Your time to wear the crown

These three Hebrew men were severely punished by king Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to worship the golden image that he had set up. They were not prepared to compromise their devotion to their own God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I can only imagine what went through their minds at that precise point in time, when they realized that they really were being thrown into the fire, that God had not delivered them before this moment. Remember that the miraculous deliverance of Daniel from the lions in the den still lay in the future, they could not have taken heart from remembering this.

They did not know that God was going to use the greatest crisis of their lives in a spectacular display of His glory and majesty, making them famous examples of faith in adversity throughout all of history!

And they so easily could not have been part of this if they had compromised. They could have found quite a few excuses for giving in to this powerful pagan king whom they served, excuses that all of us would be very tempted to use in similar circumstances. Excuses like:

God will understand if I do this just once… We don’t have to renounce our God, we bow down only to show respect for the king… In Rome, do as the Romans do… This is only once, only for ten minutes… Everybody else is doing it… We would lose our jobs and standard of living if we don’t give in... We can do more good by staying alive…

We know from history that their brave resistance led to their dramatic protection in the fire itself, where even their clothes did not smell of smoke when they came out. It led to King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging that there is no other God like the God of the Hebrews, and it led to the king promoting the three friends in Babylon to higher positions.

They did not know the wonderful results of their choices beforehand. They only knew that they would steadfastly deny the worship of all foreign gods, no matter what the consequences. And herein lies an important truth – we are not always assured that God will rescue us from the planned evil that people, who hate God, bring on us when we stay true to Him, as martyrs throughout history will testify to. But we can always know that He will use our martyrdom for His glorious purposes on earth, and that we will be richly rewarded in Heaven, among others receiving a crown of glory!

Points to ponder:  Think about the following words of Spurgeon: “It is ours to do the right and leave results with the Lord.” Am I prepared to lose everything, rather than do the unrighteous thing? Am I prepared to face rejection from all around me, rather than accept or pay that bribe? Am I prepared to be ridiculed in public because I boldly stand for Jesus? Am I prepared to face even death, rather than deny my God?