Outline
Ⅳ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the seduction of idol worship—Dan. 3; cf. Matt. 4:9-10:
A
Whatever is not the true God in our regenerated spirit is an idol replacing God; whatever is not in the spirit or of the spirit is an idol—1 John 5:21.
B
The enemy of the Body is the self that replaces God with its self-interest, self-exaltation, self-glory, self-beauty, and self-strength; in and for the Body we deny the self and do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord—Matt. 16:24; 2 Cor. 4:5.
C
Daniel's companions had a true spirit of martyrdom; they stood for the Lord as the unique God and against idol worship at the cost of their lives, being thrown at the command of Nebuchadnezzar into a blazing furnace—Dan. 3:19-23.
D
When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he saw four men walking in the midst of the fire (vv. 24-25); the fourth one was the excellent Christ as the Son of Man, who had come to be with His three suffering, persecuted overcomers and to make the fire a pleasant place in which to walk about.
E
The three overcomers did not need to ask God to deliver them from the furnace (cf. v. 17); Christ as the Son of Man—the One who is qualified and capable of sympathizing with God's people in everything (Heb. 4:15-16)— came to be their Companion and take care of them in their suffering, by His presence making their place of suffering a pleasant situation.
Morning Nourishment
Dan. 3:17-18 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace of fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up.23 And these three men…fell into the midst of the blazing furnace of fire
bound up.
In Daniel 3 Satan’s strategy was to seduce the young overcomers among God’s defeated elect in the worship of idols through Nebuchadnezzar’s blindness (vv. 1-7). Nebuchadnezzar made a great image of gold, sixty cubits (ninety feet) in height, and set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon (v. 1)…Nebuchadnezzar sent word to assemble the high officials and all kinds of officers and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that he had set up, and he commanded all the peoples, nations, and languages to worship his golden image (3:2-5). Whoever did not fall down and worship was to be thrown into the midst of a blazing furnace of fire (v. 6).
Daniel’s three companions, the young overcomers among the Jewish captives, stood against the devilish worship and were accused by the Chaldeans (vv. 8-12). The Chaldeans were jealous of Daniel and his companions and took their refusal to worship the golden image as grounds to accuse them before Nebuchadnezzar. (Life-study of Daniel, pp. 27-28)
Today’s Reading
Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, tempted the young overcomers by giving them another chance to worship his golden image, with the threat of throwing them into a blazing furnace of fire (Dan. 3:13-15).The three overcomers answered, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace of fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king” (v. 17). Their response to Nebuchadnezzar was impolite and very bold (vv. 16-18). Yet there was still something of the natural thought in their response. They said that God was able to deliver them from the blazing furnace. Actually, God did not need to deliver them from the furnace. He kept them in the furnace and made the fire of no effect (v. 25).
Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the countenance of his face was changed toward the young overcomers. He commanded that the furnace be made seven times hotter than usual, and that certain mighty men in his army bind the overcomers and throw them into the blazing furnace of fire (vv. 19- 21). The mighty men were slain by the flame of the fire, and the three young overcomers fell into the blazing furnace of fire bound up (vv. 22-23).
Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and said to his counselors, “Did we not throw three men into the midst of the fire bound up?…Look, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not harmed. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods” (vv. 24-25). This fourth one was Christ. Christ had come to be with His three suffering, persecuted overcomers and to make the fire a pleasant place in which to walk about.
Our natural thought is that we need to leave the fire of our circumstances. We may think that if we have a troublesome husband or a bothersome wife, we should pray and ask God to deliver us out of such a situation. But the Lord would say, “I do not like to deliver you from this situation in your married life. Instead, I will keep you there, and I will come and make your environment a pleasant place.”
When the enemy throws us into the furnace, we should realize that we do not need to ask the Lord to deliver us. He will come to be with us and take care of us in our suffering, making our place of suffering a pleasant situation…As the Lord was with those suffering overcomers in Babylon, so He will be with us in our suffering today. (Life-study of Daniel, pp. 28-30)
Further Reading: Life-study of Daniel, msgs. 3—5