Well, this morning we are continuing our study of the book of Daniel in chapter 3, and we have before us this morning an amazing event. It is also a great example and lesson for us concerning trials and tribulations and persecution for our faith. This is something that I think is really difficult for us to understand, to really grasp, because we have not experienced these things in our place, in our time. Yet it is a clear reality for the people of God throughout history and even around the world now that they are persecuted for their faith.

I sometimes wonder why it is that the church in the West, particularly in America, has been largely exempted by God from the normal and consistent persecution that believers have experienced throughout history. I'm not sure it is a blessing, at least in terms of the strength of the church, of growth, and of fruit. The church in the West has often been compared to the Laodicean church of Revelation—self-sufficient, lukewarm, and independent. I am thankful that I have not had to endure such hostilities, physical suffering, and isolation from society for my faith, and we trust that God knows what is best.

But one thing is for sure: we have no promise of carnal blessings in this world. We have no promise of exemption from persecution and suffering at the hands of men. In fact, quite the opposite is true in the Scriptures. We are promised that we will suffer because of our faith in Jesus. Peter says we should not think it strange when we experience fiery trials in this world because we follow Jesus. He even writes that God has appointed us to these things, to suffer for His namesake.

And certainly, we see a shift in Western culture away from Christianity and toward a more hostile attitude toward Christians in general. This is something we must prepare for, consider, and see as a likely reality at some point. Paul said all who desire to live godly in this ungodly age will suffer persecution. It is a promise, but to what degree we do not know. But the fact remains, and we see it more clearly at times, that those of the world, the world system, the sons of Satan, hate Jesus and hate those who follow Him. Jesus promised His disciples this as well. He said, if you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because I have chosen you out of the world and you are not of this world, the world hates you.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood out like sore thumbs in the plain of Dura that day when all the people bowed face down and worshipped the image, and they would not. And there were those who were watching, eager to see these Jews burn to death in the fiery furnace, ready to accuse them, report them to the king. In this world, even in our world, it's much easier to go along to get along. But that's not what God has called us to. We are to stand out by our life and our witness, by our love for one another and for the lost. They are to see that we are different, that we do not live like the world, for we are not like the world, and that we only worship the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

And the lesson of our text today is that we will, for this witness, experience fiery trials. We will be hated and persecuted, and the world will ask us to enter into idolatry with them, to be one of them, to run with them in a flood of dissipation. But it is our great desire and duty to glorify God, to trust Him, to believe Him, and to bow only to Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 

This is the lesson before us today, the example of these faithful followers of the true and living God in the midst of pagan Babylon. So let's look at our text in Daniel chapter 3. We're going to read a long passage here, kind of take this whole narrative. 

Verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits, its width 6 cubits—90 feet tall. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 

Then a herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, and symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. 

And he continues going through this process, and we see that they report on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that they did not bow down. Now if you skip down to verse 15, it says, Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn—talking to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—if you will fall down and worship, he says, good, but if not, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace, and who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. We don't need to talk about this. We don't need to give a long explanation or a defense. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. 

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated, and he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. 

Therefore, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—fell down, bound into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king. 

Look, he answered, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning, fiery furnace and spoke, saying, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came from the midst of the fire, and the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power. The hair of their head was not singed, nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them. 

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies that they should not serve nor worship any God except their own God. 

Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap, because there is no other God who can deliver like this. And the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. 

Interesting, we see the same threat there that we saw with Daniel in the vision of the statue. Remember when he told the Chaldeans, if you can't tell me the dream and interpret it, you'll be cut in pieces and your houses made in ash heap. 

Well, I'll give you four points on your outline this morning. First, an image of gold; second, idol worship; third, a fiery trial; and fourth, God is able. 

First in our text we see an image of gold. Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold 90 feet high, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon, and he brought everyone in the kingdom together. Everyone was to come, and when they played the music they were to fall down and worship. 

Let's look back in chapter 2 at verse 31, Daniel 2:31. This is the vision he had before. And Daniel speaking here says, "You, O king, were watching, and behold, a great image. This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome. This image's head was of fine gold, its chest of arms and silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found, and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 

This is the dream; now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory, and wherever the children of men dwell are the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven. And he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold." 

Now look at verse 39, it says, "But after you." I don't think King Nebuchadnezzar liked those last three words: "But after you." He is the head of gold, the purest and rarest of the precious metals. He ruled in sovereignty over his kingdom as God gave all this region and rule to him. But the vision that God gave him clearly said, after you, there will be another kingdom and another and another. He did not like this. 

