PODCAST
Unbound
September 12th, 2024
Daniel 3:24-39
While there’s much to explore within the walls of the fiery furnace, one word leaps from the biblical page: “unbound.” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tied up, bound, and cast into the flames. Yet, moments later, they were unbound, seen walking freely through the flames that roared around them.
The corresponding biblical images are many. Isaac was bound to a sacrificial altar (Genesis 22). Lazarus was dead and buried (John 11). Jesus was bound by grave clothes (Matthew 27). Paul and Silas were flogged and chained in the Philippian prison (Acts 16). Yet in each case, release comes: in an alternate sacrifice, a call from Jesus, a pile of grave clothes, an earthquake at midnight.
We are bound by much in this life. Tradition, disability, relational ties, culture, poverty, riches, addiction—all plotting to keep us in chains rather than experiencing the freedom Christ promises. Yet even when the stench is unbearable, still the words ring out: “Lazarus, come out!”
Author: Joann Shade
September 12th, 2024 at 11:49 pm
It is interesting to note that while the soldiers who threw the three into the furnace were killed by the intense heat, when the king came near the furnace to call them out he was not injured. God still had a use for him to complete the witness of three.