Wednesday 25 January 2012

The impact of doing right




Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the province of Babylon. – Daniel 3v28-30

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survived the fiery trial. Someone, either an angel or possibly Jesus Himself, appeared in the fiery furnace to deliver them. Somehow, they had come through a seemingly impossible trial and stood before the king again.

God could have been glorified and His cause advanced no matter what happened. We know that. Many have turned to Christ as a result of the faithfulness of God’s people even as they perished for Him.

But in this case God chose to deliver them. The king saw that there God had delivered them when they trusted Him. They would not obey the king and put themselves at risk rather than serve God. Therefore, the king passed a law saying that no one could criticise God and he promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

As I mentioned above sometimes God chooses to use the death of His saints to draw men to Him. Sometimes, like here, God lifts them up to positions of prominence.

Either way God honours doing right. Either way, if the men had given in and bowed down God’s cause would have been damaged.

Let’s just do right and trust God enough to leave the results up to Him. 

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