Daniel 3:10, commentary and pictures

The decree made worship of the golden image compulsory for every person as soon as the music sounded, on pain of death in the fiery furnace. The king set up the image on the plain of Dura to glorify Babylon and himself after reading his dream of the head of gold through his own idolatrous ambition, and demanded for it the worship due to God. It was a scheme to ensnare the Hebrew captives by forcing them to obey human law against God's law, but they refused to bow and were cast into the furnace, where Christ walked with them and delivered them unharmed. What was done on the plain of Dura will be repeated in a universal decree denouncing as worthy of death those who hallow the Sabbath, when a Sunday idol is set up by human law to displace God's holy day. God's people are to take the same stand as the three worthies by remaining loyal to the commandments even when obedience is counted disloyalty, suffering humiliation without defiance until their persecutors are destroyed by the recoil of their own enactments.

Decree's History and Meaning

The decree commanded that every person, upon hearing the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music, should fall down and worship the golden image, making that worship compulsory under penalty of death in the fiery furnace. It belonged to the account of the Lord's wonderful deliverance of the three Hebrew worthies, in which three men were seen walking unharmed in the fiery furnace. When the assembled musicians played, all were required to bow, and this established the compulsory character of the image-worship that the three Hebrews refused.

The image stood on the plain of Dura as an exceedingly costly and magnificent display, with assembled musicians and impressive ceremony to draw the people to worship, and its worship was made the established religion of Babylon. Its impressive display and music helped attract worship, while the command made that worship a matter of civil law. The universal command to worship on the plain of Dura required all to bow to what had been set up by human authority.

The decree arose because the king perverted the light given through Daniel's interpretation of his dream of the great image, in which Babylon was the head of gold, reading it through his own idolatrous mind and ambitions. He and his counselors were flattered that Babylon was gold while each later kingdom was baser metal, and led by heathen advisers and counselors he set himself before the people as an object of worship. What was meant as a revelation of Babylon and other kingdoms was thus turned into a scheme to ensnare Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and force them to bow to the idol.

The golden image represented the kingdom of Babylon and more particularly the king himself, his glory and the excellency of Babylon, magnifying himself as its ruler. The decree therefore demanded idolatrous worship that set a human object of worship in God's place, commanding worship of an idol in the place of God. Its enforced worship was expected to carry sufficient authority to convert all nations to worship it.

The decree was designed to compel the Hebrew youths to obey human law against God's law, forcing the choice between obeying human authority and remaining faithful to God and His commandments. The three worthies refused to bow, choosing obedience to God's commandments over obedience to the king. Their refusal tested their integrity before an idolatrous nation and showed the power and faithfulness of the God of Israel, teaching principles regarding the working out of the Lord's purpose for the children of obedience and the children of disobedience.

For loyalty to the God of heaven the three faithful servants would not bow the knee to the idolatrous image and were cast into the burning fiery furnace. There Christ Himself, the Lord Jesus, walked with them and preserved them from harm, keeping them unharmed. The miracle wrought upon the king's heart so that he believed in and acknowledged God and His superior power over every other kingdom. By this kings and subjects alike are taught to read their dreams in the light of the living oracles, and not to read Scripture and God's providences in the light of their own dreams and fancies.

Prophetic Repeat and Faithfulness

What took place on the plain of Dura under a universal decree commanding all to worship the golden image will be repeated in this day in a universal decree denouncing as deserving of death those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The Sunday idol is set up in the same way, by human laws demanding that all observe it as sacred and holy where God's holy Sabbath of the fourth commandment should be. That demand to honor Sunday as sacred, set in God's place by civil command, displaces God's Sabbath by a human enactment and stands as the model of laws that compel worship.

As the advisers led Nebuchadnezzar to proclaim his decree as a scheme to ensnare Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and turn the Hebrew captives from their allegiance, so men will strive today by cruel enactments to turn God's people from their allegiance. That striving comes when civil authority and religious power unite to compel conscience, and the conflict over Sunday exalted by national law and the seventh-day Sabbath makes loyalty manifest. God's people are to follow the stand of the three Hebrews by remaining loyal to God and His commandments even when obedience is treated as disloyalty to the laws of the land. That same test will come in the Southern States, when a period will require decisions for or against the commandments of God, and then believers must do as the three worthies did and refuse to bow.

Though innocent of wrongdoing, many of God's servants will be given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those inspired by Satan and filled with envy and religious bigotry, with the wrath of man especially aroused against Sabbathkeepers. Until that time comes believers must not be presumptuous, must not encourage defiance and resistance, and must pray for those who treat them evilly and resist not evil. Those who make enactments to destroy God's people are destroyed by the recoil of their own actions, as those who sought to destroy the three Hebrews were themselves destroyed. The fall of Babylon at an hour of feasting and reveling shows the end of such defiance, and so it will be in the end of the world, when only the prepared students of God's Word who work away from the customs and appointments of the world's great counselors meet the Bridegroom.