The Fourth Man

This article was last updated on the 13th of August, 2015 by Patrick Carpen.

A story is told in the book of Daniel in the old testament of the bible of a pagan king who conquered the people of God and ruled over them for a short period of time.

Of course, he couldn’t have done this if it weren’t the will of God. God gave the nation over into the hands of this king for His purposes and divine plans.

Related: God is “wanting” to make His power known.

The king made a golden statue and commanded that all peoples of the land were to bow down and serve the statue at a time given.

However, reports were made that three Jewish men violated the king’s order and refused to bow down to the statue. The king was furious and sent for the three Jewish men. He told them that he will burn them alive if they do not bow down to the statue.

The Jewish men made their position clear “we will not bow down to your statue. Our God is able to deliver us from your hands, and if He doesn’t, let it be known still that we will not bow down to your statue”.

The king raged with anger and he ordered that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual. Then he ordered the three Jewish men to be bound, hands and feet, and thrown into the furnace.

This order was carried out and the three Jewish men were thrown, bound hands and feet, into the furnace.

Some time later, the king himself went to the furnace to satisfy himself with the knowledge that the three men who had defied his orders were burnt to ashes. But he was amazed by what met his eyes as he looked down into the furnace.

He ran back to his men and gasped “Did we not throw three men into the fire?”

“That’s right my king,” his men answered.

“But…” the King spoke in amazement. “I see in the fire a fourth man walking with the Jewish men, and they are all unhurt by the fire, and the fourth man that is walking with them looked like the Son of God.”

The king called for the three men to come out of the fire and praised the living God for the power He had demonstrated in delivering His servants.

Then the king made a decree that anyone speaking anything amiss of the God of the Jewish men will be put to death, for their God is the God of gods.

In a similar way my friends, when you put your complete trust in Jesus Christ, the envoys of the devil will return to the devil and say to him “We could not harm those people, our fire could not burn them, because the Man that is walking with them looks like IS the Son of God.”