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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry comments on passages, not single verses — this entry covers Daniel 3:28–30. His two-level outline is real structure in the source text, so it is rendered as structure.
The strict observations that were made, super visum corporis - on inspecting their bodies, by the princes and governors, and all the great men who were present upon this public occasion, and who could not be supposed partial in favour of the confessors, contributed much to the clearing of this miracle and the magnifying of the power and grace of God in it. That indeed a notable miracle has been done is manifest, and we cannot deny it, Act 4:16. Let us now see what effect it had upon Nebuchadnezzar.
I.He gives glory to the God of Israel as a God able and ready to protect his worshippers (Dan 3:28):
"Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Let him have the honour both of the faithful allegiance which his subjects bear to him and the powerful protection he grants to them, neither of which can be paralleled by any other nation and their gods." The king does himself acknowledge and adore him, and thinks it is fit that he should be acknowledged and adored by all. Blessed be thee God of Shadrach. Note, God can extort confessions of his blessedness even from those that have been ready to curse him to his face.
1.He gives him the glory of his power, that he was able to protect his worshippers against the most mighty and malignant enemies: There is no other God that can deliver after this sort (Dan 3:29), no, not this golden image which he had set up. For this reason there was no other god that obliged his worshippers to cleave to him only, and to suffer death rather than worship any other, as the God of Israel did, for they could not engage to bear them out in so doing, as he could. If God can work such deliverance as no other can, he may demand such obedience as no other may.
2.He gives him the glory of his goodness, that he was ready to do it (Dan 3:28): He has sent his angel and delivered his servants. Bel could not save his worshippers from being burnt at the mouth of the furnace, but the God of Israel saved his from being burnt when they were cast into the midst of the furnace because they refused to worship any other god. By this Nebuchadnezzar was plainly given to understand that all the great success which he had had, and should yet have, against the people of Israel, which he gloried in, as he had therein overpowered the God of Israel, was owing purely to their sin: if the body of that nation had faithfully adhered to their own God and the worship of him only, as these three men did, they would all have been delivered out of his hand as these three men were. And this was a necessary instruction for him at this time.
II.He applauds the constancy of these three men in their religion, and describes it to their honour, Dan 3:28.
Though he is not himself persuaded to own their God for his and to worship him, because, if he do so, he knows he must worship him only and renounce all others, and he calls him the God of Shadrach, not my God, yet he commends them for cleaving to him, and not serving nor worshipping any other God but their own. Note, There are many who are not religious themselves, and yet will own that those are clearly in the right that are religious and are stedfast in their religion. Though they are not themselves persuaded to close with it, they will commend those who, having closed with it, cleave to it. If men have given up their names to that God who will alone be served, let them keep to their principles, and serve him only, whatever it cost them. Such a constancy in the true religion will turn to men's praise, even among those that are without, when unsteadiness, treachery, and double dealing, are what all men will cry shame on. He commends them that they did this,
1.With a generous contempt of their lives, which they valued not, in comparison with the favour of God and the testimony of a good conscience. The yielded their own bodies to be cast into the fiery furnace rather than they would not only not forsake their God, but not affront him, by once paying that homage to any other which is due to him alone. Note, Those shall have their praise, if not of men, yet of God, who prefer their souls before their bodies, and will rather lose their lives than forsake their God. Those know not the worth and value of religion who do not think it worth suffering for.
2.They did it with a glorious contradiction to their prince: They changed the king's word, that is, they were contrary to it, and thereby put contempt upon both his precepts and threatenings, and made him repent and revoke both. Note, Even kings themselves must own that, when their commands are contrary to the commands of God, he is to be obeyed and not they. (3.) They did it with a gracious confidence in their God. They trusted in him that he would stand by them in what they did, that he would either bring them out of the fiery furnace back to their place on earth or lead them through the fiery furnace forward to their place in heaven; and in this confidence they became fearless of the king's wrath and regardless of their own lives. Note, A stedfast faith in God will produce a stedfast faithfulness to God. Now this honourable testimony, thus publicly borne by the king himself to these servants of God, we may well think, would have a good influence upon the rest of the Jews that were, or should be, captives in Babylon. Their neighbours could not with any confidence urge them to do that, nor could they for shame do that, which their brethren were so highly applauded by the king himself for not doing. Nay, and what God did for these his servants would help not only to keep the Jews close to their religion while they were in captivity, but to cure them of their inclination to idolatry, for which end they were sent into captivity; and, when it had had that blessed effect upon them, they might be assured that God would deliver them out of that furnace, as now he delivered their brethren out of this.
III.He issues a royal edict, strictly forbidding any to speak evil of the God of Israel, Dan 3:29.
