Getting burned is a very scary thing to me. I was severly burned in college, severly enough that the wounds took a couple of months to heal. I still have the scars and one small keloid. My heart still races thinking about it and the accident happened in 1986. Since then I have to work hard to control my emotions if I think somebody might get burned.
photo from http://www.imageafter.com
One of the things that I freak out over the quickest is when one of the kids is burned. It happened again last August. Stupid glue guns! She is ok now but a small spot of discolored skin remains.
So when I was reading through Daniel earlier this month and I came to the passage about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace, my heart raced again.
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 be known to you , O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18, ESV).
Wow. What faith!
This story is my favorite from the book of Daniel (yes, I even like it more than the story of Daniel in the lion’s den). I like it because it challenges me to face my primal fear of being burned. I do not have a primal fear of fire, in fact, I very much enjoy building and watching a fire. But the idea getting burned strikes fear in my heart. Fight or flight fear.
Look at the plight of these three young men in Daniel. They are being coerced to worship false gods and threatened with death if they refuse. Daniel even tells us that it was a “burning fiery furnace.” As if they would not have been afraid of just being thrown into a “furnace” or a “fiery furnace.” Nope, they were threatened with a “burning fiery furnace.” Then the furnace was heated up SEVEN TIMES HOTTER and the men who threw them in died from the flames!
Yet, these three brave children of Israel kept their faith. And in the face of this fiery danger their faith remained ice cold and demonstrated
- Respect for the king,
- Devotion to God, and
- Willingness to accept injustice.
They preferred to be victims of injustice rather than compromise their faith. Thank you Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Your faith amazes me.
Now, I am left to ponder the question: What do I fear more, the furnace or the Lord?
LORD, Let my faith be like that of these men! And please do not have to bring me to the door of a firey furnace to give me an ice cold faith! Amen.
Do you have any “primal fears”? How do you face them? Leave me a comment.
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A Personal Note: Thank you mom and dad for caring for me when I was burned. And Kathy, you are still an angel sent from heaven in my mind!
Solomon Greathouse 