is no one to help you? You are overwhelmed with problems and the circumstances of life
have just gotten too tangled too figure out. No matter what you do, you can't seem to please
everyone, and you have no strength left to try. You just want to hide in a corner, cover your
face and pretend that life doesn't exist anymore. Let me tell you, I've been in this corner
more than once, in fact sometimes it seems like I've just taken up residence there.
It's when you are in these "corner experiences," when you have no strength to draw on
yourself, that you can see the miraculous happen. The strength of the Lord is shown
more in the corner times of your life then any other. Why is that? Perhaps it's because
it's when we are backed into the corner we realize that we can't help ourselves; we are
forced to look to the Lord for His help and strength.
Psalms 9:9 & 10 "The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in
times of trouble. and they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for
Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee."
Psalms 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
Sometimes we tend to forget the Lord until trouble comes knocking at our door. Don't
you sometimes think that maybe God allows the trouble to come knocking because He
wants our gaze fixed on Him and not ourselves? I am not saying that those that have
a close dedicated walk with the Lord are free of trouble! God uses the hard things in
our lives for different reasons. It could be to refine us more into His image, to show
to others His power through our lives, or it could be to bring us to our senses and cause
us to look to Him again for our needs. God never makes mistakes with what He
permits into the lives of His children.
I want to look today at three men in the Bible that had something happen in their lives
that they had no control over. These circumstances drove them into a corner. But it's
what happened in that corner that's important and that we can draw a valuable lesson
from. This corner could have become a breeding ground of self-pity and lamenting. But
they allowed the power of Almighty God to use what happened to bring glory to His name.
When situations in our lives bring glory to the name of the Lord, our own faith is also
strengthened; for one cannot behold the awesome working of God and remain the same.
We find in Daniel chapter 3, three friends of Daniel, named Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego. These young men were Jews that King Nebuchadnezzar had set over the
affairs of the province of Babylon. They took a stand for God and refused to bow down
and worship a golden image that the King had set up and commanded everyone to
worship. The punishment for not bowing down and worshipping this image was death
in a fiery furnace.
When King Nebuchadnezzar questioned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego about what
had been reported to him by the Chaldeans, that they would not comply with this royal
order, this was the answer he received.
Daniel 3:16-18 "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the
King, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 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. 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."
Circumstances had pushed these three young men into a corner. But did they sit there
and cry over their situation? No, they did right and let God have control. Backed into
this corner, they were witnesses first hand of a tremendous miracle!
The king was full of fury it says in verse 19. He commanded that the furnace be heated
seven times hotter then it already was. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were bound
and cast into that fiery furnace. It says in verse 22 that the heat from the furnace was
so intense that the men that threw them into the furnace were killed. Then we see the
miracle!
Daniel 3:24 & 25 "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in
haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellers, Did not we cast three men bound
into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
Wow, I can just imagine the unbelief in the eyes of those looking into the furnace...four
men walking around, and the fourth man looks like the Son of God!
I like to try to put myself in the place of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These three
young men were just normal humans, like you and I. They had taken a stand for the God
whom they loved and served. For doing what was right, they were now facing certain
death. They were calm knowing that they were doing the right thing. They also knew that
they would soon be in the presence of God, but they thought in Glory...not in the furnace.
Here they found themselves in the flames, very much alive and the presence of God's
Son with them.
What a wonderful picture to us today. We might be backed into the corner of suffering,
rejection, pain, turmoil...but we have the promise that we are not alone, Jesus, the Son of
God is with us always. What a tremendous reality we have in this promise of God!
Daniel 3:26 & 27 "Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning
fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants
of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. and the princes, governors, and
captains, and the king's counsellers, 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."
They had been backed into a corner and became instruments in a mighty miracle that
changed the idolatress decree that the king had made. God had not forsaken them,
rather He used them in that corner of terrible testing for His glory!
One thing that the king said in verse 28 was, "...yielded their bodies, that they might
not serve nor worship any god, except their own God." Have we done that? Even
though we've been backed into the corner of testing, have we yielded our bodies to the
Lord to be used as He see's fit in the midst of the trial? We find this exhortation in
Romans 12:1 & 2;
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect, will of God."
Backed into the corner of testing, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego literally
presented their bodies to the Lord their God, and were used by Him in a wonderful
way. How are you doing in the corners of your life? Are you allowing God to use
these corner experiences for His glory? Or are you responding to testing with
resistance and bitterness over your circumstances? One response God will honor,
the other will bring dishonor to His name.
Remember, whatever corner you are in today that you are not alone. Jesus Christ,
the precious Son of God is with you...always!
Hebrews 13:5b "For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Sweet is the promise, "I will not forget thee,"
Nothing can molest or turn my soul away;
Even though the night be dark within the valley,
Just beyond is shining an eternal day.
Trusting the promise, "I will not forget thee,"
Onward I will go with songs of joy and love,
Though earth despise me, though my friends forsake me,
I shall be remembered in my home above.
When at the golden portals I am standing,
All my tribulations, all my sorrows past;
How sweet to hear the blessed proclamation,
"Enter, faithful servant, welcome home at last.
I will not forget thee or leave thee,
In My hands I'll hold thee, In My arms I'll fold thee,
I will not forget thee or leave thee;
I am thy Redeemer, I will care for thee.
Charles H. Gabriel
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