Into the fires

The reading this morning was from the Old Testament;  the book of Daniel;  the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (I thought it was Abendigo when I was a kid).

It’s one of the best stories in the OT Bible (for those “unversed” in the Bible, the Old Testament is the “Jewish” bit (especially the first 5 books where God sets down the rules he makes for His people). In all honesty, I struggle with a lot of the stuff it contains;  the bits about God going before and helping the Israelites plunder and enslave other nations, for example.  I guess that’s why we need the New Covenant of the forgiveness and sacrifice of Christ contained in the New Testament (this is the Christian bit of the Bible).

The OT also has themes, over and over, of penitence and forgiveness and reconciliation.  It also has stories of God’s immeasurable power and intent to stick up for the little bloke;  the oppressed;  the disempowered;  the put-upon.

The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is one such a story.   Daniel Chapter 3.  It tells of these 3 men, who would not bow down to worship the golden calf, fashioned by human hands, and as ordered by the king of the land, Nebuchadnezzar. Instead, they declare their intention to be thrown into the fiery furnace and die, rather than denounce their faith in Yahweh; the great I AM; the God of Abraham;  the Alpha and the Omega.  So, they get thrown into the furnace.

As I read it this morning, I thought again of Rev Whorley (pronounced Whirley). He was the Methodist Minister at Forbes, NSW, in Australia, in the 50’s when I was a little girl. He would come to Eugowra to preach in the little Presbyterian Church on the banks of the Mandagery Creek (running a banker in recent days).

He was a little man; mild in character and gentle in nature. He was a man of the people, woven from common cloth.  He was a bit funny-looking as I remember, but Oh, he had found his vocation:  he had a genuine, fervent faith.

He took Scripture at Eugowra Central School and I’m sure he told this story because my memory of him arose from the page as I read it this morning.  I’m pretty sure, too, it was covered in the Salvation Army Home for Girls at Canowindra.  What a happy place it was for me;  child-sized Sunday School chairs painted all different pastel colours;  little basket to take up the collection (“hear the pennies dropping; listen as they fall…);  a sense of open, airy space in the big room, with shiny lino and big windows.

These all impacted my life, in a mainly positive way.  They set me on a faith journey which I’m still following to-day. I wonder what I’d be like now if I had never heard this most profound of gospels, passed on by these kindly, gentle people?

Back to our 3 saints:  The story has it that when the 3 are thrown into the furnace, God (in the form of Jesus) enters the furnace with them and they are seen;  the 4 figures, walking around unburned, unconsumed, as God protects them.  I have not doubt God could do this;  I also know He often doesn’t intervene and many Christians over the millennia have died, rather than deny their faith.

One thing I do know and understand deep into my very soul, is that when we go through our own fires in life, whether they be the death of a loved one, or illness or relationship conflict, or whatever else ails the human soul, God will be there, figuratively, in the fire, with those who invite Him to be there with them.  The same God who got into the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, is the same God who said ”Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.

In an increasingly unstable and scary world, the one who promises “I will never leave you or forsake you”, is becoming increasingly meaningful, not just to me, but surely, to the rest of the world.