“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. 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. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.’” Daniel 3:16-18
It was an impossible situation in around 600 BC.
As young boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had been taken into exile by the Babylonians who had conquered the kingdom of Judah. Although raised along with the prophet Daniel in this pagan culture, they held firm to the God of Israel.
Never was that more apparent than when the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, set up a golden idol and told everyone to bow down and worship the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Now grown men, they refused and were brought before a very angry king to answer for it.
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It was an impossible situation in May 1940.
The British Expeditionary Force, sent onto mainland Europe to help fight a neo-pagan culture that sprang up around the Cult of Hitler, was no match for the juggernaut that was the Nazi army.
Never was that more apparent than when they were pinned down at Dunkirk in Belgium, surrounded on three sides by the poised-to-strike Nazis and with the unyielding English Channel at their backs.
Now stranded, they faced Hitler’s troops who were preparing to deliver the fatal blow.
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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had three responses for the king:
- We don’t need to answer you on this. 2. Our God can save us. 3. But if not, we still won’t serve false gods.
They revealed the victory in their hearts despite the situation: They would not yield to the tyranny and ego of Nebuchadnezzar.
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From Dunkirk, a British naval officer cabled three words to his commanders in London:
“But if not.”
These three words revealed the victory in their hearts despite the situation: They would not yield to the tyranny and ego of the despotic leader of the Nazis.
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In a rage, Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego bound and thrown into the fiery furnace that burned so hot it killed the armed guards who brought them to its opening. Yet when Nebuchadnezzar looked in, he saw four men, walking around, free, and the fourth looked, as Nebuchadnezzar said, “like the Son of God.”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego emerged from their seeming doom, unscathed, and all the attention turned from the idol Nebuchadnezzar had set up to the God of Israel, who miraculously saved his faithful servants.
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In the seeming face of destruction, the British Expeditionary Force knew only a miracle could save them. Rather than announcing despair, however, the message was filled with hope — that God could save them. And hundreds of Brits, in boats large and small, answered courage with courage and made up the largest civilian flotilla in modern history. They ferried home some 350,000 formerly stranded troops.
As they emerged from their seeming doom, the world watched, astonished that the fatal blow to the Allies never landed. Although few now remember the cable that stirred so many hearts, historians still refer to this event as “the miracle of Dunkirk.”
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As Pastor Jon Hathorn said this year on Palm Sunday, “The victory is seen in our obedience.”
On this Memorial Day, we are especially grateful for all those who have given their lives in service for good in this world and also for those who live their lives daily in service to God.