Where is God when it hurts?
Many years ago me and my son Will made a trip to see the St. Louis Cardinals play on opening day.
He was about 7 years old and we were living in Atlanta, GA at the time. He was excited to miss a couple of days of school and we were excited to go on this adventure together and boy, was it an adventure. There are so many memories from that one trip that the two of us will never forget.
But one small story that I’m almost positive he doesn’t remember happened when we were standing in the long line to enter the stadium about an hour before the gates opened.
About 30 feet away from us there’s a stand selling St. Louis Cardinals baseballs, bats, and programs. I gave Will some money and I said, Hey bud, why don’t you go over there and get us a program. Well, he had never done that before. He’s only 7 years old.
But I knew that if I could see him and more importantly, as long as he could see me, he would feel safe, confident, and he would be able to complete this small task even if he was nervous and a little afraid.
Do you have a person like that in your life?
Someone, if they are there, if they are present, your anxiety goes down. You feel safe.
The presence of the right person changes our perspective.
Perspective
When we’re kids and there’s a big storm at night and the thunder and lightning scare us… we know, running to our parent’s room changes everything. It doesn’t affect the storm one way or another. But…
The presence of the right person changes our perspective.
As we get older, we can have the worst of day at school, at work, wherever. And no matter what the problem is, even if it’s a problem that can’t be solved, whether it’s friends, or a bad grade, or the team, the office, or whatever the situation… we know when we get home and we see mom, or we see dad, or we see our grandmother, or grandfather, or whoever that person is everything will be better. Because…
The presence of the right person changes our perspective.
Rarely if ever does the situation change. If it changes at all, it’s not going to be immediate. But the presence of the right person makes us feel safe, reminds us we’re not alone, gives us confidence and the ability to face whatever is before us as long as we can see them and know that they are there.
Because.. The presence of the right person changes our perception.
Everybody Struggles
Sometimes we forget that this isn’t just our experience, this is the human experience.
Everyone is afraid sometimes. Everybody struggles. Everyone has hurt. And pretty much everyone wonders at some point in life…
Where is God?
Why is this happening to me?
Where is God when it hurts?
As we turn the page to the book of Daniel, we’re going to see the Red Thread again.
You may know this story because of the three headline characters, Shadrach, Meshach, and Adebnego. Those aren’t their real names. Those are there Babylonian names. These are three Israelites who have been carried off into captivity and have now been made servants of a Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar.
Their real names are Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These are their Hebrew names.
And this story was written to give people living in desperate times a reminder of the hope we have in God.
What do you do when…
Here’s how this story begins…
1 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 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. 3 So all these officials came and stood before the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
4 Then a herald shouted out, “People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king’s command! 5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue. 6 Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
The scene is set.
The tension is running high in Babylon.
Not for babylonians. They would have no problem bowing down to an idol, any idol, and worshiping it. The king wouldn’t even need to threaten his own people with certain death if they didn’t worship it.
But for the people of God who are living in captivity in Babylon, once again living as slaves in a foreign land, this presents a problem. They cannot remain faithful to YHWH and bend a knee to an idol.
In the Ten Commandments, the word of God for the people of God received at Mount Sinai, God told them plainly… You shall have no other gods before me. You must not make any idols and you must not bow down and worship them. Exodus 20.3-6
So what do you do when you worship YWHW but you live in a world that worships something else?
What do you do as a person of faith but you live in a culture that creates idols out of money, possessions, sex, and power?
Conformity vs Nonconformity
In Babylon, conformity is normal.
In our world, conformity is normal.
More often than not we compromise what we believe for what we want, we make exceptions because we feel entitled, we make excuses so we don’t have to hold ourselves accountable when we know better.
We don’t know how most of the jewish people living in Babylon at this time handled this situation, but we do know what happened with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
In Babylon, conformity is normal.
Nonconformity is different, unexpected, even unthinkable.
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were unwilling to worship the golden idol that the king had set up. And there were those who took notice and were more than happy to let the king know that they had disobeyed his order!
They came to the king and said…
12 …there are some Jews—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. They pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They refuse to serve your gods and do not worship the gold statue you have set up.”
As soon as king Nebuchadnezzar heard this, he was enraged!
He demanded that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah be brought before him and when they entered the throne room he let them know in no uncertain terms that they had one more chance to bow down in worship to his idol or they would be thrown in the fiery furnace.
And listen to what Nebuchadnezzar said…
And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power?”
What God?
Remember our question? Where is God when it hurts? Where is God when you are up against the wall? When you don’t know what to do? When the circumstances of life are more than you can handle? When you want answers?
Where is God?
Listen to what these three guys say in response to the king’s question…
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. 18 But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
Which is an interesting statement because they knew their history. They knew that God could save them but that God had not always chosen to save others.
They knew that God had delivered their ancestors from Egypt through the Red Sea. But they also knew that some of their ancestors had died in the wilderness. They knew that God has the power to save anyone but they also knew that God is sovereign over everyone.
What do we do with this tension?
Because this is the tension when life hurts, when life is hard. What do we do with the tension that God has the power to save but that it seems like God doesn’t always exercise that power?
That not everyone gets a miracle? Some do, some don’t, and yet we serve the same God?
