Daniel 3:18

PRIDE HUMBLED AND PIETY HONOURED

‘Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.’

Daniel 3:18

Nebuchadnezzar made an image of his own ‘magnified royalty,’ so high and colossal that probably the inhabitants of Babylon would be able, at sunrise, when the music sounded for prayer, to see the summit of the pedestal and the golden image by which it was surmounted. At a great religious ceremony, representatives of the vast empire were to be gathered together to worship the image. Who will dare to disobey the king’s commandment, and spoil his pride, and be to him as ‘a fly in a pot of ointment’? The pride and the arrogance of mortals often finds a check in the most unexpected quarters,

I. Pride humbled.—(1) By a refused submission to his will. Nebuchadnezzar said within himself, ‘I will be like the Most High’; but when he awaits the gratifying sight of a prostrate court and populace, three wretched captives dare to thwart his will. (2) By a confident defiance of his power. ‘We are not careful to answer thee in this matter.’ ‘We need not answer you, God will, Whom you have defied’ (Daniel 3:15). (3) By the proved failure of his punishment. They were threatened; they righteously disobeyed; they were cast into the awful furnace; but presently wrath gave way to astonishment, when Nebuchadnezzar saw ‘four men loose walking in the fire, and they have no hurt.’ His power was insulted, but in vain did he seek to do his worst on those who dared his will.

II. Piety honoured.—(1) In the exhibition of a most astonishing fortitude. The three Hebrew children calmly challenge, and calmly endure, the king’s anger. According to the Greek and Latin version, there rose up in the midst of the furnace ‘the prayer of Azariah.’ And many a prayer of martyrs has supported them in the deeply trying hour. (2) In the appearance of a messenger of deliverance. Whatever this Bar-elohim, this son of the gods was, in Nebuchadnezzar’s idea, it was unquestionably a signal of deliverance. The Son of God Himself is the Angel of deliverance to His tried saints. (3) In the acknowledgment of God (Daniel 3:28). (4) In their promotion in the kingdom (Daniel 3:30). Christians cannot exhibit fortitude and consistency in vain.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. When everything is darkest, God is nighest. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were faithful unto death, and unexpectedly they gained a crown of life. I fancy among the swaying thousands there was a grim satisfaction at the scene. I do not think that many eyes were pitiful, as the three prisoners moved towards their death. There have been martyrs who were cheered in the last hour by the prayer and the love of many in the crowd; but in all that multitude upon the plain of Dura, I doubt if there was one sympathetic heart. But Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego had God. They had a very present help in time of trouble. They did not dream, when the blast of the furnace met them, how gloriously God was going to work.’

(2) ‘We are not told where Daniel was at this time; but all we know about him makes us sure that he was not present on the plain of Dura. Probably he was in some distant part of the empire. However this may have been, his absence makes the heroism of his three companions all the more conspicuous. It is as when, away from home, from church, from the eyes of friends, a young man stands up solitary in defence of his religion. And the lesson to learn here is that there come times to all of us when we must say, “ I will not!” Christ said it to the devil in the wilderness. The Apostles said it to the rulers in Jerusalem. Poly-carp said it to his persecutors at Ephesus. Men and women are saying it now. The clerk who is bidden prevaricate or go from his situation; the workman who is ordered to work on Sunday or leave his job; the voter who is counselled to vote with his party and let his scruples alone, and who says, “ We will not,” these are the valiants of to-day. It is no easier now than in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to stand up and say, “ We will not.” But he who says it, not offensively or truculently, but only in good faith with himself, has his reward.’