‘But Even if He Does Not …’

I don’t understand how God can let something like this happen to such good people,” a confused young man said as he picked through the rubble of his friends’ home. “They were churchgoing people. This (the destruction of their home and death of the husband) is not supposed to happen to good people like them.”

Confusion has been voiced by many in the aftermath of the April 27 tornadoes that struck Alabama. Why was one home spared while another was not? Why did one person live but not another?

Survivors talk about prayers, pleadings and praises to God as the tornadoes passed overhead. Did those who died not pray?

In truth, these questions are voiced every time a tragedy strikes. People struggle, wanting to know why bad things happen to good people.

How easy it is to slip into a cause-and-effect notion about God, to believe that God is like a good luck charm that protects one from evil as long as he or she pays proper homage. It is the charge Satan made against Job — Job honored God only because of the blessings God poured out on him. It is the religion of those who are more interested in the works of God than in God Himself.

Life’s storms strike everyone at some point. In such times, events don’t make sense. The pounding from the storm leaves one emotionally and spiritually numb. It is as if God is far away.

What does one do? How does one react? The dramatic story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (also Abed-nego) recorded in Daniel 3 provides guidance.

The storm faced by these three took the form of a 90-foot tall statue of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. All the kingdom’s leaders were commanded to bow down and worship this idol or face death. But the three Jewish leaders, the administrators of the province of Babylon (Dan. 2:49), would not.

Israel had been commanded to serve God alone. Worship of idols was forbidden (Deut. 5:7–10). Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not violate the second commandment and commit blasphemy.

Nebuchadnezzar had the three dragged before him and offered them a second chance to bow before the huge statue of him. If they refused, then their fate would be the fiery furnace used to smelt the gold and other metals that composed his likeness. “And what God is there that can deliver you out of my hands?” he mockingly asked.

“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us,” came the immediate retort (v. 17). Years of walking in the teachings of God had caused Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to have confidence in Him. He was able to deliver them even from the wrath of earth’s strongest king. Jeremiah, the last prophet before the Jews’ Babylonian Captivity, had taught “nothing is too hard for God” (Jer. 32:17). The apostle Paul later picked up this theme when he wrote that God is able to do “exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).

There was no doubt in the minds of the three that the God who called all things into being could rescue them so not even the threat of imminent death could cause them to turn from their commitment to God.

Most translations of these verses translate the second half of verse 17 to read, “He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.” The Hebrew verb is in the imperfect tense, which means it also can read, “He may deliver us.”

Given what follows, the second translation may be preferred. While God can deliver, the second translation recognizes that He does not always choose to intervene in miraculous ways in the midst of human circumstances.

Tornadoes strike. Death happens. Businesses fail. Sicknesses attack. Frustration and defeat stalk. Rain falls on the just and unjust alike.

Hebrews 11 says some of God’s saints were mocked, scourged, placed in chains and imprisoned, stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword, destitute, afflicted and ill-treated. Some wandered in the desert, while others lived in caves or holes in the ground (vv. 36–38).

Even today, faithful followers of the risen Lord are regularly beaten and killed in various parts of the world.

While there is no doubt that God can, He does not always save His children from the pain of life’s storms.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego understood this. That is why their declaration in verse 18 is the key to the story. “But even if He does not … we are not going to worship the golden image that you have set up,” they said.

Faith was not conditioned on what God did or did not do for them. The three would not seek some other god because the “God of their fathers” let them get in a jam. Theirs was not a “feel-good religion” that did not know how to support in the “but even if He does not” times of life.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego evidenced a commitment to God no matter the circumstances. Their goal was faithfulness to a relationship, a relationship to God so important that they would cling to it even into death if necessary.

Some attribute this commitment to the promise of eternal life. God would deliver them from the fire or into His eternal presence. Certainly, on this side of the cross, Christians heed Jesus’ words not to “fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). Believers eagerly await the time when we shall be with Jesus in that place He is preparing for us (John 14:3).

Between now and then, Christians have God’s promise that He is with us. Jesus said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). His Holy Spirit guides, strengthens and encourages. God never abandons us, not even in the midst of life’s storms.

W.A. Criswell, a late honored Baptist leader, wrote while reflecting on this passage, “My brother, I have learned something both from reading and from experience. If you cling to God and have faith in God, when the hour of trial comes, God will give you grace for that providence. I don’t care what it is.”

Experience proves that observation true: the experience of the three Jewish leaders of Daniel 3, the saints of Hebrews 11 and countless Christians today.

Why bad things happen to good people remains unanswered. It is a mystery met with the echoing response of “why not?” What is clear is that God asks His children to trust Him, even in the “but even if He does not” times of life.