Old Testament - Daniel 3 - November 2, 2022

11/2/2022 – Daniel 3

This chapter tells us of the idol Nebuchadnezzar had had built: 90 feet of gold in the form of a man, and he commanded that at the sound of music, everyone must kneel and worship this monumental image of gold. The king gathered all the “princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces” (v 2) to come and worship this idol, and if they did not fall down in worship before the idol, then they would immediately be “cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” (v 6)

During this dedication the some of the Chaldeans saw, and told the king, that “There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego…have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (12) This put the king into a rage. He called these young men to be brought to him, and asked them if this was true, and told them if they would just go to the idol to bow down and worship, then all would be forgiven, but if not they would be thrown into the furnace. 

Their answer to the king: “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it know unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (v 18)

The king’s reaction was to fly into a rage, and to order that the furnace was to be heated seven times greater than it was at this point. When the temperature was at its highest, the Jewish young men were bound. The king watched this, and was astonished at what he saw—for he saw “four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (v 25)

The king and all the people gathered around the furnace. The king asked them to come out of the furnace, and the king saw that “the fire had not power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of the fire had passed on them.” 

The king was certainly touched by these events, and he spake to all the people: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word {they were successful in defying the king} and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.” (v 28-29)

Spencer W. Kimball spoke of this scriptural event in a BYU Devotional in February of 1964:  “We remind ourselves of the integrity of the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who like Daniel defied men and rulers, to be true to themselves and to keep faith with their faith. They were required by decree of the emperor to kneel down and worship a monumental image of gold which the king had set up. In the face of losing caste, of losing position, of angering the king, they faced the fiery furnace rather than to fail and deny their God. The cunningly devised scheme worked as the vicious planners expected. The dedication must have been exciting with the people from far and near attending. Had there ever been such an image? such a spectacle? Ninety feet of gold in the form of a man—what could be more scintillating, more sparkling? There must have been almost countless people milling in the streets and in the area where the gigantic image stood when the herald announced the procedure and the decree that all must kneel at the sound of the music and all must worship the image. Neither the cunning of the deceivers, the conspiring, cunning tricksters, nor the fear of the king and what he could do to them, dissuaded the three courageous young men from their true path of rightness. When the prearranged sounds of the cornet, flute, harp and other instruments reverberated through the area and the masses of men and women everywhere filled their homes and the streets with kneeling worshippers of the huge golden image, three men refused to insult their true God. They prayed to God, and when confronted by the raging and furious emperor king, they courageously answered in the face of what could be certain death.”