Daniel 3 - Introduction

DANIEL's THREE COMPANIONS RESCUED FROM THE FURNACE

Nebuchadnezzar erects in the plain of Dura, near Babylon, a colossal golden image, and assembles for its dedication the high officials of his kingdom, all being commanded, under penalty of being cast into a burning fiery furnace, to fall down at a given signal and worship it (Daniel 3:1). Daniel's three companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, refusing to do this, are cast into the furnace; but, to the king's surprise, are wonderfully delivered from the power of the flame (Daniel 3:8). Thereupon Nebuchadnezzar solemnly acknowledges the power of their God, issues a decree threatening death to any who presume to blaspheme Him, and bestows upon the three men various marks of favour (Daniel 3:28).

The narrative has a didactic aim. It depicts a signal example of religious heroism; and at the same time presents a striking concrete illustration of the words of the second Isaiah (Isaiah 43:2), -When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the fire kindle upon thee." Circumstances sometimes arise, under which it may be a point of duty for the faithful servant of God to prefer death to apostasy; and the three Jewish youths are represented as yielding themselves courageously to a martyr's death, without the least expectation that they would be delivered from it. In the time of the Maccabees (see 1Ma 1:62-63; and the words of Mattathias, 2:19 22), as also during the persecutions in the early centuries of Christianity, the alternative, martyrdom or apostasy, became a very real one; and constancy and faith won many splendid triumphs.

There was a popular Jewish legend respecting Abraham that for refusing to worship Nimrod's gods he was cast by him into a furnace of fire, and miraculously delivered [215].

[215] See Hastings" Dict. of the Bible, i. 17, Beer, Leben Abraham's nach der Jüd. Sage, p. 11 ff.; and cf. Ball, Pref. to the Song of the Three Children, in the Speaker's Comm. on the Apocrypha, ii. 305 7 (where also various Talmudic and Midrashic developments of the narrative of Daniel 3 are quoted).