Blessed Be The God Of Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego

[Notes Of A Sermon By Mr. Thomas Hull, Preached November 23^rd, 1879.]

”Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him.”—Daniel 3:28

What a mercy to apprehend the protecting hand of God, and to know something of His mercy, not only in taking us into His covenant, to care for, lead, and guide us continually, but also in a way of special and providential protection from all the foes and ills that we may be subject to all through this wilderness journey. One of old might well say, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.” Those that trust in the Lord do at times feel and enjoy that blessedness. We know it, and have been confirmed in the truth that those are blessed who trust in the Lord, and that the blessing of the Lord, who changeth not, is upon His spiritual Israel. When Balaam saw this, he felt there was no power in him to curse Israel: “How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and He hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.” That command thrust Balaam back. He felt his purposes were frustrated, and he saw that it was impossible to curse those whom the Lord had blessed. Some of us who are here this morning have felt the blessedness of trusting in the Lord, and of being sheltered under His wing; and, when we can more or less enter into the sweet experience of the first verse of the ninety-first Psalm, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” then we come feelingly into that personal experience, “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust.” We then know something of this blessedness, not only in our judgment, but we have a gracious experience of it, and it is a blessedness which must be felt to be understood. We may read about it, talk about it, but we cannot give ourselves the feeling of it. It is beyond compare. It is a blessedness which relieves the soul in every trouble, however great, and makes us content with our portion, and brings us into the place which the poet thus describes—

“Pleased with what the Lord provides, 

And weaned from all the world besides.”

Now, to live in the enjoyment of such blessedness must be a foretaste of heaven; to realize this must be a taste of that bliss which is in store for God’s suffering saints. These are blessings which do not spring out of the earth, but what is conveyed to the heart by the Holy Ghost; and, while it gives us a feeling of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, what a confidence it gives! The righteous, then, truly are “bold as a lion.” “Whom shall I fear?” says the soul; “though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. While the Lord is on my side, while the Lord is my strength, of whom shall I be afraid?” And the Apostle takes this up, and says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Not but men may rise up against us, but God has declared, “Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by Me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.” Thus the Lord will give His people to ride over the necks of their enemies, and all the enemies of Christ shall submit themselves unto Him. ”The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.” Thus God being on the side of His people, He is their sanctuary, their place of refuge, their house of defense and munition of rocks. The Apostle might well say, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

In the history of the Church of God these things have been exemplified again and again. Circumstances have brought them out to light, and we have them left on record. We may have a knowledge of the Word of God, and believe all we read, but trying circumstances arise which put our faith and knowledge to the test, and then we realize the truth and application of the words which we have read and believed. It is quite possible for us to know many things in our judgment which we do not practically realize until we come into the experience of them. We may have a spiritual knowledge of divine things, but if that knowledge has not been to some degree tempered by experience, it has perhaps lifted us up beyond our spiritual strength. It is something like it is in nature, when children outgrow their strength: they grow up rapidly, but the result is, it takes a series of years to establish their constitution and make their frame really strong. And this is the case with some young Christians who have been favoured to sit under the sound of the truth. They have so much knowledge, and they think themselves so strong that nothing could move them; but, by-and-bye, the day of trial comes on, and the lesson they thought they well understood has to be learned. Their knowledge is put to the test, and oh, how weak they find themselves to be! How they are brought to their wits’ end, and they find their knowledge avails them little or nothing in the time of trial. Ah! and some of you aged Christians, who are much older than myself, have had to go back and learn over again the lessons your judgments had previously received. Thus we find these things verified again and again. In the evidencing of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ before the world, the power of God has been so often manifested, and to such a degree, that the world has been compelled to own it to be the “power of God.” And what is a religion without this power? Why, a religion without the power of God is worth nothing; but an evidence of that power, how it establishes our faith, raises our hope, and gives us to feel the foundation under our feet to be good! The circumstance connected with my text is one of such evidences. It was a very manifest display of God’s power and faithfulness in delivering His own children. The children of God are often perplexed because they are brought into a variety of trials. They suffer the same afflictions as are common to the world; and they wonder, if they are the children of God why they, as in this case, should suffer with the ungodly.

We cannot suppose that it was the choice of these three men to go into Babylon; but their brethren, the Jews, were sent there for the punishment of their sins as a nation; and thus, while the children of Israel were sent into Babylon for their sins, many of the children of God who were among them had to partake of that affliction. But God had His eye upon them; His care was over them, and He went before them, and bade them “seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” Thus they were to go there for a time; and God’s time of trial in the case of His people is always a limited time; so Job says, “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Now Job realized that it was only for a time, and, when that was ended, he should come forth as gold. God told His people it was seventy years, and, when that time was accomplished, they should return to their own land. Thus He said He would not cut His people off, nor cast them away, but they were to go into captivity for their sins as a nation; and, when the Lord visits the sins of any nation upon it, His own people have to suffer with the rest, and thus it was with these three men. They went down into Babylon as appointed by the Lord, and, when there, they were among the number that hung their harps upon the willows. There were none among the people of the land that understood the love and mercy of God; none with whom they could assemble or take sweet counsel. They were strangers in a strange land. Well, these three men submitted themselves to the Lord, and went with the rest of their country-men into Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar sought to exercise a despotic control over their consciences when he commanded them to fall down before his idol. But these good men dared to stand when the king commanded them to fall down and worship the image he had set up. They stood erect when those around them bowed themselves at the king’s bidding. The command was repeated, and still they refused. The fear of God was in their heart, and that is “a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death;” and, like Joseph, the feeling arose, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” There was the command of this despotic king, and there was his terrible power and dreadful threatenings; but mark their steadfastness. “Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now, if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made, well; but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” Proud boaster! How he lived to prove it was but a proud and empty display of creature importance; and so will every man have to prove his folly that boasts himself against God.

