40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Daniel 3:8-4:3 (Episode 512)

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Malicious men seek to destroy Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. A fiery furnace is turned up to consume the three worshipers of God. A fourth man joins them in the fire. And whether God says yes or no, He is still the God of deliverance. Have a listen. Follow 1517:  Instagram X/Twitter More from 1517: Give to the June 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser! Learn more about the 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education New Books from 1517 Publishing: By Water and the Word by Brian Thomas Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Dr. Christopher Richmann The Essential Nestingen: Essays on Preaching, Catechism, and the Reformation More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, check out everything else that 1517 is doing. This episode is probably going to release towards the end of this month, Chad, the end of June. But June, of course, is the 1517 podcast fundraiser, the annual fundraiser. It's how we try to raise a little money to keep not this podcast only but lots of podcasts going. And so if you would like to support this podcast and all the other podcasts of 1517, you can click the link in the show notes.

Or you can just go over to the website, and you'll see it over there too. Help us reach a goal. It keeps everything ad-free. We don't have to charge anything for it. It's not like all those years ago when we were going through Exodus or something. You're like, man, I would like to go hear that, but I'm going to have to go behind this paywall because after a year, these go behind a paywall. That's what a lot of podcast networks do. Not us.

You can just go on the website or go on your iTunes or whatever it is that you listen to your podcast on, and you just go find it. And the way that that happens is stuff like the fundraiser. So you can support that. We'd appreciate it very much. Chad, we are in Daniel chapter 3. King Nebuchadnezzar, he's got a fondness for Daniel and his three buddies. but he has done something that is going to put all three of them in a kind of a precarious

situation because he decided he needs to create a massive statue and at certain times just I guess whenever he feels like it everyone's going to need to to bow down and to the statue and here's the thing about Daniel and those in his three comrades they're not really up for that they're not really up for hearing some music playing and then falling on their face uh to they're not going to do that and so uh this uh and and uh it seems to their credit that some people that maybe aren't fond of daniel or shadrach meshach or bendigo uh they know that they won't do that yeah it was some waiting for the opportunity yeah you know that they were watching uh just like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and all the others who are always watching Jesus, trying to catch

him in his words. So these guys are just waiting for the opportunity. And yeah, it's about to happen. It's going to happen here after, well, where are we at? Verse eight is where we're going to pick things up. So we're told at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the jews now i uh i love so that's a i mean that's a good translation but i love the the image that's behind that so the the aramaic has they ate the pieces of the jews that's a so i like to call this verbal cannibalism i mean it's pretty it's a pretty vivid image for slander the closest thing we have to an english would be like we call somebody a back biter you know it's a pretty graphic image you know they're doing something behind your back

and it's like this image of them opening their mouth and sinking their teeth into your back so here you have these chaldeans who are eating the pieces of the jews maliciously chewing them up verbally huh yeah chewing them up verbally yeah that's what's going on so what what in what way what do they do? Well, the verse tells us after this, they declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You, O King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the, and here we go with all these instruments, hornpipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. I just want to make

sure the king hasn't forgotten about his his decree and the threat of punishment after it i'm sure sure he has not but this rhetorically serves their purpose because of what they say next verse 12 there are certain jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of babylon shadrach neshach and abednego these men oh king pay no attention to you they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up well i think this is a this is a bit of a uh of a mischaracterization when it says they pay no attention to you that's not the issue whatsoever i mean they knew exactly what he said they were paying careful attention to what the king said they did not serve his gods they certainly would not worship the golden image

that he set up, but they did pay attention to his words. They simply chose to not do them, as the apostles will say later, to obey God rather than men. Yeah, I like that they started with this, listen, I mean, first of all, you need to live forever because you're the greatest, obviously. A little flattery. Yeah, a little flattery. And then they want to remind him, you know, we know that you're the kind of king that when he says something he means it you know we don't take your words lightly over here i mean when you say something we're paying attention you know who's not paying attention

uh who thinks maybe you don't mean it these three guys you know they don't take you seriously the way we do uh this is all like kind of gross yeah yeah you don't think there was a little bit of jealousy going on to you dan you're not suggesting that right no no not at all certainly would never happened in politics where someone's jealous because someone else that they deem you know less significant than they are got promoted above them not to mention these guys are jews i mean they were exiled here right they were taken from jerusalem and now they've been placed in this position of authority over some of these other guys yeah you got this is all this is all so predictable you got flattery you got intrigue you got backstabbing you got accusation and of course

