Thank you for the application question on Daniel’s three friends, “What is the significance of Daniel 3:18: “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”
Daniel 3:18 is very significant for it expresses the wholehearted trust and devotion to God by the believers.
Here are some further thoughts for one’s consideration:
A. The belief of the three Jewish friends was not a culture or social adherence.
Of the hundreds or thousands who were present at the worshiping ceremony, the Scripture only recorded three Jews who refused to worship the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar set up. It was an idol. Everyone knew it was an idol. It didn’t have any power of its own. It was handmade by the order of the king.
The bowing down to an idol was a common cultural practice as their own countries and even this Babylonian culture had its own deities. It was for many of them a cultural practice, not that they believe that their deities were actually alive.
B. The belief of the three Jewish friends demonstrated their belief and allegiance to their Creator God.
The three Jewish friends’ belief in God was not a “blind.” They have heard the messages of Jeremiah and the earlier prophets that if the nation continued in their idolatrous ways, God would send his people into exile. They heard about how the Assyrians came and took the Northern Kingdom away and now the surviving Southern Kingdom was only one step away from going into exile. The Babylonians were coming. Their exile into Babylon confirm for them the message of Jeremiah and the hope of 70 years of captivity.
C. The belief of the three Jewish friends experience the power and omniscient of God.
It was Daniel and them who prayed to the Creator God for insight into the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. No other counselor in the royal court was able to described and explained the untold vision of the king.
When Daniel received the answered prayed, this confirmed for them that their God is the one and true living God. Daniel stated that it was not by his wisdom that he was able to understand and interpret the king’s dream. He attributed it to the Creator God.
Daniel 2 records this, “Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” 8 Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided: 9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.” 10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans” (NIV).
Daniel says to the king, “7 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these…” (NIV).
D. The three Jewish friends were able to reason that if God was able to reveal the vision to Daniel, he is also able to deliver them if he chooses to save their lives.
The three Jewish friends were willing to entrust their lives to the Creator God. For them, to live it is for God and for them to die, it is also for God. They were willing to be the living sacrifice for God. Perhaps they may have thought about Abraham when God called him to sacrifice his son. He was willing to do so. So they followed in the footsteps of Abraham and their forefathers who were faithful to God.
One’s living experiences with God will confirm for oneself the reality of God. Have they seen the hand of God in their own lives? It is more than just attending a Sunday Service, a Bible class, or asking the blessings on the dinner meal. It is encountering God and seeing his providential hand in one’s life, in the answer prayers, in seeing God work in and through him/her to bring about transformation in one’s own life or in the lives of others.
SUMMARY: One will be able to stand for one’s belief if one has experienced God in his/her own life.
For more perspectives: