Daniel 3, What Are You Willing to Die For?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Daniel 3 and the Call to Hear the Word of the Lord

Daniel chapter 3, be reading the entire chapter.

Hear the word of the Lord.

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Then the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and the herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever! You, O King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, O King, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought.

And so they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?

Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good.

But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? And they answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, But I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning, fiery furnace. He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire, and the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men.

The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own god.

Therefore I make a decree, any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Polycarp was born about the year 69, perhaps earlier, in what we now call western Turkey, the city of Smyrna.

Polycarp and Faithfulness Under Roman Persecution

At a young age he became a Christian and was a disciple of the apostle John, the longest lived of the apostles. Eventually Polycarp became the leader of the church in Smyrna so that when in the middle of the second century the local pagan people under Roman government wanted to finally put down this troublesome sect, they sought to make an example out of Polycarp.

Now at least 86 years old and probably older. They dragged him before the Roman pro-council, the governor, and demanded that he burn incense, as Polycarp, burn incense to the Roman emperor. Everybody did it.

It was a patriotic act. And so the governor pressured him, threatened him, urged him, almost begged him. You read the account. It's almost sounding like he's desperate to get Polycarp to do it, burn the incense.

Apparently not imagining that when they brought Polycarp before him that they would actually have to go through with the threat. He probably threatened many people like that and then most people would just give in and go along, do what they're told.

He apparently assumed that Polycarp would be like that, would cave in and burn the incense and save his life. But he didn't. Finally the governor implored him, burn the incense. Say, hail Caesar, denounce Christ, to which the old man, Polycarp, responded, Eighty-six years I have served him.

How then can I blaspheme my king and savior? Bring forth what you will. So they did, tying him to a stake in the ground, setting wood around him, setting the wood on fire, and he was burned at the stake.

John Huss, the Cost of Refusing to Recant

Over a thousand years later, John Huss was born about the year 1372 in Bohemia, now what we call the Czech Republic. He attended the University of Prague with the intent of becoming a priest for economic security, for the money.

He paid fairly well and there's no heavy lifting required. But in preparing for ordination while studying Scripture, he was genuinely converted, became a real believer, not just a cultural believer. He was ordained in the year 1400 and became a popular preacher.

And as he was studying Scripture, he saw new truths there, gospel truths, different from the religion that he had grown up in. He saw and taught that no one can buy forgiveness either with their money or by doing rituals in exchange for a certificate that declared that one was forgiven, called an indulgence.

He stirred so much controversy that the pope later in 1407 told him that he had to stop preaching, but he didn't. Finally in the year 1413, Huss is promised safe passage, given a promise from Bohemia to come to the Council of Constance, which was in Switzerland, safe passage, promised that he will not be arrested, that he would be allowed to testify and return in peace.

But he is betrayed. He's told good faith cannot be kept with an infidel. And he was sentenced to death, chained by the neck to a post, had wood and straw stacked around him all the way up to his neck and asked one more time, will you recant?

To which he said, I am ready to die today. And he too was burned at the stake. What are you willing to die for? Probably for your family. But family is really an extension of yourself. Are you willing to die for something that's beyond yourself?

The World Is Ridiculous and Vicious

The church has always depended on believers who are willing to die. When Christ bids a man, he bids him come and die, said Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the 1930s. And he died in 1945, killed by the Nazis for being a Christian.

The church depends on people who find themselves in the midst of a hostile world, as we sang in Luther's song, this world with devils filled, and who yet refuse to compromise, to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar or stop rocking the boat with the gospel.

The early church leader, Tertullian, said the blood of martyrs is seed. From each one is burned at the stake or beheaded or mauled by wild animals or chased out of their country or hung or simply ridiculed or ostracized.

More grow up. And they, too, face a hostile world. Here in Daniel 3, we see believers living in a hostile world. And here we see two things about the world and one thing about God. The world is ridiculous and the world is vicious.

And God is wondrous. First, the world is ridiculous. That's not what we'd expect to hear about the world. In the New Testament, we're told the world is the enemy of God. You can't be a friend of the world and be a friend of God at the same time.

The world is something that in the life of the church and here with these three believers is deadly serious. We wouldn't expect the world to be described as simply ridiculous. But it is. You notice how in this chapter it's making fun.

It's a serious story, sure. But in a way, it's a satire of the world. They're setting up this idol with all their dignitaries and their elaborate band. When we read this, we may think, well, it's weird the way it lists the groups.

You notice that it's kind of weird the way it lists all these kinds of people, these groups of people, the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials.

