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Prophets and Kings
he started from the throne and looked intently into the glowing flames.
In alarm the king, turning to his lords, asked, “Did not we cast three
men bound into the midst of the fire? ... Lo, I see four men loose,
walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of
the fourth is like the Son of God.”
How did that heathen king know what the Son of God was like?
The Hebrew captives filling positions of trust in Babylon had in life
and character represented before him the truth. When asked for a
reason of their faith, they had given it without hesitation. Plainly
and simply they had presented the principles of righteousness, thus
teaching those around them of the God whom they worshiped. They
had told of Christ, the Redeemer to come; and in the form of the fourth
in the midst of the fire the king recognized the Son of God.
And now, his own greatness and dignity forgotten, Nebuchadnezzar
descended from his throne and, going to the mouth of the furnace,
cried out, “Ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come
hither.”
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth before the vast
multitude, showing themselves unhurt. The presence of their Saviour
had guarded them from harm, and only their fetters had been burned.
“And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counselors,
[510]
being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire
had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their
coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.”
Forgotten was the great golden image, set up with such pomp. In
the presence of the living God, men feared and trembled. “Blessed be
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” the humbled king was
constrained to acknowledge, “who hath sent His angel, and delivered
His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king’s word,
and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any
god, except their own God.”
The experiences of that day led Nebuchadnezzar to issue a decree,
“that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss
against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in
pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill.” “There is no other
god,” he urged as the reason for the decree, “that can deliver after this
sort.”