‘Then these men were bound in their hose, their turbans and their cloaks, and their other clothing, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. As a result, because the king's command was urgently demanding, and the furnace intensely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, fell, bound, down into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.'
Their fate was repeated twice to emphasise its awfulness, they were taken up to the roof of the furnace and cast in, and they fell down into it. There was no way of escape. But for the men called on to perform the duty the result was appalling. In their haste to respond to the king's furious urgency, and in their lack of knowledge of the workings of such furnaces, especially when heated to such an intensity, they found themselves caught up in the deadly heat and were overcome and slain. And into that same deadly heat, and worse, went the men who had trusted in God.
When we look at this scene we can only be silent. How can we even begin to describe the courage and steadfastness of these men who so quietly and firmly went to their seeming dreadful fate? We can only sit and watch in awe.