And I believe this is why he made this huge statue of a man 90 feet tall on the plain of Dura, and he made it entirely of gold. It was not likely solid gold, but wood covered in gold, but it would appear to be gold from the outside and beautiful and magnificent, massive. Exodus 39 speaks of the altar crafted in this way, wood covered with gold or plated with gold. Idols are overlaid with gold and mentioned in Isaiah 40 and 41, as well as Jeremiah 10. 

This statue was 90 feet tall, was probably set on a pedestal, and we know the Babylonian engineers were known for their ability to build towers and walls, and such an image would be well within their ability. So Nebuchadnezzar makes this image to exalt himself, to show the longevity of his kingdom and rule and reign. There is no silver kingdom in his statue that he made, only gold—his kingdom. He is the head of gold. 

Now this must have been several years after the second chapter, as Nebuchadnezzar seems to have forgotten the lessons that he learned from Daniel. And apparently, Daniel was not here at this time; perhaps he was off traveling or something. You'll remember also that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been promoted at the end of chapter two to rule over the provinces of Babylon. So it seems likely that some time has passed and their faithfulness concerning maintaining their identity as Jews, as followers of Jehovah, and an unwillingness to assimilate into Babylonian culture, rubbed heavy against the king's men. 

Idol worship was one way to expose them and make them vulnerable to the king's ego and power. There's one interesting note in verse five. When he lists these instruments that are used, there were several nations there and languages represented on this day. It says, and in the list of instruments, the last two are named in Greek. 

Now for a long time, this has been a criticism of the book of Daniel. Liberal theologians and critics have long tried to say that Daniel was written much later, after 329. And they used to point to this use of two Greek terms—Greek instruments—because they said there was no Greek influence until the time of Alexander the Great in this region of Western Asia and so forth. But more recent archaeological finds have made it clear that there were many Greek traders and artisans and military mercenaries in Western Asia and even in Egypt long before Daniel's time in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, it seems that Nebuchadnezzar was quite fond of the Greeks in some aspects of their culture. 

The Babylonians apparently were very interested in music, foreign and domestic. In Isaiah 14.3, it says, it shall come to pass in a day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, how the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased. Your pomp is brought down to Sheol and the sound of your stringed instruments; the maggot is spread under you and the worms cover you. In Psalm 137, it says, for there are those who carried us away captive, speaking of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, who asked us to sing a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. 

So it's just interesting to see that this is not a valid criticism. This is one of those things where the men of the world said, see here, it couldn't have been written 700 years before Christ; it had to be written much later because of what's in it. But the whole idea there is that God can't tell the future, right? That there is no God and he can't tell us what's going to happen. 

Daniel is so detailed in its prophecy and things came to pass with such specificity that they have to try to make the book invalid. So this actually proves more the authenticity that these Greek instruments are mentioned. So we see in our text that the issue here is idol worship. And this was something that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not participate in, even at the threat of death. 

It says that the herald cried, told them they wouldn't bow down, Nebuchadnezzar brings them before him and they are unwilling. He says if you would fall down and worship, good. Otherwise, we're going to throw you into the fiery furnace, and they respond and say, we're not going to do it. 

So here was the rub. These young men would not worship the gods of Babylon, would not bow down to an image of gold, would not assimilate into the accepted norms of the culture in which they found themselves. 

Let me ask you this: Do you think idol worship is an issue in our time today? We may think that this is far removed from us today, from the church in America, but idol worship is still really the issue. Think about it this way: It's much easier to go along to get along, to compromise. This is a highly prized virtue in our culture today. And those who stand out, who are different, who convict the world, who will not bow to the cultural Marxism of our day, are hated and persecuted as well. 

There are religious idolatries today, false gods in the accepted religions of our communities as well. I think about the ecumenical movement. I remember back in the day we had evangelicals and Catholics together where we were supposed to join hands with the false Protestant denominations and the Catholic denomination, and we're all brothers and sisters in Christ, and there was a lot of pressure in evangelical Christianity for that. 

Bobby and I were talking the other day, this is just something trivial that I find interesting, maybe you will too. We were talking the other day about the May procession, which we both participated in our youth in the Catholic church. Who knows about the May procession? Anybody? No? All right, let me tell you about it. I went to the Catholic school from kindergarten through sixth grade, and every year in May, all the children from the school would participate in this procession on May Day. One little girl would be chosen to carry a pillow with flowers and a golden crown, and one boy would carry a statue of Mary. 

