Daniel:                   Excellence in Exile

Lesson Four:        Faith in the Furnace (Burn or Bow)

Text:                       Daniel Chapter 3:1-30

There are two ways to approach the study of this chapter. One is to examine it primarily for its practical merit. The second is to look for a prophetic message. In the first, we simply take the story at face value, looking for Biblical principles and truths to build our faith and encourage us in our walk with God. In the second, we view the various components of the story as being symbolical of truth revealed elsewhere in the Scripture. For example, Nebuchadnezzar could be seen as the anti-Christ. Daniel’s friends become a picture of Israel. The setting becomes the tribulation and the lesson is God’s preservation of the Jews during that time of Jacob’s Trouble.

The study will look into both the practical and prophetic messages. There are similarities between the Tribulation and what occurs in this chapter.

We must keep in mind that this story is included in the Aramaic portion of Daniel. It is a part of God’s message to those who rule during the Times of the Gentiles. It is a stern reminder that no man will circumvent (avoid / get around) the purposes of God. What He has decreed will come to pass. At the same time, this account is of great comfort to God’s people who must live in a godless world. Frequently in history, the Saints of God have been forced to decide between “bowing and burning.” This will also happen to the “tribulation saints” – those believers who will carelessly miss the rapture and are determined to make it to heaven, and those who will be saved during the tribulation. They will be forced to face the “music” played by the anti-Christ. Not all have been delivered like Daniel’s three friends. Many have died for their faith. Yet, the name of God has always been exalted and the faith of God advanced when Christians have chosen to suffer rather than compromise their faith.

These are just some of the valuable lessons this chapter has to offer.

1. I. The Figure the King Erected – Verses 1-7
2. A. The description of the image (1)
3. Its purpose
4. It seems likely that Daniel wants us to make a connection between the image the king saw in his dream and the image he erected in the plain of Dura. Daniel does not tell us what figure the image represented – whether Nebuchadnezzar, a god, or something else. Daniel withholds this information because it is not important.  However, Daniel repeatedly emphasizes the fact that it is an image made entirely of gold – whereas only the head was of gold in the image seen in the dream.
5. Nebuchadnezzar was a proud man. Not content to be just the head of gold, he erected an image entirely of gold and commanded all people, nations, and languages to worship it.

• Three times in this chapter, (verses 4, 7, 29) Daniel draws our attention to the various races from the different nations Nebuchadnezzar had conquered.
• He also emphasizes that it was the provincial leaders (many of them foreign, as were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) that were first compelled to worship the image.

Determined to perpetuate his kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar sought to consolidate his rule and increase his power over the many nations he had conquered by forcing them to accept a common religion.

It should be remembered that this strategy worked well for the Catholic Church, especially in the days of the Inquisition.

1. Its prominence
2. Standing alone, towering 90 feet above the plain of Dura, the sun glinting off its golden exterior, the image would be visible from a great distance.
3. Nebuchadnezzar ensured that there would be nothing else to compete with his statue when the command went forth to worship it.

1. B. The dedication of the image (2-7)
2. The call for the leaders (2-3)
3. The assembled leaders represented all the political authorities of the land.
4. They represented not only different levels of government, but also the mixture of peoples that made up the Babylonian Empire.
5. These political leaders were compelled to worship first as an example to all the people gathered at Babylon for the dedication (perhaps numbering well over a million participants).

1. The command to the people (4-5)
2. Everyone, regardless of race or religion, was to fall down and worship the image.
3. When the people heard the orchestra begin to play, that was their signal to begin.
4. 8 times in this chapter the ritual associated with the image is called “worship.”
5. This was not considered just an act of respect or allegiance to the king, but religious worship of the image he had erected.

1. The consequence of disobedience (6)
2. Anyone who refused to bow in worship before the image was to be burned in furnace the same hour. This suggests that the furnace was fired up nearby – a powerful motivation to obey.
3. Everyone gathered on the plain knew they must make a choice to bow or burn.

1. The compliance of the people (7)
2. At the king’s signal, the music began to play and everywhere on the plain people began to fall to the ground, beginning with the leaders standing before the image.
3. Nebuchadnezzar’s plan appeared to be a roaring success – until his appointed observers noted three men standing defiantly before the image.

