Knowing the Bible Too Well

It may sound odd for someone like me to say, but sometimes I think we may know the Bible too well.

Here's what I mean: when we know the stories ultimately have a happy ending, we tend to rush to that happy ending -- skipping over the important bits in the middle. Abraham and Isaac. David and Goliath. Esther, Mordechai and Haman. Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail.

Certainly, this is the case with Daniel 3 -- the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

The problem with reading these stories now is that most of us know how they end, and we want to speed our way through them to get to that happy ending. God delivers; his people are delivered; start the party.

But life doesn't happen like that. In life, you can only go one verse at a time, and you don't always know how this particular episode is going to turn out.