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.
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the opening of the burning fiery furnace; he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come [hither]. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came forth from the midst of the fire.
Nebuchadnezzar had challenged the God of the three men he threw into the fire. Now the same king walks up to the furnace door and calls them out as servants of the Most High God.
The king had made this a contest. Here he concedes it, and even his manner changes as he reaches the furnace door:
Nebuchadnezzar had provoked the conflict by challenging the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God came in and showed His power to the furious king without a word — and he is conquered! He forgot everything but the sight in front of him. He did not even feel his own public humiliation. His whole manner and expression changed as he confessed his defeat, and he walked up to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace.
And his humiliation was not private:
He has lost some of the best men of his army. His own nobles see his humiliation. He has to accept defeat in front of the representatives of the provinces, who had gathered to honour his god of gold — a god now fit for nothing but the melting-pot.
The king now names who these men serve.
The humbled king now admits that these three captives are the servants of the Most High God, and calls them to come out. His princes, governors, captains and counsellors must all watch the defeat of the great king who had defied the living God. They must also watch the collapse of his plan to set up one religion.
The name he uses is not a vague compliment. It carries a settled meaning through Scripture:
"Most High" is always the name of God used to denote Him as supreme over the earth. See what Melchizedek said to Abraham after the defeat of the kings who had carried off Lot: "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:19).
They walk straight out of the flames. The fire had done real work — just not the work the king intended.
The first thing the proud, godless king saw was his mightiest men killed by the furnace he had heated far too hot. 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 alone 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, for the only things burned were their bonds.
They came out unharmed because they had company in the fire:
This was the true secret of the three captives walking unscathed 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 also 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).
The furnace became something other than a place of execution:
But there was a deeper reality: God was there. This changed everything. It changed the king's word; it changed the furnace into a place of high and holy fellowship; it changed Nebuchadnezzar's slaves into God's free men.
Commentators read the episode as both a real event and a pattern of what is still to come.
The actual facts took place. But these facts were chosen to show what will take place in the last days. God's faithful remnant suffered hatred and persecution under the king of Babylon. It will suffer the same again under the last head of the Roman empire… The history of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is full of encouragement — especially for the Jewish remnant in the last days, but also for the people of God in every age when surrounded by the fires of persecution.
Yet the change in the king went only so far:
The decree that goes out from him shows only a mind overawed by God's unexpected and wonderful intervention for His devoted servants. It shows a heart still unaffected by the mercy shown to him and his kingdom. With him the true God is as yet only one among many, though the most powerful of all.
- Challenge. Nebuchadnezzar began the conflict by defying the God of these three men. At the furnace door he concedes defeat in front of his whole court.
- Company. The men walked unharmed because they were not alone. The One who lets saints walk on water lets them walk through fire.
- Liberty. The flames burned only their bonds; men thrown in as the king's prisoners walked out as God's free men.
- Confession. The title he gives them, "Most High," names God as supreme over the earth — and the king of Babylon says it himself.
- Comfort. The scene encourages every believer in the fire. It also points forward to a faithful remnant kept through persecution in the last days.
And the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had had no power, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their hosen changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them.
The empire's officials are called in to inspect three men who came out of a furnace alive. What they find answers the question the whole chapter has been building to: what can a furnace do to a person God is keeping?
The verse reads like a legal record. The empire's own officers had to examine the evidence.
The king's command was now obeyed, and these "servants of the Most High God" came out. The truth of their preservation — the miracle that had been done — was verified by "the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors." They had been gathered together, it seems, to examine whether this miraculous preservation was real...
These witnesses were no friends of the three men; enforcing the decree was their own job.
The satraps, prefects, governors and counsellors have to bear witness themselves. The great king who had defied the living God is defeated, and his plan to make one religion for all has collapsed.
They went in tied up and came out walking. What burned was what men had put on them.
