Bible Story Lessons

Long ago in the land of Babylon there lived a great king named Nebuchadnezzar.  He was a very powerful and proud man.  One day he decided to make a huge gold statue.  The goldsmiths worked for weeks pouring molten gold into moulds and hammering the statue into shape.  At last it was finished and what a job it was to raise it onto its base.

It was enormous and as tall as a ten-storey building!  The king had had made sure that everybody would see it from far away.  King Nebuchadnezzar was very proud of his statue and told all the people that it was their god.  They were to bow down and worship the statue whenever the horns, pipes, flutes, and other musical instruments played.  Anyone who did not bow down and worship the statue was to be thrown into a fiery furnace!

We do not worship statues do we?  No, we only worship our loving God!  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three men from Israel who worshipped our true God.  They refused to worship the statue and so when the music played and everyone bowed down to the gold statue, only the three young men remained standing!

King Nebuchadnezzar was furious and roared, "Bring those three men to me!" And so the three men were dragged before the king.  "Is it true that you refuse to worship my statue?" he demanded, "The music will play again and this time you had better bow down, or else, I'll throw you into a fiery furnace!"

Do you think those three men were brave?  Yes, they were.  They just carelessly answered the king and said, "King, you can throw us into the fiery furnace if you want to, for our God can save us!  But even if He doesn't, we will not worship your statue, and we will not bow down to it!"

If you had been there, you would have started to shiver in your shoes at this point.  The king started to huff and puff and got red in his face.  "Play the music," he roared.  So the music played, "Tra-la-la-la-di-da".  The king carefully watched the three men as everyone bowed down to the idol.  Everyone that is, except Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they just stood there smiling!

King Nebuchadnezzar blew his top and thundered, "Stop!  Stop!   Heat the furnace seven times hotter than normal!"  The soldiers rushed to do his command.  They staggered from the wood pile with huge pieces of wood and stoked the furnace until it began to roar and great flames poured out as they threw in great logs of wood.

The flames leaped high in the air.  "Tie up those men, and into the furnace with them!" screeched the king as he jumped up and down with rage.  The soldiers grabbed the three and swiftly bound them with ropes and threw them into the flames.  But the flames were so hot that all the soldiers were killed instantly!

But, what about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  The ropes burnt off and they were free, but they weren't burnt at all!  The king could hardly believe his eyes.  He rubbed them hard and asked, "Didn't we throw three men into the fire?"  He gasped, "Look, now I see four men walking in the fire, and the fourth one looks like the Son of God!"

Yes, Jesus was right there protecting Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego!   The astonished king called, "Come out of the fire!"  The three walked out praising God for they were not burnt at all, and in fact they did not even smell of smoke!

"Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego," the king shouted, "He sent an angel to rescue His servants.  Now listen, I am making a new law and no one in my whole kingdom is to say anything bad about the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for no other god can save His servants like this!"

God saw their faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and rewarded them openly, for the king made them rulers in the province of Babylon.

We need to do what's right as well and God will help us, just like He helped the three Hebrew men in our story.  They trusted God to protect them from the wicked king, and Jesus will protect us too.

All we need to do is to ask God, and then trust Him to answer our prayers.  We need to ask Jesus to help us to be brave and always do the right things.  Let's not forget to say "Thank You" and be grateful, because God loves and cares for us.

God bless!