We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

(…continues from part 3…)

4)            Nebuchadnezzar behaved true to a blind religious fanatic totally suffering from power inebriation. An enraged Nebuchadnezzar was terribly splenetic when three teenage Jews refused to worship the image of his invention when they said, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17) 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. 18) But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3:16-18). In Genesis 22:14, Abraham called the God of the Bible yehôvâh yir’eh (yeh-ho-vaw’ yir-eh’): Jehovah-jireh means: ‘Jehovah sees or Jehovah will see (to it).’

The joint faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego invoked the LORD God of Israel to see to their predicament. They knew God was bigger than all mankind’s problems. They remembered that the LORD God of the Bible had promised, “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Deuteronomy 31:6). When one is egregiously drowned in inebriation of power, he thinks, according to demonic whisper in his ears, that he is God. In his bid to show them his majestic power, “therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.”

I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt

The LORD God did not only prove that He is the Almighty, He came down to be with His faith wielding sworn children. “Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.  25) He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (Daniel 3:24-25). The LORD Jesus, in His pre-incarnate manifestation, entered into the annihilative, burning, fiery furnace, turning the place into an air-conditioned living room!

The three Jewish youths, even though they had been stripped, so to speak, of their Jehovah connected Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; and clothed with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego of Babylonian idolatry, they did not forget Jehovah, their Elohyim. It was germane that the LORD God, seeing the faith of those who have refused to be guiltless of the tenet of Genesis 2:16-17, should cover them with His Divine protectionism. There always will be problems. When they show up, never forget to do “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” of Hebrews 12:2. Do not fear the merchants of demonic skullduggery. Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Let us understand this verse well; the word ‘present’ is mâtsâ’ (maw-tsaw’): ‘to come forth to, that is, appear or exist.’ And the next, ‘help’ is ‛ezrâh (ez-raw’): ‘succour, assistance, aid.’ The modifying ‘very’ is me’ôd (meh-ode’): ‘exceedingly, much (adverb) might, force, abundance.’ The word ‘refuge’ is

machaceh (mach-as-eh’) meaning: ‘a shelter (literally or figuratively); hope, (place of) refuge, shelter, trust. Machaceh comes from chacah (chaw-saw’): ‘1. to flee for protection. 2. (figuratively) to confide in;’ which takes us to ‘strength’ which is `owz (oze): ‘might in various applications (force, security, majesty, praise)’; and ‘trouble’, tsarah (tsaw-raw’), means: ‘1. tightness (i.e. figuratively, trouble) that that is seen in: adversary, adversity, affliction, anguish, distress, tribulation.’

                When one exercises true faith, devoid of any scintilla of pretence, in the written Word of the Bible, and the said person does not waver in faith, the LORD God of the Bible will rise to the salvation of the wielder of faith in God, the Creator. He will be so happy to create everything needed to ensure the good testimony of the one who has shown faith in Him, the LORD God, Whom he had not, for once, seen in Person but only in His revealed Word.

Get Jesus initiated by getting born again: pray this prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say,

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

 (…to be concluded…)

Read Part 3 here

Visits: 6