Why not just say all the officials? Leave it at that. Well, twice in verses 2 and 3, it lists them one by one. Why so redundant? But this is what people do when they're making fun. You know, the chiefs, the dukes, the powers that be, the grand poobahs, the exalted masters, the brass, the uppity-ups, everybody who is anybody.

They're all there.

They all come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had. Did you notice how it's repeated?

Set up.

In verse 2, it begins in verse 2. It's set up. And they're doing this, this dedication of the temple, and they're falling down and worshiping it, not because it's something they really believed in, something they've been kind of, sort of the mythology of their culture that they've been nurtured in from their youth, as though it comes from some myth that they're supposed to believe is divine or spiritual.

No, they all knew it was just now set up. In verses 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 12, and 18, they repeat that this image has just now been set up. It's just a new thing. It's been erected there. Nebuchadnezzar admits in verse 15 that he made it.

It's a gold image. It's unusually tall, about 30 yards high, but kind of thin, six cubits. So that's about, what, four feet wide. So it's not thick, but it's tall. And it's made of gold. It's glistening.

It doesn't say what the image is of, but that's not important to the three believers because they have the command, second commandment, to not worship and bow down to any image. It really doesn't matter what it is of.

And so here you have all the officials, the leaders, the powerful, supposedly educated people, knowingly bowing to an image, worshiping it, revering it, treating it as if it were a god, when all along they know it's a recent creation, men worshiping their own handiwork because they're just told to, because the price is too high not to.

They don't have the courage. They don't have the integrity to say, you know, I don't care for that thing. You just put that up. I'm not going to worship it. They don't have that courage. They're not willing to do that.

They're powerful, educated people doing something ridiculous. And then there's the band. You notice the band. Why not just call them the band or the orchestra, but instead four times, do you notice that?

Four times each instrument is named. And most of these instruments we don't really know what exactly they are. The translators are kind of guessing about some of them. And this is in Aramaic here, so this is not even like Hebrew, a more well-known language.

But that's not important. It's not important really what they are. The point is to make fun of the elaborate show, the pomp and the circumstance with this horn, pipe, lyre, trike, a harp, a bagpipe, and every kind of music.

In verses 4, 7, 10, and 15, the whole kit and caboodle, in other words. So proud of it that every time they have to name each instrument instead of just saying the band. But they name them one by one and then every kind of music.

And we're thinking, okay, I got it the first time. You don't have to tell me every instrument again. But that's kind of the way people are. The Babylonians are so proud of it. They're like little kids rattling on about their horn, their pipe, their lyre, their trike on, their harp, their bagpipe, and every kind of music.

It's just ridiculous. But that's the way the world is.

It's ridiculous.

The things it bows before and expects everyone else to go along with. In 1966, then Beatle, John Lennon, proclaimed, we are bigger than Jesus now. He was boasting that they were so successful that more people loved and followed him and with more fanatical enthusiasm than people followed Jesus.

Well, there's a couple of things to say about that. First, worldwide, that statement was probably ridiculous. It was not just probably ridiculous, it was ridiculous. As there are likely millions of people around the world who love Jesus and cultures and couldn't care less about the Beatles.

They wouldn't even know who they were. They were thinking, who's the Beatles? They're insects, right? Who's this guy? But they might love Jesus. But as for England and where they were from or maybe even America, at least parts of America, the young generation at that time, educated, more cosmopolitan generation, kind of bored with the church but eager about this new counterculture, new then.

That statement was maybe partly true for some in the little bubble that John Lennon was in. The Beatles were bigger than Jesus. That is more popular with more screaming fans craving to hear them. And that's, come on, that's ridiculous.

Or the cult of sports to some. Sure, to many, and me, I like sports, particularly football. It can be just an entertaining, an interesting entertainment. But to some it becomes an obsession, following their team, feeling on top of the world when they're winning.

They beat Clemson yesterday, wow, and down in the dumps when they lose. Come on, you know, be serious. It's just a game. It's about moving the ball up and down the field or getting it through a hoop or getting it to a base before a runner gets to that base.

It's just for fun. You can enjoy it for fun, but to make an idol out of it is kind of ridiculous,.

Isn't it?

How about money? You know, there are people who have enough to live. They can afford to not work all the time, and yet they're just still chasing dollars all the time. They can't take Sunday morning off to worship because they think they've got to be determined to get a little more money on Sunday morning.

It's ridiculous that they'll spend their whole life making money, and then in the end, they have nothing to do with it. What am I going to do with this money? Or more seriously, think how ridiculous even the people in our culture who take themselves the most seriously, you know, like professors and judges, telling us now that a man can become a woman or vice versa.

