In the Midst of Fire

There are few accounts that I know of in the scriptures where the righteous are placed in the midst of fire.  The first of course is the famous story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.  They refused to worship the golden image, saying to the king “We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”  Nebuchadnezzar was “full of fury” and commanded that “they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.”  After they were placed in the fire Nebuchadnezzar was astonished to 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 ” (Daniel 3:18-19, 25).  They were miraculously saved from the burning because of their faith in God. 

We find a related story in the Book of Mormon in Helaman 5.  Nephi and Lehi went to go preach to the Lamanites and were “cast into prison.”  After a while the Lamanite came to the prison to “take them that they might slay them,” but “Nephi and Lehi were encircled about as if by fire….  They were standing in the midst of fire and were not burned” (Helaman 5:21, 23).  Again the righteous were preserved from death, and they were able to stand in the midst of a fire.  Two other accounts in the Book of Mormon, though, have different outcomes.  After Abinadi had delivered his full message to King Noah and his people, “they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots, yea, even unto death” (Mosiah 17:13).  Even though Abinadi was a righteous prophet of God, the Lord let him suffer death by fire.  Similarly, when Alma and Amulek taught the people of Ammonihah, there were some who believed on them and accepted their words.  Most of the city did not repent, though, and the wicked leaders “brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be cast into the fire.”  Again, this group was not spared but rather suffered death by fire like Abinadi.  Amulek wondered why and even asked Alma, “How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save them from the flames” (Alma 14:8, 10).  But it was not to be, and they did not stop the murder of these innocent believers.  So what was different between these accounts?  Why would the Lord save the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and Nephi and Lehi but not Abinadi or these believers in Ammonihah?  We don’t know all of the Lord’s reasons, but I think we get some clues in the accounts.  Abinadi told King Noah as he was about to be burned that the event would “stand as a testimony against you at the last day.”  Mormon further commented that Abinadi “sealed the truth of his words by his death” (Mosiah 17:10, 20).  For some reason, Abinadi needed to offer his life as a witness to the people that his words were indeed true, just as Joseph Smith and Hyrum’s deaths did “seal the testimony of [the Doctrine and Covenants] and the Book of Mormon” (D&C 135:1).  Their deaths helped perpetuate the truth, and so the Lord allowed it.  In the account of the believers in Ammonihah, Alma gave a different reason for not sparing their lives: “The Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory” (Alma 14:11).  Despite the suffering that they had to endure, resulting in their physical death, they were taken home to God to a much better state.  The Lord decided it was best to bring them home instead of preserve their lives on earth.  Ultimately the attitude of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego is the one that we should have in our own trying situations where we need the Lord’s power to save us: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods” (Daniel 3:17-18).  We trust that the Lord indeed is able to deliver us if it be His will, and we will not desert our faith in Him if His ways and thoughts prove higher than our own.