“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 (NIV)
The furnace was heated seven times hotter than normal. The soldiers who threw them in were killed by the heat. And three men walked out without even the smell of smoke on their clothes.
The declaration these three men made before they were thrown in is one of the most breathtaking statements of faith anywhere in scripture. They said to Nebuchadnezzar: our God is able to deliver us from the furnace, and He will deliver 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. But even if He does not. Three men standing before a furnace heated beyond survival temperature, declaring that their faithfulness to God was not conditional on a guaranteed outcome. The deliverance might come. It might not. Either way, they were not bowing.
God delivered them. But the miracle is richer than simply that they survived. The king looked into the furnace and saw four men walking around unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looked like a son of the gods. They were thrown in bound. They were walking around unbound. The fire that was supposed to destroy them had instead burned off the very ropes that were restraining them. The thing the enemy intended to use to destroy them ended up setting them free from their bondage, and then God walked with them in the middle of it.
Think about the trial that was specifically designed to destroy you. The pressure turned up deliberately beyond what should be survivable. The furnace of a false accusation that could not be disproven. The heat of a financial crisis engineered by someone who wanted to see you fail. The temperature of a health crisis that exceeded every medical expectation. The enemy’s furnaces are always heated to a specific temperature, and that temperature is always calibrated to be lethal. What the enemy cannot calculate is the fourth man.
You will come out of the fire. And you will come out without the smell of smoke on your clothes. This is the testimony of every person who has gone through a trial that was designed to end them: they came out not just surviving but unbounded, freed from the ropes the enemy had used to constrain them, having been walked through the fire by someone the enemy had not factored into the temperature calculation.
Today, name the furnace you are currently in or have recently survived. Then look for the fourth man. He was there. He is always there. And the ropes that were on you when you went in are burning off as you walk.
Prayer
Father, I believe you are able to deliver me from this furnace. And even if the deliverance looks different from what I expect, I will not bow to what you have told me not to bow to. Walk with me in the fire. Let what was meant to destroy me instead burn off the ropes that have been restraining me. Bring me out without the smell of smoke. In Jesus’ name, amen.