I’m not sure how you answer that question, but I think it’s important to notice how Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah answer that question.
They believed God was able and trusted him to decide, if, when, and how to save them.
Faith trusts what God WILL do instead of demanding what God MUST do.
– David Platt
Facing the Furnace
19 Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage.
Which is an interesting note… Anger, rage, power, self importance, self consumption, distorts the divine image we were created to bear.
…his face (image) became distorted with rage.
He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual.
This furnace, by the way, may have been the same furnace used to create the great golden statue they refused to worship.
We can use a furnace to create images to worship in our own image, or, we can allow the furnace to refine us in the image of our Creator.
20 Then he ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. 21 So they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes, and other garments. 22 And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in.
The fire is so hot that it killed the king’s own soldiers. Loyalty to the Babylonian king brings death, not life.
23 So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames.
24 But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied.
25 “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!”
Another in the Fire
Loyalty to the king of Babylonian brings death, not life.
Loyalty to the King of kings brings life, not death!
And don’t miss this… God didn’t save Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah FROM the fire, He saved them IN the fire.
He could put the flames out with a flood from heaven… but He did NOT. He could have extinguished the fires of the furnace with a breath of wind from the sky… but He did NOT.
He allowed them to enter the fire, but He did NOT allow them to ENTER the FIERY FURNACE ALONE.
God joined them in the fire.
And his presence in the fire protected them from the flames.
The presence of the right person changes our perspective.
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”
So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. 27 Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!
Smell Like Smoke?
I don’t know about you guys, but anytime I’m around a campfire I can’t not smell like smoke. A few weeks ago on Spring Break our family went on a quick camping trip and we sat by the fire at night making s’mores and campfire donuts — those are our kids favorite! And every piece of clothing we wore smelled like smoke. Our hair smelled like smoke. There was no denying that we had spent time around the campfire.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not just beside the fire, they were IN the fire, but they didn’t even smell like smoke. It’s as if they were never in the fire at all!
28 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in him.
The same God who brought them out of the furnace of Egypt brings them out of the furnace again on the plain of Dura in Babylon.
Waiting Here For You
Do you believe God is with you when you’re walking through the fire?
When our daughter, Emma, was born, she entered the world safe and sound. But after giving birth there were complications. Alisha was rushed out of the delivery room into surgery and I was left holding all the gifts, balloons, the baby and the hospital bag we brought for the night.
All of a sudden, we were in the fire. And I didn’t know if God would save us, would save her.
The hours that followed are still a blur for me but I’ll never forget having to leave the delivery room and having to go into the waiting room. But I didn’t want to be around friends or family in that moment, I wanted to be alone.
So I dropped all the stuff by the chairs and walked into the men’s bathroom, walked into a stall, locked the door, and put my head against the wall and started praying for my wife.
I didn’t know what was wrong, what was happening, or what would happen next. All I knew is that we needed God and so I began to pray.
Then, I heard it.
A song. I didn’t know where it was coming from. It was faint. But I knew it. The chorus started…
Waiting here for You. With my hands lifted high in praise…
Was it coming over the hospital speakers in the bathroom? They wouldn’t be playing Christian music, much less worship music.
And it’s You we adore, Singing Alleluia…
Then I remembered… whenever Alisha has to get a shot or an IV, we have a system. She puts in her headphones, she looks at me, I look at the nurse, I start the playlist of worship music, then we do the needle. Alisha doesn’t like needles. But as long as she can look at me and have the worship music in her ears she can get through it.
The music was still playing over the headphones in my pocket. And this is the song God gave me in a hospital bathroom in Atlanta when I was crying out to God for Alisha.
Waiting here for You. With my hands lifted high in praise…
And it’s You we adore, Singing Alleluia…
It was as if God was telling me to keep my eyes on Him. Because…
The presence of the right person changes our perspective.
Where is God?
Where is God when life hurts?
When life is hard?
When you are in the fire?
God’s promise is His presence when we need it most.
And if you’re looking for the Red Thread, if you’re looking for Jesus… here he is. He’s in the fire. He is God with us!
We don’t know for sure if the fourth person in the fire was Jesus… but who else would it be? Who else would come to earth and get into the middle of the hottest fire to be with us and to remind us that we are not alone?
If you’re in the middle of the fire today, if you’re walking around in a furnace and your hurting, your suffering, you’re wondering where is God, can I gently remind you.. He is with you. Maybe you can’t see Him, but trust me, He is with you.
So what would life look like if we simply believed that God really is with us? In the middle of the hottest fire, in the middle of life’s hardest moments, and in the middle of the worst storms.
When disease strikes, when marriages fail, when children struggle, when death comes, when friends hurt us, when things don’t work out the way we wish they would… what if we believed that in those darkest moments God is right there in the middle of the fire with us?
The presence of the right person changes our perspective.
It’s my prayer today that the presence of Jesus in your life would change your perception and remind you that you are not alone.
Breath Prayer
So here’s the Breath Prayer I want to encourage you to pray this week:
El Elyon, God Most High, you are God with us.
BONUS: Here’s the song God gave me when I needed it most. It blessed me. I pray it will be a blessing to you.
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