The king isn't accustomed to being disobeyed so flagrantly,
especially not by those whom he has set in important positions of leadership in
the kingdom. His anger is white hot and
orders the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal in accord with
his anger, hot enough to kill those who are responsible for throwing the three
men into the fire. Not only are the
three men not burned, neither are their clothes, nor is the smell of smoke on
them when they come out of the furnace. The
king sees four men in the fire and the fourth like the son of God or the gods
in his parlance. This witness to the God
of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is enough to cause the king's jaw to drop and
proclaim that this God is truly a God. He
has now seen two things that this God of the Israelites is able to do that none
other is capable of doing. How, then,
was he able to overthrow that nation and carry it away into captivity since it
has such a powerful God? Seems like a
good question he should have asked.
Jesus is able to turn stones into bread, the Word says He
will be protected from harm, and He is fully human so it would seem that
kingdoms would be appealing to Him as a man.
None of these, however, tempt Him to fall or stray. He is steadfast in obedience to the Father
and knows the glory of the heavenly, eternal kingdom which is His. He sees the kingdoms of the world for what
they are, temporal, and He knows the Father loves Him without testing that
love. He certainly isn't going to
worship satan. Why do we have such a
difficult time? Grace tells us we are
indeed loved but we know ourselves to be not loveable by a holy God, it seems
too good to be true. Materialism, this
is all there is, nothing more, is another problem.
John makes it clear, we are to love one another, just as
Jesus commanded, and if we don't, the love of Christ isn't in us. It is shocking to see Cain's name mentioned
just after the command to love one another, it seems such a non sequitur to
mention him in that context. John surely
remembers the Sermon on the Mount, however, and realizes there is a shock value
needed to point us to love. In that
sermon, Jesus said hating your brother was tantamount to murder, and John sees
no middle ground with respect to love. He
also sees love as extending itself, making that love manifest, no some gooey
sentiment. Our community witness is to
be characterized by self-sacrificing love for one another. It should reflect that we don't consider this
world to be the end of all things, or even a means to an end.
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