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THE FIERY FURNACE

LESSON X., JUNE 5, DANIEL 3:13-25

Golden Text—”When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”—Isa. 43:2

The familiar story of this lesson is one full of instruction to the thoughtful, as viewed both in its historic and in its prophetic light. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had set up an image, and had commanded all his subjects, including Israel, the Lord’s people, to bow down to it in idolatrous worship. And any refusal thus to acknowledge his supreme authority, even in matters of conscience, was made a treasonable offence, punishable with death, in the midst of a fiery furnace.

Three Hebrews of the captivity, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused to obey the king in this instance, where such obedience would necessitate disloyalty to God. In their faithfulness to God, these three men preferred a dreadful death—should God permit them thus to die—rather than the alternative of disloyalty to the King of kings, whose command to Israel was, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Yet they confidently expressed their faith in God’s ability, and their belief, in view of his promises, in his willingness to deliver them. (Verse 17.) Nevertheless, no matter what course he should see fit to take, they were fully determined to be true to God.

Thus they proved themselves “Israelites indeed,” and in consequence of their faithfulness the promise of the Lord, made to Israel as a people, and sure to them so long as they kept their covenant with God, was verified, even though it required a miracle to accomplish it. The promise reads—”When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: [This was wonderfully verified to the whole nation when in faith they obeyed the Lord’s command and passed through the Red Sea and then over Jordan.] When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Doubtless this promise of deliverance from the power of the fire would have been verified to all the Israelites in Babylon, as well as to the three mentioned, had all, like them, proved their loyalty and faithfulness to God. God is faithful to all his promises, and blessed are all they that put their trust in him; for only the faithful can claim a share in his promises.

It would be a mistake, however, for all people to claim and appropriate literally these promises which the Lord made literally to fleshly Israel only, as his peculiar and covenant people. God’s remarkable dealings with Israel—his care, his guidance, his discipline and chastisements when they were disobedient and unfaithful, and his wonderful deliverances of them when loyal and obedient, as well as his instruction and training of them—were typical of his course with the whole world during the Millennial age; but in the present time no such

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promises belong to the world. Nor do they belong to Christians except as in a symbolic sense applied to them as new creatures in Christ, during this Gospel age.

On the strength of these promises of temporal deliverance, no Christian, and certainly none of the world, can claim general exemption or deliverance from present calamities, though God does sometimes deliver them. God, who promised to defend Israel both nationally and individually whilst obedient, has never promised to defend so-called Christian nations against their national enemies, nor Christian communities nor individuals against persecution for conscience’ sake by fire or sword, nor from calamities of various sorts, but on the contrary forewarns us, “They shall despitefully use you and persecute you.” “Yea, and whoever will live Godly in this present time (the Gospel age) shall suffer persecution.” Yet as an offset God has given us spiritual advantages and “exceeding great and precious promises,” much more valuable than length of days under present conditions and deliverance from present persecutions. And we have his blessed assurance that all the temporal evils which are permitted to befall us shall work together for our good, so long as we remain loyal and faithful to God—”work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

To be loyal and true to God in these days requires as much courage and true heroism as was necessary in the days of gross idolatry. True, in civilized nations there is now no compulsion to worship images; but, nevertheless, there are idols of another sort just as potent in their influence upon the public mind, and Christians (Spiritual Israel) as well as all others are called upon to do homage to these idols—the work of men’s hands. We refer to the various creeds of Christendom, the traditions which men have set up to intercept the worship of the true and living God in whose Word alone is life and peace.

Few are the faithful “Israelites indeed” who boldly stem the tide of opposition and declare themselves fully on the Lord’s side by fearlessly discarding the traditions of men and daring to believe and teach the Word of God

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to the contrary. The many prefer the favor of men to the favor of God, and are quite willing to prove their disloyalty to God in order to obtain it. Rejecting the testimony of his Word, they blindly assent to the idols of human tradition and bow down to and serve them. But the devotion and zeal of the loyal and true are not unnoticed, and will not fail of their reward in due time, even though some such may yet be called upon to walk through the fiery furnace of affliction to prove their devotion to God in not bowing down with the majority.

“When through fiery trials their pathway shall lie,
His grace all-sufficient shall be their supply.
The flames shall not hurt them—God only designs
Their dross to consume and their gold to refine.”

Not only have there been in the past such trials of faith and loyalty, but there are also at the present time; and in some respects a still more fiery trial yet awaits God’s consecrated ones, as we understand the Scriptures, and as the signs of the times read in the light of the Bible clearly attest.

Of this indication, mention has already been made. The time is fast approaching when the religious liberty now enjoyed will be greatly restricted and when, as a consequence, the present work of disseminating the truth will be interfered with by the strong hand of combined civil and ecclesiastical power. And therefore, in view of such interference, we are forewarned by the Lord that “the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4); and by the Prophet Isaiah (21:12) that “the morning cometh, and also the night.” And those who properly heed the warning will let it have its designed effect of increasing their diligence in the use of present opportunities.

That the persecuting power which is thus to interfere with and cut short the opportunities of the consecrated, to spread the truth, is to arise from the allied powers of Christendom, or more particularly from allied Protestantism under the direction and control of the spirit of the Papacy, is clearly indicated in the symbolic prophecy of Revelation 13th chapter, under the figures of the “Beast” and his “Image.” Those of our readers whose file of TOWERS extends back to January, 1882 (we have no more), will find the teaching of Rev. 13 th therein set forth. There we showed that the “Beast” which was to command and receive the homage of the world for 1260 years is the great Papal System; and the “Image of the Beast,” subsequently set up, after the “Beast” had been largely shorn of its power, is the great Evangelical Alliance of so-called Protestant denominations.

The image or likeness of this organization to the “Beast” consists in its doctrines and in its general policy. And although the likeness is not yet complete, the Revelator, in verse 15, indicates that the persecuting power will ere long complete this, and that the order will go forth practically that all who will not worship (reverence) either the Papal “Beast” or the Protestant “Image” shall be killed, although the killing is not necessarily to be understood as physical: it may be in some instances, though more probably it will be killing in a social

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sense—cutting off their influence, their name, etc., and allowing them no standing or liberty as Christians.

The thoughtful observer of current events in ecclesiastical circles may readily note the trend of events in this direction. The ghost of the future power of this great Image is already filling the minds of scheming ecclesiastics of all the denominations of so-called Christendom, as their numerous utterances from pulpit and press clearly show. But let the loyal and faithful few be fully determined within themselves to be firm and uncompromising in their zeal for God and the truth, assured that, even though they may be called upon to go through a furnace of affliction, God will be with them in the midst of the fiery trial, and, as spiritual new creatures in Christ, they shall not be hurt—but blest by the Master’s presence and communion.

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— May 15, 1892 —