doing in this scene. Because God makes a decision. He chooses not to rescue these three men from the flames. He could have melted the palace at this moment. God is a God who, in our Old Testament, delivers a flood. Surely some water right now would be really helpful. Instead, God chooses to rescue in the furnace. He goes in with them.

And it's almost humorous if you look at how this is described. What are they doing as they're in the furnace? What are they up to? It says they are walking around in the furnace. What kind of God is this? This is a God who walks in the fire with us.

We sing many times in our church the words from Isaiah 43:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass 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.

This is what's pictured for us in the coming of Jesus, whose nickname is God with us. God with us in the fires. God chooses regularly not to rescue from, but to join in, to rescue in the fires. God is the God in the fire with us.

But what's more, too, we see here not just a picture of how God is able to rescue, but we also see a picture of how God did rescue. Think about the fire that Jesus faced. Any other fires in this life pale in comparison to the fire that Jesus himself faced, and I'm talking specifically of the fire of hell.

Now, I know that talk of hell makes people squirm. Modern people don't like to talk about hell. Jesus talked about it more than anyone else in scripture. And yet, in our minds, this feels like a very primitive idea. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have very cartoonish ideas of what hell looks like.

Fire, chains, devil with little horns and a pitchfork. We have cartoonish ideas, but it doesn't mean the Bible is cartoonish. When the Bible speaks of hell and fire, it's describing not what hell looks like, but what hell does. Think of what happens when you put fuel on the fire. What happens to that fuel? It disintegrates. It disappears. It's destroyed over time. There's something about this picture of soul disintegration, which is at the very root of the language of the Bible around hell. When the Bible speaks, we read over and over these passages about hell. It's not describing a place that's temperature hot, but soul destroying.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has all these sayings about hell:

The axe is already at the foot of the tree. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into fire. I tell you that anyone who's angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Anyone who says to his brother, Raca, which means fool, will be answered with a Sanhedrin. Anyone who says, you fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell. Every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so will be at the end of the age. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. — Matthew (various passages)

Fire, as a symbol of hell, describes to us a condition of being apart from the presence of the Lord, which is itself soul destructive. C. S. Lewis talked about this in a very helpful way. He said there are two kinds of people in this world. There is one group of people who says, "God, Thy will be done. I want to follow you. I want to know you. I want to live my life for you. I want to worship you." And then there's another person to whom God says, "Thy will be done." Because they want a life without God. Lewis says everyone who is in hell chooses this. There's a sense in which we're either people who move toward and live with and enjoy God, or we choose to push him out of our lives. And Lewis' picture of hell is one of soul destruction, self chosen, self annihilation.

Jesus in Gethsemane

On the night before he was about to die, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prays. He's anticipating this coming fire that he is facing. And he begins to cry out to the Lord:

Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me. — Matthew 26:39

The prospect of facing this soul annihilation, this hell, was so overwhelming. It says that Jesus sweated like he was bleeding. The sweat was coming off of him so heavy. One writer much earlier in our nation's history wrote a sermon called "Christ's Agony." He writes this:

The thing about Christ's mind that was so full of at that time was without doubt the same that which his mouth was full of. It was the dread which his feeble human nature had of that dreadful cup, which was vastly more terrible than Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace. It's like Jesus had a straight look into the furnace of God's wrath, into which He was about to be cast. He was brought to the very mouth of the furnace so that He could look into it and stand and view its raging fires and see the glowings of its heat, so he might know where he was going and what he was about to suffer.

This is our theology of the cross, that Jesus took the hell in our place as a perfect substitute for us. And he cries out on the cross the very slogan of hell:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? — Matthew 27:46

At that moment, experiencing the utter separation, the utter dissolution that hell is. When the fire of God's wrath had burned him, he was entirely alone. When Jesus passed through the waters, God was not with him. When he passed through the fires, he was burned. When he faced hell, there was no one by his side, no companion like in the furnace to share in his sufferings. No saving hand from God to rescue him in that moment. There was no deliverance from experiencing the full power of hell.

But just like in this story that we read today from Daniel, Jesus' rescue, his salvation was a very thorough rescue. Did you listen to the story where it says when they came out of the furnace, their clothes didn't smell like smoke? Not even the hair was singed. If you've been camping, you smell like smoke for days. I smell like that even cooking hamburgers. If you've ever had a house fire, you know that everything you've owned is ruined because it traps the smoke in it. And here's a picture of these men coming through the fire and having no scent of smoke on them. Such a thorough rescue was theirs from the furnace. And again, it's such a picture of the thorough rescue that Jesus is for us. Such a thorough rescue.

