Read
“If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
Reflect
It’s hard enough to do the right thing under “normal” conditions. But what about when everything seems stacked against you?
Bob, Sam and Mike were friends who had fallen on hard times during the Great Depression. They ended up living far from home and working for an unreasonable boss. They had all been raised to know and love God, and they did everything they could to remain faithful to Him. But their boss didn’t make it easy. At one point, he demanded that they give up their worship of God in order to keep their jobs. They rejected the demand, and the boss had them fired.
Literally.
This is an oversimplification of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They had been taken far from home during the Babylonian exile. Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, but when they were chosen to serve in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court, they were given the Babylonian names by which most of us know them.
Babylon could change their location, their responsibilities and even their names. But it could not change their God.
At one point, Nebuchadnezzar erected a giant golden image and demanded that everyone worship it whenever certain music sounded. As devout, God-fearing young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused.
Incensed, Nebuchadnezzar sent for the young men and gave them another chance. Worship the image, he demanded, or be thrown into a white-hot furnace.
Again, they refused, and they were “fired.”
We know that they did not die in the furnace, which was so hot that even the soldiers who escorted them were killed by the flames. We also know that they were not alone. Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth figure walking with them in the fire, one he described as looking like “a son of the gods.” Some understand this figure as an angel sent by God. Many Christians, including me, believe it was Jesus with them in the furnace.
But what has always impressed me most about these three would-be martyrs is what they said before they were thrown into the flames:
“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not … we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
They were certain of God’s power, but they did not presume upon His plan. They knew that God could rescue them, but they did not claim to know that He would preserve their earthly lives. Their faith was not dependent upon receiving the outcome they wanted.
Today, we sometimes summarize their declaration this way: “Our God can save us. We believe He will save us. But even if He does not, He is still our God.”
All of us eventually face a fire of some kind. It may be the loss of a job, cancer, divorce or the death of someone we love. In those moments, a voice may whisper that God has abandoned us—that if He truly loved us, He would never have allowed the fire to come.
But the presence of the fire is not proof of God’s absence.
Faithfulness does not guarantee that we will escape every furnace. It guarantees that we will not enter one alone. Sometimes God delivers us from the fire. Sometimes He carries us through it. And sometimes His final deliverance takes us safely home to Him.
Our God is able to save us. But our worship is not something we offer only when He gives us the outcome we want. Even when the healing does not come, the relationship is not restored or the loss cannot be reversed, He is still worthy. He is still faithful.
And He is still our God.
Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
