Daniel 3: Worship as Allegiance
Daniel 3 narrates a story about allegiance: whom will you worship and serve? Under what conditions will you serve God? Is our allegiance to God conditioned on God’s intervention and deliverance, or is it rooted in God’s sovereign identity as the king of the universe? God delivers the three Judeans out of grace, not merit, and they are God’s servants whether God rescued them from the fire or not. Allegiance to the kingdom of God, the worship of God, is not conditioned upon God giving us whatever we ask; it is a commitment to the King of Kings no matter whether God intervenes and delivers or not.
Outline of Daniel 3 with Key Texts
- Worshipping the Golden Statue (3:1-7)
“Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up” (3:7).
- The Accusation and Questioning of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (3:8-18)
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. The God (or, If the God) whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up” (3:16-18).
- Thrown into the Firey Furnace (3:19-23)
“Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted” (3:19).
- Divine Deliverance (3:24-27)
“He replied, ‘But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god’”(literally, “son of gods”; 3:25).
- Nebuchadnezzar’s Praise of God (3:28-30)
“Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed 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 utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.’ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.”
Allegiance (3:17-18)
- God can deliver.
- God is under no obligation to rescue.
- Our allegiance does not depend upon rescue.
- Worship is fundamentally about allegiance: whom do we serve?
The Fourth Person in the Fire: “son of gods” or “son of God” (3:25)?
- Some suggest the fourth person is the presence of the pre-incarnate Logos who here appears in an angelic form before the Logos became Jesus of Nazareth through birth from the virgin Mary.
- Some suggest the fourth person is one of the “sons of God” (Job 1:6) who participate in the divine council that serves Yahweh (see 2 Chronicles 18:18-22; 1 Kings 22:19-22; Daniel 4:17). The divine council is God’s gathering of created beings who serve God in the governing of the world (similar to angels but perhaps more than angels).
- Some suggest the fourth person is more properly described as simply an angel (Daniel 3:28).
Whatever we may say, the point is not explicitly a Christological one or even a comment on the divine council but an expression of divine deliverance as the one who alone can rescue the three faithful Jews.
The “Apocryphal” Additions to the Aramaic after Daniel 3:23
These texts are inserted after Daniel 3:23 in some translations. They are included, for example, in ancient translations, including the Septuagint (2nd century BCE Jewish translation), Theodotian (a 2nd century CE Jewish translator), Old Latin, Syriac, Vulgate, Armenian, Coptic and Gregorian. It is also included in Luther’s German Bible and the King James Version (as well as earlier English translations). The oldest surviving commentary on Daniel by the Christian Hippolytus (d. 235 CE) includes commentary on these texts. They are accepted as canonical by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. However, the text is not found in Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts and texts. In Protestant traditions, they are included in the Apocrypha (or Middle Testament).