Well, they very meekly replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.” Here was the fear of God, and this fear is a power that will prevail against all the power of sin and Satan; yea, whatever combined powers stand opposed to the fear of God, they must, sooner or later, fall before it, for the fear of God shall triumph over all. Oh, it is a mercy to be possessed of the fear and love of God! It is a mercy to he under His wing, to be upheld by His power. “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us.” There was a resting upon that almighty arm which never fails His people in their times of need; there was a confessing of that almighty power that is ever on the side of those who fear God; and they were not put to shame.

Oh, when you and I come into trial, what a mercy if we can come into it with this feeling: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us”! And then, how great the mercy if we can go a little farther than that, and say, “And He will deliver us”! You may be brought into trouble where the Lord will so appear for you as to make your enemies to tremble, but you may also go into trouble, and the Lord may not appear for your deliverance in the same marked way as you have before experienced, and you may not be able to say with the same confidence as before, “He hath delivered, He doth deliver, and in whom we trust that He will still deliver us;” but yet you may feel He is able to deliver, and also hope that He will deliver in His own time and way.

Well, here was a stand made, and a resolute one too; but it was one made in the fear of God, and one made in the strength of God. And now we find how wonderfully this was seen to be the power of faith in God, and how it evidenced that the Spirit of Christ was with them, and that the fear of the Lord was in their religion: “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king”—if it should not be His will to appear for us, and bring us out of this furnace, yet—“be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Did they do wrong in this respect to the king? They would yield their bodies—they would sacrifice all worldly good, and their lives too—but they would not sacrifice the honour of their God. They knew that to yield to the king’s command would be a reflection of dishonour upon His name, and a grief to those who loved and feared God. What a mercy when we can feel something of the love of God in our hearts that makes sin hateful! To know something of the love of the Father in giving His Son to die for us, and to know that Christ is our Redeemer by the witnessing of the blessed Spirit, this will cause us to feel, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” When the love of God is lively in the heart, how tenderly the children of God walk wherever they may go, and in whatever company they may be cast. This fear is “a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” But mark, it is not a galling yoke, but an easy one, for the will is one with these things, and they are found to be according to the desire of the heart. “We love Him because He first loved us;” and we would love Him so as to serve Him with all our heart—serve Him in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter—and by-and-bye we hope to be always before Him, and to “serve Him day and night in His temple.”

Now this is heart-service, and how sweet it is to feel the heart thus dissolved before God! Alas! alas! how little of this love to God is felt in our hearts—at least, how little do I feel in my heart compared with what I would! The profession in this our day evidences but little of this sweet grace. Alas! the world with its wide jaws seems to be well-nigh devouring many, and its spirit is so gaining the ascendancy among the professed followers of Christ that the religion that is glorifying to His name is thrust back and almost trodden underfoot thereby. But what a mercy to feel that now and again He blesses us with the power of His grace, raises our minds up from cleaving to the earth, subdues the prevailing carnality of the heart, and so overcomes all worldly lusts therein that, when He brings us back to His feet, He brings us to the frame of mind we love to enjoy, and we can not only say, but feel, that—

“Everything that’s dear to Him 

To me is also dear.”

Their reply threw the monarch into a rage—and by his command the matter came to the fiery test. Now see on which side and in whose favour it will fall. God has said, “Them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” Well, the king has them cast into the furnace, but God went before, and was with them there, so that the fury of the fire was quenched; and when they looked that these intrepid saints should have been consumed, only their bands were burned, and they were seen to be set at liberty, and walking up and down in the fire; and thus that fiery furnace proved to be God’s way of showing His power to save, and not man’s way to destroy these God-fearing men.

Some might think that, since God knew their faith would stand the test, as He did Abraham’s, because it was His own gift, there was therefore no need for His servants to be put through such a trying ordeal. Ah! but God’s ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. This was God’s way of working in order that He should be honoured by the faith of His servants, and that proud man should be humbled at the sight of God thus highly honouring those who had honoured Him; for they found, according to their word and faith, that God was able to deliver them from the despot’s power.

