Daniel 3:8-30--The Fiery Furnace

Daniel 3:8-30
English Standard Version
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The Fiery Furnace
8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. 9 They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. 11 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this 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. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. 22 Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. 28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” 30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

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I teased this part of the story a bit last time.  Note that we are not told that Daniel or his three friends were actually seen not bowing down to the king's idol (I'm going to call it what it was).  Instead, some Chaldeans,  the elite ruling class of the  Babylonian Empire at this time, seemingly motivated by jealousy, malice, or both, spread rumors and made accusations against the Jewish exiles, though they were really interested in making accusations (possibly without any evidence) against Hananiah, Misael, and Azariah, Daniel's three friends who had been appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon.  It was alleged that they did not bow down to the statue, nor did they worship any of the Babylonian gods and that they continued to worship and serve the LORD alone.  It is unclear from the text whether they really had evidence to this effect or if they simply knew they would not worship idols and even the king knew this to be true about them and it was a statement that didn't need to be established with fact because it was an issue of character that everyone already knew to be true.  The accusation goes further to say that these men care nothing about the king (or the kingdom) which they serve--that certainly is a lie.

The king is furious and arrests Daniel's three friends and brings them in front of him at the palace.  He asks them directly to incriminate themselves if it was true that they did not bow down to the golden image of the king when the music played, though it seemed as if he already knew the answer because he said he would give them one more chance to comply (read this as compromise).  He would order the musicians to play and if Daniel's three friends did not bow down in worship of the golden image, they would be thrown into the fiery furnace, just as the king had ordered (for he was now being challenged by the Chaldeans, and could not go back on his word, even if he probably spoke carelessly to begin with).

Then, we see holy boldness from Daniel's three friends who seem to have been ready for this day.  In saying "We don't need to give you an answer in this matter," they mean to say that no amount of time or threats will cause them to compromise.  The king already knows their answer by their character and since they are men of character, the king should know that means that they will not change who they are, even under the threat of death.  Though the word integrity is not used here, this is one of the greatest examples of integrity in all of Scripture.  They continued that the LORD is able to save them from the hand of the king, but even if the LORD would choose to deliver them through death instead of from death, even so, they would not bow down.

This is not the answer the king wanted, and his anger goes off the charts to the point where he not only does not care about the life of these men and desires to murder them, but he doesn't even care what happens to his own soldiers in the process.  He orders the furnace to be heated ten times hotter (probably an idiom and not actually measured with a thermometer of any kind), and it was heated so hot that the men who bound Daniel's three friends and tried to throw them into the furnace were killed.  It says Daniel's three friends fell bound into the fiery furnace (again, think of this as the king's best representation as the fires of hell and the king thinking he was the one who got to decide who went to hell, and that it was anyone who would not worship him who would burn in hellfire).

The king is standing there watching, hoping to see these three young men consumed by the flames, but instead he sees something that terrifies him as much or more than the dream that he had.  As he gazes into the flames, he sees not three, but four men, unbound and walking around unharmed and unphased by the flames, and the fourth man appears to be some kind of deity or at least an angelic being (we'll see by the king's word choice later that he simply calls this fourth man a "messenger" or "angel" sent to deliver Daniel's three friends).  Some translations make it as if he says he saw "The Son of God" (a preincarnate appearance of Christ called a Christophany).  I think this is a bit of an overstatement seeing the rest of the statement the king makes about how he views the LORD at this point.

The king does make a new decree that no one is to speak anything negative about the god of Hananiah, Misael, and Azariah (again, I'm using their given Hebrew names though the text uses their Babylonian names).  The king is learning more and more about the LORD with each of these encounters.  This time, he learns that the LORD is the Savior of His people and is "mighty to save."  He is stronger than all of the king's strong men, and the king fears angering Him, though it does not appear that he is ready to submit to Him at this point.  The king orders that anyone that speaks evil against the LORD will be torn limb from limb and have their houses made into a heap (probably a trash/dung heap).  This command was for all people of all nations and all languages for, "there is no other god who can rescue in this way."  The king realizes that even his Babylonian idols can't do that.

Then the Chaldeans get the exact opposite of what they hoped for.  Instead of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah being disposed, they were promoted.  The LORD protected them and the king elevated them to even higher positions in government in the province of Babylon.  This probably makes Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah the king's four closest advisors.  This is a pattern that we see in the Old Testament--the LORD will call his people who were taken captive to serve in the court of the pagan king to help turn the heart of the king towards him--we see this in the books of Esther, Nehemiah, and Daniel.  God often calls his people to work in government, even governments that are run by pagan and idolatrous people.  We can't always live in and work for a theocracy like what the Kingdom of God will be one day (even Israel couldn't do that perfectly when the Law set up a theocratic system of government for them).  Minister where God has planted you, whether that is to minister to kings and governors or to the homeless, widows, orphans, and prisoners, or simply to be called to minister to your family, friends, coworkers/coeds and neighbors.