Daniel 3

Furious rage; they are brought. Wesley’s king who owned their God (2:47) now summons the three he appointed (2:49). Rage is a man’s, not a cue for politics.

Fury, bodies before a throne. The Most High still rules. The next words will be theirs; this verse only gets them into the room.

Calvin: nothing more troublesome to kings than to see their authority despised. After the king is cool again he will seem to moderate; here he is inflamed. Pride when decrees are disobeyed.

Even the rage sits inside the trial God will use. They stand before him. The question is whether the charge is true.

Is it true that you don’t serve my gods and you don’t worship the image I set up? The fact is already true (3:12). He names the image as his.

“Is it true”—a question, a last opening. They could still bow. Grace that has kept them not-falling does not nullify the hour in which they must speak.

Calvin: he addresses them doubtfully and gives a free choice, which implies moderation after the rage. He seems to free them from blame if they will only bow hereafter. The statue which I have created, which I have made: my orders ought to be sufficient.

Even the pause is in God’s hand. Held in common: he asks. Verse 15 will add the blasphemy.

If you are ready whenever the music sounds, well; if not, the furnace. Who is that god who will deliver you out of my hands? The bargain is on the table: worship and live.

“Who”—a king claiming the last word against every god. The Most High who changes kings (2:21) is being dared. The three are still free to take the music. This is not yet fatalism, and not yet a prosperity deal—only a threat.

Calvin: he breaks forth into sacrilegious blasphemy—there is no god who can deliver out of my hand. Kings swell with pride while they pretend piety; they substitute themselves for God. What God? Clearly there is no God. Intolerable arrogance and diabolical fury. Arm yourself with this: nothing pleases God but what He has commanded in His word.

God will answer the taunt in the furnace, not because the king’s mouth forced Him. Deliver out of my hands. Their answer will not accept the frame.

Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to answer you in this matter. Wesley: we care not; it is vain to debate; the king is resolved to have his will, and we are resolved on the contrary. No long counsel about whether utility might excuse a bow.

The matter is already settled in a will under the Most High. They do not bargain. This is not fatalism (whatever will be, will be, so why stand?) and not a prosperity script (answer so that God must pay). It is refusal to treat worship as negotiable. Assisting grace meets three men who actually say no.

Calvin: we do not care—the matter is settled. When men entice us to deny the true God we must close our ears and refuse all deliberation. We have already insulted God when we even question the propriety of swerving from His worship. Hypocrites cloak delinquencies with utility; these men would have had the same excuses and did not use them. God’s glory is upheld when worship is without the slightest doubt.

The Spirit has already fixed the heart. Common ground with Wesley: no debate. The able God of v. 17 is next, not as a deal.

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand. Wesley will complete it: from death or in death. Able is confessed; the timing is God’s. This is hope, not a contract that makes deliverance the price of obedience.

They serve, and He can. Serving is theirs under grace; ability is His. If this verse stood alone it could be twisted into prosperity (He will, therefore we bow not as a trade). Verse 18 blocks that. They do not obey in order to be rescued; they obey because He is their God, and they know He is able.

Calvin: first reason—God has sufficient power and strength to liberate them. Place our life in God’s hand. Sufficient protection: no method of preserving life better than to throw ourselves on His protection. Be thoroughly sure God will defend a good cause. They bring forward God’s worship: they undertake nothing rashly, but are worshippers of the true God.

“Able”—confidence in the Guardian, not in a technique. He is able, and He will deliver—out of the king’s hand, whether by snatching from the fire or through it. Verse 18 will name the other side so this hope is not a bargain.

But if not, let it be known that we will not serve your gods or worship the image you set up. Wesley: all one which way God would honour Himself; resolved to suffer rather than sin, and leave the cause to God. Let him do his worst. God will deliver us either from death, or in death.

“But if not” is the hinge of the chapter. The three do not make rescue the condition of their loyalty. Arminian readers see faith that could still bow and will not—resolve formed by grace, yet genuinely their own, and ready to suffer rather than sin.

