119) DANIEL’S FRIENDS – SHADRACH, MESHACH & ABEDNEGO Daniel 3
September 3
This entry covers reading for one day, and topics such as BEING TRUE TO YOUR
SELF AND TO YOUR BELIEFS, FITTING IN TO THE WORLD WITHOUT GIVING
IN TO THE WORLD, and an advertisement for VEGGIE TALES.
OK, who read the title to this entry and thought of Rack, Shack and Benny? Or perhaps
you began singing, “The bunny, the bunny, ooh I love the bunny…” If you absolutely
have no idea what I am talking about, then you have missed out – I’m talking about
Veggie Tales! This is the series of DVDs (back when my kids began watching them in
1997 they were videos) that teach bible stories to kids using talking vegetables (it works
somehow) and lots of cute songs. My teenage children still remember this stuff! The
bible lessons are awesome. In more recent years, they have released two movies at the
cinema, one about Jonah and the other about Pirates. However, my favourite was always
“Rack, Shack, and Benny”, the story of three friends who were working in the chocolate
bunny factory for King Nazar, the giant pickle. I loved the song, “Stand up, stand up, for
what you believe in…” And let’s not forget the one about Daniel and the Lions’ Den,
which not only has another great lesson, but also contains my favourite Veggie Tale song
of all time – “Oh, no, what we gonna do, the king likes Daniel more than me and you; oh
no what we gonna do, we gotta get him out of here.” It is sung in counterpoint with two
other melodies! What fun! There is even a website with free Veggie Tale games!
Investigate and be amazed! www.bigidea.com Ok, back to the real world…
On a more serious note, this is one of the most fantastic stories in the bible! For one
thing, only people who really believe that the bible is the inerrant word of God will
believe that this story is more than a myth. I believe! I believe this story, and I believe
Elijah’s fire story in I Kings 18, and I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, too, amen?!!
But the story of Shadrach and Co really tests our faith. Do you believe that the word of
God is true? If so, you are in the right place. And this story will rock your world!
We have met these three men before. They are friends of Daniel, and they are
exceptionally bright, handsome, athletic and talented. Sort of like Michael Phelps, Brad
Pitt and Jay Leno rolled into one person, except extremely spiritual and with absolute
integrity. They were great kids who became great young men. And by now they were
perhaps in their late twenties? Thirties? At any rate, when you are that awesome, and
especially when you are that godly, someone will always be watching you to catch you
“messing up”. (More on that below.) Sure enough, King Nebuchadnezzar built a
humongous gold statue and commanded everyone to bow down and worship it. Our three
heroes refused, and some smart aleck noticed and ratted them out, so they were brought
before the king. The king had enough faith in his own power, plus in the brains and
loyalty of these guys that he thought if he just repeated the law, they would give in. He
was sorely mistaken.
Perhaps, by the way, the king thought that the three amigos would gladly give in to his
wishes because they had allowed him to change their names. You see, when Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego moved to Babylon, they had Hebrew names – Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah. The King’s chief official gave them new names, which
corresponded to the names of the Babylonian gods. (Daniel was given a new name as
well – Belteshazzar, but Scripture uses his Hebrew name…you couldn’t very well have a
book of the bible named after a Babylonian deity!) Nebuchadnezzar and his chief official
were trying to assimilate the young men into a new culture – changing their names, their
education, their language, and their religion. Obviously, he didn’t know that he was up
against some very strong-willed men of God! This is an example of going along with the
world on things that don’t matter, but standing up for God on the things that do!
When Shad, Rad and Mesh had proved their mettle earlier, the other “wise men” of
Babylon surely became jealous and wanted revenge. Enter the “tattle tale”. (Australian
kids would say, “enter the dobber”. I love that word…”) Some jealous guy or group of
guys wanted to get our three heroes in trouble.
By the way, even though this is a deadly serious passage about an incredible act of faith
and a wonderful example of God’s miraculous intervention, I always get tickled when the
following line keeps getting repeated over and over in full - “when you hear the sound of
the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music”. I can just imagine the
sycophantic astrologer saying it by rote memory…humour in the bible…
Anyway, the king became enraged when he wasn’t obeyed implicitly without first asking
his trusted wise men if they perhaps had a reason for not obeying. Another sign of the
Narcissist – more on that in the day after tomorrow’s entry! So he asked a rhetorical
question that did not have a rhetorical answer, 15b “But if you do not worship (my
statue), you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be
able to rescue you from my hand?" 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the
king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it,
and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to
know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have
set up."
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had conviction about who God was/is and about who
they were. And that is what we all need to live a godly life in this world. Their conviction
about God was that God is able to save them, and their conviction about themselves was
that, no matter what, they wouldn’t violate any of God’s laws, and in this case,
specifically the 2nd Commandment (of the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mt.
Sinai), which is:
8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on
the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship
them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of
the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love
to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Deut 5:810)
When we go into situations already knowing who God is and who we are (something I
learned from Pat Gempel years ago – when you study the bible with someone to help
them to become a Christian, make sure they know who God is and who they are!), we are
able to have the confidence to make the right decisions at crunch time. If we don’t think
about who God is often, our conviction can wane – that is why we need to read our bibles
often and have frequent times of meditation and prayer. And if we just drift through life,
not thinking about how we might apply our Christianity to specific situations, we are in
danger of reacting to things, rather than acting. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are
heroes for their courage and faith. Though we probably won’t have our lives threatened
by evil dictators, we will have our faith challenged frequently, and these guys are great
role models. Amen!
[email protected]