Defy tyrants to the fire: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego
Evanston Nouveau Rotary Club bonfire at the Evanston Lighthouse beach. Photo: Gerald Farinas.
Today, we read Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95.
In Daniel 3, we meet three young men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—who stand at the edge of a fiery furnace, not because they did something wrong, but because they refused to bow to the pressures of a broken system.
They lived in a world ruled by power-hungry leaders and unjust decrees.
Sound familiar?
Nebuchadnezzar, the king, gives them one last chance to comply, to go along with the golden image, to bend their knee for the sake of safety and security.
But they respond not with fear, but with faith: “Our God is able to deliver us… but even if He does not, we will not serve your gods.”
It’s a powerful moment of defiance, not in arrogance, but in conviction.
They believed God was bigger than the fire.
Right now, many of us feel the heat.
We watch political unrest, economic instability, injustice, uncertainty—and the temptation is to bow to despair, to fear, or to compromise our integrity just to get by.
But this passage reminds us that God is still present in the fire.
When the king looks into the furnace, he’s shocked.
“Didn’t we throw three men in?” he asks. “But I see four—and one looks like a son of the gods!”
In their darkest hour, God didn’t just deliver them from the fire; He met them in it.
Friends, God may not always remove the chaos around us, but He promises to be with us in it.
We do not walk through these uncertain times alone.
Like the fourth man in the fire, Christ walks with those who trust in Him.
And what happened in the end?
The king, the very one who ordered their death, was forced to acknowledge the God of heaven, “There is no other god who can save in this way.”
The fire that was meant to destroy them became the platform for God’s glory.
So take heart.
Do not bow to fear.
Do not give in to the flames.
Stand firm. Because your faith—especially in times like these—might just be the witness that turns hearts toward the living God.
This is a homily from worship at Sophia Chapel in the former Swedish Home in Evanston, Illinois.
