God’s Word for You
Daniel 3:16-18 The negative reply
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, September 25, 2025
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego gave their answer to the king. “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you about this matter. 17 If this happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from out of your hands, O king. 18 But if not, you should know, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden statue that you have set up.
In verse 16, Shadrach and the others dismiss the charges against them as a true defense attorney would. “We have no need to answer you about this matter.” The changes are false. For although on the surface they have not acted according to the letter of the law by refusing or failing to bow down, they could as easily prove that no one in the kingdom has observed the spirit of the king’s law, by truly worshiping this obscenely tall statue out in the middle of a field. For the heart, not the knee, is where fealty truly sits. “Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee, whose duty is deceivable and false” (Richard II, II:3). For they have worshiped the true God, who forbids the worship of any other. For God commands: “Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol—a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of a craftsman’s hands” (Deuteronomy 27:15). And if it is a sin to do so in secret (as that passage also says), how much more sinful to do so boldly, in full view of an entire nation!
Verse 17 begins with a challenging phrase in Aramaic. It is either “If this be so” or “If he exists.” The latter is unacceptable because it would force the second clause to be translated, “But if he does not exist.” This has perplexed translators for centuries. I have taken the phrase as impersonally referring to either being thrown (if… if not) or, as is more likely, being rescued by God (if… if not). It brings us close to what Paul says at the end of his first Roman imprisonment, when he expects either to be released or be executed: “As always Christ will be exalted in my body, where by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). And he says the same thing at the end of his second Roman imprisonment, expecting that this time he surely will be put to death: “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11-12).
The men realized that Nebuchadnezzar would never see things the way that they did. He would never have any kind of understanding that Peter could use before the Sanhedrin: “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29). Therefore, they were willing to accept whatever was going to happen. Not one of them would ever, not ever, give any false god “the tribute of his supple knee.” They would stand and die, if they must before any one of them would “Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.”
They knew that God could deliver from the king’s wrath. But they would not dare to suppose that they could command the Lord God, nor say that he would certainly do a thing that he had not promised to do. Certainly he had saved David from the giant, saved Jerusalem from the Assyrian army of a hundred and eighty-five thousand (2 Kings 19:35). He had saved Israel from the chariots of Egypt. And he had promised to save all of the children of Adam from Adam’s guilt and shame (Genesis 3:15). So if he chose to save them, then they would be saved. But if not, if his kingdom could be better served by their deaths, then they would pray for “sufficient courage,” as Paul did (Philippians 1:20).
Therefore verse 18 is a confession of faith: “You should know, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden statue that you have set up.” For this was nothing but the most obvious and simplest form of idolatry. “The heathen actually fashion their fancies and dreams about God into an idol and entrust themselves to an empty nothing. So it is with all idolatry. Idolatry does not consist merely of erecting an image and praying to it. It is primarily in the heart, which pursues other things and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils. It neither cares for God nor expects good things from him sufficiently to trust that he wants to help, nor does it believe that whatever good it receives comes from God” (Martin Luther, Large Catechism).
So the Christian who is faced with any kind of false worship that boils down to idolatry must stand firm and say, “No, I will not. I will fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” For there is no other path to heaven apart from Christ alone (John 14:6), and there is no hope at all of salvation of any kind that is not the cross of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Put your faith in him always and forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.