We have reason to think that both the sins and the troubles of Israel had given great occasion, though no just occasion, to the Chaldeans to blaspheme the God of Israel, and, it is likely, Nebuchadnezzar himself had encouraged it; but now, though he is no true convert, nor is wrought upon to worship him, yet he resolves never to speak ill of him again, nor to suffer others to do so: "Whoever shall speak any thing amiss, any error (so some), or rather any reproach or blasphemy, whoever shall speak with contempt of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they shall be counted the worst of malefactors, and dealt with accordingly, they shall be cut in pieces, as Agag was by the sword of Samuel, and their houses shall be demolished and made a dunghill." The miracle now wrought by the power of this God in defence of his worshippers, publicly in the sight of the thousands of Babylon, was a sufficient justification of this edict. And it would contribute much to the ease of the Jews in their captivity to be by this law screened from the fiery darts of reproach and blasphemy, with which otherwise they would have been continually annoyed. Note, It is a great mercy to the church, and a good point gained, when its enemies though they have not their hearts turned, yet have their mouths stopped and their tongues tied. If a heathen prince laid such a restraint upon the proud lips of blasphemers, much more should Christian princes do it; nay, in this thing, one would think that men should be a law to themselves, and that those who have so little love to God that they care not to speak well of him, yet could never find in their hearts, for we are sure they could never find cause, to speak any thing amiss of him.
IV.He not only reverses the attainder of these three men, but restores them to their places in the government (makes them to prosper, so the word is), and prefers them to greater and more advantageous trusts than they had been in before: He promoted them in the province of Babylon, which was much to their honour and the comfort of their brethren in captivity there. Note, It is the wisdom of princes to prefer and employ men of stedfastness in religion; for those are most likely to be faithful to them who are faithful to God, and it is likely to be well with them when God's favourites are made theirs.
Historical interpretation
Three Centuries of Reception
6 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
"Then the king promoted," etc. For as they honoured God by giving themselves up to death, so, too, they were themselves honoured not only by God, but also by the king. And they taught strange and foreign nations also to worship God.
This is our faith. Thus did God will that he should be known by all, thus believed the three children [of the fiery furnace] who did not feel the fire into which they were cast, which destroyed and burned up the unbelievers while it fell harmless as a dew upon the faithful. The flames kindled by others became cold, seeing that the torment has justly lost its power in conflict with faith. For with them there was one in the form of an angel, comforting them, to the end that in number of the Trinity one supreme power might be praised. God was praised; the Father of God was seen in God’s angel and holy and spiritual grace in the children.
“Blessed be God who has sent his angel.” … For how can it be otherwise than astonishing for the emperor of the world, with so many arms around him, and legions, and generals, and viceroys, and consuls and land and sea subject to his sway, to be despised by captive children; for the bound to overcome the binder and conquer all that army? Neither was there any power in the king and his company to do what they would, no, not even with the furnaces for an ally. But they who were naked, and slaves, and strangers and few (for what number could be more contemptible than three?), being in chains, vanquished an innumerable army. For already now was death despised, since Christ was henceforth about to sojourn in the world. And as when the sun is on the point of rising, even before his rays appear the light of the day grows bright; so also when the Sun of righteousness was about to come, death henceforth began to withdraw himself. What could be more splendid than that theater? What more conspicuous than that victory?
Contemplate with me how he [the king] at first proclaims the Arbiter of the contest: “Blessed be God.” … This he proclaims as regards the power of God. He speaks also of the virtue of the combatants: “Because they trusted in him.” … Could anything equal the virtue of this? Before this, when they said, “We will not serve your gods,” he was inflamed more fiercely than the very furnace; but now, when by their deeds they had taught him this, he was so far from being indignant that he praised and admired them for not having obeyed him! So good a thing is virtue that it has even its enemies themselves to applaud and admire it! These young men had fought and conquered, but the vanquished party gave thanks that the sight of the fire had not terrified them but that the hope in their Lord had comforted them.… For this reason he both applauds those who had despised him, and passing by so many governors, kings and princes, those who had obeyed him, he stands in admiration of the three captives and slaves who derided his tyranny! For they did these things not for the sake of contention but for the love of wisdom; not of defiance but of devotion; not being puffed up with pride but on fire with zeal. For great indeed is the blessing of a hope in God.
Verse 30. "Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to honor in the province of Babylon." Those commentators who say that the three youths were previously not judges set over the provinces but mere overseers of individual government agencies in Babylon, would have it that they were now appointed as judges over the provinces.
“In spite of myself, then, I revere the God of the Hebrews,
And I command all the people in my land to join in praising him.
‘Come, then, holy children, come forth from the furnace,
For I am convinced that your God is in truth God.’ ” (Nebuchadnezzar)
These things happened in Babylon as the Scriptures says,
At a time when those who had provoked God’s anger were in captivity.
