Daniel 3:28, commentary and pictures

Nebuchadnezzar's words are his praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego after seeing them preserved alive in the fiery furnace, blessing Him for sending His angel to rescue servants who trusted in Him. The deliverer who walked with them in the flame was Christ Himself, standing beside them so the fire could not harm them and bringing them out without even the smell of fire upon them. They were delivered because they obeyed God rather than the king, yielding their bodies to danger and death rather than serve or worship any god but their own or bow to the golden image on the plain of Dura. Their refusal and rescue turned an attempt to enforce idolatry into a public witness to the princes and people of Babylon that their God is the only true and living God, worthy of loyalty even at the cost of life. That stand remains the pattern for God's obedient children when human law commands false worship, teaching them to openly disregard any requirement that demands disobedience to God and to prove entirely loyal though threatened with death.

Deliverance in the Furnace

Daniel 3:28 is Nebuchadnezzar's praise of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego after he saw them preserved in the fiery furnace, blessing God for sending His angel to deliver His servants who trusted in Him. It records the king praising God for the wonderful deliverance of the three Hebrew worthies who trusted God and refused to worship any god but their own. Their faithfulness meant refusing the king's command and surrendering their bodies rather than worshiping any god but their own, and God stood with them so the fire could not harm them and changed the king's response.

The angel who delivered them was Christ Himself, seen as one like the Son of man and like the Son of God, who walked with the three faithful servants in the midst of the flame. He stood with them so the fire could not harm them, and they were brought forth without even the smell of fire passing on them. They were delivered because they trusted God and obeyed Him rather than the king's command, remaining faithful though obedience put their lives at risk. Their deliverance made clear that the God they worshiped was the only true and living God, worthy of loyalty even at the cost of life.

They changed the king's word and yielded their bodies, accepting bodily danger and the threat of death rather than serve or worship any god except their own God or bow to the king's idol. They refused to obey the king's command to worship an idol, and their faithfulness led Nebuchadnezzar to bless and honor God, acknowledging His power to deliver even against a king's command. The setting was the plain of Dura, where Nebuchadnezzar had set up a great golden image to be worshiped. It was an all-gold image representing the glory of Babylon and especially the king himself, a golden idolatrous image to which every knee was to bow.

The image grew out of Nebuchadnezzar's perversion of the light given in his dream, in which Daniel had told him he was the head of gold to show that earthly kingdoms were not enduring but would pass away and be followed by the kingdom of the Prince of heaven which should fill the whole earth. Instead of reading his dream in the light of the living Oracles, he read it in the light of his own idolatrous understanding, pride, ambition and self-exaltation, supposing to turn all nations to worship the excellency of Babylon. His earlier acknowledgment of God's power had been temporary, and pride, ambition, and self-exaltation led him back to idol worship and to make a display of idolatry. The events took place in the same year Daniel and his companions entered the service of the king of Babylon, severely testing the integrity of the youthful Hebrews and proving the power and faithfulness of the God of Israel before an idolatrous nation.

Their deliverance changed the king's word and response, turning his wrath into praise and thanksgiving to Jehovah. Humbled and compelled, with the great golden image forgotten amid fear and trembling before the living God, he blessed the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for sending His angel to deliver His servants who trusted in Him and gave their bodies rather than serve any other god. He believed in God, confessed His superior power above every other kingdom, and made public confession exalting the God of heaven above all other gods, which was right for him to do.

Public Witness to Nations

The attempt to force idol worship was overruled to carry the knowledge of the true God before the assembled princes and great men of the vast kingdom of Babylon and throughout the length and breadth of the empire. This accomplished the purpose for which Daniel and his fellows had been permitted to be carried captive to that heathen land. God brings His servants face to face with kings and rulers so that they and their people may receive light, and time after time the greatest monarchs have thus been led to proclaim the supremacy of the God whom His exiled worshipers served. Controversy, reproach and contempt heaped upon testing truth become His means of provoking inquiry and awakening minds that otherwise would slumber.

Their steadfast refusal and their deliverance made God's power and their loyalty known to the nation. They declared to the whole nation their faith that He whom they worshiped was the only true and living God, worthy of loyalty even at the cost of life. No threat to life justifies concession to idolatry, and no consideration, not even the preservation of life itself, should induce the least yielding to idol worship.

