Page 107 - Daniel

worth noting that the king’s questions distinguished between serving his
gods and worshiping the image. Though these two aspects were
interrelated, it seems to confirm the idea that the worship was primarily
political, although the fact that they did not worship Babylon’s gods was
a condemning circumstance. Though Nebuchadnezzar was probably well

aware of the Chaldeans’ jealousy, he made it clear that there was no
alternative but to worship the image.

Nebuchadnezzar’s challenge, “Who is the god who will deliver you out
of my hands?” (v. 15) showed amazing arrogance, given that he had
seen the true God’s superiority over Babylonian gods in interpreting his
dream. But the king refused to believe that the God of the Jews would be
able to deliver these three men from his hand. Nebuchadnezzar
apparently felt supreme in his power and did not expect any god to
interfere. Rabshakeh made the same arrogant and blasphemous claim

when threatening King Hezekiah (Isa. 36:13–20)—the claim to possess
human power so great that there was no divine power to which the
victim could turn for help.

The reply of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to the king might
ordinarily call for a long discourse explaining why they could not
worship the image. They seemed to recognize, however, that any defense
would have been useless, and that the issue was clearly whether their
God was able to deliver them or not. Accordingly, they confronted the
king with their confidence in God to such an extent that their reply

might be considered disrespectful. But that was probably not their
intention; they were simply stating their confidence in God’s power over
that of the king.

Nebuchadnezzar’s question to his three Jewish officials regarding their
refusal, “Is it true?”, was not directly answered since apparently their
actions had already been confirmed. Another possibility is that the word
“true” has to do with purpose, which means the king was asking the
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three why they had disobeyed him. In any case, the men’s explanation
left no question as to the answer. They would not serve the gods of

Babylon and worship the image. This was forbidden in Exodus 20:4–6.
They stated that their God was able to deliver them from a fiery furnace.
The article “the” should be omitted before “burning fiery furnace” in
verse 17, meaning that God could save them from any fiery furnace, not