Therefore, my brothers, see to it that you do not grieve
The Master and be given over to the enemy,
For we make him sad if we deny him,
And if we do not hasten to his temples,
and if we do not sing to him everywhere,
“Hasten, Merciful One, and in compassion come quickly
To our aid, since you are able to do what you will.”
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Summary
Daniel 3:30 concludes the dramatic narrative of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's miraculous deliverance from the fiery furnace, marking a pivotal moment where their unwavering faith in God is publicly vindicated and tangibly rewarded. King Nebuchadnezzar, profoundly impacted by the divine intervention he witnessed, not only reversed his decree against them but actively elevated them to positions of greater authority and influence within the vast province of Babylon, demonstrating God's supreme sovereignty over earthly rulers and His commitment to honoring those who honor Him.
Context
Literary Context
This verse serves as the immediate and triumphant culmination of the intense confrontation detailed in Daniel 3. Prior to this, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had defiantly refused King Nebuchadnezzar's command to worship his golden idol, declaring their steadfast allegiance to the one true God, even if it meant death in the fiery furnace, as stated in Daniel 3:18. Their subsequent miraculous preservation, with a divine figure appearing alongside them in the flames (Daniel 3:25), completely astonished Nebuchadnezzar. He then summoned them out, observed their unharmed state, and issued a new decree blessing their God and forbidding any blasphemy against Him (Daniel 3:29). Daniel 3:30, therefore, is the direct, logical, and divinely orchestrated consequence of their faithfulness and God's powerful intervention, solidifying their status and influence within the Babylonian administration.
Historical & Cultural Context
Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar was the dominant world power, characterized by its absolute monarchy, grand imperial projects, and a polytheistic religious system that demanded universal conformity. The king's word was law, and disobedience was met with swift and severe punishment, as demonstrated by the construction of the golden idol and the threat of the fiery furnace. The promotion of individuals, especially foreigners, within such a hierarchical and ethnocentric society was entirely at the king's prerogative and often reflected political expediency or, in this unique case, profound personal conviction. For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their prior positions were likely significant, but this "promotion" signifies an even greater elevation, granting them substantial authority and recognition across the entire "province of Babylon." This act not only restored their standing but publicly validated their God in a culture deeply entrenched in idolatry.
Key Themes
Daniel 3:30 powerfully reinforces several overarching themes found throughout the book of Daniel. Firstly, it underscores Divine Sovereignty, demonstrating that God is ultimately in control, even over the most powerful earthly rulers like Nebuchadnezzar. The king's change of heart and subsequent actions are a testament to God's ability to humble the proud and turn the hearts of kings, as seen in Proverbs 21:1. Secondly, the verse highlights the theme of Vindication of the Righteous. Those who stand firm in their faith, even in the face of persecution, are ultimately honored by God, often in ways that confound their adversaries, echoing the principle in 1 Samuel 2:30. Finally, it exemplifies the Power of Testimony. The miraculous deliverance and subsequent promotion of these three men served as an undeniable, public witness to the entire Babylonian empire, showcasing the living God's power and faithfulness to a pagan society, much like Daniel's own testimony later in Daniel 6.
Exposition and Analysis
Key Word Analysis
This Aramaic adverb signifies a temporal sequence, indicating an immediate and direct consequence. It emphasizes that Nebuchadnezzar's action of promotion was not a delayed response but an immediate outcome of the miraculous deliverance and his profound encounter with God. It highlights the swiftness of divine vindication and the king's astonishment.
Derived from a root meaning "to advance" or "to prosper," this word conveys more than a mere job title change. It implies a significant elevation in status, influence, and well-being. It suggests that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not just restored to their former positions but were granted greater authority and recognition, signifying success and prosperity in their governmental roles within the Babylonian system.
This term refers to a distinct administrative district or region within the vast Babylonian empire, properly a "judgeship" or "jurisdiction." The mention of "the province of Babylon" indicates that their promotion was not confined to a small local office but extended across a significant administrative territory, granting them widespread authority and influence, making their vindication a very public affair throughout a major part of the kingdom.
Verse Breakdown
"Then the king promoted"
This clause immediately establishes the direct causal link between the preceding divine intervention and the king's subsequent action. Nebuchadnezzar, now humbled and acknowledging the supremacy of God, actively uses his royal authority to reverse the fortunes of those he previously condemned, demonstrating God's power to influence even the most powerful earthly rulers.
"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego"
The specific naming of these three individuals underscores their identity as the faithful servants of God who stood firm. Their promotion is personal and public, a testament to their unwavering integrity and the divine favor bestowed upon them. It highlights that God's vindication is precise and individual, acknowledging their specific act of faithfulness.