And we all know that's ridiculous, but that's the way the world is. It's so much how the world is, we kind of hardly notice it anymore. We kind of take it for granted. We offer truly, we, the church, offer truly important spiritual things, and the world isn't interested.

They're bored with the Bible. They're bored with the gospel, with worship, with prayer. But if we have the latest musical craze, if we have a popular band, or the best bunch of guys at moving a ball up and down the field, or the way to make more money, suddenly, now they're interested.

Their minds, their hearts, and their wallets are now wide open to that. We can decry it. We can denounce it. Maybe we should sometimes. But sometimes, you know, we just need to step back and make fun of it because it really is ridiculous.

What is really ridiculous here is who Nebuchadnezzar thinks he is and who he thinks God is. Like John Lennon, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to believe that he was bigger than everything, that he could found a kingdom that would not pass away, that he could tell the whole world that they must worship this image, the one he had just now set up.

Oh, the pride.

Imagine that. You have the power to do that. That is pride. And he issues the command in verse 4, you are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages. He thought he had the right to make a religion and require everyone to join it.

And when the musical cue was sounded, everyone must do as he decided. It's like burning that pinch of incense to Caesar. Everyone must take part. And if there were a few nonconformists who didn't want to play along, well, there was the threat of death to scare them into line.

He thinks he has that kind of power. And that's just ridiculous. But worse, most ridiculous, is that he thinks God cannot protect people from him, that he is most to be feared, that he is bigger than God or than any of the gods in the world that he believes exist.

In his ridiculousness, he thinks that he could do something that even God or the gods cannot overcome. And so he boasts in verse 15, who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Notice his pride, that amazing pride.

Who is the God who can overcome me? And of course, we often think the same way today. Our salvation, our destiny, everything depends on our choice, as though God can't overcome our free will. God depends on my choice.

Think how prideful that is, to see God that way, as dependent on what we choose to believe or do. Well, Nebuchadnezzar imagines himself to be stronger than any of the gods, and that's the challenge of this chapter.

Who is the God who is stronger than the world?

Who is that God?

Who is stronger than the strongest king, than the greatest empire, than the fiercest fire?

Who is that God?

And if there is such a God, then he is the one worth dying for. Nebuchadnezzar ridiculously thinks there is no such God. And so he does what ridiculous people always do when they are caught in their ridiculousness.

They threaten and they get angry. He declares in verse 6, whoever does not fall down to worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And when he is defied, Nebuchadnezzar is set off into a furious rage in verse 13.

Now, some of the local people, the Chaldeans, see some of the Jews, especially Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, not bowing down, and so they maliciously accuse them. In other words, maliciously, they're out to destroy them.

They're jealous probably of their power, of their position, their favor they've had already,.

And so they use it,.

Not because they care about Nebuchadnezzar's reputation or about this silly idol that's just now been set up. They're trying to get them. So they maliciously accuse them in verse 8. And this makes Nebuchadnezzar, though because he has been defied, and once it's pointed out to him, it makes him furious.

The three friends are condemned to death by fire. The furnace is stoked up, hotter than ever, as the world has to prove that it really is bigger than Jesus. It cannot be defied like that Roman governor who just didn't want to kill Polycarp, but he just could not be defied, so he had to go through with it.

But even as they are being cast into the fire by the strongest, best soldiers he has, the issue becomes not whether the Lord can keep his servants alive. That's what Nebuchadnezzar thought was the issue.

Could the Lord keep his servants alive? The issue becomes whether Nebuchadnezzar can. Flames from the overheated furnace scorch his best soldiers that he sent to throw them into the fire. Again, the boasts of the world are just ridiculous.

The World’s Vicious Pressure to Conform

The world's not only ridiculous, it is a second thing. It's vicious. It's vicious in the way it seeks to impose uniformity, here by being thrown into a fiery furnace, probably a large brick kiln, originally meant to fire bricks.

You would imagine with the door, it says it has a door for fuel below, maybe to throw in coal or whatever they used to burn, and an opening at the top, a chimney. But people in their cruel imagination thought, well, look at that thing burn.

They thought, hmm, what if we throw a person in there when it's all lit up? And the world wants to impose uniformity. It wants us to be united around their images, something that's man-made and man-centered, a nation it created, a leader it exalts, even ideas about toleration, diversity, and about how sexual orientation is equivalent to race.

And so to be opposed to homosexuality is the same as to be a racist, and so to be intolerant and oppressive. We are, I fear, moving to a place in this country that to say what the Bible says about some sins, especially sexual sins, is to be immediately classified as intolerant and oppressive.

And so the world will, in its way, be intolerant of what they call intolerance. They will be oppressive of what they call oppression. The world will enforce its idea of tolerance with its typical viciousness.