i know exactly what to say because of what nebuchadnezzar does next the nebuchadnezzar in furious rage oh he was not happy so raging furiously he commanded that shadrach meshach and abednego be brought so get these guys in here so they were they brought these men before the king And Nebuchadnezzar began to interrogate them. He said, is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I've set up? Now, he's going to give him a second chance here. Now, if you're 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. I guess we're going to let bygones be bygones. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And, now here comes the best worst part, who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Well, I mean, it was bad enough, but he had to go and add that last part. Yeah, this is – so Nebuchadnezzar – I've never thought that Nebuchadnezzar comes across as wise. Like he seems like easily manipulated, and he seems like he has like a fragile ego. And you can – and people that have fragile egos can be manipulated because those egos can be stroked,

or you can say things that threaten them and their pride and this kind of stuff, which is what's happening here. Like there's a furious rage going on, and you're like, why? Like why? Like you're like super angry that someone would dare. And that's a sign of weakness usually. Like how dare someone not listen to me? And just not have the awareness of – because you've got to remember,

Like, he just dealt with Daniel. I mean, I know this didn't just happen. Some time has passed, but we just read it, where he's like, hey, your God's awesome, telling you dreams, all this stuff. Like, yeah, everyone should be really respecting the God of Daniel and stuff because, I mean, he's awesome. And then you're just shocked that they're like, yeah, well, we have a God, and this ain't it. But the whole thing – that whole thing is weird and makes me think that, yeah, Nebuchadnezzar is not like the wisest guy that ever reigned over a kingdom. But then, yeah, to say – I mean I'm kind of a big deal. I mean does a god exist that could possibly deliver you from me?

And, well, this is when – I mean god might have been not even really, really that concerned about all this until he says this. now god says i mean i gotta save him now yeah he's he's crossed the line at this point yeah it reminds me of uh way back in second kings 18 you've got uh sennacherib the assyrian and his representatives are saying the same thing so this is second kings 1835 who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand that the lord should deliver jerusalem out of my hand. Well, you remember how that ended. 185,000 Assyrian troops were decimated by the messenger of Yahweh. So yeah, this never ends well. Now in this case, it's going to end at least better for Nebuchadnezzar than it did for Sennacherib's army. But God's going to step up and he's going to

demonstrate by what transpires next. In fact, there is a God who can very easily deliver his people out of nebuchadnezzar's hands i do like that i do like that shadrach meshach and abednego are basically like no need to wait for all those instruments to play uh we're not doing that yeah yeah yeah you can set the bagpipe aside they uh they go on and answer they say uh shadrach meshach and abednego answered and said that the king oh nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter. It's pretty bold to say to a guy who has the burning fire furnace there, just handy, ready to burn them up. If this be so, they say, 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, now this is one of my favorite verses in Daniel, but if not, even if he doesn't, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. This is some chutzpah here. This is some faithful boldness that are going on. And some great theology, too, that says, of course, our God can. Yeah. Maybe he will, maybe he won't, but he definitely can. But he definitely can. And either way, we're not going to commit idolatry by bowing down to this statue.

Man, this is applicable in so many instances. Yeah, God can do this, he can do that, he can do all kinds of things, and I'm going to confess that. He can heal me of whatever illness I have He can rescue me from whatever danger I'm in He is perfectly capable of doing that And so I will continue to confess that And to trust in him But even if he doesn't

Even if because of his wisdom His insight, his knowledge That is a sun compared to the candle Of our wisdom and understanding Even if he doesn't, well, fine I'm still going to continue to trust in him and not bend the knee to some fake God that some mortal man has set up. Yeah.

Yeah. They seem to know that, like, you know, God's answer isn't always yes. You know, you experience this in life all the time. I mean, you pray for people that are sick or you've asked God to do things. And for all of us, eventually God says no. Yeah. You know, eventually he says no. Now, I think that eventually God has to say no so he can say yes to all his promises.

