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Daniel 3:19-27 — God’s Preservation

Nebuchadnezzar reacted quickly and drastically to the response of the three men by commanding that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than it already was! We can imagine that the servants hurried off to apply more fuel and a forced draft. Next, the king ordered his strongest soldiers to tie up the three captives and throw them into the furnace. The furnace was so hot that the soldiers themselves were killed as they threw the bound men into it. Yet inside where the fire blazed, the three Jews remained in perfect condition!

The king must have been greatly startled and disturbed that his men had been killed, but he was even more amazed when he saw in the furnace a scene that he could not believe! Apparently it was an open furnace that he could look into. He had probably followed the soldiers and took a seat where he could see within the furnace and feel the satisfaction of seeing these three Jewish rebels die. What he saw was not satisfying. He asked his advisors standing by, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” And when they all agreed that they had, in amazement the king said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods” (Daniel 3:24-25).

Now Nebuchadnezzar approached the furnace, at least as near as the heat would permit, and shouted for the men to come out. This shout voiced his admission that he had lost. He had defied any god to save these men and now one had! He called them “ servants of the Most High God” (Daniel 3:26), and by this admitted that God had delivered them from death.

The three of them did come out, and before all of the witnesses who had gathered, their appearance gave the amazing testimony of God’s protection. The fire had not touched their bodies, the hair on their heads was not singed, their clothes were exactly as they had been before they were bound, and they didn’t even smell like smoke! This was a clear-cut miracle!

The witnesses to this miracle would go back all across the empire and would tell of the miracle they had seen performed by the God of heaven worshipped by the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar had called them together to worship the gods of Babylon, but they would go home to tell the story of the Most High God! Many must have given praise to the God whom Nebuchadnezzar had tried to defy.