They do not serve your gods and they do not worship the golden statue that you have set up. …if you do not worship, …who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands? Daniel 3:1-18     Material people,  material things – with Nebuchadnezzar, this was about control. Daniel has just told the king what God revealed to him as to the contents of the kings dream and then interprets the dream. The king doesn’t seem to realize that the God who reveals his plan in the dream is the same God who reveals the dream to David. Nebuchadnezzar never considers that this God is greater than the king himself. Why build a statue? The statue has no life and therefore, no power, no authority and no purpose. Aside from the fact that bowing to an inanimate object violated their Law, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t even bother to defend their defiance of the king’s decree. Even today it doesn’t make any sense! God has planted us in the midst of the world to bear good fruit as leaders in our faith. We don’t have to defend our walk in Christ because the living God we serve, who has placed us where we are, still today – even in our own uncertainty – defends his own. Alleluia! The Lord is Risen Indeed.

If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, he will deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king.  Daniel 3:1-18