In Sunday School this past week, we were talking about Daniel and Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego.
When we got to the furnace, there were a few interesting things.
When the 3 (Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego) were thrown into the furnace. They refused to bow down and worship the king as god. The punishment was death by fire... The king was SO angry that he had the furnace heated up to 7 times hotter than usual. When the guards opened the doors to throw them in, the heat from the fire killed them on the spot...
As the king looked in the fire, he saw 4 men walking around in the fire. FOUR! He turned to those around him and said "Did we not throw THREE men in the fire?" They all said "yes oh king... 3 it was..." And he said... "But I see FOUR!"
He ordered them to be brought out. ok so the furnace was 7 TIMES hotter than usual. It was blazing! It killed the guards to just get close to is...
But the 3... came out completely unscathed. The only thing burnt off... were the ropes that bound them. They didn't even smell like smoke...
Moral of the story?
When fiery trials come, or when persecution comes, if we are walking with Christ... then the only thing that will be destroyed or lost... will be the things that bind us. Only the things holding us captive will be burned up. We ourselves... we won't even come out smelling like the smoke...
Not to say that it won't be scary... or hard... or difficult... But we will come out of the fire victorious.
When we got to the furnace, there were a few interesting things.
When the 3 (Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego) were thrown into the furnace. They refused to bow down and worship the king as god. The punishment was death by fire... The king was SO angry that he had the furnace heated up to 7 times hotter than usual. When the guards opened the doors to throw them in, the heat from the fire killed them on the spot...
As the king looked in the fire, he saw 4 men walking around in the fire. FOUR! He turned to those around him and said "Did we not throw THREE men in the fire?" They all said "yes oh king... 3 it was..." And he said... "But I see FOUR!"
He ordered them to be brought out. ok so the furnace was 7 TIMES hotter than usual. It was blazing! It killed the guards to just get close to is...
But the 3... came out completely unscathed. The only thing burnt off... were the ropes that bound them. They didn't even smell like smoke...
Moral of the story?
When fiery trials come, or when persecution comes, if we are walking with Christ... then the only thing that will be destroyed or lost... will be the things that bind us. Only the things holding us captive will be burned up. We ourselves... we won't even come out smelling like the smoke...
Not to say that it won't be scary... or hard... or difficult... But we will come out of the fire victorious.
