Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.
I make a decree, That every people ... which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach ... shall be cut in pieces ... because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. This decree, promulgated throughout the vast empire of Nebuchadnezzar, must have tended much to keep the Jews from idolatry, in the captivity and thenceforth (Psalms 76:10).
Remarks:
(1) The miraculous deliverance of the three godly youths from the fiery furnace, as recorded in this chapter, manifested the glory of God before the haughty King of Babylon at a time when the pagan world-power seemed triumphant, and the cause of the people of God hopelessly lost. Thus a two-fold object was much promoted; first, the curing of the Jews of their past tendency to idolatry; and, secondly, the securing to the captive covenant-people, on the part of the pagan rulers, of that respect and consideration which meanwhile mitigated the severity of their exile, and which ultimately issued in the decree of Cyrus, not only restoring them, but also ascribing, before the whole pagan world, honour to the God of heaven (Ezra 1:1-3; Ezra 6:3-12). So wonderfully doth God make the wrath of man to praise him, and restrain the remainder of wrath (Psalms 76:10).
(2) Serious impressions, produced by special visitations of God, are often transient, when the circumstances which have called them forth have passed away. Nebuchadnezzar had confessed, upon the interpretation of his remarkable dream by Daniel (Daniel 2:47), "Of a truth ... your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings." But though he had thus confessed God when just relieved from his previous anxiety, he had never renounced his idols. Men, in times of trouble, will worship the Lord, but still all the time not renounce their heart-idols. And these latter will soon, if cherished, supplant the remembrance of the only true God. So it was in the case of Nebuchadnezzar. Losing sight of the fact that Yahweh will not have a divided allegiance, he still retains his idols. Elated with his conquests of Judea and Syria, subsequently to his dream, and choosing to remember of the latter only so much as flattered his self-deifying pride, he determined, with the rich spoils which he had carried home, to realize, in the form of an outward colossal idol of gold, the statement of Daniel (Daniel 2:38), "Thou art this head of gold." Overweening pride contains in it the root of self-worship, and is utterly incompatible with the sincere worship of the Lord God.
(3) The step from idolatry and superstition to persecution is an easy one, and soon taken. Nebuchadnezzar insisted on all worshipping his golden image, on pain of being thrown into a fiery furnace. Pride and bigotry have often caused despotic rulers to require their subjects to follow them in superstition; and when worldly interest tempts, and threatened penalties frighten, few have the holy courage and tender conscientiousness to refuse. Conforming to error causes no scruple to the indifferent, the carnal, and the unbelieving, who form the great mass of men. So with Nebuchadnezzar's courtiers and people; having no fixed religious principle of their own, what the king approved of they all at least professed to approve of. Rather than offend the king they scrupled not to offend God. What self-destroying folly to fear man, who at his worst can only kill the body, and not to fear God, who can kill both body and soul forever in hell!
(4) The cruel decree of the king seems not to have solely originated from himself. There were many of the Babylonian courtiers jealous of the high position of the Jews in the king's court. Accordingly, by flattery and misrepresentation, they induced him to pass the decree affecting all recusants, representing such refusal of worship to the golden image of himself as an act of treasure against his majesty, as the civil and religious "head" of the empire. Herein Nebuchadnezzar is a type of Antichrist, to whose image as many as will not offer worship shall be killed (Revelation 13:14). It is "they that dwell in the earth" - that is, the earthly-minded-who shall comply. Then, too, as in Nebuchadnezzar's time, the godly few, the elect remnant, shall, at the cost of being found guilty of treason to the earthly ruler, eschew treason to the King of kings. (5) The accusers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prefaced their charge with a salutation of flattery, "O king, live forever" (Daniel 3:9); so often do flattery, malice, and cruelty go together. They not only allege the fact of the refusal of the three Jews to worship the golden image set up by the king; but they add that the high offices conferred by the king on those who had been once but captive exiles aggravated with foul ingratitude the crime of their disregard of the king himself, and treasonous defiance of his commandment (Daniel 3:12). Malice is never at a loss for missiles to hurl at the virtuous and godly. The purest acts can easily be misrepresented, and the worst construction put upon them.
(6) The accused are next brought before Nebuchadnezzar himself. Even still they might have escaped the fiery furnace by one act of worship to the golden image. An incensed king, with absolute power over their bodies, tells them the awful alternative, bow down or else burn. "Who is that god," said he, "that shall deliver you out of my hand? (Daniel 3:15.) Had they obeyed the promptings of sense, they could not have withstood such an appeal. But faith told them, in opposition to the king's challenge, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand" (Daniel 3:17). God will deliver His people either from death or in death. His people know that He can and may deliver them even from temporal death, but undoubtedly He will deliver them from spiritual and everlasting death, which is the only death really to be dreaded and shunned at all costs. Therefore the three youths did not hesitate a moment which to choose-whether life, at the sacrifice of the favour of God, or death, with the certainty of His eternal favour. "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter," is their unflinching reply. It is needless to listen to arguments against stedfastness when our minds are made up to serve none other but God, cost what it may. To parley with the tempter is fatal, when the path of duty is clear. The servants of God serve Him in no hireling spirit. While they hope He may deliver them from temporal death, yet even if He permit them to be slain, they will still trust in Him (Job 13:15). "But if not" - if God be pleased not to deliver us - "be it known unto thee, O king, we will not serve thy gods." Truly it was as great a miracle of grace that three captive and friendless youths should have braved death in its most appalling form, rather than compromise their godly consistency, as it was a miracle in nature that their bodies subsequently were unharmed by the devouring flame.
(7) They are cast into the furnace heated seven degrees beyond its wonted heat. And here, first, God vindicates their cause by causing their executioners to be the victims of the flame which was intended to consume them (Daniel 3:22). Next, to the utter astonishment of the king, the three youths, who had been cast in bound, are seen to walk at large, loose in the midst of the fire, and unhurt. The flame had only burnt the bonds that bound them, and formed a wall of fire around them against their enemies (Zechariah 2:5). The servants of God can joyfully lay hold of His sweet promise (Isaiah 43:2), "When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Those who suffer for the Lord shall have His presence with them in their sufferings; and the presence of the Son of God (Daniel 3:24) dispels every fear, and gives liberty amidst bonds, safety in the midst of a fiery ordeal of tribulation, and life in death. Not a hair of their head can really be injured; the garment of Christ's righteousness which they wear is proof against all the power of the flame (Daniel 3:27).
(8) God ordered it so that the very enemies of His three servants were constrained to recognize the reality of their divine deliverance (Daniel 3:24); and the king himself retracted his taunt, "Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Daniel 3:15,) by his declaration, "There is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (Daniel 3:29). The same ruler who had insisted on the worship of his golden image on pain of death now acknowledged the God of the recusants to be the most high God (Daniel 3:26), and decreed that whosoever should speak aught against Yahweh should be cut in pieces (Daniel 3:29).
Moreover, he promoted still higher the youths whose past elevation had excited the jealousy of the courtiers so as to seek their destruction (Daniel 3:30). Thus it is shown that decision for God often, in the end, secures the respect of even the worldly, who had at first opposed the godly; and that "he who rebuketh a man, afterward shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue" (Proverbs 28:23), and that "when a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). Let us, then, be decided for God, and follow the Lord fully and at all costs, and in all companies, making David's resolution ours, "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed" (Psalms 119:46).