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The Sacred Road contains many stories of our creator and our Savior that help us with our walk today. One story is about 3 men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their country was invaded and captured by a foreign king named Nebuchadnezzar. It is written that the King built a gold statue and commanded everyone to fall down and worship it whenever music was played. Anyone who did not would be thrown into a fiery furnace to die.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not worship the statue as the King commanded. When the King heard of this, he questioned them. The three men refused once more to worship this statue. Dan 3: 18ff “If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” (The Message)

Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace to be heated 7 times hotter than usual. It was so hot that the soldiers that threw the 3 men into the furnace died immediately from the heat and the flames.

But when the King looked in (from a safe distance), he saw 4 men. And he said that the fourth looked like a son of ’the gods”. He called out to the three men and commanded them to come out of the fire. They walked out of the fire. Everyone saw that these men were not touched by the flames—not even a hair was singed. The King then issued a new decree. Dan 3:29 Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way." (NIV)

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted and believed in their God even to the point of giving their lives rather than serving or worshipping any God except the one true God. And because of that, God sent a fourth man—a saving man—who rescued them from the heat and the flames..

There is another story on this Holy Highway of a time when God sent a saving man to the people. Not just to a few—but this time to everyone. John 3:16ff This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. (The Message).

What King Nebuchadnezzar saw a long time ago is still true of this saving man. This saving man really is God’s own son, Jesus the Christ. He is our “fourth man” today that saves us from the heat and the flames.

What King Nebuchadnezzar said a long time ago is also true today. ’No other God can save in this way’.

We know from what is written, when we find ourselves in a place where no man can help, we can call on the name of Jesus and be saved in a way that no one else can. Do you see your ‘fourth man’ in the furnace? Call on Him. He saves.