Daniel 3

Trouble For The Righteous (3:1 – 3:30)

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were greatly honored because Daniel had interpreted the king’s dream, but their honor was to be short-lived. It seems that king Nebuchadnezzar was not able to entirely get the image out of his mind. Finally he yielded and erected an image of gold, 90 feet (27 m.) high and 9 feet (2.7 m.) wide (3:1). We don’t have to wonder who the image favored. Undoubtedly it looked a little like the king himself. Of course, whoever would not fall down and worship the image would be in big trouble. They would immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace (3:6).

Here we get our first picture of an earthly ruler who is demanding of his subjects’ total allegiance, both political and religious. We see this tendency appearing later in Roman emperors and finally we see it full-blown in the Beast or Antichrist himself. It is interesting that Nebuchadnezzar apparently made the whole image out of gold and not just the head as he saw in the vision. It has been suggested that he was attempting to contradict the prophetic word of God thus claiming that his dominion would never end. [6]

It was not long until it was discovered that Daniel’s three friends were not worshipping the image (3:12). The king was in a rage, as most people are when their false worship or self worship is challenged. It is interesting that there was no presumption in these lads. They knew that God was able to save them from the king’s fiery furnace, but if he didn’t, they still would not worship the image (3:17-18). The king in his rage had the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and had the lads thrown into it. But God walked with them in the furnace and preserved their lives (3:25), just as Isaiah 43:2 said he would. In Daniel 3:24, the Septuagint (ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) mentions that the king heard them singing praises from the furnace. Also according to the Septuagint this event occurred in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, in the same general period when the city of Jerusalem was under siege and was burned by the Babylonians.

The event of the fiery furnace ends with Nebuchadnezzar promoting the trio and ascribing praise to the God of Israel (3:28). But because Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, and because Babylon represents religious mixture and confusion, it was not long until he forgot all about the lesson of the furnace.

Footnotes

6. Guzik, comment on Daniel 3:1.