Those privileged souls who grew up in the American church in the late 90s and early 2000s remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and a fiery furnace from Daniel 3 by means of the Veggie Tales episode Rack, Shack, and Benny. The details of this masterpiece of Christian cinema1 are irrelevant to my discussion here. Instead what I care about is the impression the young viewer received of the story of Daniel 3. And that impression can be summarized very easily by describing what I believe most people think is the plot of Daniel 3: Three Hebrew lads are in captivity in Babylon. When the Babylonian emperor tries to make the whole nation bow before a gold statue, they refuse, the evil emperor throws them in a super hot furnace, the lads are preserved by God and walk out of the furnace, the evil emperor says some nice stuff about how great their God must be. What is the takeaway? Stand strong against government tyranny and practice your faith even when the government (or your friends) says not to!
Implicit in this interpretation of Daniel 3 is the assumption that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are the main characters of Daniel 3. In this blog post, I contend that such a position is only tenable if one has never read Daniel 3, instead receiving the entirety of one’s understanding of the story from Veggie Tales. A correct recognition of the protagonist and antagonist of the story in Daniel 3 alters the general interpretation and prime applicational points of the narrative.
Were I to ask a Sunday School to name the protagonist of Daniel 3, I would expect either of the following responses: (1) The Hebrew boys? or (2) God, of course! Were I to ask the same group who the antagonist of the story was, I would expect the reply: Nebuchadnezzar. This class would have just received a 0% on their pop quiz. The protagonist of Daniel 3 is Nebuchadnezzar. The antagonist of Daniel 3 is probably the Hebrew lads, but also in another sense God.
I recognize this is a shift of perspective for modern American Christian readers who are used to moralistic messages about how life is a war and you need to identify your deepest seated unconscious2 longings and mortify them. However, the evidence of the text will support this conclusion.
First let’s summarize the story. Nebuchadnezzar builds a giant golden image, sets it up in an open place, and summons his various officials to a dedication of the image (3:1–3). He then has a herald proclaim the command that everyone is to bow down to and worship the image when they hear the ceremonial music from various instruments (3:4–6). Throughout these opening verses, there is a lot of repetition, emphasizing the ceremonial pomp of the actions taking place. The people respond by obeying the command of the king when they hear the music (3:7). At this point, a complication is added: The Chaldeans bring a charge that certain Jews rather conspicuously did not obey the command to bow to the king’s god (3:8–12). Indeed, it is only after recounting the king’s command and promised punishment of being thrown into a fiery furnace that the accusers even name Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in verse 12. Angrily, Nebuchadnezzar summoned the lads and asked if they had indeed neither served his god nor worshipped his image (3:13–14). He offers them another opportunity to bow and worship when they hear the ceremonial music (3:15), an offer which they resoundingly reject, saying, “We have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (3:16–18) Nebuchadnezzar angrily has his men bind and cast the lads into his furnace, heated up seven times hotter than usual,3 resulting in the deaths of those who cast the lads into the furnace. However, the lads are unharmed, and indeed, a fourth man is seen standing with them, as Nebuchadnezzar’s panicked questioning indicates (3:19–25). Nebuchadnezzar then summoned the lads from the fire, and he and his staff saw that they were completely untouched (3:26–27). Nebuchadnezzar responded by blessing the God who saved the lads, prohibiting anyone in his command from speaking ill of this God, and promoting the lads (3:28–30).
What stands out when you read the story is that Nebuchadnezzar is continually at the forefront of the narrative. He is continually the actor, the speaker, the driver of the action. He builds a statue. He commands his staff, herald, and people. He gets angry. He gives orders. He gets amazed. He blesses God. He passes laws. He promotes the lads. In contrast, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego act as a single character, not three characters. Indeed, they only speak once, and the words are ascribed to all three of them. Read verse 16: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king…” Generally their actions are passive. Their rebellion is an inaction; they don’t bow down. They come when summoned. They are bound and thrown. They receive salvation. Multiple characters converse with Nebuchadnezzar. Only Nebuchadnezzar converses with the Jewish boys. Nebuchadnezzar is a far more central character to the action. Action defines plot; so Nebuchadnezzar is central to the plot.
Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar (in various forms such as his name, he, I, and the king) is the subject of 32 verbs in the story. Similarly the Hebrew lads are only the subject of 24, which seems close until you realize they tend to be very clustered. Three of their verbs are in each of verses 12 and 16 and five are in verse 15. So more than half of their verbs are piled up in quick succession in the plot. Altogether their verbs are only in 12 verses, with Nebuchadnezzar’s in 18. More importantly, only a couple of Nebuchadnezzar’s verbs are passive, whereas at least six of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s verbs are passive. Additionally, Nebuchadnezzar is explicitly named 15 times, with the lads named only 13 times. While the most powerful words in the story probably belong to the lads (the quote in verses 16-18), the counting stats suggest they may not be the protagonists; Nebuchadnezzar is even more conspicuous.
More convincing than the counting stats, however, is the fact that the Hebrew lads don’t even get mentioned in the story until verse 8, and then only by name in v. 12. They’re last mentioned in verse 30, so that the story continuing through verse 334 ends with Nebuchadnezzar as well. Nebuchadnezzar is definitely the protagonist of Daniel 4, in a plot in which he learns humility and faith in God. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar is again a major character, the dreamer whose dream is interpreted by Daniel, who learns then of God’s plan for human history. Arguably in Daniel 2 as well Nebuchadnezzar is the protagonist. What this strongly supports, then, is that Nebuchadnezzar is a continual protagonist from Daniel 2 through Daniel 4.
This helps us make sense of the plot of Daniel 3. The conflict in the plot of Daniel 3 is that three Jews oppose the will of the protagonist Nebuchadnezzar. The resolution to that conflict is that Nebuchadnezzar learns there is a God who can oppose his will. The context of Daniel 2 further supports this. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar saw a statue with a head of gold and was told that head represented his kingdom. That kingdom would end; hence the other portions of the statue were of different materials. When he built such a statue entirely of gold in Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar was defiantly claiming that his kingdom would last forever; he was a god!
The conflict of Daniel 3 is about resolving Nebuchadnezzar’s false understanding of himself and of God. Through the rebellion of his servants, and through his preservation of them, God taught Nebuchadnezzar that his kingship was human and frail, completely under subjection to the will of God. Indeed, this is the fundamental tension and lesson of Daniel 2-4. It takes all three of these stories for Nebuchadnezzar to ultimately learn his lesson.
An understanding of this conflict fundamentally changes how we think of the application we should draw from Daniel 3. While Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are positive examples of courage under pressure to forsake their faith, the main application should match the lesson learned in the plot by the main character. That is, what we learn form Daniel 3 is that God is God, and no man, not even one of the greatest kings of human history, comes close in power or sovereignty. What we learn from Daniel 3 is our need to submit ourselves to the Lord of human history, to give up our own way and seek his instead. We learn that we are not the deciders of our fate, that we cannot have our own will at all costs, but that we must bless and worship God Most High.
While the time may come when we must follow the example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and stand for our faith in the face of persecution, the day has already come on which we must worship God. Daniel 3 is always applicable; we are not the everlasting kings of our own lives. We must worship our true King today.
1 The cultured reader will note that “masterpiece of Christian cinema” is an oxymoron.
2 I would say subconscious, but I’m told I would thereby be importing a secular concept that would thereby contradict my biblical worldview.
3 I have no idea how they did this calculation.
4 The verses 3:31-33 are labeled 4:1-3 in English Bibles. The verses could arguably go with either chapter, but since Nebuchadnezzar is very clearly the main character of the story in chapter 4, with the plot of the story being one of his coming to knowledge of God and his sovereignty, it is very fitting that the same potential introduction of that story serve as a closure to the story of chapter 3, in which he had previously come to a knowledge of the sovereign power of God to save. The words fit either as the king’s decree ending chapter 3 or as the introduction to the story he recounts in chapter 4.
Citizens & Sons 