Acquiring Strength Of Faith: Being like the three Hebrew Boys

In today’s discourse, we are going to examine the Strength Of Faith. What is faith? Faith is that overwhelming belief in someone or something that moves the believer to take action, believing that the action is worth the consequences or that someone or thing is able to cause us to avoid such consequences.

Each time we read the awesome, powerful, and courageous story about the three Hebrews boys that is recorded in Daniel 3: we are torpedoed through a series of emotions. All of which contributed to a personal longing to represent Jehovah in such an awesome manner and have Jehovah step up to the plate for us as he did for these three young men.

Will you still want to be an ambassador for Jehovah and Jesus Christ if you are going to suffer the pain or the consequences of your love for Jehovah, in the same or similar manner Peter did?

Let us take a little condense peep into the story:

Daniel told of a Mighty, but heathen King who was appointed by Jehovah to rule over the entire world; Unfortunately Jehovah’s chosen people had strayed so far from him that they forfeited the rights to be in charged of their own affairs. So the Mighty Heathen King Neb-u-chad-nez-zah was appointed into this awesome position with such a tremendous responsibility. Although Neb-u-chad-nez-zar was a heathen he had a heart that was open to the things that was good and true. However the teaching he was exposed to as a child: the teaching of his culture, the teachings of his parent and his religion, made it difficult for him to totally surrender to the will and expectations of Jehovah.

Like most of us today, King Neb-u- chad-nez-zar was overly occupied with his immortality. He wanted to live forever; and like most of us who understand that it is physically impossible to possess life forever, we gravitate to the next best thing. If we cannot live forever, we will settle for the ability and the privilege to be remembered forever.

Earlier in this story Jehovah gave Daniel the interpretation of a mysterious dream King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar had, which out lined the transition of the world's power from King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar’s reign to the end of the world. Jehovah revealed to Daniel, who in turn revealed to King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar, that there will never be a kingdom that is as awesome as his kingdom. This futuristic information left King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar with a sense of pride that turned him silly. Their will never be another king as mighty and as powerful as I.

It was a privilege to have such a declaration to be made by and to any person; but to have such esteem declaration about oneself, from the lips of the most holy God Jehovah, was overwhelming. The devil saw an opportunity to cause Neb-u-chad-nez-zar’s to become engulfed with pride.

As a result the King got a bright idea, I am going to build a statue of myself, this statue must be made of and from the finest gold, it must be greater than any thing that exist. My Statue must represent me and my majesty. Once the majestic statue was built, then came the time for the big and grandiose unveiling of the statue. How can I make this ceremony spectacular and memorable? Then there came the spectacular idea: why not gather every official member of my kingdom to the awesome ceremony, we will have the best music, the best food and of course the best entertainment. The statue will be unvailed and presented with its elegant and majestic beauty, this will happen while the national anthem of Babylon is being played then everyone will bow down and worship the statue; Oooh such a brilliant idea the King said to himself.

To King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar this seems like a wonderful idea but the servant of the most highest God: Jehovah; saw the violation of Jehovah Ten Commandments. Although the three Hebrew boys knew immediately what must be done, it was not an easy decision. Here is a mighty king and a good man, who have given us some wonderful privileges, no other Hebrew was given the privileges that this good king give to us. Although the king has extended great favor to the three Hebrew boys, their privileges were all favor from Jehovah and not of King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar.

Then the appointed time for the unveiling of the golden statue had arrived, the order of the ceremony was known by all, which was: during the playing of the national anthem of Babylon everyone present will fall to their knees, bow to and worship the golden status of the King.

The request or the command of King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar was in direct disregard for the command or laws of Jehovah.

Exodus 20: 3; thou shall not have no other gods before (but) me.

Exodus 20: 4; thou shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

Exodus 20: 5; thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I am the lord thy God I am a jealous God.

Sha-drach, Me’shack, and A-bed-ne-go knew who Jehovah is, they knew what he can do but most of all they knew the rewards of their faithfulness. After a brief personal introspection, each of the boys knew for himself what he was going to do and although they were very concerned about each other what matted most was what they were going to do as individuals.

At the signal of the king, the musicians break into an awe-inspiring rendition of the national anthem of Babylon, everyone on the plane of Dura fell on their face and worship the majestic image of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar. The king was happy, the historians have penned the record, the king’s seal has validated the authenticity of the records and history will forever show that all had bowed down and worshipped the statue; the unveiling was a success.

Then King neb-u-chad-nez-zar saw a contingent of his faithful servants approaching him, the King was ready to accept their praise; however instead of congratulatory remarks they bore remarks of defiant. The king was informed that the three Hebrew boys had failed to comply with his command to bow down to and worship his Statue.

The pride observed king could not believe what he was hearing. Sha-drach, Me’shack, and A-bed-ne-go were ushered into the presence of King Neb-u-chad-nez-zar at his command. The accusation was made known to the three boys, then the king awaits their reply. But before they reply the king speak; he said, You refused to worshiped my gods; the gods of my fathers and my people, I permitted that, now you refused to worship me and my Golden image.

By this time Sha-drach, Me’shack, and A-bed-ne-go, were totally disgusted at and with this whole affair and so in their replied they refused to give the king the respect that is normally awarded to him and others in his position. It is customary for the subject to use the title of their superiors when addressing such person especially in an official forum; however the three Hebrew boys did not give the king such an honor. They said “O Neb-u-chad-nez-zar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter”. If you noticed that the boys have drop the title of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar, after all he was king. What the boys were saying here was: King you know that we are faithful and loyal subject, you know that our allegiance is to Jehovah, you also know what Jehovah expects of us, as a result we are not going to provide you with an excuse neither are we going to justify our actions to you. "If it be so, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us our of thine hands O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king that we will not serve thy gods or worship the image which thou have set up."

The reply of Jehovah’s faithful servants cause a fit of anger to engulfed the king who ordered the boys be bound hand and feet and be cast into the furnace immediately. The furnace was heated seven times hotter than it was previously; it was so hot that the heat that was emanating from it, immediately killed the men who throw the Hebrew boys into the furnace. Yet not even the smell of smoke was detected on Sha-drach, Me’shack, or A-bed-ne-go. Jehovah protected and saved their life as a reward for their faithfulness, but more so, it was for a bold display of his awesome power and to once again remind Neb-u-chad-nez-zar who Jehovah is.

Many of us will like to represent Jehovah on such grandiose stage, but such an important assignment took years of preparation, the young men had to purposely followed Jehovah’s leading in all matters; even the small tasks and even when no one is watching.

If we have the desire of becoming such an ambassador for Jehovah and Jesus; we have to go into intense training now, we have to be obedient to Jehovah words and allow the Holy Spirit to train us as required. It is only then, that we will walk into the fires that separates us from Jehovah; not caring if we live or die. This is the strength of faith we all must aspire too.