Agents of Babylon The Fire Men Daniel 3:1-30

This third chapter tells the familiar story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. In the first two chapters of the book, they appear only as Daniel’s friends; and in the remaining chapters, they don’t appear at all. But here they occupy center stage. Scholars believe there’s at least a twenty-year gap between the events of the second and third chapters of Daniel. In chapter 3, we see that something has drastically changed in the heart of this powerful king. The God of Daniel was no longer elevated in the king’s mind. He had decided to compel his kingdom to worship a common idol: Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits (Daniel 3:1). The image of gold was grotesque and oddly proportioned. Scripture says it was sixty cubits high (ninety feet) and six cubits wide (nine feet). That’s a ratio of 10 to 1. The average ratio of an actual person is 5 to 1. That means the image was extremely tall and thin. Nebuchadnezzar decreed that all the leaders in Babylon would bow before his image. This was clearly intended to be a religious act, for the word worship appears eleven times in this passage. I. The Dedication (Daniel 3:1-3) King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather . . . all the officials of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up (Daniel 3:2). To appropriately dedicate his image, Nebuchadnezzar sent out an invitation to the entire Babylonian official family. Verse 2 (invitees) and verse 3 (attendees) are the same list. In Babylon, there was no RSVP. If you were invited, you attended. II. The Demand (Daniel 3:4-7) A herald cried aloud: “To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the . . . music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace” (Daniel 3:4-7). Someone has estimated that the head count at this assembly may have been as many as three hundred thousand, with people coming from all over the vast Babylonian empire. When the orchestra began to play, all three hundred thousand attendees bowed down. All but three.

III. The Defiance (Daniel 3:8-12) At that time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews. They spoke and said to King Nebuchadnezzar . . . “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; these men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up” (Daniel 3:8-9, 12). The same Chaldean officials who had been spared from death twenty years earlier by Daniel’s discernment of the king’s dream and its meaning now turned on the Hebrew men. First, they accused them of disrespecting King Nebuchadnezzar: “they have not paid due regard to you.” Their second accusation was that “they do not serve your gods.” It is their final accusation, however, that infuriated the king: “they do not worship your image.” IV. The Dialogue (Daniel 3:13-18) A. The Chance (Daniel 3:14-15) Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them . . . “Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:14). Before the men could answer the charges, Nebuchadnezzar offered them a second chance to comply with his demand. This offer demonstrated the loyalty King Nebuchadnezzar felt toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. The king warned them that if they failed to fall down and worship the image a second time, they would certainly be cast into the fiery furnace. And then Nebuchadnezzar asked, “Who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” (verse 15) B. The Commandment (Exodus 20:4) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego knew the Old Testament law, and they knew what it says about idolatry: You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth (Exodus 20:4). At the base of Mount Sinai, the newly redeemed Hebrews created an image of a gold calf (Exodus 32:4). On the Plain of Dura, Nebuchadnezzar created an image of a golden man. In both cases, the second of the Ten Commandments was violated. C. The Courage (Daniel 3:16-18) Without being disrespectful, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego gave the world’s most powerful king their answer. Here are their inspiring words: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be

known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18). When they said, “But if not,” they were not questioning God’s ability to deliver them; they were placing themselves in submission to His will. Theirs was the same attitude expressed by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane a few centuries later: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). V. The Deliverance (Daniel 3:19-28) A. The Anger of the King (Daniel 3:19) Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated (Daniel 3:19). B. The Activity of the King (Daniel 3:20-23) [Nebuchadnezzar] commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:20-23). C. The Amazement of the King (Daniel 3:24-25) King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (Daniel 3:24-25). When the fourth person showed up in the flames, the event was what we call a theophany—a manifestation of the Lord in the Old Testament. Amazing as it may be, some 580 years before the virgin birth, Nebuchadnezzar saw Christ in the fiery furnace. D. The Acknowledgement of the King (Daniel 3:26-28) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. . . . on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him” (Daniel 3:26-28). VI. The Decree (Daniel 3:29-30)

Nebuchadnezzar spoke . . .“I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the province of Babylon (Daniel 3:29-30). Because of the courage of these three young men, a loud-mouthed, proud, vain king was led to praise the God of heaven. He himself had asked the question, “What god is able to deliver you from my hand,” and at last he answers his own question: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!