This is a belated entry as the communion was served prior to my admission to TTSH. The passaged used was from:
Daniel 3:17-18
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are
The following is a summary of the message by Vicar from Daniel 3:17-18.
When we read this passage in this modern age and when we come to Verse 18, making such a confession can make I lot of people very unhappy or uncomfortable because we are supposed to believe and make positive confession. We are not supposed to make statement like “…even if He does not…” as it supposedly showed a lack of faith or it is an attempt to give ourselves a backdoor should God choose not to act or that we actually do not believe that God can deliver. However, if we read this entire passage and look at the past life of the 3 friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that was not what they meant and they were not speaking out of a lack of faith and they are definitely not giving themselves a backdoor or excuses just in case God “does not work”. For the declaration in Verse 18, in its most fundamental sense, it actually requires and expresses a greater level of faith than that declared in Verse 17. In Verse 17, the 3 friends professes their faith, that He is able to “…deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand…” but Verse 18 raises and requires a lot more faith because the 3 friends declared that “…But even if He does not…”, they will still believe in God. It can be tough because if God works, then all is well and rosy but if He does not, the 3 friends are declaring that they will still believe in God, thus declaring their faith, declaring that they believe that God can still do miracles despite the absence of it in the specific instance. It is their declaration of God’s rights, of God’s sovereignty that He can choose to do what He wishes. In this respect and in the literal sense, it takes greater courage and faith to make such a declaration.
As we read in the remaining part of the passage, God created a miracle that day and because He had worked a miracle, that is why we can believe in God but we must take Verse 18 into perspective. It takes faith to declare that even if God chooses not to deliver them, they still will believe, it takes courage and it is not easy. When you look at the background of the 3 friends, the faith that they have is not something that came by overnight, it is something that they grew into gradually from the time that they were taken into exile, a traumatic event and so even as they continued to walk faithfully with God, the Lord continued to walk with them.
As we walk with God, the first thing that we need to do is as per verse 17 and then we need to grow in the Lord to the point that we can live out Verse 18 and say that I believe in Him not just for the sakes the miracles but regardless of what God chooses in my life, I believe and trust in Him and God will take care of the rest.
In the past months, there are ups and downs in my life, in this journey that I am taking. During the downs, our faith needs to be consistent, more like the 3 friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and says that God can and is able. However, even if He does not, we continue to press on to believe in Him, to have faith in Him as the sum of our experiences teaches us that God is always with us. We don’t often realise this because we are often distracted by the world, by circumstances around us that divert our focus away from Him. We need to focus on him, we need to be humble before him and realise that the path to a closer walk with God lies in suppressing our pride and surrendering to Him and walk in the path of humility.
There are 2 specific beatitudes that reinforce this path:
· Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
· Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.
In God We Trust
Hebrews 11:1
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