Advent: Join the Triumphনমুনা

The Scripture:

"The king said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire. They aren’t tied up. And the fire hasn’t even harmed them. The fourth man looks like a son of the gods'” (Daniel 3:25, NIRV).

The Story:

There are certain things in life that are weird to do by yourself. It would be pretty weird to go to school by yourself. I hope you know the answer because the teacher only has one person to call on. It’d be pretty weird to play football by yourself. Just you versus 11 other players. I wonder how that’s going to go…the Bible teaches us that we are not made to go through life alone.

Our story today is the story of three friends named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. (Pronounced Shad Rack, Me Shack, and A Bend I Go). By the way – I hope you get three dogs for Christmas and name them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

But these three friends stuck together in order to be faithful to God. They were living in an enemy nation who believed in other gods. Now Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that God was the only God and that God was the only One to hope in. But being faithful to God does not always lead to good times. In fact, Jesus promises us we will have trouble.

The trouble we find here is that, even though these three friends stick together and refuse to worship false gods, they get punished. They get thrown into a fiery furnace. But the victory here is amazing: even though they are thrown into a burning hot oven, they do not get burned because all of a sudden – a fourth Person appears.

Today’s verse comes from someone who doesn’t know God, so when he describes the Man he sees how different He looks. But what the man gets wrong is that the fourth Man wasn’t the son of gods, He was the Son Of God, Jesus. Jesus appears in the fire with the men to protect them from fire and to bring victory, showing once again that God is stronger than anything and everything.

The Triumph:

Can I tell you something that may blow your mind? Jesus has always existed. He is uncreated. Yes, Christmas is when Jesus was born, but He has always been in Heaven, and He shows up in a few moments like this in The Bible. We can hope in Jesus because He promises to be with us everywhere we go. Christmas is the celebration that Jesus was born, but the Bible is the Good News that Jesus will always love us and He has always been fighting for His people.