Daniel 3
Through the Fire
(Daniel 3.1-30)
Jason Procopio
The story we find in Daniel chapter 3 is one of the most well-known stories in the Bible (along with the one we’ll see in chapter 6). If you’ve looked over today’s text you already know what it is, and it’s may be a challenge for you to hear much of what I’m saying today, because most people—even many unbelievers—think they already know this story. So because you know the story, you’re going to be tempted to let your minds wander.
Please don’t do that. The story may be well-known, but it’s not often that we really think through the implications of what we see here, or try to live these things out in big or small ways. There’s a reason why this story’s so well-known, and it’s not just because the imagery is striking.
If you were with us last week in chapter 2, you’ll remember that the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream, and Daniel—one of the Hebrew exiles in Babylon—interpreted that dream. The chapter ends with the king praising Daniel’s God, and promoting Daniel and his friends to places of high responsibility in Babylon.
So the chapter ended well—that’s the kind of ending we like to see. But clearly it was only a temporary ray of light in the king’s otherwise dark heart. He wasn’t converted; he didn’t believe in the God of Israel in any kind of saving way. And we know that because in v. 1 of chapter 3, we see him set up an idol in Babylon and command everyone to bow down to it at specific moments of the day.
Let’s read the chapter together—Daniel 3, beginning at v. 1.
1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 3 Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” 7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
The Golden Image (v. 1-7)
This statue that Nebuchadnezzar sets up is massive. It was ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and it was made of gold. This would have required a massive amount of gold. So the first question on our minds (particularly if we’re just reading straight through from chapter 2) will be, Why is he doing this? Why does he set up this idol in the first place? Why “waste” all that gold on something like this?
Well, remember what we saw in chapter 2: the king has a dream of a statue, with a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, stomach and thighs of bronze, the legs of iron and the feet and toes of iron and clay mixed together. Daniel interpreted the dream for him and told him that each part of the statue represents a kingdom—the head was the Nebuchadnezzar’s own kingdom of Babylon, and each successive part of the statue would be a future kingdom which would supplant the one before.
Now this may seem to be a normal thing for us (that’s what happens to kingdoms: they rise and they fall), but this is probably not how it would have stuck in the king’s mind. He worshiped God at the end for his revelation of the mystery…but then he had to go to bed, and think about his dream and its interpretation during the night, and ponder it the next day. We know that Nebuchadnezzar was nothing if not power-hungry, so the idea of all these future kingdoms supplanting him wouldn’t have been easy for him to swallow.
So the king builds what is essentially an image of what he wants for his reign and his kingdom. This time, not only the head will be made of gold, but the whole thing. By building this statue, the king essentially rejects God’s interpretation of his dream (in which Babylon would soon be supplanted), in favor of a more narcissistic determination: “Come what may, my kingdom will endure.”
That’s always been his goal, and after Daniel’s interpretation of his dream, instead being humbled by it, the king responds by doubling down on his goal.
And of course, what is the most effective way for a ruler to get people in line with a self-serving will of his own? Fear.
He tells everyone to bow down to his idol at a specific time of day, at the playing of a specific music, and if they refused to bow down to his idol, they’d be thrown into a “burning fiery furnace”.
It’s really important that we, as Christians, remember that not all authority figures are like this. There are people in authority who will apply the law in a fair and just way. Not all people in authority will abuse their power in this way.
But some of them will.
As servants of God, we may well be forced into a situation in which we are forced to choose between obeying God and obeying man, between punishment or faithfulness. This is the situation in many countries today, in which Christianity is actually illegal. We are not in that situation in France, but this sort of situation absolutely exists for many Christians today. So even though this story with the fiery furnace may seem a good deal more elaborate than what we’re used to hearing about, the fundamental situation we see described in this chapter is not the stuff of antiquated times; this didn’t end with the Babylonians or the Romans.
So for those of us who don’t live in this situation today, the questions we need to be asking ourselves are: What would I do if I DID find myself in such a state of affairs? and How can I prepare for it before it happens?
Let’s continue reading beginning at v. 8.
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.”
