Do you feel Jesus with you in the middle of your fiery furnace?
One of our favourite songs when our son, Zac, was in the hospital was ‘Another in the Fire’ by Hillsong. The lyrics are:
There was another in the fireStanding next to meThere was another in the watersHolding back the seasAnd should I ever need remindingOf how I’ve been set freeThere is a cross that bears the burdenWhere another died for me
The inspiration for this song comes, of course, from the story found in Daniel 3 about Daniel’s three friends who were thrown in the fiery furnace because they refused to bow down to a statue of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Something extraordinary happened:
King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, ‘Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?’ They replied, ‘Certainly, Your Majesty.’ He said, ‘Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. – Daniel 3:24-25 NIV
Some believe the fourth man in the fire was an angel, but most theologians agree that this was a so-called Christophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ before he came to earth.
He looked like a son of the gods to the king because he was the Son of God!
Daniel’s friends showed incredible faith and courage by refusing to bow to an idol. But they were thrown in the fire, nonetheless. Faith will not always protect us from bad things happening. At times in our lives, we might feel like we’re in a fiery furnace with our hands tied. For Jenny and me, that was the case as we sat next to our 10-month-old’s hospital bed while he was in critical condition.
But this story is a beautiful reminder that no matter how fiery the furnace, or how great our suffering, Christ is with us in the midst of it.
