Page 109 - Daniel

There was no second chance this time; Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego were condemned to immediate execution. The fact that
Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be tied up by the strongest men in his
army also reveals the irrationality of the king’s fury—as if the three
would be able to break their ropes and escape if ordinary soldiers tied

them up. The king did not even want to take the time to have the
condemned men stripped of their clothes, which would have been
normal in the ancient world. The men’s clothing later became a further
testimony to God’s delivering power.

The heating of the furnace must have added a high note of tension to
the entire situation as the crowd assembled for the event waited in
anxious anticipation. They may have gasped when the three Jews fell
into the flames and the executioners were killed. The Septuagint inserts
the apocryphal “Prayer of Azariah” (Azariah was the Hebrew name of

Abednego) and the “Song of the Three Youths” at this point with some
additional explanation. Conservative scholars agree that this is not part
of the scriptural text, although it is possible that these men, godly as
they were, might have prayed in a similar way if time permitted. But
Nebuchadnezzar had accomplished his purpose, his decree had been
fulfilled, and he could leave to the furnace the task of consuming these

men who had challenged his authority and his gods.

THE MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE (3:24–27)

3:24–27 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?” 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