Trust (v. 8-18)
So you may remember from last week that the “Chaldeans” refer to the group of magicians, enchanters and wise men whose lives were in jeopardy following Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. They wouldn’t have been happy with Daniel’s success in interpreting the dream (since none of them could do what he did), and were likely gunning for him ever since.
And some of them had noticed that Daniel’s friends (referred to here using their Babylonian names—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—because that’s what they are called by the Chaldeans) did not bow to the king’s idol when they were supposed to. So these Chaldeans come to the king and denounce them.
Why wasn’t Daniel not accused along with his friends? It’s impossible to imagine him bowing down to the statue, since he finds himself in a similar situation in chapter 6 and acts the same way. Maybe he was out of the province at the time. Maybe he had become too powerful to attack directly (after what we saw in chapter 2), and this was a stepping-stone for the Chaldeans to eventually get to Daniel.
At any case, when the king finds out that these three men refuse to bow down to his idol, he interrogates them himself.
V. 13 tells us that the king is in furious rage, and he’s already an intimidating figure. And yet, when he asks them, Is it true that you are refusing to obey my command?, they answer with incredible courage, especially under the circumstances. V. 16-18:
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.”
Why wouldn’t they? Most of us would be tempted to wade into negotiations with God at this point, making up excuses like, “It’s just a statue. We know you’re the only true God. We’re just doing this for show—our bowing doesn’t really mean anything. You know that, God; you know our hearts, and you know we aren’t loyal to Nebuchadnezzar, but to you.”
But these three men don’t do that. And they refuse to do it for two main reasons.
Firstly, because they knew their Scriptures. They knew that God had forbidden that they bow down to a foreign god. They knew they mustn’t even give off the appearance of serving other gods than God. They knew their own story; they knew what had happened to the people of Israel when they didn’t drive out the gods of Canaan, how those gods ended up weighing far more heavily on them than they had imagined. They knew the Scriptures, so they knew this was something they could not do.
Side-note: the situation of these three friends isn’t remotely ambiguous—the Bible was clear as to what they had to do. But we will often find ourselves in situations that aren’t so clear. James Boice helpfully notes that:
“...moral issues seldom come to us in black-and-white terms. The world makes moral issues as ambiguous as possible, because when that is the case, it seems to free us to do what we want to do—or at least to do what we judge best in the circumstances. If we are to do the right thing in such circumstances, we must know the Word of God, because only the Word of God will cut through such ambiguity. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego triumphed because their minds were filled with Scripture and because they kept coming back to Scripture as the only fully trustworthy and inerrant authority in all matters.”
In other words, knowing the Bible well allows us to make sound, biblical decisions regarding matters the Bible doesn’t directly address. There are many moral issues which the Bible doesn’t mention explicitly. But knowing the Bible well helps us to know what pleases God across the board, not just in specific circumstances. And knowing not just what the Bible calls sinful, but what kinds of things the Bible calls sinful, what kinds of things God loves and hates, allows us to apply the Word of God even to situations which the Bible never explicitly mentions.
So that’s the first thing: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down, because they knew the Scriptures.
And secondly: they refused to bow down because they had an unshakeable confidence in God’s power and in God’s goodness.
Their response to Nebuchadnezzar is incredibly telling. Even in the face of certain death, they have an unwavering trust that God can deliver them from death, and they believe he will do it.
But even if he doesn’t, they’ll still worship him. V. 17-18 again:
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. 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.”
Brothers and sisters, these are verses to memorize.
These three men have such trust in God’s power that they believe he can literally protect them from fire, and they don’t just believe he can do it; they believe he will.
But they also have such trust in his goodness that even if he doesn’t deliver them, he’s still worthy of their worship. Dying to stay faithful to God is not a loss. He’s that good.
How many of us could act with the same determination? How many of us could say—and say honestly—that it is worth dying rather than sin against God? How many of us actually take Jesus seriously when he says in Matthew 5.29-30:
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
How many of us take sin as seriously as these guys do—that we consider sin so dangerous that it would be worth suffering bodily harm, or even death, to avoid it?
That’s what these young men are facing, and that’s what they do. Do what you will with us. Our God can save us, and we believe he will. But even if he doesn’t, he’s still worthy of our worship.
Let’s continue reading at v. 19.
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.
