Daniel 3:1

Daniel is a book of a number of astounding miracles; and these should be understood in light of the absolute necessity of God's prevention of the absorption of the Judaic remnant (the truly important part of Israel) into the gross paganism of their Babylonian captors. If Nebuchadnezzar, or any other king, had been permitted by God to compel the Jews to bow down before pagan images, it must be considered very doubtful that Israel could have survived a period of seventy years and at the same time have retained their faith in God.

Many of the older commentators understood the urgent need of just such interposition upon God's part as may be seen in this chapter and other portions of Daniel. The miracles here came at a juncture in Israel's history when the Chosen People were subject to a mighty despot who deemed himself almighty; and, due to the captive state of his people, God could not manifest himself to the autocratic heathen rulers of that era through his people. Therefore, it was necessary that God should have manifested himself through those faithful Jews (Daniel and his companions), who in that situation were God's representatives of the Theocracy.[1]

The situation was exactly parallel to that of captive Israel in Egypt when God performed the most powerful miracles of the Old Testament to deliver the oppressed people. God did exactly the same thing here; and those unbelieving scholars who will not believe the miracles recorded in Daniel are apparently blind to the unqualified necessity for exactly this type of intervention from the Father for that people who were destined, in time, to deliver the Messiah to mankind.

Note also how effective the miracles recorded here assuredly were.

"Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the true God as being above all the gods that he worshipped (Daniel 3:28). He admitted that it was right for the Jews to worship no other god but their own. He decreed that God's law should be obeyed rather than his (Daniel 3:28); and he forbade under penalty of death that if persons of any people, nation, or language should speak against the God of the Jews, the persons doing so should be cut in pieces and their houses made a dunghill! (Daniel 3:29). This decree promulgated throughout the vast empire of Nebuchadnezzar must have tended much to keep the Jews from idolatry during their captivity and afterward."[2]

Therefore we receive the great miracle of this marvelous chapter exactly as it is represented in this holy book, a book that Christ himself did not hesitate to quote during his ministry.

Furthermore, the timing of this great wonder came at exactly the correct time, at or near the beginning of Israel's long captivity. That was the time when this miracle was needed, not during the days of the Maccabees. There exists no more unreasonable superstition among critics than the allegation that Daniel was written during the days of Antiochus Epiphanes. It is true of course that Daniel would have been a book of much comfort to the Jews of that period, but no more, indeed not half as much, as the comfort it brought and the inspiration it provided in the days of Daniel.

Dummelow called this chapter "a legend,"[3] and it is quite common among liberal critics to classify most of Daniel with such Jewish writings as the Talmud and the Midrash.[4] However, as the same great scholar affirmed:

"This chapter is a straightforward account of a miraculous deliverance that is fully on a par with the rest of Holy Writ; and it is even approved by a New Testament reference to it, "quenched the power of fire" (Hebrews 11:34)."[5]

This chapter also reflects the faith of the three companions to the effect that, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace" (Daniel 3:17), as a faith that was grounded in the prior writings of the Holy Bible: "When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 43:2,3). Thus what God did, as recorded here, was nothing more than he had faithfully promised that he would do. In fact, Andrews, stated that, "This marvelous rescue is held up as a Divine deliverance, and as an illustration of the fulfillment of Isaiah 43:2."[6]

An outline of this chapter is as follows: the erection of the great image (Daniel 3:1), the dedication of the image (Daniel 3:2-7), the Chaldean's charge against the Jews (Daniel 3:8-12), the manner of Nebuchadnezzar's reception of those charges (Daniel 3:13-15), the Hebrew children stand firm (Daniel 3:16-18), the terrible penalty executed (Daniel 3:19-23), God preserved them in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:24-27), and the final result of this miracle of deliverance (Daniel 3:28-30).

Daniel 3:1

"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was three score cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon."

THE IMAGE ERECTED

If one may take somewhat of a speculative glance at the probable psychology that controlled Nebuchadnezzar at this point, it is easy to see what this pagan egotist meant by this image. The previous chapter tells us of his dream of the great image which, according to Daniel's interpretation, represented Nebuchadnezzar as being "the head of gold!" This was not enough for this ruthless despot; he wanted to be the whole cheese! Therefore, he made a great image all of gold. Of course, when he commanded everyone to worship it, he might have identified it as an image of one or more pagan deities. That would have made it easier for the chief officers of the kingdom to comply with his request; but our own view is that the image here was clearly one of Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Some scholars, of course, say that it was an image of "one of Nebuchadnezzar's favorite deities.", We strongly prefer the older view that this image was of Nebuchadnezzar himself. Why? (1) There is the probable thinking on Nebuchadnezzar's part that this statute all of gold was a better symbol of his importance than the one of the dream that Daniel interpreted, in which he was only the head of gold. (2) Also, as Arthur Jeffery put it, "The tyrant ever seeks to make men bow down before something he has made ... The egocentric man has idols before which he insists that other men bow. These usurp the place of God."[8] (3) Also, as Young observed, "It was customary for the Assyrian kings to erect statues of themselves."[9] There is nothing in the text which clearly settles the question.

"An image of gold ..." The sheer size of this colossus, 90 feet by 9 feet seems to indicate that it was not of solid gold, but that it was made of some other material and overlaid with the precious metal.

"On the plain of Dura ..." It is not certainly known where this was. Dummelow thought it was at the "mounds of Dura some 12 miles south-southeast of Babylon."[10]

Andrews believed that, "The best suggestion is that it was connected with a small river, Dura, that entered the Euphrates some six miles south of Babylon."[11] The great likelihood is that it was somewhere not too far from Babylon.