IN a former article we noted the fact that three of King Nebuchadnezzar's officers, whom he had set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, refused to bow down and worship the golden image which he had set up. These were Jews of the captivity, whom the king had educated expressly for positions in the government. Their Babylonian names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When they frankly refused to do homage to the image, or to worship any of the king's gods, Nebuchadnezzar was "full of fury." He had announced that whoever should disregard his decree concerning the image, should be "cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace," but he was so angry with these Jewish officials that he ordered that the furnace should be heated seven times hotter than ever before.
Then the king commanded the most mighty men of his army to bind the three dissenters and cast them into the furnace. So the men were bound in all of their clothing, and thrown into the fire. The flames were so hot that the strong executioners were themselves burned to death at the door of the furnace, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell down, bound, into the midst of the fire.
But the king's fury was soon abated, and turned to astonishment. A strange scene suddenly appeared in the burning furnace, and he "rose up in haste" and called his counsellors together. In great consternation he asked, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" The counsellors answered, "True, O king." But Nebuchadnezzar replied, "Lo, I see 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" (or "a son of the gods." R. V.). It was the Son of God, sure enough, but Nebuchadnezzar knew nothing of Him. His idea of such a noble, majestic personage was that He must be one of the gods imagined by such worshipers as himself. He had heard of the "God of heaven," the God of Daniel, whom he himself had felt obliged to formally acknowledge, but he knew nothing of His Son.
Then Nebuchadnezzar went near to the door of the furnace and called to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, "Ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come hither." They came forth, and all the great assembly of officials from all parts of the kingdom saw them,—saw the little minority who had stood for the commandments of God in face of the decree of the greatest earthly kingdom the world ever has known. There were only three of them, but while they had the approbation of the Son of God, while they had Him with them in their fiery test, the flames of persecution could not harm them. And all the great company of dignitaries, who had fallen down and worshiped the king's golden image, "saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them."
But these servants of the Most High God would have been accredited in heaven with standing the fiery trial even if they had been as quickly destroyed as were the "mighty men" who threw them in. It was their purpose to be faithful even if their lives had been sacrificed to the flames. They had so stated to the king. Their lives were, by faith, "hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3), and were to be disposed of just as He should deem best for the honor of His name and the furtherance of His cause.
The haughty king had found that the God from whom Daniel had received so much wisdom also had power to deliver His servants out of the king's hand. He was again obliged to acknowledge the God of the captives. So he proclaimed, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies [Rom. 12:1], that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God."
The king felt greatly humiliated—not, however, because of his sins, but because of his defeat. His submission was simply that of a vanquished opponent; and his subsequent decree was a desperate effort to gain favor with the superior God, but not with any intention of giving up his other gods. Nebuchadnezzar was aiming to establish not only the universality, but also the perpetuity, of his kingdom; therefore, he sought the good-will and support of every deity, real or imaginary. Hence this proclamation: "I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 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."
But that kind of decree doesn't make a "Christian nation." Babylon was Babylon still. To submit to the God of Israel merely through fear of His power, or to gain temporal advantage, is not true allegiance nor pleasing service. To refrain from speaking against the God of heaven through fear of any state penalty is not that faith without which "it is impossible to please Him" (Heb 11:6). The national reform that is based on human penalties attached to human religious decrees, is Babylon still, no matter what it may profess to be.
The fiery trial of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was also a test of the Word of God by fire. That Word had been their Mentor in their established purpose to serve only the true God, at all hazard. It was with them in the fiery furnace, to sustain and to keep them. In that fire there was also tested the principle of religious liberty, for which that small minority had so nobly stood, and it, too, was vindicated by the Word that accompanied them in their fiery ordeal. That same Word, the "faithful and true Witness," is saying to us of to-day: "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Rev. 3:18. All who are clothed with the white raiment of spotless character, having in them the righteousness of Christ by faith, may pass through all the fiery trials which are to try them (1 Peter 4:12), without a hair being singed, or a coat changed, or even the smell of fire upon them.