"in the province of Babylon"
This phrase defines the geographical and administrative scope of their promotion. It was not a private or minor elevation but a public acknowledgment of their enhanced status and authority throughout a significant and influential region of the vast Babylonian empire. This public setting amplifies the testimony of God's power and faithfulness to a wide audience, impacting the entire administration.
Literary Devices
The verse employs several literary devices to enhance its impact. Narrative Climax is evident as this verse provides a satisfying resolution to the intense conflict of Daniel 3, demonstrating the ultimate triumph of faith and divine power over human tyranny. There is a strong element of Divine Irony, as the very king who sought to humiliate and destroy God's servants is now compelled to exalt them, turning a decree of death into an instrument of promotion. The promotion itself functions as Symbolism, representing not merely an increase in earthly power but a profound spiritual vindication and a public affirmation of God's faithfulness to those who remain loyal to Him, serving as a powerful testament to the entire empire.
Theological and Thematic Connections
Daniel 3:30 stands as a profound testament to God's unwavering faithfulness and His sovereign control over all earthly powers. It illustrates the biblical principle that those who honor God, even in the face of extreme adversity, will ultimately be honored by Him. This divine vindication is not always immediate or material, but God ensures that His righteous servants are ultimately acknowledged and that His name is glorified through their steadfastness. The promotion of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego serves as a powerful reminder that God can turn the most dire circumstances into opportunities for His glory and for the advancement of His people, demonstrating His ability to humble the proud and exalt the lowly according to His perfect timing and purpose.
Reflection and Application
Daniel 3:30 offers enduring encouragement for believers facing pressure to compromise their faith in a hostile world. It assures us that unwavering faithfulness to God, even amidst intense persecution or societal opposition, is never in vain. God sees our fidelity and will ultimately honor our commitment, often in surprising and public ways that confound our adversaries. This passage challenges us to consider our own allegiances: are we willing to stand firm for Christ, even when it's costly, trusting that our trials can become powerful platforms for God to display His glory and power to those around us? Our integrity and uncompromising commitment to God's principles, though they may initially lead to hardship, can ultimately result in divine favor and positively influence those in positions of authority, much like the testimony of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego impacted King Nebuchadnezzar and the entire province of Babylon.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "promoted" mean in the context of Daniel 3:30?
In Daniel 3:30, "promoted" (Aramaic, tsᵉlach) signifies a significant advancement in status, influence, and well-being within the Babylonian government. It means that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not merely restored to their previous positions but were elevated to even higher offices, granting them greater authority and recognition throughout the "province of Babylon." This promotion was a public and tangible reward for their unwavering faithfulness and a direct consequence of God's miraculous intervention on their behalf, demonstrating their prosperity and success in their roles.
Why did King Nebuchadnezzar promote Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
King Nebuchadnezzar promoted them as a direct result of witnessing their miraculous deliverance from the fiery furnace. He saw a "fourth man" in the flames who looked "like a son of the gods," as described in Daniel 3:25, and he observed that the fire had no power over their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed. This profound supernatural event compelled him to acknowledge the supremacy of their God, whom he then called "the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" in Daniel 3:28. His promotion of them was an act of both reverence for their God and recognition of their integrity and the divine favor upon them.
Does Daniel 3:30 promise that all faithful people will be promoted or prosper materially?
While Daniel 3:30 illustrates God's ability and willingness to honor those who honor Him, it does not promise universal material promotion or prosperity for all faithful believers. The Bible teaches that faithfulness may sometimes lead to suffering and persecution, as stated in 2 Timothy 3:12, and God's rewards are often spiritual, eternal, or manifested in ways beyond material gain. This verse serves as a powerful example of God's vindication and sovereignty, demonstrating that He is able to protect and exalt His servants. It assures us that our faithfulness is never in vain and that God will ultimately honor His own, whether in this life or the next, according to His perfect will and purpose.
Christ-Centered Fulfillment
The promotion of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:30 serves as a powerful Old Testament type, foreshadowing the ultimate vindication and exaltation of Jesus Christ. Just as these men faced the fiery furnace for their unwavering obedience and emerged not only unharmed but elevated, so too did Christ endure the ultimate trial of the cross, suffering for the sins of humanity. His death was the deepest humiliation, yet it was followed by His glorious resurrection and subsequent promotion to the highest place in the universe. As Philippians 2:8-9 declares, because He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, "therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." The earthly promotion of the three Hebrews, orchestrated by a pagan king, pales in comparison to the divine exaltation of the Son of God, who, having conquered sin and death, now reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords, as proclaimed in Revelation 19:16. Their deliverance from the fire points to Christ's victory over the powers of darkness, and their subsequent honor anticipates the glory bestowed upon Him, through whom all who faithfully endure will also share in His eternal triumph and reign, as promised in Romans 8:17.