Rev Dr Dong-Hwan Kim

But even if he does not…

 Daniel 3:8-30

 When a powerful Babylon king, Nebuchadnezzar saw an enormous golden statue on the plain of Dura, he commanded everyone in his kingdom to worship the image. As the music sounds and the trumpets blare everyone who is anyone in the kingdom falls down and worships; everyone, that is, but Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The king screams at them, and gives them an ultimatum: bow down or burn in Babylon's furnace! The three men still refuse, so they are thrown into the fire.

 How do you read this story? From this story, do you have a message that nothing bad will ever come your way? Many of us are used to hearing this sort of faith - a gospel of wealth and happiness!

Here is another way of reading the story!

 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are confident alright, but they're confident of something more important than being saved from the fire. They are confident of eternal salvation. They say to the king, "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. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

I think that it is a better way of looking at this well known story. Why? Because in it we see that Daniel’s friends have a real kind of faith; they have a faith that doesn't pretend to know all of God's ways, a faith that doesn't pretend that nothing bad ever happens to God's children. We know that God does let terrible things happen in the lives of His children such as the death of a precious child, a fire, a bankruptcy, a debilitating disease, a divorce…

 Daniel’s friends had faith, what happened to them? After they were thrown into the blazing furnace the king discovered an astonishing thing. He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."

 The fourth man is with them in the fire! He is the Son of God. Remember that he will never leave us. He was with Daniel’s three friends in the midst of fire. True faith is to trust God who is always with us. Have this faith. God will be with us in our trials.

 Amen

Rev Dr Dong-Hwan Kim