CHARACTER STUDY ~ HANAIAH, MISHAEL & AZARIAH

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Our character study for today is about three Hebrew young men who were taken into captivity in Babylon during the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah. They are Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. However, at Babylon, they were renamed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego respectively. 


Some Characteristics of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

✔ They resolved with Daniel never to defile themselves with the royal food by taking vegetables and water. We must learn from them to control our appetite for food as it is written man must not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from God. 

✔ Their spiritual inbuilt manifested in the physical such that they appear much better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. Inner beauty has positive control over outer beauty. 

✔ They passed the King's interview and were offered jobs to serve before the King. We must dedicate time to study and be educated. These young men were found ten times better than the magicians and astrologers.  

✔ They joined Daniel to pray that the dream of the King be made known and interpretation given to it. Their prayer delivered them from being put to death and God revealed the dream to Daniel. We ought to pray ceaselessly. 

✔ Daniel petitioned the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego over the affairs of the province of Babylon after the dream was revealed. 

✔ They never paid due regard to the command of the King in worshipping the gold image. They chose to honor God rather than human dictates. Obedience to God is what we ought to keep up to.  

✔ They did not fear for their lives even unto death as they obeyed God not to worship the gold image. The consequence of not worshipping the gold image is death by the fury of fire.    

✔ They were bold in responding to the King:  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Be bold and courageous in the Lord.

✔ They encounter the fourth man in the fury fire and are not harmed by it. The king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego to cast into the fury fire but nothing happened to them. The Lord will fight for you if you rely on Him wholeheartedly. 

✔ Their faith kindled the fear of God in the King to make a decree that any people, nation, or language that speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this. Your deeds will attract people to surrender to God.

✔ The king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the province of Babylon after miraculously escaping death. The power of God can promote you at any given time. 

✔ Much was not said about them after surviving the fury fire. There is no record of their death and burial. 


Supporting Scriptures: Daniel 1-3:30  

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