So, to continue with our 3 friends and the fiery furnace…
Daniel 3: 25 says that King Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
The only thing that God allowed to be touched by the fire was the ropes that bound the men. Sometimes we are so bound by the sin in our lives that God allows us to go through a fiery trial so that we can be freed from that long term bondage.
When the men came out, “They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.”
Nine years ago my husband’s grandparents house burned down. There was not much left but some things were boxed up and have been sitting on the back porch of their new house, out in the air, for 9 years. A couple of months ago my father-in-law opened them up and the smoke smell STILL permeates the stuff.
But these three men walked through their fiery trial and came out with no smoke smell. How many of us go through a fiery trial, came out the other side but continue to rant and rave about the trials and the hard times that we went through. We’re still bitter and angry – we still smell like smoke! Instead we should give praise to our almighty God who walked through the fire with us and brought us out safely on the other side.