No one could argue that the gold idol was impressive. It was taller than most houses and wider than most rooms inside a house.
King Nebuchadnezzar had ordered it to be made and had commanded that when all the people in the kingdom heard the music of the instruments, like the harp, trumpet and drums, that they must all bow down and worship the idol. Anyone who did not bow down and worship would be thrown into a furnace and be burned up! Almost everyone obeyed the king.
"Almost everyone?" the king bellowed! "Who would be so foolish as to not follow my order?"
"There are certain Jews whom you have put over some areas of the kingdom who refuse to obey your order, oh great king," he was told. "Their names are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They refuse to worship the idol you have set up or to serve your gods."
This made the king furious. Who would dare to ignore a royal command? "Have them brought immediately!" he ordered.
As they stood before him he questioned, "Is it true that you disobeyed my order to bow and worship the great idol I have made? I will give you one more chance. If you will bow when you hear the music, that is good. But if not, you will be thrown into a fiery furnace, where you will die. Is the god you worship able to save you from that?"
"Oh king," they answered, "Our God is able to deliver us from the furnace and from you. But even if He chooses not to, we will still not bow to the idol you have made. We will worship only the one true God."
This made the king even more angry that he already was. "Heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual," he ordered. "We'll just see how powerful this god is!"
Black smoke and sparks rolled out of the furnace as the men and the guards approached it. The three were tied up, still in their clothes and even had their hats on their heads. The fire was so hot that it killed the soldiers who forced the three men on their way.
The king, who was watching from a safe distance, suddenly jumped to his feet. What was that he saw through the fire and smoke? One - two - three - four men in the fire! "Didn't we throw three men into the fire?" he asked. "But I see four men, not tied up and walking around in the fire, and the fourth man looks like the Son of God."
"Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, you servants of the most high God," he called, "come out here."
As the three came out, all those standing there were surprised to see that nothing they had on was burned except the ropes that had tied them up. Their hair and clothes didn't even smell like the smoke in the furnace.
When the king saw all this, he blessed the God of the three men. "From now on," he said, "anyone who speaks against the God of these three men will be killed, and anything that belongs to that person will be completely destroyed."
He also promoted the three men to places of greater power in his kingdom.
God always honors those who obey him. If you obey God, He will honor you, too.
Copyright
Ó 1995 Larry Platt - Used by permission.
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Page updated 05/19/01.