Last Word

Daniel 3:15  … and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

Two young boys wrestle with determined effort against each other in the soggy, wet yard.  After depleting every ounce of aggravated energy against the other, they halt in silent agreement.  Each boy lies on his back looking into the sky.   Each pants and draws deep breaths in rapid succession.  They are at an impasse.  Who is right, who is wrong?  If one can’t overpower the other, then more power must be summoned.  Finally, one boy takes a deep breath and with final surrender of self aggrandizement he throws down the inevitable and ultimate gauntlet left to a growing, yet dependent young boy.  “My dad can beat up your dad, any day!”  For some reason, this statement brings the argument back to square one, with the other blurting out in quick fashion, “Can not!”  Which only erupts in a verbal game of kick the cans; “Can, Can not, Can too, Can’t, etc.”  The playing field has changed and is beyond their control.  Did anything get solved?  How many fathers do you know who have actually come to blows over their son’s boasting to another of his father’s superior abilities? 

Suppose the combatants weren’t just boys.  Suppose they were young, godly, god-fearing men and one terrible, powerful, and important king?  Who would expect a mere trio of young men to stand against the power and might of the Babylonian empire?  The answer is simple.  Not even God expected them to stand against the king.  But, the king went beyond his prescribed playing field when the trio of defiant men would not obey.  The king, seeing his own impotence in changing the status-quo, placed superior power on his gods and inferiority on God.  It wasn’t that the king expected his gods to defeat their God, but that God could not interfere with him because of his gods.  Many have been martyred in their belief and servitude to God.  It seems to me the difference between the fate of these men and many other Jews at the time were simply that Nebuchadnezzar challenged God by just having to have the “last word”.  Have you ever noticed it’s usually the “last word” which causes the most trouble in life?

I have always wondered why these three young Jews were afforded such miraculous deliverance.  Was it their piety? – Perhaps.  Was it their plight or that it wasn’t their “time”? – Again, perhaps.  Mostly, I think it was the king’s doing.  He had proclaimed their sentence, and though it sounded unjust, it was the sentence accorded by decree and the law of the land in which they dwelt.  But, then, he had to add a little flair and attack their reason for defiance.  “Who is that God?”  Should God have turned a blind eye and deaf ear?   

Today, in many nations, Christians suffer execution and persecution for their belief because it is the law of the land.  Does God provide a miraculous deliverance for each and every one of these saints?  It’s not that God doesn’t care, but that God can see the effect of each of our lives on the world around us.  He will use our lives according to His will and we should be willing and ready for Him to do so.  For some, martyrdom is the greatest service they can give to their Lord.  For others, deliverance grants a greater service.  We should trust God to do with our lives that which He will.  It is our greatest calling.

Many suffer, occasionally, from a bit of doubt or lack assurance in their salvation.  It is usually the action of sin, temptation, or Satan’s influence in our lives which creates such a state of apprehension.  But even as this king, in solid defiance to God, proclaims a sentence of hell to these three, so too, do we let ourselves and Satan convince us of certain, fiery, damnation.  Doesn’t resurrection stagger the mind and death’s transience defy logic?  Not to mention the far-fetched concept of Heaven and eternity.  Satan and sin has indeed influenced our culture.  How often do you think Satan looks to the heavens and shakes his fist at God and cries that he’ll get at least one believer into Hell?  It is his only hope.  If he can snatch one saint into hell, he can overcome God’s salvation plan.  Satan may hover near the death of a saint, hoping to snatch the soul of the dear departed, but God and a heavenly host protects us from his grasp.  How often do you think it took for Satan to learn this particular lesson?  How often do you think he assaulted the ramparts of Christ’s Keep before he gave up in defeat?  It is in God’s promise we should believe in deliverance from the sentence of death and destruction, but it is God’s proof to us and Satan in which we can ultimately rely.  Not once in the Bible has God broken a covenant.  God has, in fact, proven each covenant at every opportunity, not only to the involved parties, but to every witness, as well.  Why should we worry?  Satan is in the wings and he’s shaking his fist at God and recruiting others to do the same.  It is, in a way, the actual battle of one father against another.  Whose Father is superior, the dead man’s or the believer’s?  Besides, the proof’s in the pudding.  Do you think Satan left Heaven voluntarily?

Daniel 3:16-18  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

How strong are your principles and belief?  Consider their “last word”.  Would you repeat the last sentence to accusers and to Satan if given the chance?  Can you imagine?  In essence they said, “We will serve God, whether we are delivered from your hell or not.  (Remember the Lake of Fire was made for Satan and his angels, so it is his, not ours!)  Consider this thought; do we serve God because of our deliverance or in spite of it? 

Perhaps, this is the root of our demise in today’s world.  God should be our God no matter what any other charlatan has to offer.  Is God, indeed, your God?  Some Christians think themselves at a smorgasbord of possibility and mistake salvation’s assurance for permission to dabble with other’s gods and revel in sin.  Assurance does not permit sin, but offers escape and deliverance from sin.  So, who is their God?  Are they Christians in the true sense of the word?  True saints, in ignorance, doubt, and weakness, may dabble, but their dabbling will cause regret and pain. 

This king set the stage but, suppose, the boys didn’t believe and dabbled in the ways of his gods?  That would’ve been worse than simple martyrdom.  It would have undermined God’s plan and though God is superior, would have constrained God’s hand and revealed weakness.  God relies on the believer as we rely on God.  It is through believers that God reveals Himself to the world and Satan suffers defeat.  Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. - Daniel 3:28 

Unfortunately, it’s also believers that grant Satan victory.  "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country" - Benedict Arnold or Nathan Hale?  What price – betrayal and treason?  What gain – faith and loyalty?  In the end, Benedict might have prayed the same prayer as Nathan.  His reasons, of course, would have been entirely different.

Mark 16:15,16  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.           – The “last word” of Jesus Christ on earth.