Don’t Bow to Satan; Let God Deliver You From Your Fiery Furnace

Obeying God often requires pushing through great challenges to agree with Him in spite of man’s opinions to the contrary.

Let’s look at some powerful biblical examples of people who didn’t let other people’s opinions stop them from obeying God. We’ll begin with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The Three Who Refused To Bow

Daniel 3:15 spells out the intensity of the pressure these three men were facing when they were called into the presence of the king to hear these words:

 “Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” Daniel 3:15

 This was King Nebuchadnezzar speaking, who at that time was the most powerful man in the world. And this king had an opinion: “If you refuse to bow before my image, we’re going to throw you into the fiery furnace, and no god is strong enough to deliver you from what I decree!”

Talk about pressure — those three men knew what that was! They were captives in Babylon at this time when the king ordered a huge golden statue of himself to be made. And now they were being informed of the royal decree he had sent out: that at a certain sound of the instruments, everyone had to bow before this idol that loomed over the city or die a fiery death.

 I love how these three Hebrew men answered the king as they stood before him and heard both his decree and his opinion about their God. They were not intimidated in the slightest!

 “…O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were so convicted by what God thought about them that when they heard all this racket about either worshiping Nebuchadnezzar’s image or forfeiting their lives, they said in effect, “Are you kidding? We have no need to answer you in this matter. We’re not threatened by you. The God we serve will answer by delivering us from your hand, O king!”

This is a word in season. We have to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and not be afraid to stick out from the crowd! We don’t want to lose our reward for obeying Jesus — but beyond that, someone needs to stand up for the truth in this day when righteousness is under such attack! If we don’t, who will? And how will they know if there’s not a preacher (see Romans 10:14)?

 I can’t even imagine what the scene looked like on the day of the decree. Just think of the power in the opinions of all those present! As the royal musicians played their instruments, all those thousands of people, all with their own opinions, proceeded to bow in unison before the image — all, that is, except Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Of that entire vast crowd, only three would not do what the others were doing. Only three refused to bow.

 The king and all the people present that day had their own opinions. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had an opinion as well! Their opinion was that God was bigger than Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world. God was bigger than that huge statue, bigger than the symphony of instruments that would supposedly signal their demise, and bigger than the huge host of people who were bowing in submission before an idol. God was even bigger than the fiery furnace!

What those three Hebrew men saw was that God was bigger than anything around them. The same can be true for you and me today, for greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world (see 1 John 4:4)!

The Point of Turning

 Here is the truth I want to get across to you as we think about those three men’s courageous choice to obey God that day. There will come a point in our lives when we must turn from the opinions of others, or maybe even our own opinion of ourselves, and turn to God’s opinion.

You can see this turning in the response of the three Hebrew men to the king that day when he informed them of the decree. They told him in no uncertain terms, knowing full well the possible consequences, “…Let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (v. 18).

Those three Hebrew men were telling Nebuchadnezzar who they were. They said, “If we were moved by other people’s opinions, we would become whatever you tell us to be. You would be allowed to dictate to us who we are. But we do not serve your gods — we serve the living God!”

There must be a turning from the opinions of others to God’s opinion if we are ever going to do what He has asked us to do and remain unstoppable. The opinions of others, of the devil, or of our own flesh might be screaming in our minds. But we have to turn from all that and embrace God’s perspective and our own heart convictions — what we know to be true.

It’s not God’s will for another person to tell us who we are. He wants us to find out who we are from the Word of God and from the Holy Spirit and our fellowship with Him. When we know who we are in Him — when we are moved by His opinion of us — we have the power to become unstoppable in our pursuit to do what He tells us to do.

You can see this played out in the lives of these three amazing children of God — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They all responded the same way: “We’re not going to bow! If God doesn’t deliver us, we will burn in your fiery furnace. But we’re not serving your gods.” In essence they were saying, “We are staying with our conviction and not with your opinion, O king!”

 In that moment, there was a turning from the opinions of others to the opinion of God. And as a result, how glorious was the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! They didn’t listen to the opinion of the king; they didn’t listen to the opinion of the thousands who were bowing before the king’s statue. They listened to their own heart conviction and entrusted their lives to God.

Oh, that God would mightily work inside each of us until we have reached the same place of conviction that held those three Hebrew men steady and strong on that day! If someone is so opposed to our stance in God that they want to throw us in a furnace, let us be willing to say, “I don’t care what anyone says — I’m not going to turn from my God. I’m going to stay with Him. God is well able to deliver me. But if my choice means that I’m going to lose my life, then I will lose my life before I will ever deny Him.”

We have an entire Book filled with accounts of people who made that choice and were willing to lay down their lives if necessary to obey God. Esther became one of those when she said, “If I perish, I perish” (see Esther 4:16). Esther was a young woman who had lost everything in captivity, including her identity and her family. But she was willing to do what had to be done, even if it meant losing her life. And as a result, God raised her up to save the entire Jewish nation — a phenomenal accomplishment that the Jewish people still celebrate during Purim each year.

 I’m sure Esther didn’t grow up thinking she was going to be a deliverer of her people. But at the point of her surrender to God to do what He was asking her to do, no matter the cost, a mighty harvest came — the salvation of her people.

Influencers for Truth

 Each of us is so very key in our own realm of influence, and we’re to impact the culture around us instead of allowing the culture to have a negative effect on us. We’re not to yield to the pressure of acting like the world does. It’s our responsibility to use our influence so others can see the truth. That is part of our supply.

Think of these three Hebrew men’s influence on King Nebuchadnezzar. This king had a radical turnaround in his thinking after he watched the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego deliver them from the fiery furnace! At that point, Nebuchadnezzar declared the greatness of their God and made another royal decree that anyone who “…speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut into pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap….” Then the king famously declared, “…Because there is no other God who can deliver like this” (Daniel 3:29). Now, that’s radical!

King Nebuchadnezzar had made a 180-degree turn in his opinion about who should be worshiped. How did that happen? Because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego wouldn’t bow. And who was this man that these three Hebrews had exerted such influence over? Only the most powerful man in the world at that time!

 So don’t ever say, “I don’t have any power or influence.” You don’t know how much you are impacting lives for Jesus when you speak to someone about Him or when you hold to His truth in a challenging situation. You truly don’t know how powerfully God is going to use you when in your own mind, you tell yourself, I refuse the opinions that these other people have about me. I know the truth, Lord. I’ve been with You, and I know Your voice. I know what You have said about me, so that’s what I believe.

 You don’t have to know the full outcome of your obedience to God. You are responsible only to do what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did: believe in God and stand by His truth, no matter the cost.