Heroes and Villains: Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego: Christian Courage

Why did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answer the king with "even if he does not" rather than simply claiming God would rescue them?

Three teenagers stand in front of the most powerful man alive and refuse to make their trust in God depend on the outcome. They believe God can save them and they say plainly that they will not bow whether he does or not. It is the difference between believing God exists and believing he will come through, held together in one sentence.

Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good; but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Who is that god who will deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.”

Daniel 3:15–18

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste. He spoke and said to his counselors, “Didn’t we cast three men bound into the middle of the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He answered, “Look, I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are unharmed. The appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

Daniel 3:24–25

Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.

Hebrews 11:35–38

What did Nebuchadnezzar lose and what did he see when he looked into the furnace after the three men were thrown in?

The king who built the statue and demanded worship ends up standing near a fire counting bodies and finding one too many. What burns is only the ropes that tied them, and what survives walks around loose. Nebuchadnezzar came to watch his law enforced and left blessing a God he had never met.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the form of his appearance was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. He commanded certain mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their pants, their tunics, and their mantles, and their other clothes, and were cast into the middle of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the middle of the burning fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:19–23

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste. He spoke and said to his counselors, “Didn’t we cast three men bound into the middle of the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He answered, “Look, I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are unharmed. The appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. He spoke and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the middle of the fire. The local governors, the deputies, and the governors, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies. The hair of their head wasn’t singed. Their pants weren’t changed. The smell of fire wasn’t even on them.

Daniel 3:24–27

Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything evil 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 who is able to deliver like this.”

Daniel 3:28–29

Why does Revelation show every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne when Babylon used that same list to make them bow?

Babylon's whole strategy ran on gathering every nation and language under one command to kneel to a statue. Revelation takes the same list of peoples and puts them in front of the Lamb, standing and praising instead of kneeling in fear. The crowd the empire assembled by threat is the crowd the Lamb gathers by rescue.

Then the herald cried aloud, “To you it is commanded, peoples, nations, and languages, that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace the same hour.” Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Daniel 3:4–7

Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything evil 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 who is able to deliver like this.”

Daniel 3:29

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9–10

They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation, and made us kings and priests to our God; and we will reign on the earth.”

Revelation 5:9–10