“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.”
~ Daniel 3:17
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you revolutionaries? A revolutionary is a radical thinking and/or acting guy, gal or kid. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are reading together each evening a book that was written by George Barna called Revolution. Your grandmaa reads a chapter out loud while your grandpaa listens. George Barna’s premise in his book Revolution is that there is at this time a revolution taking place in the big C – which is the Church that is made up of guys, gals and kids who are Christ-followers who are living in countries and people groups throughout planet Earth, which is changing how Christ-follower guys, gals and kids are relating to the little c – which are the local communities or fellowships of guys, gals and kids who are Christ-followers who are meeting in designated structures or sites and who are following a prescribed set of worship and meeting norms. The revolutionaries in today’s revolution who George Barna expounds on in his book are the growing number of guys, gals and kids who are now using TV, internet, family groups and house churches as venues for Christ-follower guys, gals and kids in the big C to worship God. A revolutionary in this emerging Christ-follower army of guys, gals and kids is just as ready today – if not even more ready per George Barna, to invest his or her time and energy to be a 24/7 big C universal Christ-follower guy, gal and kid versus a guy, gal or kid who is a Sunday morning little c societal honoring, local structure or site attendee. George Barna heads up a research group of guys and gals who are studying these types of movements.
Today’s big C universal Christ-follower guy, gal and kid revolutionaries are quite ready and willing to walk into life’s blazing furnaces that are being stoked with hardships and enticements. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were revolutionaries when they refused to bow down to a 90 foot tall statute that King Nebuchadnezzar had had built and that he had had set up in the plain of Dura to have every guy, gal and kid who was living in Babylonia’s land area that he was ruling over to fall down to worship. This atrocious, gold sheathed icon probably was formed to embody a Babylonian god that was called Nabu. King Nebuchadnezzar’s name in Akkadian was Nabu-kudurri-usur. Nabu-kudurri-usur means ‘Nabu, protect by son!’ or ‘Nabu, protect by boundaries!’ King Nebuchadnezzar may have been wanting to use this towering effigy to visually show off to the guys, gals and kids who he was ruling over that he was in charge and to intimidate the guys, gals and kids to pay homage to him by forcing them to fall down to worship this inert caricature of himself or be put to death. When some astrologers told King Nebuchadnezzar that three young Jewish guys were ignoring his command to bow down to his massive image, King Nebuchadnezzar followed through on his threat to toss into a fiery furnace any guy, gal or kid who did not do what he had mandated every guy, gal and kid in Babylonia to do. King Nebuchadnezzar really had no other choice but to follow through on what he had said that he would do as he would have looked like a real fool if he had not. King Nebuchadnezzar had required that every Babylonian satrap, perfect, governor, adviser, treasurer, judge, magistrate and provincial official attend the dedication of this colossal monstrosity that he had had set up in the plain of Dura. King Nebuchadnezzar at the dedication of himself as . . . had a herald announce loudly that as soon as every guy, gal and kid– no matter what language group that they were from, heard the sound of horns, flutes, zithers, lyres, harps, pipes and all kinds of music being played that every guy, gal and kid was to fall down to worship the dumb, lifeless, inanimate nothing image. If you knew that you would be thrown into a burning furnace that was located onsite, what would you do?
As Jewish revolutionaries who wanted to strictly hold to their Jewish worship paradigm which was to worship only God, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were quite willing to die in a superheated furnace for their beliefs. Verse 17 has Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego telling King Nebuchadnezzar, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.” To appease his anger at the three brave Jewish guys, King Nebuchadnezzar had the onsite furnace stoked up – using bellows, to be as hot as it could be gotten so that the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would end up being totally incinerated. Before King Nebuchadnezzar had the three young Jewish guys – who were still dressed in their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, tossed into the onsite red hot furnace by some of his strongest soldiers – who immediately died as they threw the three young Jewish guys into the superhot, fiery furnace, he tied up the three young Jewish guys. What King Nebuchadnezzar saw next as he peered the best that he could into the hot, blazing furnace were four guys walking around as if they were out on a stroll. King Nebuchadnezzar knew that the fourth guy who he saw had to be an angel. King Nebuchadnezzar immediately told Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to walk out of the furnace. No one among King Nebuchadnezzar’s required guest list could see any scorched marks on any robe or singed hairs on any head or burns on the bodies of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Your grandmaa often helped make rolls with the wives of the guys who were students at the rural, resident training center that your grandmaa and grandpaa implemented in January of 1982 in Bolivia in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez. The rolls that your grandmaa helped to make were baked in a beehive oven. Your grandmaa knows how hot a beehive oven stays after it has been heated from burning firewood in it. Going through a ‘fiery furnace’ experience will affirm a Christ-follower guy, gal or kid that his or her God is always ready – through an angel or as Himself – as God the Spirit, to help him or her.
Daniel 3 (724)