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A very, very short message on "when God shows up"
The 3 Hebrew boys knew something others did not know. Infact, What they knew influenced their stance. It was, "if we perish, we perish..." Crazy I'd say.
They were resolute in their decision not to bow down to man made gods.
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They were indeed defiant and unconsciously playing to the gallery of their enemies, who without a doubt, wanted them dead.
Note, Defiance had consequences at this times.
The consequences of their defiance was death, horrible death, the slow kind of painful death, yet,
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they defied the most powerful king on earth.
This brazen act of bravado though, extraordinary, was nonetheless, unacceptable. No one defies the kings decree, least of all, Jews.
The king was duly updated by some "Tatafos" & under Persian law, decrees, once pronounced by the
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king and sealed with the royal seal, could not be reversed.
They were subsequently arraigned before the king and with what I call the guts of a meniac, they looked the king in the eye, and told him point blank, that on this issue of bowing to your man made god, we are not
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going to bow down. This was no longer a joke.
Daniel 3:16 KJV
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
[17] If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning