WITH US, WITH THEM

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” —Daniel 3:28

When we live our faith in public, it creates opportunities for those with whom we work or associate to see God at work. As did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we can trust that God is with us in even our most difficult circumstances.

“He who walked with the Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace will be with His followers wherever they are. His abiding presence will comfort and sustain.”* And when we live our lives with others, “God with us” also draws near to them through us.

This was Nebuchadnezzar’s experience at the fiery furnace.

We note two elements in his testimony about what he had witnessed, two reasons he gave for praising the God these young Hebrews served.

First, Nebuchadnezzar recognized the presence of a fourth figure in the flames—one who “looks like a son of the gods” (Daniel 3:25). He did not fully understand who this figure might be, but he knew he had seen something remarkable.

Second, it seems that Nebuchadnezzar found the trust and courage demonstrated by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego almost equally noteworthy.

He was not used to people defying his orders, and that they were unafraid to risk their lives to do so caught his attention, aroused his admiration, and prompted him to take their God seriously. The three were seemingly doomed to suffer the wrath of the pagan king of one of the world’s great empires; instead, God’s miraculous intervention partnered with their courageous faithfulness to challenge Nebuchadnezzar’s faith and invited his own trust in their God.

* Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press®, 1917), 513.