Daniel and The Fiery Furnace

[Cody]

What did Daniel do the day of the burning fiery furnace? A man in my church showed me this and I found it very interesting. Maybe there is a message in this. I might be wrong, but I'd like you to read it and give your thoughts on it.

Daniel 2:48
"Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon." KJV

Here we see the king made Daniel, ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel 3:1-3
1 "Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
3 Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up." KJV

It tells us here that Nebuchadnezzar made a gold image. Then it tells all the people that came and gave dedication to the image. Notice it says, "all the rulers of the provinces".

Daniel 3:6
"And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace." KJV

In this verse it tells us that anyone who didn't worship the image would be put in a burning fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:12
"There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." KJV

Then it tells us about the three people that didn't worship the image. I think it's strange that it doesn't mention Daniel. We know he was there because it says all the rules of the provinces was there.

The Bible doesn't mention exactly what Daniel did, but I think it's something to think about. Maybe there is a message in this. I'm not quite sure about this, but I thought it was worth showing. We know that Daniel is a man of God and he's definitely in Heaven because it goes on to talk about him in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14, but the question is. What did he do that day?

God bless

 

[Chad]

The answer is in Daniel itself, if you read on to the next few verses. Its very important to read the entire book and take the entire book into consideration before questioning just a piece of it. It makes a big difference in our understanding.

Daniel 3:17-18
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
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So this shows us that Daniel certainly did not bow down to the golden image at all, regardless if the prior verse says "all rulers". "All rulers" does not (in this case, isn't) literally all rulers including Daniel. It could have simply been meant in general, all rulers. For example, we sometimes may say "everyone is on vacation this time in the summer". Do we mean everyone in the literal sense? No.