No Smell of Fire

Several months ago I read through the book of Daniel. I still enjoy reading the old Bible stories, but sometimes my familiarity with the stories causes me to overlook some of the lessons that God wants me to learn. I am learning that whenever I miss the lesson, God will eventually lead me back.

That was the case with the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. The story of their trial is told in the third chapter of Daniel. If you do not know the story, you should probably read it. Go ahead, I will wait here for you....

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego's refusal to acknowledge the king as a god and bow to his figure has lead them to face their trial. The king has them bound and thrown into a fire that is so hot that the soldiers throwing them in died. However, when the king looks into the fire, he sees four men--not just the three who were thrown in. I personally believe that the fourth man was the Lord. What I get from this is that the Lord does not just lead us to our trials and then abandon us to flounder around on our own. He is in there walking with us through our trials.

I also noticed that although the three men were bound by soldiers before being thrown into the fire, that the king sees them walking around loose in the fire. These past two years there have been times that I have been frustrated by the restrictions that I now face. Although they were bound when thrown into the fire, that same fire burned off the bounds, and now I realize that there are times that God does not use our trials to bind us but to set us free from that which has us bound.

Once the king tells the men to come out of the fire, all of the high officials gather around. They notice that the men have been so protected from the fire that no physical harm has come to the men or their clothing. Then the officials notice that there is not even the smell of fire on them. That is the way with my current trial. If you were to meet me on the street, you would not be able to tell that I have lung cancer. Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, the only way you would know my story is for me to tell you. Here we are thousands of years later, and we still know the story of these men. The only way other people will know of our trials and what God has done, is if we tell them.

The last thing I noticed is that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego's lives were never the same. My Bible says that the king caused them to prosper in the province of Babylon. Had they not gone through this trial, they would not have received the blessings that came after. Sometimes I think that I would just like to have my life back to the way it was, but then I wonder what blessings I would miss out on if I was not going through this trial.

An old story has taught new lessons that are leading to a story to be told.