Daniel 3:13, commentary and pictures

Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego brought before him because they refused to worship the golden image he had set up. The image was a costly and magnificent idol in the plain of Dura, made to exalt Babylon and the king himself as an object of worship after he perverted the light given him in the dream of the great image. Their summons brought the fiery trial of their integrity, and when they were cast into the furnace for loyalty to God, Christ Himself walked with them and preserved them from harm. Their preservation showed an idolatrous nation the power and faithfulness of the true God and convinced the king that their God was the living God above every kingdom. Their stand is the pattern God's people are to follow when human law commands disobedience to God, as will be repeated at the end when laws demand worship of a Sunday idol sabbath in place of God's holy Sabbath.

Historical Setting and Meaning

This verse belongs to the history of the wonderful deliverance of the three Hebrew worthies, showing the working out of God's purpose for the children of obedience and the children of disobedience. It stands in the account of Nebuchadnezzar's renewed idolatry, for although he had acknowledged God's power and was for a time influenced by the fear of God, ambition and desire for self-exaltation remained in him, and pride led him to return to idol worship with greater zeal.

The idol at issue was an exceedingly costly and magnificent golden image set up in the plain of Dura. It was made to represent the kingdom of Babylon and more particularly Nebuchadnezzar himself, his glory and the excellence of Babylon, to magnify himself as ruler and to place himself before the people as an object of worship. It was set up to convert all nations to its worship.

He made it from pride cherished after God honored him with the dream of the great image in which his kingdom was the head of gold as explained by Daniel, and from flattery by heathen counselors. He read Daniel's interpretation through his own idolatrous human understanding instead of reading his dream in the light of the Scriptures and the living Oracles as Daniel had instructed kings and subjects to do. By this he perverted the light given through Daniel by which Jehovah had been exalted as more powerful than earthly kings and more powerful than any other kingdom.

The furious command was the working of a plot by the king's advisers to ensnare the Hebrew captives and force them to bow to the golden idol by getting the king to decree universal worship of the image. In rage and fury over the reported refusal to worship the golden image, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego be brought before him. That summons marked the confrontation between a ruler's command to worship an idol and the Hebrews' loyalty to God, for their refusal was a choice to honor the God of heaven alone as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Deliverance and Witness to Babylon

The angry summons brought the fiery trial upon faithfulness to God and tested the integrity of Daniel's three companions who would not bow the knee. That trial came because they refused the idolatrous worship demanded of them, and their steadfastness under threat made their loyalty the issue before the kingdom.

When for that loyalty they were cast into the burning fiery furnace, Christ Himself, the Lord Jesus, walked there with His three faithful servants and preserved them from all harm. He manifested Himself to them as He promises to manifest Himself to those who keep His commandments. Their preservation became a public witness that showed an idolatrous nation the power and faithfulness of Israel's God. The attempt to enforce idolatry thus brought knowledge of the true God before Babylon's rulers and convinced the king that their God was the living God.

The miracle wrought upon Nebuchadnezzar's heart so that he believed in God and acknowledged His superior power over every other kingdom. Yet the fall of Babylon still came at an hour of feasting and revelling. The lesson is that all men, whether king or subjects, are not to read the Scriptures and God's providences in the light of their dreams and fancies, but are to read their dreams in the light of the living oracles. Cherishing self-trusting thoughts and feelings and setting God aside brings danger of passing through a trying experience.

End-Time Pattern and Loyalty

The enraged summons to bring the three Hebrews before the king for refusing to worship the golden image sets the rule to follow when human law requires disobedience to God, to stay loyal to God and His commandments even under coercion. Their experience shows how those who remain faithful to God may be humiliated and abused by religious bigotry. It is a pattern for the end time, when human laws will demand worship of a Sunday idol sabbath set where God's holy Sabbath of the fourth commandment should be, in an effort to turn God's people from their allegiance.

In that pattern Sabbathkeepers will at last face a universal death decree. Those who frame cruel enactments to destroy the faithful bring destruction upon themselves, for the men who sought to destroy Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were themselves destroyed by the recoil of their own actions. The same course of exalting human counsel and idolatry, followed by sudden judgment as when Babylon fell in an hour of feasting and reveling, will be repeated at the end of the world, when only those prepared like the wise virgins will be ready.

The refusal is also a pattern for a coming period in work among the colored people in the Southern States when believers will have to decide for or against the commandments of God. Until that period comes, believers and teachers of truth must not be presumptuous and must not encourage the spirit of defiance and resistance, even if placed in the chain gang. To do so would close their own way entirely and make work in many untouched fields more difficult.