3:16-18
“We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter”. We see from Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego how to respond in such a situation. First of all there is a robust response, their first responsibility was to God, and the Ten Commandments tell us to have no other gods but God and not to make any image. The word of God is clear, so there is no room for argument. Part of the church would do well to apply this to issues of sexual morality. Then they counter the king’s final statement. God is well able to save them from the fiery furnace if so wishes. God can deliver them from the furnace and from the hand of the king. Finally they return to the crux of the matter. Even if God did not save them from the furnace, they would not worship the image or serve Nebuchadnezzar’s gods. There are times when we need to be perfectly clear, with no beating about the bush.
3:19
This did not go down well! The king was furious. It seems that initially he was quite willing to compromise, but now his attitude hardened. What would we have said about the friends’ response here? Would we have said they had been too strident in their response to the king? Sometimes when we take a stand for Christ we will elicit a very hard response, that does not necessarily mean we should have been more gentle or compromising. So the furnace was tuned up seven times higher. This just means it was made as hot as it could be.
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