What If God Doesn’t Do It the Way You Expected?
What if God doesn’t do what he said he would do? Or maybe harder, what if he does it, and it looks nothing like what you were expecting? Those two little words, what if, have a way of working into our hearts and leading us toward sin. That question sits underneath Daniel 3, a story you may know well, and the point of it is very simple.
As I told the church that morning, “Even if he doesn’t, he is still God, he is still good, and he is still worthy.” Everything else in the chapter hangs on that.
We Are a Lot Like Abraham
We have been walking through Genesis, and we have watched Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands when doubt crept in. Last week Pastor Mike preached Genesis 20, where Abraham again told Sarah to say she was his sister because he did not want to die. I said, “I think at the heart of Abraham’s sin, much like the heart of all of our sin, was a sense of pride, thinking he could do it on his own.” Underneath it were selfishness, doubt, and fear. God puts us in situations, he tells us who he is, and we start asking what if you don’t do what you said you would do.
The Results of Idolatry in the World
King Nebuchadnezzar built an image of gold, about 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide, and threatened to throw anyone who would not bow into a fiery furnace. It was a spectacle meant to say how great he thought he was. That may sound crazy to us, but idolatry in our own lives “feels really normal,” especially when we watch other people chase the same things. I asked the church to consider this: “our hearts may functionally be more at home with Nebuchadnezzar and the worshippers of that image than we want to believe.”
The Test of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Offered one last chance to bow, these three men did not even dignify the king’s question with an answer. As I said, “they confidently rest upon the Providence of God whatever the outcome.” They told him their God was able to deliver them, but even if he did not, “even if God chooses to let us die we are not going to bow down to you.” They knew that “even if they perished in that fire that he was still God he was still good and he was still worthy of their praise and adoration.”
When You Obey God, There Are People Who Don’t Like It
Some men in Babylon who resented them saw their chance and accused them to the king. Nebuchadnezzar had the furnace heated seven times hotter, and then he saw four men walking unbound in the fire. We may never know who the fourth figure was, but we know this: “when God’s people are told to walk through the fire, whatever the fire is, whatever the temptation, the trial is, it will not ultimately consume those who are united in faith to Christ Jesus our lord.” I don’t think that was a salvation moment for the king, but it made him eat his words.
What We Hold Onto in the Fire
Obedience does not always work out the way it did for these three. I told the church, “the promise we have from God again is not that trouble will always be far off.” The promise is that we belong to someone who walks with us, and “we belong to someone who is faithful even if the Flames consume us, and he will lead us home.” That is why the author of Hebrews points us past Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith.
Discussion Questions
- Abraham told Sarah to say she was his sister because he did not want to die. Where are you tempted to take matters into your own hands when the what ifs start?
- Nebuchadnezzar’s image was a spectacle, and idolatry in our own lives “feels really normal.” What shiny thing do you watch other people chase that quietly pulls on your own heart?
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said they would not bow even if God did not deliver them. What would it look like this week to trust that he is still good and still worthy if he does not answer the way you hoped?
Whether you were in the room that morning or you are reading this for the first time, hear the promise again: whatever you are called to walk through, you do not walk through it alone. The one who is faithful to be with us, faithful to nourish us, will lead us home.
