In every sweltering summer the temperatures soar. With mercury on the rise, oh how our tongues crave for that cool "elixir of life" (read pot or fridge water)! By the same token in chilly winter, the warm clothing shunned in summer now appears oh-so-inviting. Come either summer or winter, controlling the temperature is well within our realm. This brings me to the topic of two "heat related" instruments: The thermometer and the thermostat.
For those who may not appreciate the difference, if the former merely "registers" the temperature, the latter "regulates" it. To further substantiate...the thermometer reading changes depending on the temperature around it. Meanwhile the thermostat, rather than being influenced by the hot summer weather or the cold of winter, changes the temperature for the good.
Coming to the spiritual realm, there are also two types of believers. If "thermomete
r" Christians are influenced by the outward circumstances and pressures that they bring in their wake to conform, the "thermostat " believers, rather than going with the ungodly majority, stand-up and change the world around them for good.
Continuing with the "heat" subject, in this series of 3 parts, I am inspired to bring to the fore three Biblical incidents where one would see the godly "regulating" the "temperature" around them rather than merely "registering" it.
Firstly...
Calefactor (read Furnace)...
"Hip, hip hooray," (an anti-Semitic phrase meaning Jerusalem is fallen) shouted the enemies (especially the neighbours of Jews...Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites) in sadistic glee when the walls of Jerusalem, the Jewish capital were razed to the ground and the majestic temple therein was burnt in 586 BC by the Babylonian army headed by King Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews were getting their Divine comeuppance alright, for their continual, stubborn disobedience in worshipping idols, despite so many warnings of the disastrous consequences heralded by prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Oh how God hated to bring about that calamity, for the fact that it would appear He could not protect His people (See Ezekiel 36:17-21), would conversely and adversely affect His own Holy
Name. Unfortunately, there was no other way to bring about a change in the hearts of His covenanted people other than taking them through the chastising and cleansing fire of temporary exile.
The previous two exiles of "Royal" class in 606 BC* (Daniel 1:1-4) and the "Economy" class of people in 597 BC* (2 Kings 24:16), ought to have to served as a warning to the hard-hearted Jews remaining in Jerusalem under the reign of idolatrous King Zedekiah that a bigger punishment would come their way if they do not mend their ways. God's punishments tend to increase in severity with the passage of time...Remember the Egyptian woes? However, they turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of Jeremiah the prophet, and finally, much to the glee of their traditional enemies who celebrated with shouts of "Hip Hip Hooray", as I mentioned above, the day of total destruction arrived.
Would the Holy Name of the Almighty God remain tarnished in the eyes of the Gentiles for long?
No way!
Enter Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3), residing in Babylon with their leader, Daniel, from 606 BC on as a part of the "first batch of exiles"!
In 585 BC*, within a year of the Jews' total exile from the "Land of milk and honey", King Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps inspired by the dream of majestic statue in 604 BC (See Daniel 2)*, constructed a huge statue and ordered all in his realm to worship it. This included everyone who was in or around Babylon at the time (for it would have been impossible for everyone in the vast Babylonian empire that stretched from the Persian Gulf on one side to River Nile on the other to come to the plains of Dura where this idol stood). Any resistance to this Royal decree would lead one straight to the fiery furnace.
The story doesn't mention Daniel, and it is presumed by Biblical scholars that he, as one of the chief officials, may have been away in a distant place on official duty. His friends, who had stood by Daniel's side right from the moment they said "no" to "Babylonian biryani" (Dan 1:1-16) in line with the statutes of Leviticus 11, were not so fortunate. They were in Babylon, and as such, they were expected to come to the plains of Dura and worship the idol. Speaking both literally and figuratively, it was a "do or die situation" for them.
That they did not bend to Royal pressure to worship a pagan idol, even as the grim prospect of being thrown alive into the fiery furnace loomed in front of their eyes, is now part of chronicled world and Biblical history: "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.'" (Daniel 3:16-18 ESV)!
What was the result of their holy defiance and their eventual miraculous deliverance from the searing furnace? They were delivered (see Daniel 3:23-27), and in the end, the "villain" in the whole story--King Nebuchadnezzar--is transformed for good, so much so that he passes a royal edict: "Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.'" (Daniel 3:28-29). Thus, the One true, living God of the Jews would be revered throughout all his vast empire.
And just what did his "vast empire" entail? Yes, this included the land of the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Edomites...All the ones who had shouted just a year earlier, "Hip, Hip Horray!"
Yes sir!
So the essence of this story is...Despite being in a fiery furnace, these men were
not "thermometers" who allowed themselves to be influenced by the people around them. Rather they were "thermostats", bringing about a beneficial "temperature change" in the lives of King Nebuchadnezzar and many in His realm.
Pray tell me dear reader, are you a "thermometer" Christian or a "thermostat" one?
Prayer: Father, inspire and strengthen us not to be conformed to the worldly pressures but to walk always in the straight and narrow path of pleasing Thee at all times even whilst influencing the World for the better. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Suresh Manoharan
An unworthy servant
J and SM Ministries
Hyderabad-India
*The dates of the incidents have been sourced from Biblehub.