The verse teaches the working out of God's purpose for the children of obedience in contrast to the children of disobedience. Their refusal sprang from conscience void of offense toward God, from principle that homage rivaling the God of heaven is forbidden, from owing God every faculty, and from lofty aspiration to prove entirely loyal to Him. To impress idolaters with the power and greatness of the living God, His servants must reveal their own reverence for God and make it manifest that He is the only object of honor and worship. They must openly disregard requirements that demand disobedience to God and allow no influence to come between them and their Maker, rather than surrender principle, compromise truth and sacrifice loyalty to God.

It was right for Nebuchadnezzar to make public confession and exalt the God of heaven above all other gods after the deliverance. But in trying to force his subjects under threat of death to make the same confession of faith and show the same reverence, he exceeded his right as a temporal sovereign. He had no more right, either civil or moral, to threaten men with death for not worshiping God than he had to consign to the flames those who refused the golden image, for God never compels obedience but leaves all free to choose whom they will serve.

Their stand is the example of helpless people withstanding human and worldly power through trust in God's Word and faith. Heaven is near to those who pray, resist evil and strive for everlasting life, and heavenly helpers guard them. God may preserve His servants from danger, yet if He does not, faithfulness to God and defense of the gospel matter more than life.

Their self-denial and self-sacrifice means that appetites and passions and hereditary or cultivated habits are to be servants to the God-fearing person, not rulers over him. The Christian is not to be enslaved by hereditary or cultivated habits or tendencies but is to rule the animal passions rather than be held in bondage of habit. He is not to be servant of circumstances but to control circumstances by an inwrought principle learned from Christ. That principle is to pass like a plowshare through hereditary and cultivated habits and through all circumstances and surroundings, with no excuses accepted for lacking the attributes of Christ.

Pattern for Final Crisis

The experience on the plain of Dura gives important lessons for today, when idolaters try to crush truth by persecuting exiles who refuse to break the Sabbath or keep heathen festivals even to the loss of life. Though innocent of wrongdoing, the Hebrew youth trusted God and refused to serve or worship any god except their own God, and so in this day many of God's servants will be given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those who, inspired by Satan, are 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 these as deserving of death. God brought His servants face to face with kings and rulers so that they and their people might receive the light, and time after time the greatest monarchs were led to proclaim the supremacy of the God whom their Hebrew captives worshiped.

The enforced worship of that all-gold image foreshadows the Sunday idol set up by human laws demanding it be worshiped as sacred and holy in the place where God's holy Sabbath of the fourth commandment should be. As the advisers of Nebuchadnezzar ensnared the Hebrew captives by leading the king to proclaim that every knee should bow to the image, so men will strive today to turn God's people from their allegiance through union of church and state and religious bigotry and oppression. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego trusted in their own God and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God, and God sent His angel and delivered them and changed the king's word, while the men who sought to destroy them were themselves destroyed, showing that those who make cruel enactments seeking to destroy God's property are destroyed by the recoil of their actions.

The principle of their loyalty is an example for God's people when civil law compels false worship or treats keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as disloyalty, for they would not obey a human command that required them to disobey God, and God delivered them. That same refusal points to a future crisis in the Southern States, when people would have to decide for or against the commandments of God. Their example does not justify urging believers to defy authority or resist before that test arrives, so advice must be careful and grounded in Scripture.

Nebuchadnezzar's confession after the deliverance stands as a pattern for the end of the world. God's providence was incessantly at work over human affairs to bring even his idolatrous mind into reasoning relation concerning prophecies against Babylon and other kingdoms and to give him light, coming into close contact with human minds for a purpose, until the wonderful miracle wrought upon his heart so that he believed in God and confessed His superior power above every other kingdom. He had read the interpretation of his dream in the light of his own idolatrous understanding, ambition and desire to exalt Babylon instead of reading his dream in the light of the living Oracles, and king and subjects alike must read Scriptures and providence that way, not read Scripture and Providence in the light of dreams and fancies. In the last days students of God's Word must therefore work away from the customs and appointments of the world's great counselors and be prepared like wise virgins with oil in their vessels with their lamps to meet the Bridegroom rather than saying the Lord delays His coming.

Their rescue gives an example of God preserving those who remain loyal under threat of death because they trusted Him and refused to worship any god but their own. Luther trusted in that same God when facing danger for defending the truth.