What kind of God is this?

This is a God who goes into the fires with his people. This is a God who's the savior from the flames. This is a God, finally, who's also the Lord of the furnace. You know, these are three extraordinary young men, aren't they? Later in the book of Hebrews, it lists the hall of fame of the most famous people of faith in the Old Testament, and it mentions those who quenched the flames. I think it's a reference to these three men. But I want to think with you about their faith in this moment. This passage speaks very much to us about the nature of faith.

Faith Believes That God Can

Faith believes that God can. The first thing I noticed is the answer of these three young men to Nebuchadnezzar—the degree to which they were comparing Nebuchadnezzar not in the circumstances, not to other people, but to God Himself. I bet there are a million people in the kingdom who are like, come on, guys. Just bow down a little bit. It'll be just fine. And these men, though, they look and they say, look how puny Nebuchadnezzar looks to our God. The rest of the nation is saying, look how puny these men are next to Nebuchadnezzar. But these men see a bigger picture. This is the nature of faith. Faith looks at circumstances and says, my God is bigger. My God is bigger than my circumstances. He's bigger than the threats facing me. He is able. God can. That's the most basic principle of faith.

And again, in the VeggieTales version of this, there's a little song: "God is bigger than the boogeyman. He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV. God is bigger than the boogeyman, and he's watching out for you and me." Not a bad one for VeggieTales, to be honest. But I want to remind you of this this morning. God is bigger than your work situation. God is bigger than your most problematic relationship. God is bigger than the financial pressures you are facing. God is bigger than cancer. God is bigger than wayward children. God is bigger than the great fears that wake you up in the middle of the night, and rob you of sleep, and rob you of joy during the day. Our God is bigger. So brothers and sisters, why should we be so discouraged? Why should we be afraid? This is what faith says. My God can.

You know, there's an old hymn that says:

My constant friend is he. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.

I know he watches me. Faith says we have a God who can.

Faith Expects a God Who Will

And faith expects a God who will. Did you see these words that they say to the king?

We have a God, and we know he will deliver us from your hand, O king.

Now, what's funny about that is we didn't miss part of this passage. There's no record of a huddle where God said, now here it is. Here's how it's going to go. God didn't whisper something in their ear. There's no private revelation here that came that made them really sure God will definitely do that. You can see this in the next section, because he says, "but if not." And yet, they believed. They had this suspicion. They expected God can, and they expected God will. God will rescue.

Can I let you in on a secret? Many, most of the most famous people in our Bible who exercise faith, they are not given some kind of direct word. I think all of us sort of think like, oh, the people of the Bible are really different from us. They must have had some kind of special assurance that this was all going to work out. Not so much.

There's a passage in 1 Samuel 14 where the people of Israel are being oppressed by the Philistines. Philistia dominated Israel and had taken away all their weapons. There were only two swords left in the country. And Jonathan, son of King Saul, had one of them. And at night, Jonathan sees with his armor bearer, who's carrying his one sword, "Hey, there's a garrison of 20 Philistine troops camped over there. Let's go take them." This is what he actually says:

Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf.

Now, love that. Can you imagine being the armor bearer? Wait, wait, wait. We have one sword. There are 20 of them. Perhaps? You got to do a little better, buddy. I need a little bit more than perhaps right now if we're going to go two on 20 with one sword. It's a little crazy, but what happened? Jonathan expects. He believes God can and he believes God will. He expects.

This is what David says in Psalm 27:

I am convinced that I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

Not just rewards in heaven, in the life to come, but in my lifetime. I will see God at work here. I will see God at work in my circumstances. I will see God at work in my relationships. I will see God at work in my family. I will see God at work in my marriage. I will see God at work among my children. I believe God will work out things in my job. It's not always saying God can, but God will. I expect He will.

John Cox, when he came and spoke a few weeks ago, talked about the woman subject to bleeding who follows Jesus through the crowd. She says, "If only I can touch his robe, I might be healed." It's clear from the passage that Jesus didn't anticipate this. He wasn't aware of what was going on. He didn't have some plan around this where he was thinking, "Okay, she's going to meet me at this point." He turns around and says, "Who touched me?" Power goes out from him. And then he says, "I've scarcely seen faith like this anywhere." This—not only he can, but he will faith. So many times in scripture, we read that Jesus' power was limited not by his own strength, but by the beliefs of the people who were in the room. A lack of expectation.

