In Daniel chapter 2, God gave Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king, a glimpse of the last days. Daniel was called to interpret the dream. He told Nebuchadnezzar that the head of gold on the statue in his dream represented him and his Babylonian kingdom. It seems this revelation swelled Nebuchadnezzar’s head to the point that he made a huge golden image of himself and demanded that everyone bow down and worship it. Fearing for their life, everyone quickly bowed except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Nebuchadnezzar told them that if they did not worship, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king in Daniel 3:16-18, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to answer you in this matter. 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. 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.”

I love their response. First, they said they didn’t need to pray about what to do; they already knew what to do. Secondly, they stated their faith that God was going to rescue them. But thirdly, to make sure this heathen king was fully aware of their resolve, they said, “But if God does not deliver us, we still will not serve your gods or worship this statue that represents you.”

Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bound. He had the furnace heated seven times hotter than ever before. It was so hot that it instantly killed the soldiers who threw the three Hebrew boys into the furnace. I have often wondered why Nebuchadnezzar even bothered to look in the furnace. No one could survive that. What Nebuchadnezzar said when he looked into the furnace is one of the most amazing confessions in the Old Testament. Daniel 3:24-25, “Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

I can understand his astonishment at seeing the three men no longer bound and walking around in the fiery furnace. That should not have happened. But what he said next presents us with a question. He said, “I see four men loose, walking around in the midst of the fire, and the fourth looks like the Son of God.” My question is this: how did he know what the Son of God looked like? Theologians say this was a “theophany,” meaning it was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. I believe that to be so, but still, how did a pagan king know what Jesus looked like? I’ll leave that for the scholars to debate, but he was right; Jesus showed up.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego present us with a resolute faith and an act of courage that most of us in the United States have not had to express. However, at some point, perhaps sooner than we think, our faith will be put to the test. Is our faith in God strong enough to stand the fiery trials of life? It’s easy to live for God when things are going well, but what if we face an “if God does not moment?” Hebrews 11 reminds us that the story doesn’t always end the way we want it to, at least from an earthly perspective. But it has a glorious climax from God’s perspective. “Hold on, my child; joy comes in the morning.”