So he has to say yes to have you pass from this life to the next so he can deliver on all the things he's promised you. But they seem that they know that. They're like, I mean, his answer may be yes, his answer may be no, but that doesn't really change anything. Yeah, yeah. Well, keep in mind, these guys, I mean, they're coming out of Jerusalem. uh they've seen uh what god sometimes allows and what he sometimes what he sometimes doesn't i mean they're exiled right so if if jerusalem had actually been faithful to the covenant that never would have happened so they're well aware that god allows things to happen to to his people

sometimes he delivers them sometimes he lets them suffer for a while before he delivers them sometimes he just lets death take them so he can bring them to to himself uh we like you said we experience that all the time with people that, that we love. So that's why we, that's why Jesus taught us to pray, you know, thy will be done on earth as it, as it is in heaven. Well, you can imagine, uh, and I agree with you, Dan, about his, his ego here, uh, his thin skin, he's got a kind of fragile, he may be powerful, but he's not wise. And yeah, political leaders are, are sometimes, sometimes like that. So with this kind of answer, you can imagine that his reaction is not going to be good. And in fact, that is exactly what happens because we're told in verse 19 that he was filled

with fury and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I don't know how to put that into English idiom, but I think we all kind of get that. somebody looks at you one way and maybe it's you know neutral maybe it's positive maybe it's someone you've known before and they've looked at you in a favorable sort of way but all of a sudden you see that look you're like oh we've we've all seen that look right even as kids our mom or dad looks at a certain way you're like oh this is not good and that continues in adult life too Yeah, but it's when, you know, if you've ever been in an argument with someone, a lot of times this happens when you like really go all in and you drop the hammer down and you know that you have crossed a line where like you've maybe made this person your enemy now. oh you know maybe you've said the thing right and uh yep and uh and and i think what it also is like

is that uh i think that this tells you that and what happens like when he's going to like he's going to heat this furnace up uh a lot um i i think nebuchadnezzar feels threatened here like i said i don't i think there's a lot of insecurities in nebuchadnezzar and when he sees these three guys just being like hey we don't really need to answer you on this matter We have a God, and yeah, he definitely can deliver us from your hand. We're not really worried about that. And we're not even that worried about whether he does it or not. And so even if we burn up, I just want you to know,

it's not because you're mightier than our God. That's not the case. I think this probably is tough for Nebuchadnezzar to hear, and in some sense maybe believes it, because here's the thing about Nebuchadnezzar. and every king and this is why they're like this is that they can you can project all this power and authority but like when you like you know lay your head down at night you know you're just a man like you get sick and you like your body falls apart and you like you you question yourself

you know you know you you know you're just a guy yeah i i think about the uh uh the roman emperors you know, many of whom were declared gods, sometimes before, but certainly after their death. And you just got to, I mean, you step back for a minute and it's comical because first of all, some of these guys were just despicable. I mean, the things they did were just awful. And if they're being declared as gods after, after their death, they died. I mean, they were, they were immortal right and they they didn't come back to life these were guys who did terrible things during their lifetime they succumbed to illness they died some of them were were assassinated and yet we're supposed to believe that they were that they were gods yeah it just

it's uh it's part of the delusion that sometimes grips humanity where we're caught up in believing the things that other people say about us but we can never really we can we can't shake the truth that in fact yeah we're mortal uh and we will die just like every other person does maybe even scarier than uh believing the things that people say about you is hearing people say a bunch of things about you and you know they're not true oh yeah yeah you know sure yeah spend spend five minutes with me and you'll realize that any uh heightened expectations you may have had of me are in fact utterly false yeah or better yet just talk to my wife yeah talk to people who who live with me who know me and you'll realize how how utterly mythical these things are

so he's filled with fury expression his face was changed against shadrach meshach and abednego and he went all out yeah he ordered that furnace heated up seven times more than it was was usually heated there was not a temperature gauge on here that's just a kind of a biblical way of saying he made it super hot threw a bunch of extra extra wood in there and got this thing glowing hot and he ordered some of his mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach Meshach into bed to go get these guys tied up and to throw them into the burning fiery furnace would not have wanted to be those guys. In fact, we're told that these men, uh, were bound in there. So our three friends were bound in their cloaks, their tunics and their hats and their other garments. So they weren't, you know,

