Daniel 3:1-30
In this journey of life, most of us will deal with some kind of hard times that will test our faith. I was five years old when we entered World War II. Our lives quickly changed. We had to use ration stamps for many things: gas, sugar, shoes, and no new cars or trucks. Tires were on the ration list. Anything that was considered a luxury, such as nylon hose for women, was not to be found much on the open market. Women went to work in large numbers outside the home to help with the war effort. Most families had connections to war by having family members in the military. The family lived with the fear that Western Union would deliver a telegram saying that their loved one was dead or missing in action.
The Christian Church was filled with people at worship and for prayer. You see, the real source of freedom is the Christian faith. The hard times that came out of World War II were for us as a nation to defend our faith and freedom. We were at war with a kind of socialism that had taken the lives of millions of Jews and Christians. As Christians with faith in Jesus Christ, we had the courage and strength to get through those hard years.
Hard times will produce fear in our lives. You must deal with fear or it will crush your life. In the latter half of the 1940s here in the south we began to face a change in our way of life. King cotton was under attack by the boll weevil as it marched north from Alabama. The boll weevil would destroy the cash crop of the farm families. At this same time, the government cut the small farmer’s cotton acreage allotments and sent them to the western states. The farm families lived with the fear that they would have to sell their land and move somewhere else to live and work. It was the country churches that had the message of the Biblical faith that gave families the courage to face those hard times. It was the source for the people to find the strength to make the changes that they had to make.
In the late 1950s, another thing happened that brought hard times to millions of lives in America. The textile world was starting to change. By the 1990s this had produced the death of most of the textile mills. The “mill village” had once produced a close-knit group of people. The people that lived in the early mill villages lived in company-owned housing and shopped at the company-owned store. Most of the families would work in the mill, and so it was a part of several generations’ lives. In these mill villages, you would find one or more churches where these people would worship on Sunday. But from the late 1950s to the early 1990s this world would change and the mill villages died. Most of the mill village housing and mills have been torn down or they are just shadows of their earlier selves. Many of the churches are still standing but some are empty or closed along with the mill villages, but at one time, those churches were the place that gave strength to these people — strength to start a new life in a world filled with hard times.
In our human history, it has been faith in the living God that has gotten us through hard times. Some years ago, I visited the old Roman Coliseum. As I stood in the arena of the old Coliseum, I could see the pens that had held the lions that the emperor turned loose on the Christians. It was a type of sporting event for the emperor and his people. It was the courage and faith of these Christians that went through those hard times that would help make the Christian faith the faith of the empire by the 300s.
Faith in the God that gave life and created this great universe will get you through the hard times. In today’s scripture, we meet Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego. Their faith shows the power of God that made each of us for himself.
“King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the Province of Babylon. The king called his leaders together for the dedication of the statue he had set up with this message, Then a herald shouted out ‘People of all races and nations and languages listen to the king’s command! When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue. Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.
Then some of the king’s people informed him that ‘some Jews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon: they pay no attention to you, your majesty. They refuse to serve your gods and do not worship the gold statue you have set up.’
In anger, Nebuchadnezzar calls for Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego to be brought before him. He tells them if you do not bow down and worship the statue, I have made I will have you thrown into a blazing furnace. This is what they told the king about his demand, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from our power, your majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your god’s or worship the gold statue you have set up.’
Then the king ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. When King Nebuchadnezzar saw them, he jumped up and exclaimed in amazement to his advisers, ‘Didn’t’ we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?”
‘Yes, your majesty, we certainly did.’, they replied. ‘Look’, Nebuchadnezzar shouted, ‘I see four men unbound walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god.’.
The king came to the door of the furnace and shouted, ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the most high God come out! Come here!’ They came out unharmed by the flames. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted him. They defied the king’s command and were willing to die rather serve or worship and god except their own God.’”
God became the fourth man for each of us when Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.
In these hard times we have from the virus and the lawless and godless people in America, our faith is being tested. Faith that is anchored in the God we meet in the Holy Word will get us through the hard times. That faith will get me through hard times. That faith will get you through your hard times.