The Fiery Furnace (v. 19-30)
Now, we don’t know exactly what the fiery furnace looked like. The only details we have are that the king could look in and see what’s happening on the inside (v. 25), and that it has a door (v. 26). Whatever its form, it was a frightening idea—a furnace whose only goal is to kill.
When our boys refuse to bow down, Nebuchadnezzar flies into a rage. He orders the fire heated seven times hotter than usual—so hot that it actually kills the men who bring the three friends to the edge of the furnace. He orders the friends to be bound (v. 21) in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats and their other garments—he wants them weighted down with things that will catch fire quickly.
Our boys fall in.
And that should have been the end of it. Given the temperature of the furnace, the whole thing should have been over very quickly.
But that’s not how it goes. We see in v. 24 that the king, looking into the furnace, was suddenly astonished. He rises from his seat, and asks his counselors, “Didn’t we throw three men in there? Then why aren’t they dead? And who’s the fourth guy?” V. 25:
“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.”
Who is the fourth guy?
Throughout the history of the church, the fourth man in the fire has almost always been identified as Christ himself—a pre-incarnate Christ, before he took on human form and came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth.
And there’s a good reason for that. Nebuchadnezzar says that the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. The king surely didn’t understand the impact of what he was saying, but Daniel must have included it because it so closely resembled his own way of describing Christ in chapter 7—with a slight tweak. While the king called him someone like a son of the gods, Daniel describes Christ as one like a son of man—completing the circle. God himself, who would come in human form, fully divine and fully human.
The three friends are thrown into the fire, and should have been dead before they hit the ground. But there in the fire, God is with them. And not so much as a hair on their heads is singed.
All of this, because they refused to give way to fear and sin against their God. Let’s pause just a minute here and think about that.
How do you think these three friends remembered this moment years later, when they were old? Do you think there’s any possibility they looked back on this with regret? Do you think that they ever shook their heads and thought, Why didn’t we spare ourselves this ordeal?
Of course not.
I’d be willing to bet that this moment became the most precious memory of their lives—better than their greatest comfort or pleasure. They were in the midst of death itself, and God was there with them, so they were protected.
How do you think these three will look at Christ in the new heavens and the new earth? All of us who belong to Christ will look upon him and see his glory, and that will be enough. But on top of a perfect view of Christ’s glory, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego will also have this memory of when he came to them, before his incarnation, before his life, death and resurrection, when he showed them his goodness in a completely awesome and completely unnecessary way.
You don’t regret something like that. You don’t look for something better than that.
The biggest lie our sinful desires tell us when tempting us is that if we don’t give in to temptation, we’ll regret it. That we’ll be missing something if we don’t give in. But refusing sin—no matter what the consequences in this life—is never something we will regret. We will have to suffer the fire of temptation. We may have to suffer unjust consequences—rejection or ridicule or persecution—for not giving in to sin. But in all of that, Christ is with us in the fire.
And for the rest of eternity, we’ll remember he was there with us, and we will not regret it. No matter what fire we have to walk through as a consequence.
Let’s go back to Nebuchadnezzar. The king sees what’s not happening with these three men (and their mystery friend) in the fire—i.e., they’re not dead—and he’s just beside himself. He calls for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to come out, because the fire’s too hot for anyone else to get close. And when they come out, there’s not a single sign that they’d been anywhere near a fire. If they’re sweating, it’s because of all the layers they’re wearing—there’s not a whiff of smoke on them.
Now, at this point we start to see a progression in the way the king speaks about the God of the Israelites. In chapter 2, after Daniel interpreted the dream for him, he declared (Daniel 2.47):
“Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.”
Not quite right—he’s not the God of gods, because there are no other gods. He is the Lord of kings, but clearly Nebuchadnezzar didn’t really feel the weight of that before, because right after we see him rejecting God’s interpretation of his dream for his own selfish will.
He takes a big step in the right direction after the fiery furnace. He says (v. 26):
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!”
That’s much closer—that’s how God’s own people often refer to him. So he praises God in a better way—and that’s good—but clearly he’s still a bit confused, as we see in v. 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.
So he says a good thing, acknowledging God’s power, but he takes it way too far. At any rate, God’s not done with him yet; and when he is, the king will be saying just the right thing, in just the right way.