The fire sets them loose. Nothing burns except the chains the world had put on them. More than that, they have the Son of God as their companion in the furnace. God acted for His poor servants, and the result was a confession forced out of the ruling power: their God was a God who delivered His people, and who stooped to attach His name to theirs.
The same pattern shows up in the trials God allows His people today.
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 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.
God could have stepped in before the furnace. He did not, and writers see mercy in that.
It is a far richer mercy to have the grace and presence of Jesus in the trial than to be delivered from it. The Lord let Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be thrown into the furnace. But if He did, He came down and walked with them in it. This was infinitely more gracious of Him, and more honouring to them, than if He had stepped in for them before they were thrown in.
The explanation is not in the men. It is in who was with them.
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 also walk in the middle of the fire. This fulfils the promise made to the prophet Isaiah: "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" (Isa. 43:2).
Nebuchadnezzar could not deny what he saw. But his confession had a limit.
The miracle was so complete that their garments were not affected, not a hair of their heads singed, not even the smell of fire clinging to them. The king had to recognise the hand of God in full, and he acknowledged His mighty power. Still he went no further than knowing Him as "the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego"... He did not acknowledge Him as his own God, even though he ordered severe penalties for anyone who spoke against Him. This great man, with whom the times of the Gentiles began, still had a deeper lesson to learn.
The story is history, but not only history.
The actual facts took place. But these facts were chosen to show what will take place in the last days. As the first Gentile empire became idolatrous, so will the last also... So the history of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is full of encouragement. It encourages the Jewish remnant of the last days above all, and also the saints of God in every age who are surrounded by the fires of persecution.
- Bound — They went in tied up. The fire burned the ropes and nothing else; the world's chains were all it could touch.
- Accompanied — The fire had no power because the Son of God walked with them. Isaiah's promise about walking through fire came true.
- Unmarked — Hair, clothes and even smell came through untouched. The officials sent to enforce the decree became the witnesses who verified the miracle.
- Unspared — God did not keep them out of the furnace. His presence inside it was a richer mercy than rescue before it.
- Unfinished — The king owned "their God", but not his own God. A deeper lesson still lay ahead of him — and commentators see the same test returning in the last days.
Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and who changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God!
Nebuchadnezzar had dared any god to rescue the three men from his hands. Now he stands at the mouth of his own furnace and blesses the God of the men he had just condemned. His words praise God, defend the men who defied him, and admit that his own command no longer stands.
The king's outburst of praise is not a calm decision. It is the sound of a man beaten in a contest he started.
So Nebuchadnezzar is faced with the living God stepping in for His faithful and beloved servants. His shameless challenge was, "who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?" The Almighty has answered it with a blow struck full in his hard face.
The king does two things at once. He gives God the credit, and he takes the side of the men whose refusal had enraged him.
So he paid honour to God, who had rescued His servants from the king's anger. And he cleared the men who, in faithfulness to "their own God," had refused to worship the image he had set up himself.
Notice how the king names God — not as God in general, but as the God of three named men.
God stepped in for His poor servants. That forced a confession out of the ruling power. Their God was a God who delivered His people, and who stooped to attach His name to theirs.
The exchange runs both ways, and it began with them.
And notice, further, the honour put on these men. "Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." Their names are bound up with the God of Israel. This was a high honour. They had identified themselves with the true God when it was a matter of life and death. So the true God identified Himself with them.
The king puts his finger on two things about the men, and both are named in his own sentence.
Faced with this great miracle, the King has to admit that God stepped in for those "who trusted in Him." He also owns that their action had "changed the king's word." He testifies that their trust in God was so strong that they had "yielded up their bodies" rather than serve or worship any God except their own God.
Notice the king's exact word: bodies.
Yes, their bodies, not their spirits. Their bodies might be bound and burned, but their spirits were free. They did not fear those who kill the body. God was a great and present reality to them — the God of body and soul, the God of all circumstances, the God of time and eternity.
The king had ordered everyone to worship his image. That order did not survive the furnace. The ESV says the men "set aside the king's command"; the older wording quoted below says the king's word was "changed."
