Daniel 3

Wesley: perhaps that he might seem no ways inclined to the Jews or their religion, the Chaldeans being jealous after he had owned their God to be greatest and preferred Daniel and his friends. An image after 2:47.

A king who had just called Daniel’s God “God of gods” (2:47) now builds a golden image. Arminians see two choices by the same man: an honest confession and a proud relapse. God’s rule does not make the second choice any less Nebuchadnezzar’s.

Calvin: not truly and heartily converted; the confession was limited. He now betrays what he nourished in his heart. God wished this example plain: still bound by Satan’s chains, still a slave to his errors. Superstition joined with ambition and pride; he pretends piety while promoting his own fame. Whether the statue is Bel or a new rite, he fabricates a deity by royal license.

God presents the relapse so the miracle of 2:47 is not mistaken for a new heart. Effectual for this hour’s exposure, not a bare permission after gold is poured. Nothing happens but what He has knowingly and willingly decreed, yet He is not the author of the idolatry as idolatry.

He sends to gather satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, justices, magistrates, all provincial officials, to the dedication. Wesley’s jealousy of Chaldeans already sits behind the scene. A summons, not a sermon against “bureaucracy.”

The officials receive an invitation meant in earnest. Officials can come; the three will have to stand. Second causes are not theater.

Calvin: names of magistracies; he sent to collect them. He wished a religion with no mixture of foreign novelty, fearing dissension. Princes consult private ease in edicts about worship. From the beginning those with supreme power have dared to fabricate deities and order them worshipped.

The net is wide so the trial will be public. Neither side disputes this: they are summoned. Dedication will make wood and gold a god in the heathen manner.

They gather and stand before the image he set up. The refrain “Nebuchadnezzar had set up” keeps the maker named. Standing is not yet falling.

A crowd of officials, feet on a plain. The Most High rules; these men still choose the easy yes that is coming.

Calvin: prefects obeyed; they had no religion but from their fathers, and the king’s will weighed more than antiquity. Those not rooted in God’s truth bend to every breeze; a king’s edict is a violent tempest.

“Stood”—instability of the untaught, yet still under decree. They stand before what he set up. The herald is next.

The herald: you it is commanded, peoples, nations, and languages. Wesley: proclamation in several languages. A loud command. The king’s word in many tongues. Hearers remain responsible. The three will hear it too.

Calvin: cried lustily. The king made no exception; every province was to worship. Seeing the multitude obedient, no one would dare refuse; liberty is at an end. He suspected some of rebellion; Jews mixed among them made the statue a test.

God uses even this loudness. Agreed on both sides: peoples, nations, languages. Music and fire follow.

At the sound of horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music: fall down and worship the image he set up. Instruments here are the court’s stimulants, not a war on music in the church.

The act of worship is timed to the music. Worship is named as worship. The three’s not-falling (next range) will be a not, under the same sounds.

Calvin: outward observance was enough; no verbal profession of belief. That excuse is frivolous: idolatry is condemned in those who pretend to worship idols even if they mentally refrain through fear. God wishes inward worship first, then outward profession.

The demand is the bending of knees. The furnace is the seal.

Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. The penalty is named before the three speak. Faith that will not bargain belongs to 3:16–18; here the threat is only set on the table.

The furnace is both a real fire and a royal decree. The Most High rules; this cruelty is still the king’s. Agency is not canceled by 2:21.

Calvin: not a usual death; he suspected rebellion. The denunciation shows he wanted to see whether the Jews, unaccustomed to Gentile superstitions, would obey. God wished Abraham’s sons to be pressed to follow the example of others.

The threat is inside the trial God will use. The furnace is threatened immediately. All will fall in v. 7 except the men about to be named.

As soon as they heard, all peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the crowd’s yes makes the three’s no visible.

Everyone falls down. Conformity is creaturely under a command. The exception is coming as three men, not as a party.

Calvin: our propensities have a vicious tendency. If he had commanded Israel’s God to be worshipped, tumults would have arisen; at this signal they directly fall. A king’s nod contents them; they never consider whether the worship is sacred. Learn not to be induced by any man’s will to embrace any religion, but inquire what God approves.

Easy obedience of the unrooted. Common to both: they worshiped. Accusation can now point at those who did not.

Certain Chaldeans came near and brought accusation against the Jews. Wesley’s jealousy (v. 1) now has a mouth. Malice is named as malice, not as a modern cause.

Envy lies behind a serious charge. The Most High rules; these men still slander. Daniel is not in the dock; the three whom 2:49 set over affairs are.

Calvin: intention not expressed, yet the statue was likely purpose-built. Counselors indignant that strangers were prefects while they were slaves. They watched to see what the Jews would do; envy suggested the advice. If these three could be broken, victory over the rest was easy. Daniel left alone for the time, harder to oppress.

The snare was laid from the beginning. Maliciously, against the Jews. The greeting is next.

O king, live forever! Court greeting, as in 2:4. Flattery opens the charge.

They still speak as courtiers. The king’s life is wished; the three’s lives are about to be spent. Human speech under the Lord of kings.

Calvin: the common salutation. Then the emphatic Thou, O king—thou hast uttered this edict from thy royal authority.

Weaponized courtesy. O king, live forever. The decree is recited as if reciting it made the three guilty.

You have made a decree: every man who hears the music shall fall down and worship. They make the king’s word the whole of religion. No inquiry whether God approves.

“Decree”—they tell the truth about the edict and hide the first table. The three’s crime, in this mouth, is not attending to a king. That frame will meet 3:16–18 without being answered here.

Calvin: they seize this weapon—the king is treated with contempt. They enter no dispute about their own religion; it would not have suited them to allow a question about their deities. Superstitious men do not apply their minds to how God should be worshipped; they follow audacity and lust.

“Decree”—human authority made supreme. You have made a decree. The furnace is repeated as law.

Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the furnace. The penalty is their exhibit A. Immediate death is still only threatened.

They want the king bound to his own fire. Legalism under a tyrant. The Most High still rules the furnace that is not yet lit for these three.

Calvin: they magnify the crime by the honor the king had given (v. 12). The Holy Spirit sets this rashness before us: God cannot approve worship unless it is offered with truth. Human authority is unavailing unless we are sure the religion pleases God.

“Shall”—they bind the king to rage. Both traditions agree: the furnace again. Names come last, as the point of the spear.

Certain Jews you appointed over the province: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They pay no attention to you. They don’t serve your gods, and don’t worship the image you set up. Wesley’s lieutenants of 2:49 are now the accused. The charge is true in the fact (they have not bowed) and false in the frame (contempt of the king as the issue).

Three men are named, and they hold appointed offices. Their not-worship is already a deed before they speak. The next range will be faith that will not bargain; this verse only shows they have already not fallen. No Pelagian leftover—they live by the God of 1:17—and no fatalism that makes the accusation the last word.

Calvin: thou hast set them over the administration, yet they despise the king’s authority. The single crime they press is refusal to obey the edict. Those who calumniate the pious reproach them with despising kings who bind by errors. Meanwhile we ought to undergo this infamy as if disobedient, until the Lord shines as assertor of innocence.

Providence placed them where the snare would catch public men. They do not worship the image. The king’s rage, and their “even if he does not,” belong to the next file.