Daniel 3:18, commentary and pictures

The verse is the answer of the three Hebrews that even if God did not rescue them from the fiery furnace and death, they would not serve the king's gods nor worship the golden image he had set up. Their obedience did not depend on being delivered, but rested on trust in God's power to save while leaving deliverance to Him and determining to honor Him at any cost. Worship belongs to God alone, so conscience toward God cannot be controlled by any ruler, and loyalty to human law ends where it conflicts with loyalty to God, allowing no compromise with idolatry. God did not forsake them in the fire but preserved them, with Christ walking with them, and by their steadfast refusal made the power and faithfulness of the true God known in Babylon. That same refusal will be repeated when church and state unite to command worship of a false sabbath, requiring God's people to keep the commandments of God whatever the threatened punishment.

Historical Setting and Image

The words belong to the fiery furnace account, which stands set against Nebuchadnezzar's earlier dream of an image and its interpretation that God would establish an everlasting kingdom. The refusal answers the king's return to idolatry and his desire for self-exaltation. The golden image had been set up on the plain of Dura, and it was exceedingly costly and magnificent. It represented the kingdom of Babylon, and more particularly the king himself, his glory and the excellence of Babylon, magnifying the ruler who governed it.

Nebuchadnezzar set it up because he read the interpretation of his dream in the light of his own idolatrous mind instead of in the light of the living oracles and Scriptures. In doing so he perverted the light by which Jehovah had been exalted above earthly kings as more powerful than they. Heathen counselors flattered him over the head of gold into presenting himself as an object of worship, which God allowed him to do in following his own inventions. He supposed that worship of the image would convert all nations to his religion.

The three Hebrews held no controversy with the king, knowing it would only increase his fury. They answered without fear because their minds were already made up. When given another opportunity to yield, they still refused.

Unconditional Loyalty Under Threat

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declared they would not serve the king's gods nor worship the golden image he had set up, even if God did not rescue them from the fiery furnace. The same refusal held even if He did not deliver them from the king's hand, from the threatened punishment, and from death. Later they were seen walking unharmed in the fire with a heavenly figure beside them.

Their loyalty did not depend on being rescued. They trusted that God was able to deliver them and had faith in His power to save, but their obedience rested on trust rather than a promise of rescue. They were determined to honor God at any cost while leaving their deliverance to Him, committing themselves to Him.

The threat of death did not change their decision, though that choice meant facing death. They chose faithfulness to God and eternal life over preserving their present lives. Beholding Christ's presence made even a cruel death bearable.

The refusal was respectful but decided and without wavering, spoken with calm trust in God while facing the furnace and the idolatrous throng. It carried confidence that He will not fail those who trust Him. Their decision was guided by duty and conscience and grounded in unquestioning faith, purposing to be true to principle let come what may. They would not be swayed a hair's breadth from duty owed to the Creator.

Worship Conscience and Obedience

Worship belongs to God alone, and the golden image set up an idol as a rival to the God of heaven. The refusal to serve the king's gods or worship the image he had set up publicly declared that the God worshiped is the only true and living God and the only one worthy of honor and worship. That loyalty held even if God did not deliver from the furnace, the king's threat, or death, for obedience did not depend on being rescued. No threat to life, no royal command, and no consideration could make the three concede to idolatry.

Conscience in matters of God is a sacred trust that no human ruler has the right to control, for it belongs to God alone. The three would not violate conscience to obey a king, even when a ruler commanded worship on pain of death or claimed power over conscience. Their allegiance to God and conscience must not yield to a ruler's command to worship, and faithfulness requires refusing an image or religious demand that violates conscience even when refusal brings persecution or death.

Obedience to human law and to the laws of Babylon holds only so far as they do not conflict with the claims of God and with service to Jesus Christ as Master. God's people must serve the Lord with undivided heart under all circumstances, loving Him with all the heart and soul, never swerving from allegiance, and letting no one come between the soul and God. The loyal and true do not bow to decrees of earthly rulers when those decrees stand against the authority of the King of heaven, and they keep allegiance to the great Ruler of nations above earthly threats.

Disobedience to God brings dishonor, disaster, and ruin, a lesson learned from the history of their fathers. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the foundation of all true prosperity. The three had been educated to worship and serve God only and educated that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A vital principle was involved that allowed no compromise in the least degree, no concession to idolatry, and no sacrifice of loyalty to God. To comply would have meant surrender of principle, compromise of truth, and apostasy from God. Duty is to be true because God is the great Judge over all, whatever the consequences and however men may judge, and it is better to incur the displeasure of men than to surrender loyalty to God.

Deliverance and Witness in Babylon

God did not forsake the three in the furnace but preserved them from all harm, and Christ Himself, the representative of God, walked with them in the flames as the fourth figure like the Son of God. They stood firm in the time of trial and were cast into the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, yet they were not forsaken, and they came forth without even the smell of fire upon their garments. The king saw them walking with the heavenly figure in the fire.

The miracle wrought upon Nebuchadnezzar's heart so that he believed in God and His superior power over every other kingdom. He was convinced that their God was the living God and acknowledged the miracle. But because he did not continue to walk in the light he lost the holy impression made upon his mind.

Their steadfast refusal and integrity revealed the light of heaven and made the light of truth visible in Babylon and in the court. Their example demonstrated the power of truth and the power and faithfulness of the God of Israel. Their steadfast refusal made their worship of the living God known to the nation, to idolaters, and to Babylon's princes and great men, and publicly declared their faith in the only true and living God. It works out the Lord's purpose for the children of obedience in contrast with the children of disobedience.

