The first three chapters of Daniel contain some fascinating
stories, culminating with the three Hebrew children being thrown into the
fiery furnace. As I have read and pondered that great story, I was struck
by a question: How is that these three young men were able to have such a
mature, overcoming faith? They were miles from home; there were no parents
or member of the clergy watching over them. They very easily could have compromised
their faith. Yet, they proved themselves faithful to God. How is that accomplished?
The answer seems to be contained in chapters one and two. One problem with
looking at isolated passages of Scripture is that we do not understand and
appreciate the context. By only considering preaching from chapter three and
not walking with these young men through chapters one and two will leave us
feeling that these men were super-heroes and that we could never exhibit this
same confident faith that they displayed.
Therefore, if you preach from all three chapters at one time,
you owe it to yourself and your congregation to walk through chapters one
and two before you preach from chapter three.
In chapter 1 we see that the Babylonians have conquered God’s
people and, as was their custom, had taken those who had shown aptitude and
promise back to Babylon for retraining. Daniel and the three young men are
taken to Babylon and it is in chapter one that they face their first ethical
dilemma, eating food that was forbidden.
How are they to handle this situation? Their answer is one way
we see the development of faith in the lives of believers.
In chapter two, we see how they handle another crisis. The King
is going to have all the enchanters and magicians and wise men put to death
if they are not able to describe his dream and then interpret the dream. Daniel
asks his friends to pray and God reveals the dream and the answer to him.
These young men, far from home, have learned that you can trust God in and
with everything.
In chapter three, rather than being an isolated passage about
three young men with super faith, we see young people who have learned in
small and large ways that God is faithful and you can put your trust in him
and he will prove Himself faithful.
Each of the three chapters may serve as a model of how their
faith was developed and strengthened. In chapter one, they are in a new country
with different values and are confronted with an opportunity to compromise.
The opportunity to compromise presents itself to us daily. They serve as a
wonderful illustration of integrity. Someone has defined integrity as “who
you are when no one is looking.” There was no one from home watching
them. They could have said, “This is a different time and a different
culture and we must get along. Who will ever notice if we just compromise
this one time?” They learned to be faithful in little things. If you
and I can learn to trust God in the little things of life, we will be better
prepared to trust him with the bigger issues of life.
As we enter into the drama of chapter three, remember that these
young men have had several opportunities to compromise, yet they remained
faithful. We do not wait for the “big” issues of life and suddenly
develop faithfulness. Faithfulness is worked out in quiet places, in places
far from the public view. The text shows us that faithfulness muscles must
be exercised in the little things of life.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachermagazine.org and click on “Sermons”)
Periodically it is good for us to get into a different pattern
in our preaching. I have preached this passage using each of the chapters
as a point. The burden of the message is to see that we do not arrive in the
chapter three events of our lives until we have experienced the chapter one
and two times of our lives.
Chapter one has been entitled “faithful in the little things.”
It is in the little trials and temptations of life that our characters are
forged and formed. Instead of thinking how we will be faithful someday when
God gives us something large or big to oversee, we need to concern ourselves
with being faithful right now, where we are. People are so consumed with getting
a new job that they forget to be faithful in their work today. The illustrations
of this point would be numerous. The movement of the message is that one cannot
be faithful in the furnace until we have learned to be faithful in the little
things. They did not compromise when everyone and every thing seemed to say
to them, “Hey, it will not matter if you forget your convictions; it
is just a little thing.” Our character is hammered out on the anvil of
little things.
Chapter two has been entitled “faithful in the big things.”
The young men were facing a death sentence. It does not seem to get any bigger
than a threat on our lives. Yet as they pray and trust God, they find deliverance
from this trial. Not only do we face little things in our lives, we face big
issues as well. Once we have learned to trust God with the little things of
life (chapter 1), we can trust him with the big things in life as well (chapter
2).
Chapter three has been entitled “faithful in the furnace.” The confident faith displayed in this chapter is awe-inspiring. Yet it did not come in a day or in fifteen minutes. It came from having walked through the chapter one and two experiences of their lives.