Well, the king looked into the furnace, and “was astonied, and rose up in haste, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Ah! there was the secret. The Lord their God was with them in the fire—yea, even the same as when Moses turned aside to see why the bush was burning and was not consumed. He was filled with amazement at what he saw. “And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see” this great wonder, “God called to him out of the bush, and said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” The Lord was there, and thus, agreeable to His own word and immutable promise, He ever comes to deliver, for He has said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”

But, in some cases, the Lord helps His people through some of their troubles more conspicuously than He does others. Thus perhaps at times you come into trouble, and you get out of it, but there is not that visible display of God’s power so that you can say with an assurance in your own soul, “Verily, the Lord has delivered me.” But there are other times when He draws nigh in your trouble, and takes all the burden of it upon Himself, even everything that has caused you a distressing thought. He helps you to sing even in the midst of the fire, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Thus Paul says, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Yes, there is a rejoicing sometimes even in the midst of tribulation. Do you know what it is to go down on your knees and thank God for such a trouble, and bless His dear name for the fiery ordeal, because of the good you have found in the midst of the fire, because you have learned so much of His love and of His power to help you? and you have so proved that He in wisdom and goodness performs all things that concern you, that you would not be without this experience of God and of Christ for the world. Why, it is as though the fire has welded you and Christ into one, in a way of fellowship, that you feel, as Berridge says—

“If I loved the Lord before,

I would love Him ten times more; 

Drop into His sea outright,

Lose myself in Jesus quite.”

Such times of love have passed over me, and I have felt them to be sacred seasons. Then I have not sought to dictate to the Lord how I should get out of trouble. No, it has been—

“Let me lie passive in Thy hand, 

And know no will but Thine.”

What can harm us if He is at hand? How can we be consumed if He is with us in the midst of the fire?

Well, the Lord was walking with these three men in the fire, according to His promise, “when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee;” and they found it to be with them as the poet has said—

“The lions will not tear, 

The billows cannot heave,

The furnace will not singe thy hair, 

Till Jesus give them leave.”

Yes, brethren, and, whatever may be our trials, if we are in His hands, it will be well with us. Trouble may come, fiery trials may come, sore temptations may come, crosses and losses may come, but, if I can realize that God is with me, I can see the end of all will be for my good, for “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose;” and so every dark step in thy experience will come right, and will all be made plain; for, “though these afflictions at the present are not joyous, but grievous, yet they afterwards yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness in them which are exercised thereby.”

Well, the Son of God was not unmindful of the case of His servants. He was with them in the fire. So He was looking on when Stephen was about being stoned, for Stephen, looking up to heaven, said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Yes, He was looking upon the trouble of His servant and the malice of his foes; and so it was in the case of these three. They went into the fire, but they got into the company of the Son of God there. All they lost in the fire was their bands, while they walked in sweet liberty with their heavenly Friend. That fiery furnace was a little heaven. And why? Because they walked in sweet union with the Son of God. Thus He condescended to be with them in their trouble, and to make them His care during the time they were passing through that fiery trial. Well, you may have been in trouble, and come out of it without finding the Lord’s sensible presence; but, when He does draw nigh, it is all right, and as Hart sings, so you readily confess—

“The way I walk can not be wrong 

If Jesus be but there.”

Well, this ungodly monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, was impressed that the Son of God was in the fire with His servants: “The form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Not that he had any spiritual knowledge of Him; not that he had any love to Him; but he knew it was the Son of God. It was in a visible form he saw Him—not in human nature, as some people have said He appeared here; for, if that were so, that human nature was not made of a woman, as He is said to have taken it upon Him in the womb of the Virgin. In the case here cited, the divinity assumed the form of humanity; but, when He was “made of a woman, made under the law,” He took our nature into union with His divine Person, and His divinity and humanity came into union under that blessed title, Immanuel. He was then “made like unto His brethren;” here His form was “like the Son of God.”

In the early days of the Church He often appeared unto and for His people; and, as He was with them in the beginning of the world, so He will be with them unto the end of it, for He says, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” And what His people rejoice in is, that He verifies His blessed promise that He will be with them in trouble, as we read in the latter part of the ninety-first Psalm. He there says, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him: I will be with Him in trouble; I will deliver Him;” and not only that, but “I will honour Him. With long life will I satisfy Him, and show Him My salvation.” That promise concerns the Lord Jesus Christ as the Servant of the Father, and it concerns those who are the friends of Christ; therefore, if you are in Christ, it concerns you, so that yours is the privilege of calling upon Him in the day of trouble; and the Lord declares, not only that He will hear them that call upon Him, but He will presence Himself with His people therein: “I will be with Him in trouble;” and not only that, but He will do something for them: “I will deliver him, and honour him;” and all this He did in the case of these three Hebrew children. They went into the fire to honour Him, and now He honours them, and Nebuchadnezzar is obliged to admit that it is the work of God. Now, instead of saying, “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” he says,”Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language which speak anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.” No, “there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun.”

Now, I hope the Lord may, by His Word, give you some little encouragement in the midst of your trials and afflictions; and, as you have seen His delivering hand in past sorrows, trials, and afflictions, that should lead you still to wait on Him, because Christ Jesus “is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them;” and no poor, convinced, and burdened sinner, who is sighing for His mercy, blood, and love, shall ever be forgotten of Him. May He continually manifest in us His delivering grace and power, and He shall have the glory.