The firey furnace

"King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold...And the herald proclaimed
aloud, "You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace."

"I feel like I got a picture for you, Kari," my pastor said as I sat in his office. "It was of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the firey furnace, and I believe the Lord is saying that he might leave you in your firey furnace longer than you may want to be there."



My head fell into my hands. What did that mean? How much longer would I have to work instead of being home full time, as I longed to? How much longer would I be always the babysitter never the mom? How much longer would I have to work to provide for my family before God blessed Stephan with a job? "Longer than I wanted to be there..." A day more would be longer than I wanted.



I left the meeting very discouraged. We'd gone to our pastor for counsel. I felt like I was leaving the doctor's office with a terrible diagnosis.



A few days later I found myself in a bookstore staring down at Daniel 3, and the account of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego.

"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 when you hear the sound of...every kind of music, 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?"

I covered my face. It was an uncanny parallel. I was at a place in my life where I was being faced with a choice. Bow down to the golden images - the idols - of my heart, those of being home, of motherhood, of ease, of comfort, of preference - or reserve my worship for the God of my salvation regardless of the consequences. Not giving in to all those desires would mean I'd have some firey discomfort ahead of me - and if my pastor's word were true, it would be for longer than I wanted...

"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."

Every feel like God told these guys of old to write something down just for you? I felt distinctly challenged to mimic the response of these 3 men, to have a heart attitude that said in the midst of my situtation "God can change everything - but if he chooses not to, I will not worship anything but him, no matter what the consequence." I couldn't remember the last time I told my idols I wouldn't worship them. I spent all my time telling God I wanted to.

"Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury... He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men... fell bound into the burning fiery furnace."

How encouraging... I thought. I did feel like I was in a furnace heated 7 times hotter than usual. It was one thing to have desires that are going unmet, but then to watch everyone around me be given the things I wanted sure did turn up the heat. I was extatic whenever I learned one of my friends was expecting, or to see others move on into opportunities in the church that I desired, or to hear of ladies being able to stop working and go home full time - I truly was. But it just seemed like no one else was having to wait...



Lord, I prayed, is there any encouragement for me in this story?

"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."

I read this over and over again through tearing eyes. Walking in the midst of the fire...unhurt... my discomfort doesn't have to be something that destroys me - God intends it to refine me. Unbound... I have the spirit-enabled power to chose to worship God instead of idols. My bonds of sin are broken. And the fourth is like a son of the gods... I have Christ at hand, there with me in my trial. When I think of that, there's no where else I'd rather be standing, no matter how many times hotter than usual the fire is blazing.



I stuck my finger in Daniel and flipped over to Romans 5, where I read "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."



I wanted to walk that progression faithfully, suffering to endurance to character to hope, hope in my salvation that doesn't dissapoint, because Christ died for me.

"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... 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."

I shut my bible then. I wanted people to give God that same glory if God did allow me to come home and be a mom one day. I wanted them to say that my fiery furnace had no power over me, and not a hair of my head was singed during those long years spent waiting and and questioning, and blessed be my God, who kept me during that trial, and enabled me to set aside my flesh's demands and yeild up my preference rather than serve and worship any God except my own, the one who saved me.



(all Bible exerpts are from Daniel 3 unless otherwise noted)