But if not
The three before the furnace
Nebuchadnezzar built a golden image ninety feet high and commanded everyone to fall down and worship it at the sound of the music, on pain of being thrown into a blazing furnace. Three young Hebrew exiles — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — would not bow. Dragged before the furious king and given one last chance to comply, they answered with one of the bravest sentences in Scripture.
Our God is able to deliver us, they said, and he will. But then they added two small words that are the high-water mark of surrender. But if not — if God does not rescue us, if the flames take us — be it known to you, O king, that we still will not serve your gods.
Their obedience was not a wager on rescue. They would be faithful whether God delivered them or not. As it happened, a fourth figure walked with them in the fire and they came out without so much as the smell of smoke; but their surrender was settled before they knew that, in the two hardest words a believer can pray.
“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.”
— Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — Daniel 3:17-18 (WEB)
Settle your obedience before you know the outcome: I will trust him, but if not.
“For though the fig tree doesn't flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”
Much of our faith is conditional — we will trust God if he comes through. The three friends anchored their obedience in God's worth rather than his rescue, so it held whether the furnace was cold or not. The interior work is to disentangle your faithfulness from your preferred outcome, until you can serve God for who he is even when he does not do what you hoped.
Find the place where your trust is secretly conditional — the if he heals, if it works out. This week, pray it through to a but if not: name your hope honestly, then settle your obedience to God regardless of the result.
There is a faith that is really just a negotiation — it will trust God if he comes through and praise him if the furnace turns out cold. The fire reveals it for what it is. But a but if not faith rests on his worth rather than his rescue, and no good outcome can buy it off, no bad one can break it.
Much of our faith is quietly conditional — we will trust God if he comes through, obey him if it works out, praise him if the furnace turns out to be cold. The three friends drew the line somewhere deeper. They would obey God whether or not he rescued them, because their faith rested on his worth, not on his rescue.
This is the surrender that the comfortable rarely have to make and the suffering often discover: a but if not faith, that holds even when the deliverance does not come. Faithfulness that depends on a good outcome is really just a negotiation. The fire reveals which kind you have.
- Where is my trust in God secretly conditional on a good outcome?
- Would I still obey him if the deliverance never came?
- Is my faithfulness worship, or a negotiation?
Lord, you are able to deliver me, and I trust you will do what is good. But if not, I will still serve you. You are worth it. Amen.