Daniel 3:15-18
15 Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Remember in the book of Daniel when Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s gold image and as a result, they were thrown in the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar even had the furnace burning seven times hotter, he was so angry. It was so hot that some of the king’s men were killed by the flames when they escorted Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego to the furnace. But, God protected them, and as a result, Nebuchadnezzar promoted the threesome.
Do you think you if you’d been placed in that position that you would’ve bowed down to the golden image, or would you have had faith that God would’ve protected you from the fire? How deep would your faith have been?
That’s a tough question to answer. I know we need to love and trust God, but when faced with the fiery furnace of death, versus bowing down to a false idol, we know what we should do, but do have have enough faith in God to actually do what we’re supposed to do? Do you think you would’ve bowed down to the image, begging God for forgiveness later?