just leave the clothes on them, just tie them up. And they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace verse 22 just every time i read it i shake my head because the king's order was urgent and the furnace was overheated the flame of the fire killed those men who took up shadrach meshach and abednego and then those three men shadrach meshach and abednego fell bound into the burning fiery furnace these poor soldiers i mean that tells you how hot it was you didn't have to be in the furnace you gotta like get close yeah yeah and you're dead yeah this is the uh this sort of uh absurdity of the of the whole situation so one of the things that is a bummer is that you know uh if you know this story like you know shadrach meshach and abednego god is going to

give them an answer but uh yeah i mean there's still people that die because of of nebuchadnezzar's ego and all this stuff like it's uh it and and this is such a king kind of move right well i'm just going to crank this thing up to like how hot does this fire need to be you know yeah i'm pretty sure i'm pretty sure was going to kill him anyway right if they're going to die seven times hotter or not seven times hotter they're going to die yeah that is such a king let's just you know make this as hyperbolic as possible if a couple people die because of it you know oh well They're expendable, right? That's the king's perspective. Anything to protect his pride and his ego. Well, surprise, surprise, verse 24 tells us that then Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste.

He declared to his counselors, did we cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king. He answered and said, but I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Ooh, that's some good stuff there. There you go. If there's one thing that people remember about this story, and I remember this all the way back from when I was just a little boy in Sunday school. You don't forget the appearance of the fourth, who's like one, like a son of the gods.

Quite the scene. And it's interesting that he talks about, hey, they're unbound. And I don't know what they bound them with, but if they just tied them up, which is what it sounds like they did, it's like, well, yeah, dude, that's going to be the first thing to go. but yeah the interesting part about it is first of all you have to get in your head like how big this furnace is if they're just like walking you're walking around in a furnace

that's crazy right but also you're not told any of this stuff but there is something kind of awesome about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego just walking around in the midst of fire

unharmed they're just like hanging out with jesus in there right yeah as impressive as we'll get to it later about the story of daniel the lion's den as impressive as that is you know you can see daniel just kind of hanging out with the lions you really can't compare to this so this is probably like uh uh you've seen these like you know dome shape brick kilns you know that that's that's where they made the bricks that they made uh all the structures with so this is probably a one of these massive brick kilns where you have on top there's an opening which is you know no doubt where they threw them in and then you got a uh an opening in the side the door on the side and she

see nebuchadnezzar he's like looking yeah and these guys are like walking in the midst of the fire unbound unhurt just talking with with the son of god it's it's it's uh it is one of my favorite uh just pictures if you can picture that in your head that we have the in the entire scriptures one of the great things about it is that i mean you have a real like you know a burning fiery furnace kind of thing i mean you have some real like hell like pictures here and uh yeah what it what it what you're supposed to i think take away from this is this like i mean no matter how hot hell gets uh if you got christ it's just it's it doesn't matter yeah if you got christ you got everything you need yeah one of the things uh one of kind of

the bigger pictures that's going on here is is that it doesn't matter how hellish things become christ is with you and also i think i think this this whole narrative of chapter three is giving us a small picture of the bigger picture of that we have lots of different places in scripture where when god's people are in exile it's often pictured as a furnace when you think about to egypt you know it's a they were described as a furnace and here you have the furnace and yet god was with them god delivered them brought them out of that rescued them because he was with them and so what's part of what's going on here is you've got shadrach meshach and abednego they're in exile they're in a literal furnace as well as a metaphorical furnace but they're not alone

you've got the son of god with them uh he's going to continue to be with them and he'll bring them out in momentarily just like eventually of course he's going to bring israel out of exile and then with the coming of christ is going to bring all of us out of exile and deliver us by by his redemption so this is one of these smaller stories that's a picture of a bigger story that you have all leading to the very one who's present in the fire furnace with these guys yeah so nebuchadnezzar he's got to figure out what's going on here so he came near to the door of the burning fire furnace i'm sure he couldn't get very close and he declared shadrach meshach and abednego notice what he calls them servants of the most

high god oh he's changed his tune there now he's no longer furious no longer uh you know accusing them of refusing to bow down to his gods. Now he's calling them servants of the most high God. And then he goes on, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. the hair of their heads was not singed their cloaks were not harmed and no smell of fire