Modern people like to think that we've been progressing toward greater and greater compassion and human rights. We've kind of spiritually evolved, we think. We're proud of our superiority, what we think is our superiority.

We've confused technological progress with moral progress. For example, how have we used our new medical technology? How have we used it toward the most vulnerable people, helpless newborn babies? We've used it to kill them when they're not convenient.

We're still just as vicious as ever. Well, the Chaldeans, in verse 8, are vicious. They notice that the three friends aren't bowing to the image like everyone else is. It's not that the three friends were drawing a lot of attention to themselves.

It doesn't say that.

It's not as though he stuck out or Nebuchadnezzar didn't notice them. He had to have it pointed out to him. Nebuchadnezzar doesn't even know that they're not bowing to the idols. Like all true martyrs, they're not looking to die.

They're not going out to be made heroes, make a display of their zeal. Now, perhaps whenever the band began to play that cue to worship, they tried to quietly go off somewhere, do something else, not to be noticed.

Apparently Daniel had done that because he's not here. He's smart. But because the world is vicious, it will notice when one of God's people won't play along. It may notice that you don't name your pronouns, so you must be a bigot.

Maybe it will notice when a group of people begin to get truly serious about obeying the Word of God. The world may notice that in you. You're getting serious about being biblical and godly and try to oppress you, try to oppress us with slander.

It will put pressure on us to conform, kind of play along with the way things have always been done. The old-time religion, talking about the Word of God, but just ignoring what it calls us to do when it's inconvenient, when it's kind of out of style now, to play along and not call people to repentance.

But these three friends weren't playing along with the game of trying to make Nebuchadnezzar look bigger than Jesus. They weren't being tolerant and diverse. And that the world can't tolerate. So they snitch, the Chaldeans do.

They even remind Nebuchadnezzar about the punishment that he had threatened in verse 11, just in case he forgot. They reminded him. Nebuchadnezzar, you said, whoever does not fall down in worship shall be cast into the burning fiery furnace.

I was calling his bluff. They want these three non-compliant believers made to toe the line or be burned up. Despite all the talk about just getting along, the world could be as viciously hot as that furnace if they are defied.

Here Nebuchadnezzar is tolerant and inclusive. Think of that. We don't even think of that. He is. He's the tolerant one. He's not prohibiting people from worshiping the Lord or any god they want to worship.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not told to forsake the Lord or worship this image only. Just play along. Just go along with this worship. Also, in other words, include this idol alongside your worship of the Lord.

In other words, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar is trying to say, you know, be inclusive. Come on, fellas. Have open minds, open hearts, open doors. It was a slogan about 10 years ago from some denomination.

Have all that. Be open. Toward this new shared God. You can keep your God, but include your hours. You can keep your Passover and Sabbaths and offer sacrifices to the Lord. You can sing your psalms. Just add this new thing that we have set up.

Why be so exclusive? Why be so intolerant, so narrow? Why? That's what the Roman governor was saying to Polycarp. We're not telling you to forsake Christ necessarily, although he may have gotten there.

But mostly, that's what they were saying to the early Christians. You have to pinch the incense to Caesar. You have to say Caesar is Lord. You can say Jesus is Lord, too. We don't mind that. But you've got to say Caesar is also.

But the Christians would do that. Daniel's friends here won't do that. They won't because the Lord said, you shall have no other gods before me. You do not include any other gods. No inclusion there. So here was a line they could not cross.

And so they responded to the king in verse 16. We have no need to answer. In other words, there's nothing to talk about. Never can answer. It's not something we can negotiate. There's no way that we can explain it to you that you will just accept.

It is what it is.

You say we have to bow. God says we can't. There's really nothing to discuss here. If you throw us in the fire, God can protect us. Or maybe he will choose not to. But either way, in verse 18, we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

That's the same spirit, the same stand as that of Polycarp, saying 86 years I have served him. How then can I blaspheme my king and savior? Bring forth what you will. Or of Hus, refusing to renounce the gospel and replying, I am ready to die today.

Well, that stand ignites the world with this vicious fury. Their response is not, wow, you're a man of principle. We admire your integrity. It's great, that courage. No. Verse 19 says Nebuchadnezzar's expression changed.

Like the Roman governor with Polycarp, he probably expected an easy cave-in. He had reminded them about the furnace. He said in case there were some of these religious fanatics who think that their god will help them, that no god can rescue them.

Who is the god can rescue out of my hand, he said. Such pride. And so he expects them to grovel, to make up some lame excuse, oh, we didn't know, whatever, and quickly bow the next time the band strikes up.