But there was a deeper reality: God was there. This changed everything. It "changed the king's word." It changed the furnace into a place of high and holy fellowship. It changed Nebuchadnezzar's slaves into God's free men.
What these men did marks out the ground every believer stands on.
This is the position of a believer: he yields up his body to death, so that he may serve no one but the true God.
The praise is real, and it is progress. It is also incomplete, and the wording shows where he stopped.
There is progress here compared with chapter 2. He has come to respect Jehovah, and will not allow anyone to speak wrongly of Him, but still he does not know Him. He is "the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego," but not yet the God of Nebuchadnezzar.
- Challenge — the king had demanded to know which god could rescue from his hand. This verse is his own answer, forced out of him in defeat.
- Trust — God stepped in for His servants "who trusted in Him." They trusted first, and the rescue came after.
- Surrender — they yielded their bodies, not their spirits. They refused to hand over worship; they handed over themselves.
- Name — they tied themselves to God at the risk of death, so God tied His name to theirs. A pagan king had to say it that way.
- Reach — God's presence changed the king's word. It turned the furnace into fellowship and slaves into free men. Yet He was still their God, not yet the king's.
Therefore I make a decree, that in every people, nation, and language, he who shall speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and his house shall be made a dunghill because there is no other God that is able to deliver after this sort.
The king had ordered every nation to worship his golden image. Now he uses that same royal power to guard the God of the three men who refused. But how much does this decree prove about his own heart?
The decree names a crime, a penalty, and a reason. One writer shows how it undoes the king's own plan:
The king then makes a decree. No people, nation or language may speak anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. Anyone who does will be cut to pieces, and his house will be made a rubbish heap. He admits his reason: "there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way." So all nations can serve their own gods, it seems, but they must not speak against the God of these faithful men. The king's purpose to establish one religion is completely frustrated. The jealous schemes of the enemies of these captives also come to nothing. In the end these captives each receive promotion in the province of Babylon.
The crowd gathered to bow to the image had not yet gone home. The opposite message went out through them:
All the king's thoughts and plans came to nothing. Men had publicly refused the image he made, and just as publicly called it a false god. Nebuchadnezzar himself had to confess that he and his god were powerless. He had to proclaim throughout his empire that there was no god like the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. His grand assembly had done nothing for his own purposes. Obedient subjects came from every part of his empire to accept and worship the king's idol. Yet before they scattered, a testimony rang out like a trumpet to the supremacy of the most high God.
The reason the king gives is a comparison, not a change of gods. He ranks Israel's God above the rest without giving up the rest:
But the king did not stop being an idolater; he did not deny his own gods. He praises the three Jews for not giving up their own religion. They would not "serve and worship any god except their own God." He owns that the God of Israel is the greatest: "there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way." But he does not disown other gods. What happened on the plain of Dura should have been enough to make him acknowledge only the one true God. For if the idol was a god, why did he not defend himself against those who refused to worship him?
Set beside chapter 2, the king's words still keep God at a distance. He is named as the God of three other men:
There is progress here compared with chapter 2. He has come to respect the Lord, and will not allow anyone to speak wrongly of Him, but still he does not know Him. He is "the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego," but not yet the God of Nebuchadnezzar.
The penalty attached to the decree is the same violence that heated the furnace, only pointed the other way.
The decree that goes out from Nebuchadnezzar shows nothing but a mind overawed by God's unexpected and marvellous intervention for His devoted servants. It shows a heart unaffected by the mercy shown to him and his kingdom. With him the true God is so far nothing but one among many, though the most powerful of all. But God has not yet finished with this idolatrous ruler.
Chapter 4 shows how long the effect lasted:
In Daniel 2 he paid special honour to Daniel. In Daniel 3 he commanded his subjects to honour the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Neither lasted long. It was only a passing feeling, which faded from the king's mind like the morning cloud.
