It looked like it was all up for Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Their positions of authority in the province of
Babylon couldn’t protect them from King Nebuchadnezzar’s anger. As
the book of Proverbs says,
A king’s wrath
is like the roaring of a lion; he who angers him forfeits his
life.
And Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego had angered Nebuchadnezzar by disobeying his
command that everyone in the kingdom must bow down and worship his
image. They knew the penalty of their disobedience would be to be
cast into a burning fiery furnace. But like the
apostles after them, these three faithful Jews believed that they
must obey God rather than men. There was a higher
Commandment than the order Nebuchadnezzar had given. You
shall have no other gods before Me, the Lord God had said
at Sinai. God’s Commandment took precedence over Nebuchadnezzar’s
decree. After all, Nebuchadnezzar was pretty small potatoes
compared to the Holy One of Israel.
Let’s peer
behind the scenes. What incited King Nebuchadnezzar to have this
golden image of himself built and set up in the first place. You
could say it was his towering ego, his inflated sense of
self-importance, or that power had gone to his head. After all,
power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Nebuchadnezzar’s reasoning may have proceeded along these lines –
He was the king, the ruler of the kingdom, and if he had an idea
it was bound to be a good idea, because after all: he was the
king.
But it wasn’t
the king’s ego that was ultimately responsible for the persecution
of these faithful servants of God. Neither were the Chaldeans who
alerted the king that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had
disobeyed his decree ultimately responsible. Who then was
responsible? Who then was it that had it out for these three
Hebrews?
It was the one
the book of Revelation describes as the accuser of our
brothers; the great dragon. . . that ancient serpent, who is
called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.
St. Peter calls the devil a roaring lion who prowls
around looking for someone to devour. The devil deceived
Eve in the Garden of Eden. The devil brought loss and tribulation
upon Job. The devil tempted our Lord Jesus Christ in the
wilderness. The devil tries to snatch away the seed of God’s Word
from those who hear it so that they won’t believe and be saved.
The devil
instigated our Lord’s enemies to seek His destruction. The devil
incited Judas to betray Jesus. The devil turned Peter into a
coward so that he denied Jesus three times. The devil is a
liar and a murderer from the beginning who
holds the power of death over our heads. Wherever there
is faith in the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the
devil wants to stomp it out. Wherever believers in Christ are
seeking to live faithfully to God’s revealed Word and will, the
devil rises up against them. Wherever there is false teaching,
indifference and resistance to Christ’s Word and Gospel, there the
devil is having a field day. As Luther’s hymn says,
The old evil foe/now means us deadly woe/deep guile
and great might/are his dread arms in fight/on earth is not his
equal.
St. Paul says
in his epistle to the Ephesians that our struggle as Christians is
not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
authorities, and cosmic powers over this present darkness.
We wrestle against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places. The devil and his legions are out to
destroy our faith in Christ. They are out to destroy us, because
if they can eat up our faith we are dead meat. No strength of
ours can match the devil’s might, Luther said. We would be
lost, rejected if we tried to contend against him in our
power. Our defeat would be certain; our doom would be sealed.
That’s the way
it seemed for Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. Who could deliver
them out of the king’s hands? Who could deliver them from being
burned to ashes in the king’s fiery furnace?
And who could
deliver them from the even worse fate of denying the God who made
heaven and earth, and established His covenant with them as His
people? Their lives were literally on the line. And yet God
helped them, He supported them, He gave them courage to confess
His Name, and He was with them even when they were cast into the
roaring flames of a furnace heated seven times hotter than it was
usually heated.
They were not
alone in there. The men who bound them and threw them into the
furnace were instantly killed by the blast of heat coming from the
furnace mouth. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren’t burned
up. Their hair wasn’t singed, their clothing wasn’t scorched, and
no smell of fire was upon them. Because Someone was with them to
protect them.
