Daniel 3:13 (ESV)

[13] Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. [14] Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? [15] Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

Nebuchadnezzar had an image made that was 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. He then called everyone together for a dedication of the image. The dedication was apparently not the issue for Daniel’s friends. They appear to have been at the dedication. The issue came when they were instructed to worship the image. We might be tempted to think that this is just semantics. The word worship means to bow down. Maybe he wasn’t asking them to actually worship the image, but just to honor it. But the chapter clearly connects the image with the other gods of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar says to Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, “You do not serve my gods or worship the golden image” (Dan 3:14). Further, he claims that there is no god capable of delivering them from his power. This is a battle of the gods.

This is not about protecting these three friends. They are willing to die for their faith. What is at stake here is more than their lives. It is the reputation of their God. It is fascinating that Nebuchadnezzar has men throw them into the furnace for him, but when he sees them walking unharmed in the furnace with a fourth individual, he personally goes to the furnace and calls them out. Nebuchadnezzar realized that their God is a god like he has never seen or heard of before. The gods of the world, the gods of the Babylonians are only as powerful as their ruthless kings, but here is a God who is more powerful than fire, which destroys everything. Here is a God over whom Nebuchadnezzar has no power. This was a battle of the gods, and his gods lost royally.

He did not respond by requiring everyone to worship their God, but he did make a law that no one was allowed to disrespect their God. God’s reputation was on the line. In the end God was glorified. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were more concerned about the reputation of their God than they were about their own lives. It reminds me of Paul’s words in Romans 12:1-2,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.   Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Or his words in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego put their lives on the line for the reputation of their God. We, on the other hand, have a hard time missing a meal for the reputation of our God. Perhaps we do not know our God as well as we would like to think. My new Ukrainian friend in Odessa grew up with a father in Russian prisons because he was a Baptist minister. He spent 17 years in prison because of his faith. Believers in many countries around the world put their lives on the line daily for the sake of their faith. We complain if the heat is to high or to low, or the music is too loud, or too slow.

Sometimes I wonder if we really know the God of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego at all. At the end of Daniel 2 Nebuchadnezzar recognized that there is no god like Daniel’s God. At the end of chapter 3 he made a law that no one was to disrespect their God. How often does our attitude, words, or lifestyle disrespect the God who revealed dreams to Daniel and spared his friends from the fiery furnace. Have we forgotten that we worship the same God they did? May our lives glorify him today rather than disrespect him, as is too often the case. The reputation of our God is on the line every day. May people see Jesus in me today. May he be glorified.