In the Fire
Brothers and sisters, this story should be a major reality check for many of us.
If you’ve grown up in church, it’s likely that you’ve been hearing this story your whole life. (Told on paper through felt-boards or corny videos, more than likely.) If you’re like me, then you’ll remember hearing this story as a kid, and loving the romance of having to make this massive stand for God. It’s like something out of Braveheart. “No matter what you say, no matter what you do—even if you kill me—I’ll stand by my convictions.”
We like to think that if we were in this situation, we’d do the same thing these guys did.
But if it’s possible, we need to try to set aside all of our childish notions of the story, because this passage is forcing us to confront reality, in a pretty brutal way.
We love the idea of making this kind of huge, admirable stand for God—but all too often, we can’t even make small, inconsequential stands for God. Many of us can’t even do something as simple as not clicking on a link which will show us something God tells us not to look at.
I don’t want to discourage anyone, but let’s be honest. If you refuse to obey God in small ways, you will almost definitely refuse to obey God in big ways. As Jesus said in Matthew 25.21, it is when we are faithful over a little that he sets us over much.
These men weren’t perfect, but clearly they had grown used to obeying God on a day-to-day basis—not only in the big stands they could take, but also in the small ways we all take for granted. (We’ve already seen it in this book—their obedience to God extends to their diet.)
And we’ve seen it here too—it would have been so easy to bow down (with fingers crossed behind their backs), and then go back to God and say, “Lord, you understand—we didn’t mean it, we had to do this to avoid being killed.”
The only way we will ever make a big stand for God is if we have learned to take small stands for God, and obey him in everyday ways—we will only stay faithful in the hard things if obedience has become the way we naturally conduct ourselves, all the time.
So how did these guys get to that point, where not only they were able to do this, but they were able to do it immediately? How did they arrive at such a maturity that they stayed faithful despite the worst threat which could be thrown at them?
They got there because over time, they had firmly grasped God’s goodness, and God’s power. We saw this already, in v. 17-18:
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. [That’s his power.] 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. [That’s his goodness.]
God can, and we believe God will, deliver us out of your hand. But even if he doesn’t, he’s still worthy of our worship. Dying is still better than sinning against him.
Brothers and sisters, we learn to obey God in small ways and in big, as we grow in our understanding of how powerful he is, and how good he is.
God is powerful enough to give us power to say no to sin when we are tempted. 1 Corinthians 10.13:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
This is one of the hardest truths for young Christians to fully believe—because we are in Christ, we can say no. We don’t have to do what we are tempted to do. Christ has set us free from sin, so we are no longer slaves to it. With every temptation, God gives us his own power to say no. He is powerful enough to enable us to resist temptation.
And he is good enough to give us something better than sin. Hebrews 11.24-26:
24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
Whatever it is that we want, Christ is better. Whatever carrot sin is dangling in front of our faces, Christ is better. And if we doubt that for a moment, we only need to remember what he suffered for us, just to set us free from sin. In order to free us from slavery to our sinful desires, God became a man, lived our life and died our death; he took on our sin, putting it to death on the cross with him, so that we could put it to death every day.
Now, to be sure, resisting temptation is going to be hard. It’s going to be painful. The pressure of temptation doesn’t sit on our shoulders; it boils up from within, building up over time like in a pressure cooker, to the point where we think if we don’t give in and let off some steam, we’re going to explode.
But here’s the thing, guys—Christ knows that. He knows it because he lived it. He resisted every temptation until the very end—until the temptation gave out. So because he knows what it’s like, he can be with us in the fire. Hebrews 2.18:
18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire unscathed, and surely never regretted going through that ordeal, we too will treasure the memory of Christ’s being with us in the fire. We will remember our temptation; but we will also remember that he was with us in it, giving us strength. We will remember how he gave us power to defeat it, and we will treasure those memories for all of eternity.
Brothers and sisters, the goal of this book isn’t merely to impress us with God’s goodness and power; those realizations, deeply rooted in our hearts, fill God’s people with a confidence and joy that helps us realize that we don’t need to sin anymore, nor do we want to, because now we have something infinitely better.