At the culmination of the ceremony, Mary would be crowned as Queen of Heaven, and we would sing Marian hymns. So I was interested in the root of this ritual, and it made me think of the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven," remember where he wrote, "It's just a spring clean for the May Queen?" So I want to read you a couple of excerpts about the roots of this May Queen idea. 

The earliest roots of the May Queen in pagan religion can be traced back to ancient fertility rites and celebrations of spring. The May Queen symbolizes spring's return, fertility, and the divine feminine, often embodying beauty and vitality. In Celtic and European traditions, she was associated with the Beltane Festival, marking the midpoint between spring and summer, where she led celebrations and rituals to honor the earth's fertility and the blossoming of life. The May Queen's role evolved over time, incorporating elements from various pagan customs, including the Flora Festival in ancient Rome, which celebrated the goddess of flowers and vegetation. 

Today, she remains a powerful symbol of renewal and transformation in modern pagan and witchcraft traditions, where they offer sacrifices to the pagan gods. In Britain, the custom evolved into holding celebrations each spring in which boughs and branches were carried from door to door in each village with great ceremony to ask for the blessings of a bountiful crop. May fairs and May Day festivals have been held for hundreds of years, although the idea of choosing a village maiden to represent the queen is a fairly new one. 

And this is where, of course, Robert Plant grew up in Britain, and that's where he got the line, "It's just a spring clean for the May Queen." I want you to listen to this. Arthur George of Mythology Matters writes that there's some overlap between the pagan concept of the May Queen and the Virgin Mary. He says, in the Catholic Church's liturgical year, the entire month of May became devoted to the veneration of the Virgin Mary. The high point has always been the ritual known as the crowning of Mary, usually performed on May Day, which involved a group of young boys and girls proceeding to a statue of Mary and placing a crown of flowers on her head to the accompaniment of singing. 

After Mary is crowned, a litany is sung or recited in which she is praised and called the Queen of Earth, Queen of Heaven, and Queen of the Universe, among other titles and epithets. Now, that's just interesting to me because we did that every year when I was a kid, and Bobby did too, and we lived a long way apart. 

So you see, all the parents in my church growing up, as well as the churches in your communities today, gather to watch their children walk in procession celebrating the pagan rituals of the renewal of spring and crowning an idol as the Queen of Heaven. Idolatry still exists in our day. 

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 10 with me; I want to look at a passage that Paul wrote warning about this. He's talking about Israel as our examples. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1. He writes, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. 

But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents, nor complain, as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. 

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. 

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. 

Observe Israel after the flesh; are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Look at verse 20, rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? 

We most certainly can participate in idolatry today through false worship and false religion, but idolatry includes anything that we put before God and a willingness to compromise in order to get along in the world. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could have just bowed down when the music played, and nothing would have happened. They could have gone along to get along and not caused all this trouble, and my friends, I suspect there are many leaders in the evangelical church today that would have counseled them to do just that. 

I mean, what's the big deal? Just bow down; you don't have to mean it. But you shouldn't offend people when you can just do the thing. Why do you have to be such a stick in the mud, causing trouble all the time? Whether it's the idolatry of atheism and evolution in our education system, or the ecumenical movement with false denominations, or the pressure to affirm the LGBTQ and transgender movements, or a myriad of woke cultural Marxist influences, what we see in our text is that if you stand for the truth, if you are unwilling to compromise with the world and lie—and that's what it is, my brothers and sisters—if you are willing to lie, then you will get along fine. 

But if you are not willing to lie, if you won't bow down to idols, then you will suffer persecution. 

Verse 8 in our text, therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews; they were not willing to bow down. And Nebuchadnezzar questions them; he becomes furious with them. It says in Rage and Fury, verse 13, gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they brought them. Rage and Fury, this is exactly what we see from the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin when Peter and John would not bow to their will. This is exactly what we saw from Saul of Tarsus when the believers stood against the legalistic religion of his day. He was as a wild beast tearing at their flesh, it says in Acts 8. Rage and Fury, or the rage we see from the people of our world today against Jesus and his people and his truth, Rage and Fury and Persecution. 

And it's so important that we see that we have no promise of deliverance in the Word of God from temporal persecution from the wrath of men. 

Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter; we don't need to talk about this. He says we're going to play the music again and if you'll bow down; they said, no, we don't need all that. They say, if this is the case that you're going to burn us to death if we don't bow down, our God whom we serve is able; he is able to deliver us. He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 

But if not, if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Did you notice those three important words: but if not? God is able to deliver us, no question. But if not, if it's not God's will, it's not God's ability which is in question, but rather His perfect will. We do not know if it is best; if it is His will to deliver us in any given circumstance. 

