The Old Testament lesson for the Tuesday of Ester is Daniel 3:8-28.
The Jews were in exile in Babylon. Once more God’s people were living in an alien nation and culture. Like Joseph in Egypt, some among the exiles had been given areas of responsibility. Nevertheless, the higher any Jew rose in prominence, the greater would be the challenge of living faithfully to Yahweh.
Not unexpectedly, some Babylonians became jealous. They hatched a plan. They persuaded the king to enforce his decree that at the call to worship everyone would bow and worship the golden image. The image set up on the plain of Dura was 90 feet tall and 9 feet in diameter. Hard to miss. To fail to worship would mean incineration in the raging furnace.
The call to worship was also hard to miss. A festival band of three stringed and three wind instruments called the people to a celebration of the golden image. When the three young men are caught ignored the idol, they are arrested and sentenced. Nebuchadnezzar, in a furious rage, “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”
Yahweh and his people are in an impossible situation. They have the Babylonians just where they want them. The Babylonians fall into the trap. The furnace is heated seven times hotter than normal, to match Nebuchadnezzar’s raging wrath. They throw the fully clothed and bound men into the fire. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego will be in flames before they ever reach the flames. Here is where things start to go awry for the Babylonians. The executioners are burned alive.
Then the king discovered more people in the flames then had been thrown in. “I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire…” One of the four had the appearance “like a son of the gods.”
When the men are pulled out of the furnace their clothes don’t even smell like smoke. The faithfulness of the three men leads the king to recognize that Yahweh is a God who is able to rescue people out of his own hand.
Nebuchadnezzar issues a new decree that no one should say anything against the three young men. The 90 foot golden image sitting out on the plain of Dura will be of no help to rescue them.
The God of the Jews had changed the king’s life,
“How great are his signs,
How mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And his dominion endures from generation to generation.”
We recall what the angel said to Mary in regard to the baby king to be born of her, “With God nothing is impossible.” Even cross, death and tomb cannot prevent God’s plan to rescue you and me from His wrath when we heed the call of other golden gods.
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