The Fiery Furnace

The Old Testament follows the story of God’s covenant with His people before the coming of His Son Jesus. These people were (for the majority of the Old Testament) the Israelite people, that is, the descendants of Abraham. During the Old Testament, God’s covenant was restricted only to the Israelites; but when Christ came and fulfilled the covenant, it became for all people: universal, or “Catholic.”

When the Israelites were faithful to God and His Commandments, He protected them, and they always triumphed over their enemies. However, when they strayed from Him and His Commandments, and began to worship pagan gods, they were punished, oftentimes by being conquered by their enemies. After these punishments, they tended to repent of their sins, and return to God and His Laws. Thus, God would forgive them and once again be their protector.

One of the most famous punishments upon the Israelites by God was the time of the “Babylonian Captivity.” During this time the Israelites had once again strayed from God, and as a punishment they were attacked by the Babylonians, and many of them were taken as prisoners back to Babylon, which was a long ways away from their homeland. Seeing this punishment from God, they repented and turned to Him in this time of their captivity. As a result, God performed many miracles to show the Israelites (and the Babylonians) that He really is the One and Only True God. In one of these instances, God showed that He was God by keeping three men alive in a furnace.

This particular story took place during the reign of Nabuchodonosor, king of the Babylonians. (Nabuchodonosor is mentioned in several different incidents that took place around this time; but I don’t think that it is all the same king, but that Nabuchodonosor was a popular name among the Babylonian kings at that time) Anyway, this Nabuchodonosor had built a “statue of gold, of sixty cubits high, and six cubits broad, and he set it up in the plain of Dura of the province of Babylon” (Daniel 3:1) Now, a cubit was a form of measurement that was used back then. It was the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow of a man’s arm. This length obviously varied, but it was generally somewhere between 19 and 25 inches. So, if we take an average of 23 inches, that means that the statue erected by Nabuchodonosor was 115 feet tall and 11 1/2 feet wide from one side to the other. This means that the statue was roughly as tall as an 11 story building and as wide as two cars bumper to bumper.

For the “dedication” of this tall statue (which was probably a statue of some pagan god), the king called together “[all] the nobles, the magistrates, and the judges, the captains, the rulers, and governors, and all the chief men of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the statue which king Nabuchodonosor had set up. ” (Daniel 3:2) Once all of these people had been called together and assembled there in plain of Dura, a herald told the people what King Nabuchodonosor wanted them to do. He told all those gathered there that when they heard “the sound of the trumpet, and of the flute, and of the harp, of the sackbut, and of the psaltery, and of the symphony, and of all kind of music” that they were to fall down on their faces and worship the golden statue that Nabuchodonosor had set up. But then the herald also warned them, saying that if anyone does NOT fall down when they hear the music and adore the statue, then they shall that same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire.

So the music sounded and everyone fell down on their faces and worshiped the statue. Well, not everyone fell down and adored the statue; three Israelites named Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago. They would not adore the statue, because they knew that it would be a sin of idolatry to adore any other “god” besides the True God. They were not unnoticed though; presently they were brought before King Nabuchodonosor. And the king spoke to Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago; he asked them “Is it indeed true that you do not worship my gods, or adore the golden statue that I have set up?” Then he gave them a second chance, saying that “If you fall down and adore the statue when you hear the music again then I will forgive you. But if you will not adore the statue, then you will indeed be cast into the fiery furnace; for who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand?”

A little while later, King Nabuchodonosor looked into the furnace and was astonished at what he saw. He then said to his nobles “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” and they told him that he was correct. Then Nabuchodonosor said “Behold I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” When the king said, “the Son of God”, he meant that the fourth man was an angel. Then King Nabuchodonosor went to the door of the furnace and called out “Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, servants of the most high God, come forth out of the furnace.” And immediately they came out of the furnace; and all of the noblemen were astonished at what they saw. For they saw that the fire had no power on their bodies, and that not a hair of their head had been singed, nor their garments altered, nor even the smell of the fire had stayed with them. Then Nabuchodonosor said, “Blessed be the God of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, who sent his angel, and delivered his servants that believed in him. For they challenged the king’s word, and delivered up their bodies that they might not serve, nor adore any god, except their own God. By me therefore this decree is made, that anyone who speaks blasphemy against the God of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, shall be destroyed, and their houses laid waste: for there is no other God that can save in this manner.”

It is important to note the courage of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago in standing up against the king. They would not obey the king, for what he wanted them to do was a sin, that is, to worship any other “god” besides the True God. Not only was it brave of them to disobey the king, but also to disobey him when they knew that whoever would not adore the statue would be thrown into the furnace. But as they said to the king, they trusted in God; and even if God would not rescue them from the furnace, they would not disobey His Commandments, even if it meant that they would die. But God did preserve them, and the king saw that their God was indeed the True God.

Then Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago answered the king “O king, our God, whom we worship, is certainly capable of saving us from the fiery furnace, and delivering us from thy hands. But even if He will not save us from the furnace, we will not worship your gods, nor adore the golden statue that you have built.” When the king heard this, he was very angry, and he commanded that the strongest men in his army bind the feet of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago. He also commanded the furnace to be heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And then he commanded that Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago be cast into the furnace. They were cast in, but the flames were so hot that those people that cast them in were killed. But soon after they were thrown in, the ropes that they were tied with burnt off, and so they began walking through the flames, and praising God (Daniel 3:26-90).