Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article Warm wind fanning the fire Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Daniel 3:16-20 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." King Nebuchadnezzar's face became livid with utter rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual and had some of the strongest men in his army bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the blazing furnace. Even if he does not. EVEN IF HE DOES NOT. Those white-hot words gather wings and stretch themselves out over millennia of man destroying man. More than a hundred million men and women and children killed in the twentieth century alone. So what do God's children say? Because often often often it seems that God ... does NOT. These three Jewish boys told their captor they would bow down only to God, and not to him. They upheld their end of the covenant made with God. They expected Him to hold up his. But they knew what I know and you know. Everybody dies. Sometimes we die right now, and it's not fair. Sometimes we are even killed, and that's really not fair. Sometimes little children even die, and that's the most not-fair of all. How do I hold my tongue and not complain to the Master of the universe? Maybe I don't have to; the psalms are full of these complaints. If I'm afraid to mount my own protest, I can read a psalm. But most of the psalms end with an affirmation of another true thing: God is God, and I am not. He made the universe, and He's in charge of what He made. So what is there for me at the end of my complaint but to acknowledge that? Could I do a better job with the selfish population of this world? Of course not. Self-protective people destroy whatever threatens them. People beget families, families beget communities, communities beget nations. Exponential self-protection, so much injustice, so much death. I can't change that. The three men in chains claimed the miracle of God's presence among them on the earth. That was enough. Whether their physical skins were saved wasn't the point. God was with them; he made them and would take them home. He would never leave them. They could relax in his arms. You wrap me up in your love, Lord, and I am whole again. You touch my skin and my mind and my heart, and all of me is warm. "; Add      Edit    Delete