But if not
Daniel 3:13-19
Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready … to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.
And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.
Confidence, resolution, determination—how do we express our relationship with God Almighty when we are faced with the insurmountable opposition of power? How almighty is our Lᴏʀᴅ? The King has proclaimed that all will worship the image of himself and the Babylonians have complied but some of his followers have reported three Israelites as non-compliant. Such refusal does not sit well with the King:
Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready… to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” 1
This is not a come-let-us-reason-together moment but a life-and-death confrontation. “Is it true” “you do not” “if you are ready” all are in-your-face demands for immediate change, to humbly admit error and comply with the King’s commands. “But if you do not” prefaces the “immediately be cast into the fiery furnace”—the King is determined to get satisfaction either by compliance or vengeance. To emphasize his self-perceived divine authority, he throws down the ultimate challenge:
“And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” 2
Oops. We have seen before that challenging the Lᴏʀᴅ is a very unwise way to prove your own power. The Three continue to be confident in what God will do and are direct in telling the King that they will not worship lesser gods which includes the King’s image of himself.
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” 3
We have our confidence in God, we have resolve to live according to who the Lᴏʀᴅ is and our expectation that He will remain Lᴏʀᴅ above all else no matter what man says. “But if not,” is recognition that if what He does is outside our expectation, we remain determined to be true to Him and not fear what man can do to us! As bold as that sounds when we read it, living it out would rest upon our history with the Lᴏʀᴅ. They had already tested and proved the One in whom they placed their confidence. When the King’s rage has the fire made seven times hotter and has them thrown into the fire, the only ones killed by the heat are those throwing the Three into the furnace. Then comes that moment when God faces down Nebuchadnezzar. The Three are in the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar and the accusers are looking through the fire and what is seen is not the Three being consumed:
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 4
Something beyond the King’s authority, his power, is at work. No, the fire was not put out; no, the Three were not removed from the furnace. The fire is real but God had joined them where they were, the bondage was gone and they are safe in the fire. This supernatural intervention gets everyone’s attention:
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against this God shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Is our confidence in God doing as we expect or do we want that ‘but if not’ resolve that no matter how the Lᴏʀᴅ intervenes, we will be true to Him?
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at https://www.blueletterbible.org
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
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