Calvin: even if we must die, life is not of so much value as to deny God for preserving it. If God be unwilling to deliver us from death, we will not worship thy gods. Two points prepare for martyrdom: persuaded God is protector and will liberate if expedient; and prepared to die, aspiring to a better life. God’s glory more precious than a hundred lives. They accuse the king of arrogating too much—thy statue, thy authority is of no moment, since we know it to be a fictitious deity.

Effectual constancy, not a bare permission after they happened to be brave. The Spirit holds the refusal. Nothing happens but what He has knowingly and willingly decreed, yet He is not the author of the king’s fury, and their not-bowing is true obedience, not puppetry.

Filled with fury; his face changed; furnace heated seven times. Wesley: God purposed to shew His power when the king did his worst, and in the thing wherein he dealt proudly, to be above him (v. 20). Rage answers a no that would not deal.

“Seven times”—heat, a face. The Most High still rules. Their “if not” has been heard; the king’s worst is still his.

Calvin: God seems at first to desert them; no help appears. This was a living proof of faithfulness. They were prepared to endure everything, treating God’s glory of greater value than their own life. The king’s pride: when they find decrees disobeyed, they swell. Satan occupies the mind; nothing but cruelty. Constancy pleased God though it produced no immediate fruit before the world.

God secretly impels the extra heat so the miracle cannot be doubted. Fury, and hotter fire. Binding is next.

Mighty men of the army to bind them and cast them in. Wesley: what did he think—that they would refuse to go, or that their God would defend them from his power, or that if He had, his mighty men could have prevailed? None of this: God purposed to shew His power when the king did his worst.

The soldiers bind them with ropes. Agency on the king’s side remains evil and authentic. The three do not struggle out of a bargain they already refused.

Calvin: he chose from his servants the strongest to bind them and cast them in. God removed all doubts by this, so that light would emerge from the darkness when Satan tried to shut it out.

The strongest men are means to make the deliverance unmistakable.

Bound in cloaks, tunics, hats, other garments, thrown in. Wesley will mark that all this is expressed with emphasis to make God’s power more glorious in their preservation (v. 23).

They go in as they stood—dressed, bound, not stripped for a stunt. Faith that will not bargain has now run out of rooms to talk.

Calvin: diligently enumerates whatever tends to prove God’s power. Bound: this might at first suffocate them; they remained untouched and then walked loose. No falsehood of Satan could obscure it.

The details are the setup for v. 27’s inspection. The flame will take other men first.

The order urgent; furnace overheated; the flame killed those who took them up. Wesley: that same heat that slew the executioners might much more easily have killed the three even before they fell down—so preservation will be the more glorious.

Death is at the door. The Most High who is able (v. 17) does not owe the soldiers a bargain either. Urgency is the king’s; the extra heat is his worst.

Calvin: since the command was urgent and the furnace heated sevenfold, the extremity of the flame consumed those who executed the orders, while the three walked through the fuel. The king’s slaves consumed by the very smoke; the fire without effect on the servants of God.

God frustrates the impious by the very heat they chose. Both readings: the takers die. The three still have to fall in.

These three fell down bound into the middle of the burning fiery furnace. Wesley: all this expressed with emphasis to make the power of God more glorious in their preservation. The story pauses in the fire. The fourth figure is the next range.

“Fell”—they go in. “If not” is now the furnace, not a phrase. They have not worshiped. Deliverance from death or in death is God’s to show; they have already stood.

Calvin: they fell down in the furnace of fire. Bound, they could not take care of themselves. The result of the history is their preservation so surprisingly beyond expectation. Nothing safer than to make God the guardian of our life—not that we shall be preserved from every danger, but that we hope for liberation if useful, and do not hesitate to meet death if God so please.

Still in His hand. Common ground: three men, bound, in the fire. Who walks there with them belongs to 3:24–30.