May 23, 2021 Sis Michelle Harris
We can find help for how to live by reading God’s Word. Let me hear you say this after me: God’s Word Helps Me
- The Bible, God’s Word, is one big book made up of 66 smaller chapter books that tell God’s big story. It’s divided into two parts — the Old Testament and the New Testament.
- Today we are going to read from the Old Testament in a book called Daniel. When you read the Bible, you can open it up to the Table of Contents to see what page each book of the Bible starts on. Daniel is where we need to go!
- The biggest number tells you what chapter it is.
- The smaller numbers tell you what verse you are reading.
- We need to go to chapter 3.
Our story starts with a word from the prophet, Jeremiah. That meant that he heard messages from God and told others what he heard. Jeremiah had a word from God that would help the Israelites, God’s special people, make it through some really hard times. He told them about some bad things that would happen to them for turning away from God. But he also said that they could still trust God to take care of them. God knew that His people needed a special word like this to help them in their biggest time of need.
Soon after Jeremiah shared this word with the people, the Israelites were forced out of their land and were put under the rule of an awful named king Nebuchadnezzar (pronounced: Neb-uh-kuhd-nez-er). This new king told the people that they weren’t allowed to worship God. Instead, they had to bow down and worship him — the king. He also built a giant, gold statue of himself. He said that everyone must bow down to his when they heard music play. If they chose not to bow down and pray, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace!
There were three guys who had heard Jeremiah’s words and believed them. Their names were Shadrach (pronounced: Shad-rack), Meshach (pronounced: Me-shack), and Abednego (pronounced: Uh-bed-neh-go). They knew they should only worship the one true God. When they heard the music play, do you think they bowed down to the statue?
No, they didn’t! This made the king very angry. He wanted to talk to them at once. Shadrach (pronounced: Shad-rack), Meshach (pronounced: Me-shack), and Abednego (pronounced: Uh-bed-neh-go) told the king that they would not bow down to his statue even if it meant being thrown into a furnace! This made the king even angrier. He ordered for the fire to be seven times hotter than usual and for the three friends to be thrown inside.
After they were thrown into the fiery furnace, the king looked inside and saw someone who looked like an angel walking around with the three friends. God had protected Shadrach (pronounced: Shad-rack), Meshach (pronounced: Me-shack), and Abednego (pronounced: Uh-bed-neh-go)! The fire did not hurt them at all! When they came out of the furnace, their clothes didn’t get burned, and they didn’t even smell like smoke!
Even in a scary situation, the three friends remembered what God had said and it helped them. And for the Israelites, remembering what God said came in handy because over the next several hundred years, God didn’t say anything at all! God’s people had to rely on the truths and promises in God’s Word to help them wait for when He would send Jesus to save everyone once and for all!
Just like Shadrach (pronounced: Shad-rack), Meshach (pronounced: Me-shack), and Abednego (pronounced: Uh-bed-neh-go), we need Jesus, and we need God’s Word to help us, too! Say this after me: God’s Word (make book with hands) Helps Me (thumbs to chest)
Discussion Time
