Who is that Fourth Man? Raising up a Daniel Generation
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey
“Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Dan 3:24,25
This scripture outta send chills up your spine, if it doesn’t your feeler needs fixin. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had decided enough was enough. The bending of the knees to worship some idol was worth the fiery furnace. These were the very same “kids” that passed up the Popeyes chicken and Crispy Cream donuts for vegetables. Who was that fourth man? John Gill said, “Jesus came and he stood and walked among them. It was the greatest walk that they had ever had. On those burning coals the four of them were walking together in sweet fellowship. They had won the admiration and the sympathy of the Son of God, who left heaven itself, that he might come and stand side by side with them. From the glowing coals their voices call aloud to us, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”
I loved it when these boys said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O King. But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship that image.” They had been stripped of everything but their faith and they weren’t letting that go. In this 21st century we have a new religion, its thinking is “Surely God in His sovereign grace would have forgiven a little knee bowing, after-all they were taken from their homeland and well, everybody else is doing it.” Instead they influenced their age, their people and to this hour the influence of their brave stand for God impacts us eternally.
Spurgeon says,” if any of you are in great difficulty and trouble, tempted to do wrong, nay, pressed to do it, and if you do what is right, it looks as if you will be great losers and great sufferers; believe this: God can deliver you. He can prevent your having to suffer what you suppose you may; and if he does not prevent that, he can help you to bear it, and, in a short time, he can turn all your losses into gains, all your sufferings into happiness. He can make the worst thing that can happen to you to be the very best thing that ever did happen to you. If you are serving God, you are serving an Omnipotent Being; and that Omnipotent Being will not leave you in the time of difficulty, but he will come to your rescue. The Lord has helped us in the past, he is helping us in the present, and we believe that he will help us all the way through.”