this is the problem that confronts every follower of the true God when the requirements of serving him come into conflict with the demands of a secular state. I mean by this not merely a demand to do an openly wicked thing or die for refusing to do it (like refusing to turn over or kill Jews in Nazi Germany). I mean any pressure to disobey the teachings of the Bible, whether by peers in your school, by fellow employees, by employers, or by whoever it may be. Whenever you are pressured to do something (or not to do something) that you know by the teachings of the Bible to be wrong (or right), your situation is that of these three men and your responsibility before God is the same also. You must do the right. You must not bow to the world’s demands, even if the consequences are costly.

the fact that Nebuchadnezzar had been established by God did not make Nebuchadnezzar God. The fact that God raises up rulers does not make rulers autonomous. It does not give them unlimited power. On the contrary, it limits their power, for they are responsible to the One who has set them up—whether they acknowledge him as God or not. The duty of believers is to remind the state of this divine limitation. They are to do it by words and, if necessary, by the laying down of their lives.

There are times in life when you do not want to debate the pros and cons of a position. If you do, you will very likely choose the wrong side. There are times when you have to respond the right way and do the right thing instantly, or you will probably fail the test.

I think of Dr. Joseph Tson, the Romanian pastor who before his exile was called before the Communist authorities to answer for his religious convictions and preaching. He expected to be killed. So he set his affairs in order, and when he appeared before the interrogating officer, he said, “I have to tell you first that I am ready to die. I have put my affairs in order. Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying, because when you kill me people all over Romania will read my books and believe on the God I preach—even more than they do now.”

The interrogator replied, “Who said anything about killing?” and eventually let him go. Today Joseph Tson is in America, where he prepares weekly radio broadcasts into Romania that are listened to by most of the population. He is heard because he would rather have died than compromise.

when Nebuchadnezzar peered into the furnace, he saw them walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed. And he also saw a fourth person who looked “like a son of the gods” (Dan. 3:25).

It is not difficult to know who that fourth person was. He was Jesus Christ in a preincarnate form—perhaps the form he had when he appeared to Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or in which he wrestled with Jacob beside the brook Jabbok. It is a vivid portrayal of the fact that God stands with his people in their troubles.

What of Nebuchadnezzar? He was impressed. He said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way” (vv. 28–29). But Nebuchadnezzar was not converted. He was going to have to sink much lower before he was ready to acknowledge that there is but one God and to worship him.

a second underlying pattern. The three friends are promoted at the end of the crisis. They were graduated with highest honors in chapter 1; they were promoted following the crisis in chapter 2; and now they attain higher rank in chapter 3 (v. 30).

“The church of Christ has been so constituted from the beginning that death has been the way to life and the cross the path to victory.”