Daniel 3

"We will have no other Gods, even if it kills us"

This is the statement that the three Hebrew men are making by refusing to worship the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had created.

Because that's exactly what this statue was - Nebuchadnezzar was making people worship him like a God, out of ego and narcissism. He was in denial about the meaning of his dream in the previous chapter, and so tried to create his own version of reality where his kingdom lasts forever. His idol was himself, and so he made everyone else's him too.

Three men in defiance

These three men saw through Nebuchadnezzar's desperate narcissism. They saw the sin of obeying the command to worship.

The real miracle in this account is not the miraculous saving of the men from the furnace, it was the miraculous strength of their faith under fire. Their trust is God is what saved them long before they were put in the furnace.

Living in the heat

When we are in difficult situations, perhaps a bit more tame than this, God will intervene. But perhaps He will not stop us entering the fire - He will walk with us through the flames, ensuring that we are not burned. Faith holds onto God in the fire.

But God's will may not be to save us from the fire. There have been many Christian martyrs over time. There is no more powerful message that to die for one's faith. Are we prepared to die for what we believe?