This sermon was preached via Zoom at our Sunday evening service on September 26, 2021, when our church was unable to gather due to covid restrictions in place at the time. The passage studied is Daniel 3. The following is a brief introduction to the sermon.
In Daniel chapters 1 and 2, we met the young men, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, who had been carried off to Babylon in exile in about 605 BC. But even as captives in a foreign invader’s court, God blessed these young men. Even as young boys, likely about 14 in age, they refused to eat the king’s food, which had likely been offered to idols, and God blessed them for their faithfulness by giving them wisdom and causing them to find favour in the court of the Babylonian king. And while these three young friends of Daniel face a fiery trial in today’s reading unlike any we are likely to face, we see in this chapter how God allows trials to come our way from time to time to test and grow our faith in Him. And we see that when we remain faithful to Him and reject temptations to compromise with the world or deny Christ, God is with us and keeps us.