Dealing with Tyrants, 2

As we consider the fate of Nebuchadnezzar's soldiers (Daniel 3:22), we must consider several truths.

According to Ephesians 1:22, the big players in world history are merely the backdrop for the drama of redemption. Because the Lord Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords on behalf of his people, history is really about saving that people.

Luke 3:14 makes plain that believers can serve in the military, even under perverted tyrants such as the Herod dynasty and Tiberius Caesar, but soldiers can never park their consciences at the door.

Nebuchadnezzar's soldiers should have respectfully declined to obey his wicked order. They would have been killed either way, but in their case, the fires of the furnace continued on in the fires of hell (Revelation 20:15).

As soon as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the fire, they are unharmed. It is as if the laws of Newtonian physics do not apply: "The fire had no power over the bodies of these men, nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them" (Daniel 3:27).

The only thing they lost were the ropes that bound them (Daniel 3:25).

Nebuchadnezzar and his advisors are astounded because they saw a fourth person walking around in the fire with them, one like a son of the gods (דָּמֵ֖ה לְבַר־אֱלָהִֽין) (Daniel 3:25).

Was that an angel or the Lord Jesus Christ? I don't know, but I do know that when the church on earth worships, she worships with the all the hosts of heaven (Hebrews 12:22-24).