Friday, January 24
“Important are the lessons to be learned from the experience of the Hebrew youth on the plain of Dura. In this our day, many of God’s servants, though innocent of wrongdoing, will be given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those who, inspired by Satan, are filled with envy and religious bigotry. Especially will the wrath of man be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; and at last a universal decree will denounce these as deserving of death.
The season of distress before God’s people will call for a faith that will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration, not even that of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to false worship. To the loyal heart the commands of sinful, finite men will sink into insignificance beside the word of the eternal God. Truth will be obeyed though the result be imprisonment or exile or death.” Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, pp. 512, 513
Discussion Questions:
1. Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. Why does God rescue some and not others from suffering? Or is the answer to questions like this something that we just aren’t going to get now? In cases where miraculous deliverances don’t occur, why do we need to trust in God’s goodness despite such disappointments?
2. If this incident had ended with the death of the Hebrew men in the fiery furnace, what lessons could we take away from it still?
3. From our understanding of last-day events, what will be the issue, the outward sign, that will show whom we worship? What should this tell us now about how important the Sabbath really is?
4. Read Luke 16:10. How do Christ’s words here help us understand what it means truly to live by faith?
5. Read again Daniel 3:15, when Nebuchadnezzar says, “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” How would you answer that question?
