November 28 Advent Devotional
Sunday, Nov. 28
Daniel 3
“Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25)
The story of Daniel begins with great upheaval. The Babylonians had defeated the Jewish people, ransacked their holy city, temple and taken many of them away from their holy land to live in exile in Babylon. Daniel 1 introduces four young men to us who were taken because of their aptitude and promise. Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, but in exile even their names were exchanged for Babylonian ones: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Can you imagine what it might be like to have everything you knew and held dear taken from you? Perhaps now more than ever.
March 2020 marked the beginning of a great upheaval. We weren’t conquered by enemy combatants or removed from our homes, but we were forced, for safety’s sake, into a kind of exile. We can now resonate with what it’s like to have our holy rituals and everyday habits disrupted and deconstructed. We can now resonate with what it’s like to be separated from loved ones without much possibility for reunion for an extended period of time. We can now empathize with loss in almost every area of life like never before. Perhaps the story of Daniel might have a fresh word for us in these, dare I say, unprecedented times.
Like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego chose to remain committed to God and God’s ways despite obstacles or opposition. This was a choice with terrifying consequences. King Nebuchadnezzar built a golden image and commanded everyone in his kingdom, when prompted, to bow down and worship it. This was a direct affront to the divine command to “have no other Gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2) It was idolatry. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego decided to remain faithful to God no matter the consequences and were subsequently sentenced by the King to be burned alive in a fiery furnace. Do you remember what happened next?
Furious with rage, the King heated the furnace to 7 times its normal temperature. It was so hot that the soldiers who thre their Jewish prisoners into the flames, did not survive. But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did. “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire,” the King asked?” Yes. “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!”
Who was that son of the gods who showed up to deliver them from the flames? King Nebuchadnezzar assumed this rescue happened by the hand of the Most High God, who decided to offer these faithful servants hope in person.
This act was not out of character for our God. In fact, the hope filled irony of these current circumstances that have so often required us to be tentative about our in-person activities is that the God of all creation has never been tentative about showing up in person for us, whether we recognize it or not. This is both Gospel truth and the promise of Christmas. May we look for it and revel in it in the days ahead.
With Christmas Hope,
Jason Edwards, Senior Pastor