As before remarked, King Nebuchadnezzar's setting up that great gold image, and commanding all, under dreadful penalty, to worship it, was, in a number of points, an open challenge to the Lord.
1. It was the assertion that his idea of the kingdoms of men should be accepted as the true and divine idea, instead of that of God.
2. It was the assertion that the embodiment of this human idea should be worshiped as God.
3. And all this was nothing less than the putting of Nebuchadnezzar himself in the place of God, as the head of all religion and of all government, and the director of all worship.
Yet the Lord employed it all, not only to instruct the king, but to instruct all nations at that time and forever after. The situation created by Nebuchadnezzar for his own glory, the Lord would use in accomplishing His great purpose of giving to all nations the knowledge and glory of God.
In the great crowd that was assembled, there were the three faithful servants of God--Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And when, at the voice of the royal herald, and the sound of harp, flute, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, the great crowd of princes, governors, counselors, sheriffs, and all the people "fell down and worshiped the golden image," (Daniel 3:7) these three young men stood bolt upright, and gave no notice whatever to the image. Then, "certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews." (Daniel 3:7)
They said to the king: "There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded you: they serve not your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men before the king." (Daniel 3:12-13)
He said to them: "Is it of purpose, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?" (Daniel 3:14)
He then in person repeated his command that they should worship the image, and the penalty upon disobedience, that "if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, 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, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:15-18)
Then the furnace was heated to sevenfold its usual strength, and the men were cast into it, and "fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace." (Daniel 3:23)
But suddenly the king, fairly petrified with astonishment, rose up in haste from his throne, and cried to his counselors: "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Daniel 3:24-25)
The king called them forth, and said: "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God." (Daniel 3:28)
God had commanded all nations to serve King Nebuchadnezzar, and had said that whatsoever nation would not serve the same king, the Lord would punish. (Jeremiah 27:1-8) Yet here He wrought a wonderful miracle to deliver these men who had openly and directly refused to obey a positive command of the king. Why was this? Did God contradict himself? Not at all. This command of the king was wrong. He was requiring a service which he had no right to require. He had given a command which he had no right to give.
In making him king of the nations, the Lord had not made him king in the religion of the nations. In making him the head of all the nations, God had not made him the head of religion. But being an idolater, and having grown up amid idolatrous systems, Nebuchadnezzar did not know this. With idolaters, religion always has been, and still is, a part of the government; in heathen systems, religion and the government are always united: while in the true system--the divine, the Christian, system--they are always separate.
And this was the instruction which the Lord gave to King Nebuchadnezzar in this great transaction. In a way in which it was impossible not to understand, the Lord showed him that he had nothing whatever to do with the religion, nor in directing the worship, of the people.
The Lord had brought all nations under this king's yoke as to their bodily service; but now, by an unmistakable evidence, this same Lord showed to King Nebuchadnezzar that He had given him no power nor jurisdiction whatever in their souls' service.
The Lord thus showed the king that while in all things between nation and nation or man and man, all people, nations, and languages had been given to him to serve him, and he had been made ruler over them all, yet in things between men and God, he was given plainly and forcibly to understand that he had nothing whatever to do. And this is all written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. And there being present and beholding it all, "the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces." (Daniel 3:2) of all his realm, this great truth, with the knowledge of the power and glory of the true God, was by this one mighty impulse spread among all the peoples, nations, and languages throughout the whole mighty and wide-spread empire. "Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon." (Daniel 3:30)--Advent Review, April 5, 1898.