Fireproof
As an adjective the word proof can mean: able to resist or
repel. (It is often used interchangeably
with resistant. However, proof is a
higher level than resistant.) It is
often used in compound words as a suffix.
Some examples are windproof (impervious – not allowing entrance - to
wind); waterproof (impervious to water); bulletproof (impenetrable to bullets);
fireproof (resistant to fire). As the
title suggests our focus is fireproof. When
something is fireproof it means that although flames are around the object the
object will not burn, scorch, melt, etc.
Humans
are not fireproof; in fact, burns can be lethal. But, somehow, God can work it for some that
when they “walkest through the fire, [they] shalt not be burned; neither shall
the flame kindle upon [them]” (Isaiah 3: 2).
This came true a few years after with Daniel’s friends. If we recall Daniel’s friends refuse to bow
to Nebuchednezzer’s golden statue. And,
in fury, Nebuchednezzer ordered they be thrown in a fiery furnace. This furnace was so hot, that those who
through the worthy Hebrew’s in died burnt themselves. We, then, hear the fateful words from the
King. Let us read the rest of the
account from the book of Daniel,
Dan 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and
rose up in haste, and spake, and said
unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the
fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
Dan 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of
the fourth is like the Son of God.
Dan 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth
of the burning fiery furnace, and
spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high
God, come forth, and come hither. Then
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
Dan 3:27 And the princes, governors, and captains,
and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose
bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither
were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
Nebuchednezzer was so impressed it moved him to praise the God
of the Hebrew youth, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and
have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not
serve nor worship any god, except their own God…because, there is no other God
that can deliver after this sort” (Daniel 3: 28 – 29). God protected these three. They were able to walk in the fire like
Lucifer before his fall; when he “walked up and down in the midst of the stones
of fire in the fire” (28: 14). The
teacher’s section of our quarterly states that, Lucifer walked with impunity
among these burning stones, unburned and impervious to the flame. He was “fireproof.” But at the final consummation of the great
controversy, Satan will be flammable and will burn until he is nonexistent.
This contrast is similar to Daniel’s friends in that those who put them in the
fire were not fireproof, they died immediately.
Those who walked by faith walked in the fire, and those who did not walk
by faith were burnt.
Sin is not fireproof; it is, if fact, flamable. Being that our God is a consuming fire, we
have one of two alternatives: allow Him to refine us in the furnace of
affliction during this probationary period, purging the dross from our
characters until the pure gold of His image shines through, or refuse to yield
and endure the refining process in the lake of fire; both choices burn up the
sin in us. But, one consumes only the sin and results in eternal life; the
other consumes us and ends in eternal death.
We need to remember that the everlasting fire is in heaven and
not in hell (Isa 33:14). In heaven, God’s people will be forever “fireproofed ”
(Isa 33:15). God has sent His message that, if believed, will both purge and
make us “fireproof.” It is the message of His righteousness presented in the
most alluring terms in His counsel to Laodicea (Rev 3:18). Those only who are
made righteous by faith in Christ alone will be made fireproof that will last
throughout eternity.