We see this throughout the Bible. Old Testament news, some were slain, persecuted, tortured; some were delivered. The apostle James fell to Herod's sword, remember? But Peter was delivered. And later, Peter was martyred, crucified. We read in Hebrews 11 about the great and mighty things God did through people of faith and history. 

Let's look at that: Hebrews 11.32. He’s talking about all the things that men, God did through men because of their faith throughout history. He says, "What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets." Now listen to this, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire" (I think that's probably a reference to our text today), "escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the enemies, armies of the aliens; women received their dead raised again to life; others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection." 

So until you get to that last part, it sounds really good, right? I mean, that'll preach in the word-faith movement. But others were tortured. Look at verse 36, "still others had trial of mockings and scourging, yes, and of chains and imprisonment." They were stoned; Paul was stoned; they were sawn in two; Isaiah was sawn in two long ways with a wooden saw. They were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth, and all these having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. They didn't realize the promise in their lifetimes. 

Peter and Paul were killed for their faith. No one, I don't believe, suffered more than the Apostle Paul. We read it in 2 Corinthians 11, his entire ministry, his entire life—shipwrecked and beaten and whipped and rods and stoned. And yet, who was more faithful than Paul? We have no promise of health, wealth, and prosperity released from persecution or starvation or anything else in this church age. 

If it be God's will, He is most able to heal me, to deliver me from trouble, bless me in abundance. But some of the most faithful saints who have ever lived have been hungry, naked, tortured, and died as martyrs for their faith. 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said this to the mighty sovereign king: We don't need to give a long explanation or defense. We don't need to play the music again to see if we'll bow down. We will not. If God chooses to deliver us, then glory to God. And if not, that's okay too. We trust and believe Him either way, and we will not bow down to your idol. 

Notice it says, "He will deliver us from your hand, O king." What happened if they were burnt up? They were delivered from the king's hand into the presence of the Lord. Verse 18, but if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. And we could have the same thing today. 

We will not. We will not worship your gods. We will not affirm that you preach the gospel when you don't. We will not lie and say that men are women. We will not lie. We will tell the truth. We will not serve your gods. God chose to deliver them. 

Let's read that again. He says, verse 22, “Therefore, because the king's man was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” This is kind of an interesting thing. He got really mad, angry, and furious, so he had them heat the oven seven times the normal amount, which really would just kill them faster. It would have been better to have less of a fire and to torture them. And he also lost some of his best soldiers because the flame burned them to death when they took them up. 

But when he threw them in, verse 24 says, "King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered and said to the king, "True, O king." 

Look, he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." Then Nebuchadnezzar went near and called them out, and everybody gathers around. 

And Nebuchadnezzar says, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His angel and delivered His servants." This is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, I believe, who came and delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 

Therefore, he said, "I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces." Now, would we have had this if they had just gone along and bowed down? It's an opportunity for God to work. It's an opportunity for God to be glorified. And as Paul says, whether I live or die, it doesn't matter; to live is Christ, to die is gain. 

God knows. God chose to deliver them for His glory, for His purposes, and we praise God for such mighty works. But my friends, we praise Him when He chooses to let us suffer and die for His purposes and His glory as well. Because whether I'm abased or abound, it will not change my decision. I am content in Christ, Paul said. 

I will, by the grace of God, tell the truth. I will not bow down to idols, compromise my convictions, nor succumb to the pressures of this pagan world. I will trust in the ever-living God and His grace, which is sufficient for me to stand, to stand in the truth and trust Him for all the details. Only by His grace, only by His power in me may I stand. My friends, He is able to make me stand. He is able to deliver me if He chooses, or else strengthen me through the persecution, the fiery trial, or even deliver me to His presence by my death.

I'd like to close with these wonderful words of encouragement and good advice from Peter. 1 Peter 2.20, he says, “For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten. What did He do? He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Thy will, not mine, be done. Commit yourself to Him who judges righteously. Do not fear the one who can kill the body, but fear the one who can kill the body and cast the soul into eternal torment. Entrust yourselves to the one who judges righteously. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for this tremendous account of what You did that day. And we thank You that You bring glory to Yourself and that You show that You are the Lord, that there is no other God. We thank You that we have salvation through faith in Jesus and that we are secure in Him, and that Your grace is sufficient for today and every day, no matter what comes. And we trust You, and we believe You, and know that You do what is best for us to accomplish Your will and purpose in our lives. And we just want to glorify You in all that we do, in Jesus' name.