Even if God Doesn’t

Daniel 3: 17 – 18, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

What happens even when God doesn’t? I think at one time or another, we all confront our Nebuchadnezzar, that person who is so full of themselves and powerful enough to cause us great pain.

THE BACK STORY

This story takes place in the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem. The Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, along with some of the gold from the house of God.

The King then commanded that the Chief Officials should bring Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men gifted in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, to serve in the king’s palace. Among these young men were: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel, he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

Daniel proved to be wise and diplomatic as he interpreted dreams of the King that others could not. As a result, the king made Daniel ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise men. At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to manage Babylon’s province, while Daniel remained in the king’s court.

All’s good up to this point.

THEN THE WORM TURNS

Nebuchadnezzar started to think much too much of himself. He created a giant golden statue of himself that was to be worshiped by everyone in his kingdom. The penalty for not bowing down to this idol was death. The bible doesn’t say why he did this, but we have to believe that he must have had an ego out of control.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse, the stage was set. We know that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire and not only survived but came out unscathed.

Daniel 3:25, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”

This is the point in the story when it takes on a more contemporary tilt. But what about us? When things go south, what happens to us?

WHAT ABOUT ME?

There are two crucial lessons from this story. Well, there is more than that, but for this writing, there are two; “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us” and “But even if He does not.” These are important because we, as a Christian community, sometimes think God doesn’t because God can’t. There are many ways to come to this conclusion; most of them stem from us dictating to God what is best. When He doesn’t do it, we assume He either doesn’t care, can’t hear us, or can’t perform. The fourth reason I cringle at; I am not worthy. Folks put all these in the circular bin; they’re not true.

Epicurus in the fourth century BC said (and I paraphrase it): If He is good, He would. If He could, He should. That He doesn’t means He can’t or He won’t, which really means He isn’t.”

The implication here is that we can know as much as God and, therefore, can have the ability to determine His motivation. Adam Clark, British Methodist theologian, contends we are not nearly as wise as God, and God’s “purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence.” We might think – if He could, He should – but He doesn’t think that way.

There are so many stories in the bible that reinforce the idea that God has a specific plan for us, and that plan sometimes doesn’t look right to us. Moses didn’t know God’s plan for him when he ran from killing the Egyptian. Joseph’s time in prison maybe didn’t feel so good to him. David was constantly trusting God despite Saul trying to kill him. Gedeon was a little shaky about his 300 men against an army of 135,000. What about Ester and Noah? Over and over again, God proves His plan is the best.

THE POINT

The point here is that even when God doesn’t deliver us in the way we thought, it doesn’t mean He didn’t deliver us. We just got something different than we expected. Sometimes the manifestation of that blessing doesn’t materialize for years. God sometimes blesses us by not letting us know how bad things would have been had we gotten our way.

Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had faith that God was sovereign over their lives and would do what is best for them, even when they didn’t see it. We all have our Nebuchadnezzar’s and our burning furnaces. What we need to ask ourselves is; Do we trust God with our lives? Do we truly believe God has a plan for us, what is happening is part of that plan, and God will deliver on His promise?

It is not blind faith. It is faith-based on our personal experiences with God. We need to look back on the many blessing we have in our lives and know there are more to come. Many of those blessings we will only see in the rearview mirror.

Ecclesiastes 8:16-17, “then I discerned all that God has done: No one really comprehends what happens on earth. Despite all human efforts to discover it, no one can ever grasp it. Even if a wise person claimed that he understood, he would not really comprehend it.”