Daniel 3 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

1. Nebuchadnezzar orders his officials to worship his golden statue (1–7) 2. Officials report Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for not worshiping (8–12) 3. Nebuchadnezzar threatens them, but they refuse (13–18) 4. Nebuchadnezzar has them thrown into a very hot furnace (19–23) 5. God sends an angel to rescue them (24–27) 6. Nebuchadnezzar honors God and promotes them (28–30)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Why did Nebuchadnezzar make a statue covered completely with gold?

When Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2, he explains that the parts of the statue in his dream that were made of different metals represented different empires. Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian empire was the head of gold. The dream, which Daniel said God gave Nebuchadnezzar to show him what would happen in the future, indicated that this empire would end and others would succeed it. By building a great statue like the one in his dream but covering it all in gold, Nebuchadnezzar was asserting instead that his empire would never end. Bowing down to the statue was an act of agreeing with him and disagreeing with what God had said in the dream. In many places, the law of Moses already forbade Israelites to bow down to any idols (for example, in the Ten Commandments in [Exodus 20:4–5](../exo/20/05.md). But this was a further reason why these Judean young men had to refuse to worship the statue even if they were executed as a result.

Why does this chapter not describe Daniel refusing to worship the statue?

This chapter only describes Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue. However, readers should not infer from this that Daniel did worship it. The last verse of the previous chapter, which provides a transition into this chapter, says that Nebuchadnezzar “appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the work of the province of Babylon. But Daniel was at the gate of the king.” In other words, Daniel remained at the royal court, while his three friends had responsibilities out in the province of Babylon, and that is where Nebuchadnezzar set up his statue (3:1). So Daniel was not among the provincial officials who were summoned to the dedication of the statue. His actions in the rest of the book (for example, in chapter 6, where he continues to pray to God even though he would be executed for doing this) show that if he had been summoned, he too would have refused to worship the statue.