This morning I was reading in Daniel and the story in chapter three struck me in a new way. This perspective requires straightening out many things that are twisted about this scene in order to see another scene in the future.
In Daniel, the wicked king Nebuchadnezzar (whom God will humble and make a worshiper of him in the next chapter) sets up an idol to a false god and demands that everyone bow down to it when all sorts of music plays. God, the eternal, just and loving king of the universe, has set up his son, Jesus Christ, as the name above all other names before whom all knees will bow. Today, his ministers sound forth (in all sorts of ways, manners, languages and traditions) this glorious truth and call men to bow before Jesus and live.
When some men stayed faithful to God, Nebuchadnezzar gave them another chance to bow. Peter tells us that God is being patient now with wicked men, giving them opportunity after opportunity to bow to Jesus. However, one day a great trumpet will sound and everyone will bow to Jesus whether they want to or not.
When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to the idol, trusting in God to deliver them, Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into a burning hot furnace, so hot that it killed those who threw them in. In God’s judgement day all who haven’t bowed to Jesus will similarly be thrown into the burning hot lake of fire, to be tormented by God’s wrath forever.
But.
But, for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego God sent a deliverer. Nebuchadnezzar marveled to see the men standing without harm and a fourth man, who appeared to be a god to him. This was most likely a pre-incarnation manifestation of Jesus, the God-man who was sent to deliver them from that trial. Centuries later Jesus was sent to earth, where he lived a perfect life and died for our sin. He endured God’s burning hot wrath and if we bow before him and trust him to deliver us from God’s wrath he will save us from the fiery furnace of hell. Praise our perfect king!