Four Men Walking in the Fire

There was a king named Nebuchadnezzar, and he built a statue of gold. Tall as a tower it stood, gleaming in the sun. It was not long after God had shown him that dream of a statue, the one with the head of gold, and perhaps the king thought, I will build a statue that is gold all the way down. And the king made a rule. When the music played, the horns and the harps and the great booming drums, every single person had to fall down and bow to the gold.

Or be thrown into a furnace of fire.

Now there were three friends far from home in Babylon, friends of Daniel. Their names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They loved the true God, the God who made them, the God who had been close to them all their lives. And they would not bow to gold, not even when the king's face went red with rage.

"Do you know what I will do?" the king roared. "I will throw you into the fire! And what god can save you then?"

The three friends were afraid. Of course they were. The furnace was so hot you could feel it from far across the courtyard. But they stood close together, and they said a brave thing.

"Our God can save us. And even if he does not, we still will not bow."

They knew something. Long ago, God had promised his people that when they walked through the fire, they would not be burned, because he would be right there with them. And here was the fire. So where, oh where, would God be?

The king was so angry he had the furnace made seven times hotter. The flames leaped up. The soldiers who carried the three friends to the door were burned by the heat themselves. And in went Shadrach. In went Meshach. In went Abednego. Tied up tight, down into the roaring orange.

The king leaned close to watch them burn.

But then he jumped up off his throne. His eyes went wide.

"Didn't we throw in three men?" he cried. "Look! I see four! Four men, walking in the fire, with their ropes fallen away and no hurt on them at all. And the fourth one shines like a son of the gods."

A fourth man was walking in the flames, right beside them.

When the friends came out, not one hair was burned. Their coats did not even smell like smoke. And down in the hottest place they had ever been, they had learned that they were never, ever alone. The fire could not have them, because the fire could not have him, the one who walked there too.

The friends did not know his name. Not yet.

But one day a baby would be born, and the people would call him Immanuel, which means God with us. God, come down close, God walking right into the worst of it, into the fire and the dark and the grave itself, so that you would never have to walk through anything alone.

So whenever you are in a hard, hot place, look for the fourth man. He has walked through worse to be beside you, and no fire in the world can make him leave.