Furnace no match for God's fire-walkers

While both Jesus and Paul validate the Book of Daniel, Daniel is one of the most disputed books in the Old Testament as to its authenticity. Sir Robert Anderson even once wrote a book, Daniel in the Critic’s Den, concluding that Daniel fared better in the lion’s den than he did in the critic’s den.

In the great account from Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image, making him “full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.”

Jordan explains, “Nebuchadnezzar lost his cool. See, he’s been real diplomatic and reasonable up to this point, but here’s a bunch of hard-headed, Bible-thumping Jews who won’t pay any attention to reason, or social norms and standards, or what the government says. They got their minds made up. ‘A bunch of narrow-minded bigots; that’s all they are—they think they’re right and everybody else is wrong.’

“He got so mad at them he could spit fire, so he did. These guys were taken in their clothes, tied up and thrown in a furnace that was heated ‘seven times more than it was wont to be heated.’ ”

Daniel 3: 21-25 reports, “Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
[22] Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
[23] And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
[24] Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellers, 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.”

Jordan explains, “Nebby was astonished, saying, ‘Man, I’m not getting this thing! We threw three guys in there to burn up but I look down and, man, there’s FOUR of them and they’re putting on their overcoats and buttoning up! They’re huddling up like they’re COLD! What’d you guys do?! And that fourth one, man, that guy looks like the Lord!’

“Now, when it says he saw one ‘like the Son of God,’ the new bibles translate that to ‘one like a son of God,’ because the new bibles say Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan and he didn’t know anything about the Lord. Well, that’s just nuts!

“In the first 4-5 verses in Jeremiah 40, one of Nebuchadnezzar’s officers in his army quotes the Book of Leviticus to the Jews in Jerusalem after cleaning their plow. He quotes Leviticus 26 and says, ‘That’s why we’re taking you guys away.’ Well, where’d that heathen general learn the Book of Leviticus?!

*****

“Do you remember what we studied in Genesis 6 about what the angels are called? They’re called ‘the sons of God,’ and Nebby is familiar with the sons of God and what he’s saying is, ‘That fourth guy looks like a supernatural being! In fact, he’s such a great one that he looks like the Son of God Himself!’

“Man, this is something fantastic going on here with these boys in that fire down there! The angel of the Lord is there!

"Notice what happens in verse 27: ‘And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellers, 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.’

“They didn’t even smell like they’d been in the smoke! That’s a close cut—these guys were bound and the fire burns the ropes they were tied in but doesn’t even singe their hair!

“Now, there’s something you want to notice about these guys walking in the midst of the fire but the fire not having any power on them. You notice it says upon whose bodies it had no power?

"Go to Isaiah 43:2 for the prophetic significance of this: ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.’

“God’s promise for the Jews in the tribulation is, ‘You’re not going to get burned and your clothes aren’t going to get burned.’ That furnace is Malachi 4:1, Malachi 3:2-3, Zechariah 13:9 and I Peter 4:12-13. It’s that tribulation fire purging out the nation. The faithful remnant gets thrown in but they don’t get burned; they come out on the other end.

“Isaiah 33:13-14, my friend, is exactly what Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego did! That’s why you read there in Daniel 3:27 that upon their bodies—a bunch of consecrated bodies, yielded to the Lord, walking uprightly—not even the smell of smoke got on them. Prophetically, it’s the miraculous preservation of the faithful remnant through the fiery furnace, which will be the tribulation.”

(new article tomorrow)