had come upon them that didn't even smell like smoke probably everybody else smells like smoke at this point i was gonna say that might be the most astonishing part of this i mean you walk within uh 10 feet of uh of a campfire or somebody smoking a cigarette or pipe or whatever well you know the smoke just sticks to your clothes or sticks to your hair not even a smell of fire had come upon them i like that it uses this word power too i mean because you could easily just say you know it had not harmed them or and not you know something like that but uh i like that it says that it had no power over them because this is what this is like this is a this is a power struggle here and not really i mean it's yeah it's not a fair fight but uh that's what that's

going on here and yeah that and and this is the the kind of language uh that you know that we would use theologically that like that hell has no power over you right it certainly has no power over christ and so yeah the uh the what was trying what these guys were trying to make happen when they come in and say oh king you need to live forever you're so great and you make these decrees what they're saying is exercise your power and what god's doing is saying what power you have no power yeah yeah and the next chapter once we get to that that'll that'll uh back this up even more because it'll be the image of god saying basically hey i i raise up over the kingdoms whoever i want to raise up just happens to be you nebuchadnezzar but don't go patting yourself on

the back or erecting golden statues in your honor because you think that you're it you're not you don't have any power i'm the one who has who has all the power it's a yeah it's a it's a powerful pun intended powerful reminder that there really isn't a struggle going on here i mean god has all the power he just happens to have raised up a particular guy to sit on the throne whose name to Nebuchadnezzar. He could have done it with anybody else had he chosen to do so. So, having seen all this, Nebuchadnezzar is going to change his tune a little bit. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, sent his messenger, and delivered his servants who trusted in him

and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins. Such a change. For there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. And then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Talk about a turn of events. Yeah. I mean, so Nebuchadnezzar does seem like, i mean i think he's totally freaked out at this point he definitely freaked out and uh says okay all right all right i had this other decree let me do this other let me make a decree that

contradicts that decree and let me tell you this uh all right uh i i feel like i've lost a power struggle uh decisively with this god so uh how do i how do i make sure this guy's not upset with me I know. If you even say a word against this God, what makes gods happy? Let's see. I know. Yeah, I'm going to tear you limb from limb and burn your house down. It's like, man, you still don't understand this God at all, do you?

I know. He's not going to throw me in a fiery furnace, at least. Just going to tear you limb from limb and lay your house in ruins. Yeah. So it's like, I mean, I don't really think that's what God's after in this whole thing, but okay. Yeah, at least it's a step in the direction of acknowledging that, in fact, he is definitely a much more powerful deity than either you thought or the other ones that you were trying to worship. But it's kind of, you got to put yourself, of course, in the polytheistic mindset, which is, you know, unnatural for us, not just for us as Christians, but I think for most modern people, at least most modern Western people, even people who aren't, you know, outwardly religious. You ask them if they believe in God, and they say yes.

You say, well, how many gods? Most of them would still say one. Nobody except the Jews said that in the ancient world. Right, right. Yeah, so Nebuchadnezzar is just simply saying, man, among all the gods, the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, man, he's one powerful dude. No of the gods that I know of is able to rescue it in this way. So we better not make him mad by saying something against him. So I'm going to issue this decree which protects his honor and his name by threatening to rip people apart if they say anything against him.

God's really just after his people being able to worship him. And he's like, I won't let anyone say anything bad about you. Don't worry. Yeah. There are a couple of things that are introduced here that are new. Number one, this one who was identified earlier as like a son of the gods is here referred to as a messenger. Yeah. A malak.

So, I mean, we've talked a lot. Any long-term listener to the podcast know that we've talked about this quite a bit. But this would be one designation for the Son of God in the Old Testament, messenger of the Father, who was sent, in fact, into Egypt to deliver the people of Israel and led them all the way to the Promised Land. So in this case, he goes into Babylon, goes into the fire furnace, and brings Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out, delivered his servants. So this is Jesus doing his work that he's always done He's always been the deliverer as he is here And also the other thing he's added is that they trusted in him Now, of course, that was implicit earlier

But here it's made explicit They didn't just worship him or fear him or make a good confession about him All of which is good and true They also trusted in him and would rather, in fact, die, yielded up their bodies, rather than serve and worship any god except their own. So in this case, these guys did not end up being martyrs, even though they're willing to be. But of course, a lot of people have been martyrs, both in modern times and throughout church history. Rather yield up their bodies than serve and worship any god except the one true God.

