The Idol or The Furnace

I was reading this morning about ole King Nebuchadnezzar and this "mighty" idol that he built. "King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide..." Daniel 3:1 I'm not real good with sizes. To tell me something was ninety feet tall doesn't make much sense to me. But, if you tell me that if fifteen men who were each six feet tall stood on each other's shoulders would make 90 feet tall...that I get! Can you imagine how tall that thing was? I can just see King Nebuchadnezzar with his chest all poked out with pride at his wonderful creation. He was so full of himself.

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Once the idol was made King Nebuchadnezzar had to call everybody out there to see it. "Then he sent messages to the high officers, officials, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the provincial officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up." Daniel 3:2. Have you ever met anyone like that? They think that everything they do is so wonderful that they have to talk about it, show it to you, discuss it, bring it up time and time again as if they were wanting to make sure the entire world knew what they had created "all by themselves."

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But, the clincher in this whole story is how three men refused to bow down to this idol. That is where my thoughts are today. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego absolutely refused to bow down and worship this idol. They stood up while everyone else bowed. I imagine they looked like weeds that had grown through concrete. I wonder if they had their hands behind their backs. I wonder if they were swaying back and forth whistling as they looked around. I wonder if they were whispering to each other "This guy is nuts!" Hmmm....I wonder.

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You know the rest of the story. "'Look!' Nebuchadnezzar shouted. 'I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!'" Daniel 3:25. Oh I wish I could have seen his face when he looked in that furnace and saw FOUR men! I wonder if he found it hard to breathe. I wonder if he stood there with his mouth gaped open and a few flies flew in there. I wonder if his heart started pounding so hard he thought it would pound out of his chest.

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All of this gets me to my point today. Are you like Nebuchadnezzar? Do you create things and then boast about them and get offended when others don't "bow down" to your creation? Are you like the people in the city? Do you just "bow down" because everybody else does and you feel the need to fit in? Or, are you like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do you stand up for what is right with God?

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I tell you one thing...sometimes it seems like life is better outside that furnace because there is no flame, no fire, no heat. But, there is one thing inside that furnace that I need that I surely can't find outside the furnace and that is my God! Where are you right now? Are you bowing down at the feet of an idol or are you walking in the furnace?