1. II. The Faith Daniel’s Friends Expressed – Verses 8-18
2. A. The accusation of their enemies
3. Their attitude (8)
4. The word accused is translated from two Aramaic words. The first means, “to bite in pieces” and the second means, “to devour.”
5. This was a common figure of speech referring to malicious slander. We might say that the Chaldeans “chewed ‘em up and spit ‘em out” before the king.

1. Their allegations (12)
2. They made three charges against Daniel’s friends.

• They had no respect for the king or his authority
• They did not serve his gods
• They had not bowed down before his image

1. Only the last two charges were correct. Their failure to bow was not an act of disrespect to the king, but of obedience to God – a case of having to obey God rather than man.

1. B. The anger of the King
2. The reason for his anger is related to the purpose of the enforced worship. He was attempting to unify his kingdom and ensure its longevity (permanency, long-life or prolonged existence).
3. The refusal of three high-level leaders, especially foreign ones, could not be tolerated because it struck at the heart of what he was attempting to do.

1. C. Their answer before the king
2. His challenge – “Who is that God that shall deliver you….”
3. Like the conflict between Pharaoh and Moses, David and Goliath, and Elijah and Ahab, this was not between men and their ideals (morals / ethics), but men and their gods.
4. If the Hebrews had bowed at this point, they would have conceded that the God they worshipped was just a pacifier of the heart, not the Almighty God of heaven and earth. This would also violate Exodus 20:4-5.

1. Their courage – “we will not…”
2. Daniel’s friends did not try to reason with the king or placate (calm down) his anger. They clearly understood that God’s reputation was at stake and it was God’s job, not theirs to defend it.
3. With the courage of their convictions, they informed the king that their God was able to deliver them, and would do so if it suits his purposes.
4. However, regardless of the outcome, they would burn before they would bow down.

NB: Verse 18 brings up the “But if not” principle of faith. As believers, we can have confidence that God is in control of every circumstance of life. In response to our faith, He is able to override the decisions of men, alter our circumstances, or otherwise exercise His power to deliver us from trials and suffering. But if in His wisdom He chooses not to do that, but allows us go through the fires of adversity, we would rather blaze for his glory than give up our faith.

1. III. The Fury the King Exhibited – Verses 19-25
2. A. The commandment of the king
3. The expression of his wrath
4. In his anger, Nebuchadnezzar lost sight of everything except his need to make a supreme example of Daniel’s three friends.
5. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter and commanded that the biggest, most intimidating men in his royal guard perform the duty of binding the men and casting them into the fire.

NB: Could this “7 times” be indicative of the 7 years of tribulation?

1. The execution of his will
2. The fire was so hot that the soldiers who threw the Hebrews into the furnace collapsed from the heat and died.
3. As the three men were tossed into the furnace, all those who had gathered on the plain must have wondered at the “folly” of the three men in clinging to their faith.

NB: The 3 men were Jewish and hence represented Israel / the Jews during the tribulation period.

Where was Daniel himself during this period? Could it be that Daniel himself (though Jewish) was indicative or pin-pointing of the church being removed at the rapture, before the tribulation starts?

1. B. The confusion of the king
2. That the three men were not consumed by the flames
3. That the three men had a companion in the flames
4. The king was amazed at the presence of a fourth person in the furnace who, like the others, was unaffected by the flames.
5. However, this fourth person differed from the other three in form. He had a god-like appearance, so that Nebuchadnezzar said he was like the Son of God.

NB: Could this be Jesus Christ coming to save the Jews during the tribulation period? See Joel 3:14-16; Jeremiah 30:3-7 & Rom 11:25-26

1. IV. The Fame the King Extolled – Verses 26-30
2. A. The friends examined (26-27)

Upon their exit from the fire, the king and the assembled leaders inspected the three men. They found no evidence of the fire – not a single singed hair or the slightest smell of smoke. Their God had completely delivered them from the power of the flames

1. B. Their God exalted
2. His power – He was able to deliver those who trusted in Him. (28)
3. Often God reveals Himself in a much more powerful and personal way when He allows us to go through trials.
4. By standing upon the courage of their convictions and refusing to compromise their faith, these men gave God an opportunity to dramatically demonstrate His power through their lives.

1. His preeminence – He was not to be spoken against. (29)
2. Nebuchadnezzar still has not become a believer. He recognizes that the Hebrew God is superior, but not that He is the one true God.
3. His decree insures that the Jews could worship God without fear of persecution, but Nebuchadnezzar makes no commitment to seek or worship the Jewish God.

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