One writer sets this proclamation beside a scene still to come:
The king acknowledged God's power and sent a proclamation about it throughout his kingdom. But his later history proves that he was not humbled. In the last days the faithful Jews will refuse to comply with the imperial religion. So they will be in the furnace of tribulation. They will be delivered, and God will be glorified by the nations: compare Revelation 13.
The men who were sentenced end the chapter higher than they began it.
The victory granted was complete, for God not only frustrated the plans of the king, but also those of the jealous and spiteful enemies of His servants. They had meant to bring about the destruction of these faithful men, but the outcome was their further promotion and honour.
- Refusal. Three men refused to bow. The image the whole empire came to honour was declared a false god.
- Reversal. The king's plan for one forced religion collapsed. The plot against the three ended in their promotion.
- Recognition. The decree admits that God can rescue. It guards His name, but the king keeps his other gods.
- Distance. He is still "the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" — respected, guarded by law, not yet the king's own God.
- Reach. The same pattern lies ahead. A forced religion, a faithful few in the fire, and God glorified before the nations.
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the province of Babylon.
Daniel 3 does not end with the fire; it ends with a promotion. The last verse asks what God does with faithfulness once the flames are out, and what honour from the king who lit the furnace is worth.
God's answer went further than rescue. It undid what two different parties had planned.
The victory granted was complete. God frustrated the designs of the king. He also frustrated the plans of the jealous and spiteful enemies of His servants. They had meant to destroy these faithful men. The outcome was their further promotion and exaltation.
The three men had no plan for getting ahead. What they had was obedience.
And what was the result? A splendid victory! They walked through the furnace with the Son of God. They were called out of it as witnesses and servants of the Most High God. Glorious privilege! Wonderful dignity! And all of it the simple result of obedience. Suppose they had gone along with the crowd and bowed their heads in worship to the national god, just to escape the dreadful furnace. See what they would have lost!
Their promotion was not a private reward. It played out in public, and the crowd on earth was not the only audience.
The trial of strength in this case, as in every other, was between God and Satan. But the onlookers are countless: the ranks of heaven, the dwellers in hell, and all the peoples the proud Gentile king ruled. All this spiritual drama plays out in the province of Babylon. Its purpose is to give light to a world steeped in ignorance of the true God. That world wanted none of His ways. The light of God came into Babylon with His afflicted, downtrodden, captive people. It shone brightly in the middle of the deep darkness.
The same man who heated the furnace now hands out office. Knapp weighs what that honour did to the three men.
From persecutor, Nebuchadnezzar turns patron: "The king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon." This they were not required to resist; and let us hope that it moved them from their stand towards his gods as little as his threats and his furnace of fire had done.
Flames did not move them. Knapp warns that the world's kindness is the harder test.
Christian, if you have by grace resisted the drift of modern thought against God and His truth, take care that you do not fall through its patronage. Be sure of this: the world's smiles and kisses are far more to be feared, for most of us, than its machinery of terror and force. God help us to pay attention to His encouraging word: "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong" (1 Corinthians 16:13).
The events happened. Dennett asks whether history is all they are.
So far the record is historical; but is it only historical? To think so would be to miss the main point of the story. The actual events took place, but these actual events were chosen to show what will take place in the last days... But this same book tells us more. However hot the furnace Daniel's people are thrown into at that time, everyone whose name is found written in the book will be delivered. God may allow Satan to rage and to sift His people. Even so, not a hair of their heads can fall without God's permission.
- Refusal. One act of obedience started it all. They would not bow, and every honour that followed grew from that.
- Furnace. They did not dodge the fire; they walked into it. They came out as witnesses and servants of the Most High God.
- Reversal. God overturned the king's plan and the schemes of their enemies at once. The plot that aimed to destroy these men promoted them.
- Stage. The honour came in the province of Babylon. A world that knew nothing of the true God saw the light shine in its own darkness.
- Warning. The last danger is not the furnace but the favour after it. Fear the world's smile more than its threats.