God is able to do Daniel through faith

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English: An image of Daniel interpreting Nebuc...
English: An image of Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream, as described in the Second Chapter of Daniel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Summary justice was to be meted out on the offender, declared the herald, v. 6. The king’s golden image was to be worshipped as soon as the music played; else ‘the same hour’ the burning fiery furnace would teach others a lesson few would forget. And ‘Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury’ had reinforced the command, vv. 13–15. In uncontrollable fury the king had increased the degree of barbarity ‘seven times more than’ his previous requirements. The ‘exceeding hot’ flame—now almost as incandescent as Nebuchadnezzar’s fury—claimed the lives of the king’s guards, v. 22. Nevertheless, those three Hebrews testified resolutely that their God was able to deliver them, v. 17.

The God they described to the infuriated monarch was ‘our God whom we serve’, v. 17. They may have served Him among their own people, certainly they had in the school in which their captors placed them and with their companion Daniel when the decree required interpretation. In the bewildering changes exile brought, they had heard their God say what later He said through Malachi, ‘Prove me now’, Mal. 3:10. And they had proved Him in respect of their diet and the king’s decree and now as they faced death, 1:12; 2:16–18. They had learned to prove God in the experiences of life and knew in the face of death that He is able.

They had no access to the words James would write over six hundred years later, ‘ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live’, Jas. 4:15. Yet, they added that for His sake they might be ‘counted as sheep for the slaughter’, Ps. 44:22, and so they added delightful words of trust, ‘If (He deliver) not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image’, v. 18. Whether He delivered or not, they would remain exclusively His servants.

Did some quench ‘the violence of fire’, Heb. 11:34? Then it was ‘through faith’, faith in the God who is able to deliver. He did deliver them and remained to them ‘God which raiseth the dead: who delivered … from so great a death, and doth deliver’, in whom they trusted that He would still deliver, 2 Cor. 1:9–10. And that God is our God, in whom we trust.







Wilson, T. (2004). May 27th: Our God … Is Able (Daniel 3:17). In J. Bennett (Ed.), Day by Day: Bible Promises (p. 166). West Glamorgan, UK: Precious Seed.

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