God uses such refusal to bring His servants face to face with kings and rulers so the rulers and their people can receive light. The attempt to force idolatry made the true God known to Babylon's princes and great men. Time after time the greatest monarchs were led to proclaim the supremacy of the God whom their Hebrew captives worshiped. Through their steadfastness He spreads the knowledge of the true God abroad and thereby accomplishes His purpose in permitting their captivity in a heathen land. Hebrew exiles refusing heathen gods and festivals under persecution, some losing their lives for refusing to give up the Sabbath, belong to the same witness.

Jesus is by the side of those called to go through the fire for Christ's sake even as He was with the three. God does not promise exemption from trials but promises what is far better, strength equal to the day and grace sufficient in weakness, with strength made perfect in weakness. Those who love their Redeemer rejoice at every opportunity to share His humiliation and reproach.

Pattern for Final Crisis

The same refusal will be repeated in the coming test upon the Sabbath question, when those who obey the commandments of God take the Word of God for their guide and refuse to worship the idol sabbath exalted by nearly all Christendom, which has not one particle of sanctity in it. God's people must keep their allegiance to God when church and state unite and human laws demand worship of a Sunday idol sabbath put where God's holy Sabbath of the fourth commandment should be. That faithfulness means serving the Lord with undivided heart under all circumstances, being true to principle even when met with opposition and temptation, complying with human authority only where it does not conflict with service to Jesus Christ as Master, letting no one come between the soul and God, and holding firm convictions of duty such as keeping the Sabbath the best possible under all circumstances. It is the model of the three Hebrews' firm loyalty when commanded to worship the golden image, remaining faithful even if not delivered, so that loyalty makes the value of God's law clear when truth is opposed.

The stand on the plain of Dura carries lessons for this day. Refusal to yield, though innocent of wrongdoing, means being given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those inspired by Satan and filled with envy and religious bigotry. Especially the wrath of man will be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and at last a universal decree will denounce them as deserving of death. Like Nebuchadnezzar, civil authorities may claim power over conscience and command worship of the image, but conscience belongs to God alone. When laws restricting religious liberty pressure God's commandment-keeping people and obedience to the seventh-day Sabbath is treated as disloyalty, God will intervene for those who remain loyal to Him.

That same stand will be required in the Southern States when the period comes to decide for or against the commandments of God. Until that time believers are not to be presumptuous or encourage a spirit of defiance and resistance, even under unjust suffering, lest the way be closed for working fields that have not yet been touched. The verse shows fixed resolve under a royal decree commanding every knee to bow on pain of death through the scheming of enemies. The same effort to ensnare and turn God's people from obedience will be repeated, and those who make cruel enactments to destroy the faithful will themselves be destroyed by the recoil of their actions. Refusal to serve false gods or worship the imposed image identifies the loyal and true, who do not bow to decrees of earthly rulers when those decrees stand against the authority of the King of heaven, as those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus in the patience of the saints.

Faithfulness in Daily Life

The refusal is the model of the integrity needed to stand alone for truth under severe opposition, unmoved by human praise, blame, or reward, preferring death to violating conscience. It exemplifies standing firm against worldly honor and high position, though not every person is called to face that particular test. The three put God's favor above the praise or authority of human rulers, openly confessed their faith, and refused any earthly order that dishonored God, and their faithful integrity was honored. Their trust in God gave them courage to resist royal and worldly power even when loyalty meant facing the king's threat without promise of rescue.

Their stand shows that people who trust God's word can withstand worldly power in support of evil. Even when helpless before the king they stood firm against his power by trusting God's Word, and their faith enabled them to resist the world's power when it supported evil. Their religious principles remained steadfast under the test of the fiery furnace and would not yield to idolatry even when refusal brought the threat of death. Their example teaches self-denial and sacrifice as an abiding principle of fearing God and remaining faithful to Him whatever the consequences.

Hereditary and cultivated habits, appetites, passions, circumstances, and surroundings must not rule a person or excuse disobedience to God. Excuses are valueless, hereditary or cultivated habits and tendencies do not enslave the God-fearing person, and animal passions are to be ruled instead of obeyed. That principle means controlling circumstances by an inwrought principle learned from Christ rather than waiting until will and circumstances are adjusted, making all circumstances, appetites, and passions servants rather than rulers. That same principle of self-denial and self-sacrifice, seen also in Christ and John the Baptist, is to cut like a plowshare through hereditary and cultivated habits and through all surroundings.

Their faithfulness stands as the pattern for students of God's Word in the last days to work away from the customs and appointments of the world's great counselors, just as the fall of Babylon at an hour of feasting and reveling shows what will be in the end of the world. It is the lesson for God's workers and students now, to use reason under God's control and hold position for God when trials come and Satan works with great power as a roaring lion. Faithfulness to God that does not depend on being delivered from danger supports later reformers, for Luther likewise trusted God whether or not he would be saved from violence and resolved not to flee or recant even at the cost of life rather than let the gospel be dishonored. At Worms he lived out that faith, meek as a lamb yet unmoved like a rock leaning upon God, so that the passion, rage, and threats of great men broke harmless at his feet, and the same faith means looking to God for strength in feeble health and mortal danger, seeking not personal ease or safety but that truth be not exposed to insult, counting the cost and being ready to die and seal testimony with blood if God so ordains rather than serve false gods.