faith

Written by Jennifer Azubuike It must have been a normal day in heaven. Angels taking orders; YAHWEH, maybe, reviewing orders; the twenty-four Elders and the Seraphim worshiping; Jesus advocating… Just a regular day – when all of a sudden there was a stand still because The Most High ordered a hush! Angel Gabriel turned around to see what the sudden hush was about and found The Father with Christ by His side looking intently down into the earth. Something big must be happening down there to call such attention. He leaned to another angel and asked, “What did I miss?” “Uhm…I am not sure.” The Angel replied. Gabriel moved closer to see. In Babylon there were three young men standing in front of a crowd. This large crowd were all before a magnificent man-like image of earthen gold. He could see a furious King huffing and puffing at these young men. By divine supernatural knowledge, Gabriel could see that these three men were righteous. Who are they and why are they drawing so much attention from us? Gabriel thought. Curiously, he listened intently to the conversation among the men as he could hear it. At that time, everyone in Heaven could hear it. “We serve a living God and will not worship your golden image O King.” The three men chorused. * * * Let’s rewind to how it started. Earlier that year, there had been rumors in the capital city of Babylon that the King was working on a big project. Shadrack was sitting in his office one day when the Chief engineer brought in a budget for approval. “What?! What kind of project would require such big budget?” “Well, it’s a new god for Babylon and the King wants it to be grand. In fact, it is being made entirely of gold that is why the budget is big. I just need you to sign here.” Shadrack shook his head as he signed off on the budget. There are so many gods littered around Babylon, what difference would this one make even if was made of gold? It won’t speak or do anything helpful besides just being a new center of attraction to Babylonians for another few years. Being of Hebrew descent, the God of his own ancestors has evidence that He is alive and spoke to the people when He wanted. The gods in Babylon do not do such. Personally, he thought it was dumb to invest so much in something so useless, but he was only an overseer, and does not really have a say when it directly involved the King. Afterwards, Shadrack did not think much of the incident again except for mentioning it in passing to his friends – Daniel, Meshack and Abednego – until that fateful day. An order had gone out to have every person that held a leadership position in the country to gather at the temple for an occasion. The invitation read ‘Dedication of the King’s image.’ It was signed by the King was very important. Right off the bat, Daniel declined to attend. Daniel was a man of impeccable reputation and has long established it publicly that he only worshiped one God – that is the God of his ancestors. Even the King knows this and reveres him for it. Therefore, nobody bothered that he did not attend. However, Shadrack was curious to see the project he had heard so much about. Meshack and Abed-nego went out of a sense of duty to the King. Little did they know that they would end up in the precarious position of choosing whether to bow or not to bow to the king’s image. * * * [Back to present] King Nebuchadnezzar laughed hysterically. “Here, I will give you another chance. Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn… and all kinds of music and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, very good. But if you do not worship, you shall be thrown at once into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can rescue you out of my hands?” Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied without hesitation “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to answer you on this point. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. 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!” Gabriel smiled. So that is what is drawing the attention of Heaven. They are men of incredible faith. He looked on. The King was aggravated by their response and immediately commanded that the burning fiery furnace be heated seven times hotter. He had to appease his injured pride. These three Hebrew men will be a public example of what happens to anyone who tried to make mockery of him. He will destroy them by burning them alive. At that moment, there was a great stir in Heaven. What will The Father do? Will He let these men be martyred? Gabriel laid a hand on his sword still sheathed and looked at The Father. His thoughts were clear, “At thy command my Lord, and I will go.” But The Most High raised a hand to calm the stir and turned to Jesus. “Son, will you go?” “But Father, it is not my time to manifest on earth, yet.” “I know, but Nebuchadnezzar challenged Me, so I want him to see Me.” “Hmmm…Okay, I will go, My Father, I will keep them safe.” Heaven rejoiced and continued to watch as Jesus descended to earth. When King Nebuchadnezzar followed through with his threat and threw the young men into the furnace even the henchmen that took them to the furnace died from the heat. But