The Lord's providences vary, and it is not for His people to decide when shall come remarkable deliverances, and when they shall apparently be left entirely to the will of their enemies without any manifestation of Divine favor on their behalf. Sometimes, the Lord's people who are bound, restrained of liberty to proclaim the Truth, find, as did the three Hebrews, that the fire burns the cords and sets them free, and really gives them larger opportunities to testify to the glory of our God than they could have had by any other course. It is not, therefore, for us to predetermine what shall be the Divine providence in respect to ourselves; we are to note the point of right and duty and to follow it regardless of consequences, trusting implicitly to the Lord.
These Hebrews had such faith in God's delivering power as armed them with unflinching courage and obedience, despite the threat and danger of the fiery furnace. Small wonder that they were honored by the presence of the Son of Man, who quenched the deadliness of the fire. Similarly, as we, the children of God, are threatened with and enter the antitypical fiery furnace for not bowing down to Militarism, Romanism or Federationism, we may exercise the faith that will be honored with the Son of Man's presence, who will make the fiery furnace the means of freeing us, uninjured by the experience, from the cords of this earth.
Gen. 49:22-26; Ezra 8:31; Psa. 23; 34:7, 9, 10; Matt. 5:10-12; Acts 5:29, 40-42; Rom. 8:17, 35-37; Heb. 11:33-38; Rev. 20:4.
