Fire

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken away captive into Babylon and God gave them more wisdom than all the magicians and astrologers in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. But when the king set up a golden image and told them to bow to the image they refused. “Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.” (Daniel 3:19) The fire was so hot that it killed the mighty men who threw them into the flames. But they stood firm to God’s commandment not to bow to any graven image and they were bound and thrown into the furnace. “Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, 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.” (Daniel 3:24 & 25) The Lord was with them in the fiery furnace. God does not always deliver us out of the fiery trials that we face, sometimes He goes with us through the fiery trials. God told them not to bow and they obeyed God’s Word and He went with them into the fire.