Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste; he spoke and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king.
The king had just watched his strongest soldiers die at the mouth of the furnace. Now he jumps up and asks his advisers to confirm the simplest fact of the day: three men went in, tied.
The king threw the whole force of his empire at three captives. What he saw in the furnace left that power worth nothing.
When the king drew his sword against God, how useless it was! In the middle of this burning fiery furnace was a sight that stopped him. What was to be said of the power of Nebuchadnezzar now? What use was it to be the mightiest monarch of the world, with all the strength of his army and the grandeur of his empire around him? These men had been bound and thrown into the middle of the burning fiery furnace. They looked like the most pitiable case in his realm. But now he has to see their bonds burnt. The very thing he meant for their destruction is what set them free.
He turns to his counsellors because the count no longer works. The fact they confirm is what makes this impossible to explain away.
Every eye turned from the great image of gold to stare in astonishment at the three captives. What could it mean? "Three men bound!" "Four men loose!" Could it be real? Was the furnace real? Sadly, "the most mighty men in the king's army" had proved it to be real. And if they had thrown Nebuchadnezzar's image into it, it too would have proved the furnace real. There was no material for the sceptic or the unbeliever to work on. It was a real furnace, and a real flame, and the "three men" were "bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments." It was all real.
Their courage before the king did not spare them the sentence. The fire touched only one thing.
They are cast into the furnace of fire, as Daniel was afterwards into the den of lions. They would not obey Nebuchadnezzar by violating their conscience. Yet they offered no resistance to the persecution. As to their bodies, they submitted fully to his commands. And what is the result? The fire loosens them. Nothing is burnt but the chains the world had bound them with. More than that, they have the Son of God as their companion in the furnace.
God could have stopped the execution. He chose something better than keeping them out of the flames.
God did not put out or remove the furnace. He did a greater thing: He carried them through it. Its hot breath was like the gentle breeze of a summer day on their cheeks. In the middle of it, free from every chain, yoke, and care, they walked in happy agreement with the Son of God. So their faith and faithfulness glorified God. It proved to a world that did not know Him that He can and does deliver His servants who trust in Him.
One thing explains the king's haste. The three men in the flames are not alone.
This was the true secret of the three captives walking unharmed in the middle of the fire — they were in the company of the Son of God. What can the saints not do in His company? In His company they can walk on the water (Matthew 14). In His company they can walk in the middle of the fire. This fulfils the promise made to the prophet: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you… when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you" (Isaiah 43:2).
- Fury. The most powerful king on earth aimed everything he had at three captives. The furnace left his power looking futile.
- Fact. He rises in haste and asks his counsellors to confirm the count: three men, bound. There was nothing here for a sceptic to work on.
- Freedom. The fire consumed one thing only: the chains the world had put on them. They went in bound; the king saw them walking free.
- Fellowship. God did not remove the furnace. He carried them through it, and in the fire they had His company.
- Fulfilment. In His company saints walk on water and walk through fire. A watching empire saw the promise kept: the flame shall not consume you.
He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God.
Nebuchadnezzar had three men thrown into a blazing furnace, then looked in and counted four. His words raise two questions: who was the fourth, and why were the three walking free?
The same flames did two opposite things at once.
The judgment fell — but on the mightiest men of Nebuchadnezzar's famous army, not on the three defenceless Jews. The first thing the proud, irreverent king saw was his mightiest men slain by the furnace he had heated far beyond measure. A humiliating sight for him! The next thing he saw was four men walking, free and unhurt in the middle of the fire. Its outer edge had killed his finest soldiers. The fire that was death to them was not only preservation but liberty to God's servants. They were flung in "bound," but now they "walk." The fire burned nothing but their bonds, and they had a heavenly Visitor with them.
The older translation these writers used reads "the Son of God." ESV has "a son of the gods."
The New Translation clears that point up by showing it more correctly as "a son of the gods." What Nebuchadnezzar saw was a supernatural being that he, as a heathen king, could only describe as "a son of the gods."
Others point out how well the title fits what was happening inside the furnace.
Just as God might use a Balaam or a Caiaphas to speak the truth when they gave it little thought and had no fellowship with Him in it, so in this expression of the king's, "the Son of God," there seems to be amazing fitness. We cannot suppose that he entered into its meaning with understanding… He might have said, "Son of man," or "the God of Israel," or many more. But "Son of God" seems exactly suited to describe the scene… Son of man is His title as Judge, for the Father has given Him all judgment. As Son of God He gives life: He gives life in the middle of death. As Son of God, He frees those that were bound: and "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." That verse seems to me a doctrinal commentary on this very scene. There was the Son, and He was making the prisoners free.
The three did not survive by their own strength.
This was the true secret of the three captives walking unharmed in the middle of the fire — they were in the company of the Son of God. What can the saints not do in His company? In His company they can walk on the water (Matt. 14). In His company they can walk in the middle of the fire, so fulfilling the promise made to the prophet: "when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you" (Isa. 43:2).
One writer applies the furnace to the trials believers meet today.
What was the effect of the fire in their case? It only burned off their bonds, and set them free. The Lord often lets us get into the fire. Its effect is to burn off the cords that bind us — in our case often cords we have tied ourselves — and we come out free. But what have we had in the fire? A sense of the presence and company of the Lord, such as we never had before. So with the Hebrew servants, One walked with them in the furnace, and the form of that One was "like the Son of God."
Commentators also read the chapter as a picture of the last days.
The first Gentile empire became idolatrous, and so will the last, as we may learn from Rev. 13. God's faithful remnant was the object of hatred and persecution under the king of Babylon, and it will be so again under the last head of the Roman empire… But, as we read in this same book, however hot the furnace Daniel's people will be thrown into at that time, they "shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book"… So the history of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is full of encouragement — especially for the Jewish remnant in the last days, but also for the saints of God in every age when surrounded by the fires of persecution.
- Fire — the same furnace killed the king's strongest soldiers and left three bound captives untouched. The fire obeyed God, not the king who lit it.
- Freedom — the only thing the fire burned was their bonds. They went in tied and walked free inside the flames.
- Fourth — commentators differ over reading the phrase as "the Son of God" or "a son of the gods." Both agree the king saw someone more than human.
- Fellowship — the secret was His company, not their endurance. Trial still works the same way: cords burn off, and we know the Lord as never before.
- Future — the same story runs again in the last days: an idolatrous empire, a faithful remnant, and God delivering His own.