Prophet Daniel’s account in Chapter 3 records a dramatic
event occurred in history some 500 years before Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar erected
a 60 feet high statue and all the people in his kingdom had to bow down before
it. The King was inspired by the awesome dream in which he was the head of the
great statue according to the Daniel’s interpretation. But Daniel’s three
friends didn’t obey the king’s order so they were charged with contempt and
condemned to death with fire. They were given a chance to change their minds
but they rejected, saying “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God
we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your
Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty,
that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
(Daniel 3:17-18)
First, it shows the nature of fallen race. It is not wrong
to be great. We are made be great and reign over everything in the universe. Urge
to be great is deeply imprinted in our humanity. Now the matter is how to be
great either in the right way or in the wrong way. The fallen race has
forgotten how to be great because of sin in Adam. So, they ever try to be great
in their own way like King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to be exalted and esteemed by
erecting the huge statue. From the moment of birth, man wants to be the center
of the world.
But the way to be great was demonstrated in the cross of
Calvary. Our Lord Jesus though He was God emptied Himself and became a servant
in the likeness of man and offered the body of His own as the Lamb of God.
Not glory but shame. Not honor but guilt. Not praise but
condemnation. Not revenge but loss. Not sympathy but mocking. Not salvation
but abandonment. Not dignity but humiliation. Not punishment but grace. Not demand but mercy. He was cut off and became
nothing. It was prophesied and foretold numerous times in the Old Testament.
“After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put
to death and will have nothing.” (Daniel 9:26a)
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of
suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he
was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and
bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds
we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5)
Second, this account tells exactly the same our Lord Jesus
says, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses
their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) This is the secret of life.
The mystery of Christ reveals that through the death of Christ Jesus the Lord salvation
comes to whoever believes in the One God sent. Through the miracles of Jesus
Christ a handful of people like the disciples believed in Him. All the miracles
proves that Christ is the Messiah according to Moses and the Prophets. But through
His death many a people come to believe in the love of God. When Peter delivered
the sermon on the Day of Pentecost 3,000 people received the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thousands of ten thousands of people have received the Lord Jesus Christ
who bore the sin of the world on the cross of Calvary.
The Daniel’s friends risked their lives on the edge of being
thrown into the fiery furnace. They were the students of Patriarchs and Moses,
so they knew and understood that God was living not dead. Although they didn’t
say that God would raise them from the dead as the New Testament says, they
believed that God would raise them.
Third, this account tells King and all peoples of the earth
that there is a God who can protect His beloved children from any danger even
the fiery furnace. In fact, our God is in control on dominions, authorities,
powers in heavens and on the earth. Nothing is out of His bound. Even if they
were thrown into the fire they were untouched and unharmed by the extraordinary
heat of fire at all by the hand of God. “They saw that the fire had not harmed
their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not
scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.” (Daniel 3:27b)
September 6, 2015
©2015 David Lee
Ministries. All rights reserved.
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