Burning fiery Furness
[Ref. ss #3]
When the boy, who you can see, got home with his drawing of the Fiery Furness the first thing he said to his Mum was:
“You know their clothes were OK and they didn’t even smell of smoke when the king got them out!”
The Burning Fiery Furness. From Daniel. Chapter 3.
Here’s what happened.
All the people of Israel were captured and taken to the land of Babylon. Of all of them there were three young men, Shadrach Meeshach and Abed-nego who learnt quickly to help others in this new land and who were promoted to be governors in charge of some of the provinces. But their enemies wanted them to fail and dislike them because they knew they prayed to God every day.
This king, Nebuchadnezzar, had decided everyone must worship a huge golden statue. He sent out adecree saying that whenever the people heard “the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer and all sounds of music” they were to fall down at once and worship it. If they didn’t they would be thrown into a hot fiery furness!
But despite this threat these three men were still loyal to the laws that God had given to Moses. The Ten Commandments were very important to them as a permanent guide to the way everyone should behave. Even if they just pretended to worship the King’s statue they would be breaking God’s law which said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. They knew if their all loving Father-Mother God had said this, that it wasfor a reason, to keep them safe from going astray.
If we ask God to look after us and then go and do something just for show, or because we are afraid and forget our promises we know that we are on dangerous ground and that things will not go well for us. So they they listened to God and not to the King and they did not fall down when they heard the music even though everyone else did!
So they disobeyed the King for the very first time and he was furious! He asked them why and they said that they could not disobey their God and that God would “deliver them out the burning fiery furness and out of your hand o King” as well!. Of course this infuriated the kingeven more and he ordered the furness to be heated seven times hotter! He then ordered his biggest and strongest men to take them to be thrown into the fire but they were not strong enough… they frizzled up and died, because of the intense heat, just before Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego fell into it. But the flames didn’t harm these three at all!
Nebuchadnezzar heard about this and tore down to see what was happening. Then Bible goes on to tell us something wonderful changed his attitude. It says “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. 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.
Then Nebuchadnezzar went to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither.
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.
Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, in the province of Babylon.”
I am sure the people from then on could see how God protected people who obeyed the The First Commandment.