Hello all!

Today’s story is from Daniel chapters 1 and 3.

The people of Israel and Judah had been taken away from the promised land and were under the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

There was a man named Daniel from Judah and his 3 friends (who were given new names when they went to Babylon) who were called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They loved God. And they were all told to work for the king.

The king provided food and drinks for the workers, but it was food that God’s people weren’t supposed to eat. So Daniel and his friends obeyed God and only ate vegetables and drank water…and they were healthier and stronger than all the other workers!

The king was very happy with Daniel and his friends and God made them very wise. (They understood a lot of things and were good at giving advice). The king made them his helpers and whenever he needed help figuring something out, he would go to these 4 guys.

Later, the king made a big gold statue and told everyone they had to bow down to it and worship it. Anyone who did not worship the statue would be put into a fire and burned.

But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego remembered that they were only supposed to worship God, not statues and they refused to bow down and worship it.

This made the king very angry and he had them brought to him. “Is it true that you won’t worship my statue? If you don’t, I will put you into the fiery furnace and you will die. No god can save you from that?!”

But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told the king, “We will not worship your statue. If we are thrown into the fire, our God CAN save us. But, even if He chooses not to, we will never worship your pretend god.”

So the king had them tied up and he told his servants to make the fire SEVEN times hotter than usual. It was so hot, the servants who threw them into the fire even died!?

But when Nebuchadnezzar looked in…there were not three guys…there were FOUR! They had no more ropes on them and one was very very bright and shiny! He knew it must be God.

The king called for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to come out. They had not been burned at all by the fire! They didn’t even smell like smoke!

The king was so amazed, he told all the people that their God MUST be the real God and that from now on, everyone was worship the REAL GOD.

Sometimes it can be hard to do the right thing. We can know that God is always in control and that His way is the best way. Sometimes doing the right thing for God, might have bad consequences with other people (like when they were thrown into the fire). But we can trust that God ALWAYS loves us, ALWAYS knows what is best for us and will ALWAYS honor us if we obey Him.

Today we watched the veggie tales Rack, Shack and Benny.

We’ll have more from Daniel tomorrow. Love to you all!