Someone was
with them. King Nebuchadnezzar peered into the furnace after
they’d been thrown in, and he got the surprise of his life. He
saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking around, unbound and
unharmed in the midst of the fire, and he saw a fourth figure as
well with them. And the appearance of this fourth was like the
Son of God.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ, God’s own dear Son, is Immanuel, God with us. He’s not
God at a distance. He’s not God who turns His back on His people
in their time of need. He’s God drawn near. God beside us. God
shoulder-to-shoulder with us. God as our fortress, our strong
defense, our very present help in time of need. God as our
Advocate, our Redeemer, our Substitute and Propitiation. God in
our place – that’s who Jesus is. God who descends into the pit
with us to set us free. God who leaps into the furnace after us
to protect us from the flames. God who allows himself to be
wounded by the serpent so He can deliver us from sin, death and
the power of the devil. God who goes down into the grave that He
might liberate those who through fear of death were held in
bondage to the devil. God who comes out of the grave with triumph
and a shout so we can have newness of life through our Baptism
into Christ’s death and resurrection. God who descends into hell
to destroy the power and threat of hell for all believers in
Christ.
See yourself,
Christian, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. See yourself as
one who has no strength at all when it comes to resisting sin,
death and the devil. You are a helpless sheep before the ravenous
jaws of the wolf. You are devil’s food. And you would most
certainly be lost and rejected if a Champion had not come to fight
for you.
That Champion
is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain for sin, and is
risen again and ascended to the throne of God as Victor over sin,
death and hell. He defeated the devil for you. Satan’s
accusations against you are blunted and nullified because Jesus
has turned those accusations aside by His blood and
righteousness. God declares you righteous and innocent because of
Jesus’ death and resurrection. All your sins are forgiven in
Jesus. The devil has no claim upon you, because Jesus ripped the
title out of his hand when He died on the Cross and was raised
again.
Christ
victorious! Christ triumphant! Christ arisen! That’s what the
holy Christian Church celebrates at Easter. His victory and
triumph are our victory and triumph too, for we are united to our
Redeemer and Lord through holy Baptism. In Baptism we were signed
with His Cross and sealed with His saving Name. We went down into
death with Him at the font and were raised up with Him to eternal
newness of life. He bound us to Himself and promised that He is
with us always, even to the end of the age. And we have God’s
sure Word upon it – that nothing, absolutely
nothing can separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Think about
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace – how their
clothing wasn’t singed, harmed or tainted with smoke. In Baptism
we have likewise been clothed in the indestructible garment of our
Savior’s righteousness. The righteousness of Christ, imputed to
us by grace in our Baptism, turns aside all the accusations of
Satan. The righteousness of Christ turns aside the wrath of God.
The righteousness of Christ is the spotless garment in which we
were clothed at the font, the garment that admits us to the
wedding banquet of the Lamb.
What benefits does Baptism give?
the Fourth Chief Part of the Catechism asks. The
answer is something all Lutherans should be familiar with:
[Baptism] works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the
devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the
words and promises of God declare. The Triune God is active
and present in our Baptism. The Word and Water of Baptism is the
saving hand by which He snatches us out of the guilt of our sin,
out of the jaws of devil, and out of the sinister clutches of the
devil. Baptism now saves us by uniting us to Jesus’ death and
resurrection. The water and Word of your Baptism has drowned the
flames of the furnace of hell. You are forgiven. You are raised
to newness of life in Christ, and your body will also be raised on
the Last Day. Death has no more claim on you. The devil has no
more claim on you. Christ your Savior is with you eternally.
In life, in death, in sickness, in health, in joy,
in affliction, He is with you. Nothing can ultimately harm you
because God works in all circumstances for your good in Christ
Jesus. If God is for you, who can be against you? If He gave His
Son to die and be raised again for you, what can ultimately harm
you? If Christ is with you to shelter you with His love and
grace, even the furnace of affliction is a place of blessing.
You who are baptized into Christ are Shadrach. You
are Meshach. You are Abednego. And Christ your Savior is with
you no matter what. He’s with you to protect and keep you
eternally.
In Nomine Patris. . .