So I'm going to ask a very non-rhetorical question this morning. Where in your life right now do you need to believe not only that he can, but that he will? Would you sit with that for a second?

Faith believes that God can and that he will. And faith trusts him if he doesn't. This is the greatest words in this passage.

But if not... But if not? But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. — Daniel 3:18

Even if he doesn't deliver. Even if he doesn't deliver and he might let us die in the furnace, O king. We'd rather die in the furnace with our faith in God and with God than to live in the palace with just you. They believed God was not only big enough to protect them from Nebuchadnezzar. They believed that knowing God was better than anything they'd ever have to give up.

If you want to write something down from this morning, it's this: faith not only believes that God is bigger than the opposition, but is better than all the alternatives. It's better.

Here's the thing. Sometimes you take a stand for the Lord or you go out and risk something in faith and God does deliver. He can and he will. He does do those things, like Jonathan or like David in Psalm 27. And sometimes you take a stand and he lets you suffer, like Jesus. The question you have to ask is, if he lets you go into the fire, is he still enough for you?

Peter wrote in his letter in the New Testament:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery trials you're going through, as if something strange is happening to you. — 1 Peter (paraphrased)

What do we learn about God here? That he is the Lord of the furnace. He is completely in control all through chapter three, and he's good. And even so, it's up to good. He's up to good.

I think that Peter, in writing this—"don't be surprised about the fiery trials you're going through"—I think he's thinking exactly of Daniel chapter three. Just like these three men were not surprised at having their faith tested, God allows us to walk through hard situations to change us. Clay remains clay no matter what it's shaped like until it's gone through fire, and then it can become porcelain. Peter indicates that when we suffer, we are somehow participating in the sufferings of Christ and what God is up to in a redemptive way in this world.

Your Furnaces

So I want to remind you, in your furnaces—and I have no doubt this morning that there are lots of furnaces in this room. There are lots of hardship that you're walking through. I know some of those personally. I'm sure I don't know the half of them. And our furnaces feel really hot to us. They're very personal to us. But I want to remind you that even in our furnaces, God is up to the same program. He's up to the same good by which he brings grace and his glory in weakness and in suffering. And if we don't remember that, we'll become bitter and angry. We're like, "God, you said. I thought you would always deliver in this way." God will always be present to his people. He will always deliver in some way, either by walking through it with you or working his larger purposes through it. God is never abandoning the work of his hands.

One old pastor, Richard Baxter, writes this about our furnaces. He says, "Christ takes us through no darker rooms than he went through before."

I was reading recently about redwood trees. Redwood trees—we've read a lot about wildfires over the last couple of years, and wildfires are particularly significant in the state of California. Redwood trees, which are the big beauties of California, have something in the bark. They have a chemical in the bark that protects the tree from being completely annihilated by fire. There's something in the bark that makes them semi-resistant to fire, which will burn through the rest of the underbrush and clear everything out around it. And those fires, which seem to be all about destruction, are actually really important to the life of a redwood because they make space for the root structure of a redwood tree to continue to deepen and to grow.

And without fires that swept through regularly, the redwoods would become weak, and the root structure would be less deep, and they would fall over. There's a purpose to the fires. God is the Lord of the furnace. And I want to remind you this morning that He is with you in the furnace, and He is up to good for you. Remember the redwood. You don't have a protection of bark around you that's somehow flame resistant. But you have the purposes of the God of the universe around your life. If you are His, if you've owned Him by faith, He has set His hand on you and His spirit in you. He has called you His. He is up to good for you always, even in the fire.

Can you look to him? It's hard to see him in the fire. It's hard to believe he's really there, but our God will never forsake or abandon us.

Let me close with this. What kind of God is this? Who is this God? He is the God of the furnace. He is the savior from the fires. He is the Lord of the furnace. No matter where you are this morning, I can speak this word of benediction over your life. This is from Romans 15.

May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. — Romans 15

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you that even when all looks dark, you promise that you are present. Help us, Lord, to be people of faith who draw near to you, who say, "My God can, I expect my God will, and even if not, he is better than life itself." Lord God, strengthen us and encourage us. I pray for a congregation of Redwoods today. Pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Would you stand? We're gonna sing in response to God's word.