Above and Beyond

Just a couple of quick things I want to mention this morning. These things have been bouncing around in my head for a few weeks. First comes from Daniel 3:

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up

We know the story; the king gets angry, heats the furnace seven times hotter than normal and throws them in. He not only sees the three Hebrew young men but also someone who has the appearance of the son of God. He calls them out of the furnace and…

27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

God not only delivered them from the fire, but He went above and beyond what they asked of Him. Their hair was not singed and their clothes did not smell of smoke. I know it sounds kind of small, but it was important enough to make the scriptures. I’m sure it was amazing to the Hebrews and the king!

I asked my wife if she thought that if the Hebrews would not have made the speech about God delivering them from the furnace, would God have delivered them from the furnace? Did He keep them safe in the fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than normal because they made a claim that their God could save them. Did He respond because they put His reputation on the line? She thought that, definitely God would have played it out the same way. I still wonder. I suggested the early martyrs. They were destroyed in various ways, and most of them never made a claim such as this. She brought up an article she read which came from the Martyrs Mirror about a German priest named Leonhard Keyser. This occurred in 1527. He was accused and condemned by a bishop and other priests to be burned. As they were approaching the execution site, he leaned over and plucked a flower. He said “Lord judge, here I pluck a flower; if you can burn this flower and me, you have justly condemned me; but, on the other hand, if you cannot burn me and this flower in my hand, consider what you have done and repent,” The judge got angry and threw “an extraordinary quantity of wood into the fire, in order to burn him immediately to ashes by the great fire.” When the wood was entirely burned up, his body was taken from the fire uninjured. So they built another great fire, his body still uninjured. His hair and nails were browned a bit. The flower was not withered or burned in the least. They chopped up his body and threw it into yet another fire. It came out unconsumed by the fire. Finally, they took the pieces and threw them into the river.

This man also put God on the line. Similar to what Elijah did with the prophets of Baal. Elijah made a claim. God delivered. Not only did He do as Elijah asked, once again He went above and beyond. The fire didn’t only consume the offering, but also the water and the rocks.

Also in Genesis chapters 18 and 19. Abraham begs for God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of ten righteous people. God knew that Abrahams nephew was in Sodom. Even with the deal that God made with Abraham, He still had every right to completely destroy the two cities and everything and everyone in them. It appears that Lot and Lot only was the righteous in the two cities. God never agreed to bring Lot and his family out. He only agreed to not destroying the cities if there were ten righteous. God held to His word and destroyed the cities. Where He went above and beyond is by pulling Lot and his unrighteous family out before He destroyed the cities.

I’ve known about these stories for most of my life. It just amazes me how God can take an old story like this and allow you to look at it in another light. From a different perspective. To His glory. That’s how the Bible stays fresh. I don’t believe we will ever completely grasp the whole scripture. All of it’s meaning and revelations. Even if we memorized the entire book, God still speaks to us differently from the same versus at different times of our lives. Just a little sampling of how God goes above and beyond what we expect when the faithful pray to Him.

Matthew 7:

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

God Bless!

“…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Heb. 12:14