This is the familial chapter that recorded king Nebuchadnezzar setting up an image of gold and summoning all his officials to come to the dedication of this huge image. His command was that all nations and peoples of every language, at the sound of musical instruments, would fall down and worship the golden image he had put up.
The complaint came from some officials that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not comply with the king’s command and the king was furious on hearing this. He summoned these three friends of Daniel and gave them an opportunity to respond to his command he had instituted but Daniel’s three friends refused to comply. Their response was one of steadfast refusal to worship the image and they were prepared to be punished for this even if God were not to deliver them from the punishment to be meted.
The king became even more furious and he ordered the blazing furnace, reserved for punishing those who disobeyed his command, to be heated seven times hotter and to throw these three individuals into the furnace after they were bound and tied up.
Then came the wondrous deliverance from God for Daniel’s three friends; the king saw four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed and the fourth person looks like a son of the gods. The three men were asked to come out of the furnace and when they examined them, they saw that the fire had not harmed them and their clothes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them.
This caused the king to praise the God of these three Hebrews and to acknowledge the faith of the three men. The king then decreed that anyone who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would be cut into pieces and their houses would be turned into piles of rubble. The king also acknowledged that no other god can save in this manner.
The situation was one where Daniel’s three friends were commanded to worship an idol set up by the king and any refusal would result in being burned to death in a burning furnace. Their courageous refusal and the stance they took demonstrated their immovable faith in the God of Israel; they believed that God could deliver them if He would, but they also were prepared to die if God were not to deliver them, rather than to worship any idol. We must recall that the northern state Israel was conquered by Assyria and Daniel and his three friends were among the first deportation from the southern state when king Jehoiakim was subdued by king Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Kings 17 outlined that God’s people persisted in idol worship and worshipped the idols of the people in the land of Canaan despite God’s sending of prophet after prophet with warning after warning for them to repent. Although this chapter focused on the northern state Israel, the same holds true for the southern state Judah. King Solomon himself, known for his wisdom, also sinned greatly in this area when his many concubines caused him to worship the gods of the land. In the light of this, the response of Daniel’s three friends was even more remarkable; here, it was not an issue of voluntarily worshipping idols despite God’s command and warning but a refusal to worship an idol in the face of impending threat and death for not conforming. The faithfulness of Daniel’s three friends as well as Daniel in other contexts must have had made a tremendous positive effect on those deported to Babylon as well as those who still remained in Jerusalem. It is no wonder that after the 70 years of exile, those who returned no longer turned to idolatry but became essentially monotheistic as a nation. God was working in Daniel and his three friends to demonstrate His sovereignty and His majesty; no king or nation can usurp Him from His heavenly throne and His people had to learn to worship Him only after they had failed miserably to do so even though God extended His mercy and grace to them over and over again.
It is also a demonstration of what it means to trust God in the face of a crisis and danger. Notice that Daniel’s three friends did not assume that God would rescue them; neither was there presumption on their part that all would end ‘well’ for them from the world’s point of view. However, they clung to their confidence in God to do what He deemed fit and as far as they were concerned, whatever God allowed was in line with His perfect wisdom and love. All that mattered to them was not to compromise their faith in God and to put God to shame in the situation. It was a manifestation of a life of worship of God whatever the circumstances, a life lived through the enabling of God and one dedicated to the honour and glory of God whatever it takes. This is in line with the ‘heroes’ of the faith written in Hebrews 11; they trusted God when they overcome; they trusted God when they were tortured and put to death – theirs was a life of faith and a life lived with the hope of journeying to a city not made by hands but the everlasting city of God in the new heavens and new earth.
Christians are called to be pilgrims on this earth; we are citizens of heaven and adopted into God’s family. On this earth, we are just passing through; this world is not our home – it is temporary (like a tent) and it would pass away. We are saved, being saved and will be ultimately saved when we reached our “promised land”. The Lord Jesus Himself told us, “In this world you will have trouble (tribulation). But take heart! I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16:33).
In the book of Revelation we are told, “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink form death”(Revelation 12:10(b) – 11). Before the second coming of our Lord Jesus, there would be a time of great tribulation when anti-Christ, the false prophet and the devil would seek to win over various ones to their cause and to install false worship of the false trinity; only those who belong to Christ and who remain faithful and true, even in the face of death, would triumph over evil and bring honour and glory to God by their uncompromising worship of the triune God even in persecution, suffering and death. The response of the three friends of Daniel is in one sense a ‘prototype’; it shows us how we ought to respond when we are called to deny the one true God and to worship a false god.
It is important in the face of testing and tribulations to respond according to the Word of God; in that light, we are to cling to His Word and to depend entirely on Him and not to rely on our own wisdom or to allow fear and doubt to ‘cloud’ us. Hearken to the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah: “If you have raced with people on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” (Jeremiah 12:5(a)). For those who seek to be faithful to God, God’s answer to Jeremiah when he complained of the difficulties and danger he faced as God’s servant is so very relevant; if small crises ‘break’ you and cause us to flee in fear and murmurings, how then would we fare when we have to face the ‘enemy’ in the great tribulation and when even our lives and all that we have are laid on the line?