Dan 3:28-30
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have
frustrated the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor
worship any god except their own God! 29Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation,
or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because
there is no other God who can deliver like this."
30Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the province of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar was a great king. In the dream God gave him, he was
the head of gold. However, he was a heathen king. He reigned over the kingdoms of the
world from Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar had both a good and a bad side. When Daniel
interpreted his dream, he honoured Daniel and his three friends, and praised God, saying
that there was no god like unto Daniel's God. But almost in the same breath, shortly
afterwards, he commanded that a huge image of gold be made, and that everyone should bow
down and worship it. Daniel's three friends, whom he had just honoured because of their
God, refused to bow down to his idol, because they worship only the true God. This
incensed Nebuchadnezzar and he acted very strangely, as if he had a split personality,
like some Christians who accept the Lord and are on fire for Him, but shortly afterwards
cool down and nothing of their initial zeal remains.
First Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that there's no God like unto
Daniel's God, and the next thing he makes an image and forces everyone to worship it!
Afterwards, when God delivered them out of his hand, he praises
them for braking his command. They yielded up their bodies to serve the only true God. We
read in Rom 12:1-2 that we must yield our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Have you
done that? If we Christians live like this, the Gospel will spread like fire throughout
Africa; those who are afraid of man will end in hell with their fear of man.
Those that looked on saw the Son of God walking with them in the
furnace. You must live such a life that others will the the Son of God in your life too,
even midst your trials.