By the time we reach Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego had been in Babylon for over 20 years. During this time their faithfulness to God had been proven, Dan. 1. 6-21, and their respect for the king demonstrated, Dan. 2. 49. We can reasonably assume that they carried out the responsibilities entrusted to them to the satisfaction of king Nebuchadnezzar.
After all those years they were blameless, submitting to the authority of the king and serving him with diligence. The introduction of an image and the commandment from the king to worship a false god, however, could not be obeyed. The passing of these many years, with the increasingly distant memory of Jerusalem, had not diluted their spiritual resolve or diminished their determination to be faithful to God in a heathen land.
The ultimate trial of their faith was the prospect of death in a furnace heated seven times more. In facing this prospect, there was certainty and uncertainty. God coulddeliver, of this they had no doubt, but whether or not He wouldbring them out of the furnace alive was something in which they could only trust Him. Their obedience was unqualified – ‘We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up’.
God’s way of working with His people is more often to preserve them in the trial than to deliver them from it. In the midst of the fiery furnace they would enjoy a dimension of the divine presence which hitherto they had not experienced. The nearness of the Lord at such a moment of intensity would serve to preserve the young men and demonstrate to the watching monarch that a higher power was in control of the affairs of these God-fearing Hebrews. They experienced the blessing of a promise given through Isaiah, ‘when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee’, 43. 2. The greatest test of the young men’s faith was more than compensated to them by a demonstration of divine power. Their courageous stand convinced the king of the power of God and led to a reversal of his decree. The respect they had earned from the ungodly monarch was reflected by his promoting them – secular progression was the reward of spiritual faithfulness.