Nebuchadnezzar's got one thing right. And that is when the angel or the messenger of the Lord shows up, deliverance is on the menu, right? This is how it goes. So he's right about this, that, hey, it seems like the messenger of the Lord showed up and you got delivered. And you're like, well, that will happen because deliverance is what happens when he shows up. Yeah, that's the number one thing on his resume. What does Jesus do? Delivers, saves, redeems. Yeah, that's what he is best at doing, in fact.

He is the delivery guy in the very literal sense of that term. Yep. All right, so instead of being reduced to ashes, you've got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego promoted in the province of Babylon. I don't know the answer to this question, but I've always wondered where Daniel was when all this was going on. It is kind of a little bit of an oddity

here. You know he wasn't bowing down and worshiping this thing. Yeah, sure. Maybe he was somewhere else while all this was going down. Another part of Babylon. Who knows? It's kind of like these guys, these three guys, they have their narrative, right?

And then Daniel's going to have his narrative. So these guys have to deal with the fiery furnace and and the golden statue and idolatry later daniel's gonna have to deal with the prohibition against praying to any god except uh you know the the babylonian deities and he's gonna get thrown into the uh into the den of lions in that case those three guys aren't part of that narrative so i guess you know everybody gets their story and this was the story of shadrach meshach and Yeah, you got to think that the one thing that's not mentioned here, but the guys that were plotting and scheming must be extremely disappointed about how this all turned out.

Yeah, their plan did not proceed as they had wished. In fact, it boomerang backed and instead of demoting them and reducing them to ashes, they get promoted even higher over these guys. And now they're not even allowed to say bad things about these few guys' gods. They're not even allowed to say a bad thing about the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I mean, it's really, they lost nothing but lose in this situation. Yeah, a whole string of losses. Not a good day for the enemies of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now, we just got a couple minutes left, but we can kind of at least get ready to talk about what comes next.

So chapter four is going to be, it's sort of like an open letter by Nebuchadnezzar to whoever wants to read it. That's one way that you can think about this chapter. So we've heard a lot about Nebuchadnezzar, of course. I mean, he's the Babylonian guy who brings the exiles in this first wave to Babylon. We hear about his dream and Daniel interpreting it. We've just heard about how angry he was at these three guys for not bowing down to his golden statue, but then turning right around and at least making a halfway good confession. Not theologically orthodox, but at least it's okay with regard to the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But Nebuchadnezzar still has plenty of issues, and we're going to hear about those issues in chapter four.

He begins by saying King Nebuchadnezzar to all people's nations And languages that dwell on the earth Peace be multiplied to you It seemed good to me to show the signs And wonders that the Most High God has done for me How great are his signs How mighty his wonders

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom And his dominion endures from generation to generation So that's a Pretty good start He's addressing this to everyone who wants to read it Peace to you He says, I got a story to tell you. I'm going to tell you about the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

Now, we'll get into the details later, but this is going to take place later in his reign and when he's kind of firmly established. But God is going to do for Nebuchadnezzar what he does for, well, for all of us in various ways, in various stages in our lives. He's going to humble this proud king. and in a way that is quite memorable, for sure. But that's going to be kind of the next part of the narrative that is so much centered upon Nebuchadnezzar. It's going to be much more focused upon him as an individual. And as we'll learn, what happens to him is what's going to need to happen

to each of us in various ways. It does seem that Nebuchadnezzar is, you know, on the heels of this very much like, okay, I'm going to kind of claim this God a little bit. I want me and this God to be on good terms. And so I'm going to say great things. I'm going to talk about signs and wonders and kingdom and all this stuff. And he's done these things for me. It was like, well, did he do that? I mean, he did some dream interpretation stuff for you. It seemed like he did some real good stuff for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to save them from you.

But yeah, that's kind of how it reads, is that he's like, okay. Not that he's becoming like a devoted worshiper of Yahweh, like this is going to be his only God going forward or something like that, but he does seem

concerned about making sure that him and this God are good. Yeah. Which tells you he doesn't know very much about this God. That's right. Yeah. He's got a painful lesson is going to learn which we'll get to in the next episode yeah all right well we will leave it there and uh pick it up next episode chad i'll see you then all right see you then