He didn't expect a plain and simple, no, I'm not going to do it. Nothing to talk about. We will not serve your gods. We won't blaspheme our king and savior. We are ready to die today. So the condescending, indulgent look Nebuchadnezzar probably had before is turned into a hateful, angry snarl.

He can't imagine that he's been defied like this. And so he ordered the furnace stoked up as hot as it will go in verse 19 and had the men bound fervently, fully clothed and thrown in there. And here's a picture of the world in all its vicious fury.

The Wondrous Presence and Protection of God

The world is ridiculous and the world is vicious. But God is wondrous. Something is wondrous that makes you wonder, puts you in awe, and makes you go, wow. There's nothing you can say to describe it. It's wondrous.

Normally this would be the end of the story, the end of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but the Most High God, Eloyon would be in Hebrew. Interesting, that's what Nebuchadnezzar calls him near the end of verse 26.

He's the Most High God. This Most High God, Nebuchadnezzar shouting over the roar of the flames into the furnace to the three friends. That Most High God, well, he had other plans. The three friends had likely been thrown into the brick kiln, I would guess, through the chimney where the leaping flames had engulfed the best of his soldiers, Nebuchadnezzar's special forces.

Just after they had been thrown in, just to show how hot the fire was, they fell down to the bottom where likely there was an entrance or a door. It says there's a door outside to which Nebuchadnezzar had stationed himself so that he could have the satisfaction of watching the three defiant believers writhing in pain before they were finally seared to death.

And verse 24 implies by saying he, that's Nebuchadnezzar, he rose up, that he was sitting, probably having had a throne placed there for his viewing pleasure, maybe with a beer in one hand. Can you imagine that, sitting at the throne with a beer?

That's just recreation. Yelling out orders, you know, throw more coal in that fire. But instead of the three men burned to death, to his amazement, he sees them walking around and the fire had apparently burned all the ropes tying them up without burning anything else around them.

He yells out, you know, to his people around him, his entourage, didn't we throw, wait, didn't we throw three men into the fire? And true, O king, they say. Then most astonished in verse 25, but I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.

They're not writhing in pain. And then the appearance of the fourth, he says, is like a son of the gods. He's wondrous. Nebuchadnezzar sees two things, the protection and the presence of God. God is able to protect them through the fire.

When they come out in verse 27, Nebuchadnezzar and his men see that not a hair of their head has been singed. They don't even smell of smoke. They experience literally what Isaiah spoke of poetically in Isaiah chapter 43, verse 2.

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. So here, Daniel 3, a picture in Isaiah, poetry of the Lord's wondrous ability to protect his people. He also sees the presence of God with his people.

That is the fourth man in the fire, a physical demonstration of God with his persecuted people in times of affliction. That's why he's called Emmanuel, God with us, especially to the persecuted. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all in Psalm 34, verse 19.

Here's a picture of God's wondrous presence with those who are persecuted. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, verse 32, everyone who acknowledged me before men, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.

He will deliver them out of it. He is with his people who are willing to stand up and stand out to face persecution or insult or mockery. He saves them here in Daniel 3, not from the fire, but through the fire.

Like polycarp and husk, our bodies may be cremated alive by the fire. Even these three friends admitted that God, though able, may choose the sovereign God. They're not confining what he will definitely do.

He may choose not to deliver them from the furnace. Nebuchadnezzar had boasted that no God is able to save anyone from his furnace. In verse 17, they declare, Our God is able. But in verse 18, he may not.

They knew they could be burned to death, but they won't bow the knee because they know whether saved from the fire now or not, they will eventually be delivered. And to those, to you, if you're willing to give up the idol of respect of others, to be different, if you wear the reputation of being intolerant in today's culture because you believe God's word, to you, God can reveal himself wondrously.

That you can walk through the fires of affliction and come out not even smelling of smoke. God showed himself wondrously even to Nebuchadnezzar. And everybody who was anybody who had been bowing to the idol every time the band played, they all looked him over.

They come out of the fire and they're looking him over.

Nothing burned.

Not even the clothes, not the hair. In verse 27, amazed by no evidence of having been in the fire, and so Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed in verse 28, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Even the ridiculous and the vicious can praise God when he demonstrates himself as wondrous.

And Nebuchadnezzar lauds the three friends for having yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own god, in verse 28. And that is the very thing God Most High calls all his servants to do.

He called Polycarp to do it, and he did. He called John Hus to do it, and he did. He calls you to do it too. Yield up your body rather than serve another god. Though let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.

The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. Of the martyrs of the church, Martin Luther was not one of them. Although we come to Reformation Day this Tuesday, he was willing to let good and kindred go in this mortal life also.