- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
"No Smell of Fire"
A Message to all in the Fiery Furnace.
"And the satraps . . . and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies . . . there was no smell of fire on them” (Dan. 3 v27).
Why was there such detailed reference to the bodies, hair and coats of these men? Why this closing remark that even the smell of fire was not on them? In addition to the obvious fact that they and their garments were absolutely intact, why was it noted that the cords which had bound them, when they were thrown into the furnace, were burned up, and the very men who threw them in were burned to death?
The Babylonian fire god was high in rank and honour, so the king, princes and counsellors had to see this ‘god’ defeated. The king had challenged the God of Israel, and now the defeat is overwhelming. On their own ground, Jehovah has met these ardent believers in the god of fire, and they find that He is present, not as a tribal god in Palestine, but as the God of heaven and earth in Babylon, and is able and willing to deliver three of His children. Suppose that the three men had come out with the marks of fire partly upon them, or even with the smell of it, that here and there the fire had singed either body or clothing, what would have been the attitude of the fire worshippers?
The smell of fire.
Something like this might have been said if any sign of the fire god’s ‘power’ had been seen. ‘Ah well, it is true that the fire god has not been able to destroy them but he has at least left his mark upon them. They will wear these clothes no more. Their friends will scarcely recognize them as the men they once were. The smell of the furnace will not soon leave them. They have not come out unharmed. Our fire god is still to be reckoned with. They will not be so ready to disobey the king’s command another time. They will not come out of the furnace a second time as easily as they have done this time’. And so the whole moral effect of the protest of these three Hebrews would have been discounted. The way of the world in evading direct issues of this kind is remarkable, but in this case evasion was impossible. Not one loophole of escape was left. They had to admit that Jehovah had conquered, that the miracle was perfect and unquestionable and that not even the smell of fire had stayed on the three brave followers of the Most High.
From this story many valuable lessons can be learned, but we will deal with only one. There are furnaces which are heated only for God’s children. The awful forty days in the wilderness, the deepening hatred of the Jewish rulers, Gethsemane and Calvary were reserved for our Lord alone. The fires of these furnaces would never have been kindled if He had never been. They were meant only for Him. Indeed in a sense they were compelled by Him just as Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace was compelled by the challenge of the three Hebrew young men. Hell brooks no challenge. Its fires are always ready for those who defy its power, and since God’s children must always defy its power they face the ‘furnace’. God did not prevent the furnace for His three servants, He allowed it to be heated even seven times more than usual. He did not lessen the forty days, nor the hatred of the Jews, nor the awful anguish of Gethsemane and Calvary for our Lord. It was a ‘burning fiery furnace’, raging, devouring and fierce with nothing to restrain its mad leap upon the helpless Victim.
Christ’s Fiery Furnace.
But how did He come out of the furnace, the furnace prepared by hell, specially for Him? He came out without so much as the smell of fire on Him. Hell’s defeat was final. So triumphant was His exit from the furnace that He had no complaint, no reproach, no calls for vengeance, no gloom, no sadness, no protest to the world’s injustice. How differently the world would have judged Him if He had come out of the furnace with even the smell on Him. How eager to show that after all He was not victorious. How ready to detract from the miracle of His resurrection if it had been obscured by His complaints about the Cross and the grave.
And it is just here that many of God’s children need to be warned. They have had their furnace. It has not been anyone else’s furnace, just theirs. The reality and loyalty of their Christian life has made the furnace a necessity. Nor have they hesitated to enter it. Furnace or no furnace, they meant to obey and follow Christ. And to their wonder and delight they found “One like the Son of Man" nearer to them than ever before, so that the furnace was a walk of light, and its flames the ministering angels of God. And yet, how have they come out of it? Alas, so often with “the smell of fire” on them. They go back and take their friends with them to the furnace door, and say, ‘There, that is the awful place. How would you like to have been there? And see, here are some of the ropes left over after we were bound. And there are the houses of those who accused us, and they are holding their heads as high as ever’ and so on. They hug their sorrow. They call for sympathy. They demand judgment on their enemies, and forget the completeness of their deliverance and all who meet them know that “the smell of fire” is on them. Their testimony is marred. God's character and dealings misrepresented. Christ's ideal missed. The enemy jubilant. He has at least singed them. Their failure is disaster for themselves and the world.
"He opened not His mouth."
How different it is with others! They, too, have gone into their furnace without hesitation, without anxiety, silently looking to God, with no complaint against men. For them the furnace has been more of heaven than any place they ever knew. They could have wished to remain there if only the Son of God had remained with them, but that could not be. The world must see the miracle. It must learn through them that God is stronger than Satan. It must see what a perfect deliverance God gives to His children as He brings them out calmer than when they went in. A new joy on their faces, a new peace keeping their hearts, a new sweetness permeating their lives, a new testimony to the presence and power of their Lord in the day of need, and a new love and pity for the very ones who were the instruments in the devil’s hands of all their troubles. So silent about themselves, so eloquent about their Lord, so thankful for the past, so hopeful and sure about the future, they win others and bind them to themselves with gentleness and Christlikeness. Their triumph is one of the greatest that earth knows. The Church and the world alike realize that sorrow has not soured them, the furnace has not scorched them, but that they have come out, like the three young men, without so much as the smell of fire on them.
From an old magazine
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