The King Worth Following

Me

After my brother Cam died last year,

I knew at some point I was going to get a tattoo to honor him.

The hardest part about a tattoo is always the same questions:

What do you get, and where do you put it?

Who will be doing this tattoo?

As I walked with Jesus through the murkiness of grief,

I kept seeing His hand in my life

Jesus had brought me to this point.

His presence had carried me through things I never expected.

His providence had shaped my life in ways I could never have planned.

Grief was strange.

There were not many days of crying.

But there were a lot of brain fog days

Which was my mind was trying to process emotional storms I didn’t fully understand

And in the middle of all of that, I kept coming back to who Jesus is.

So that is part of the reason I chose a lion with a crown of thorns.

The lion reminds me of the Lion of Judah.

Jesus the true King.

Powerful.

Unstoppable.

Like Aslan in Narnia.

But the crown of thorns reminds me that this King is also the suffering Savior

The Lion is also the Lamb.

The King who rules the universe

Is the same King who came near to us and suffered for us.

And underneath it are these words.

“There is one I could follow, There is one I could call King.”

Words written by JRR Tolkien in the Hobbit

I chose that line because following Jesus is not about easy outcomes.

It is about who He is.

Jesus is my King.

My friend.

The one who walks with me even when life is hard.

And so, that question of allegiance sits right at the heart of the story we are about to read.

Daniel chapter 3 asks a simple question.

Who is your King?

We

So while I want my allegiance to Jesus to be wholehearted,

The reality is that we often feel pulled in different directions.

And that’s something every one of us understands.

With or without a golden statue.

Because all of us live in different places of authority.

Family.

Work.

Government.

Church.

Community.

Most of the time those things cooperate.

But sometimes they collide

And it can start to feel like a three dimensional Venn diagram

Where we are trying to figure out which voice we should obey.

You are a follower of Jesus.

But you are also a citizen.

An employee.

A parent.

A friend.

And most of the time those spheres work together just fine.

But occasionally they collide.

A boss asks you to compromise your integrity.

A culture expects loyalty to values that don’t line up with God’s word.

An authority asks you to obey them in ways that would mean disobeying God.

And in those moments the question becomes very clear.

Who is your King?

God

The King Who Demands Your Bow (v.1-15)

Daniel chapter 3 begins with a king and a statue.

King Nebuchadnezzar builds a massive golden image on the plain of Dura.

90 ft tall, 9 feet wide

You can imagine how visible that would have been in the flat plains of Babylon.

But this statue is not just a piece of art.

It is a test of allegiance.

Nebuchadnezzar summons every official in the empire.

Satraps. Prefects. Governors.

Advisors. Treasurers. Judges. Magistrates.

All the leaders of the provinces are gathered together.

This is not just a political ceremony.

It is a religious moment.

Nebuchadnezzar rules over a massive and diverse empire.

Many people groups, cultures, and gods

And one way ancient kings often unified an empire was through a public act of shared worship.

A state religion.

It was a visible sign of loyalty to the throne, a shared act that said,

“We belong to the same kingdom.”

So when the music plays, everyone must bow before the image.

And if they refuse?

They will be thrown into a blazing furnace.

Now notice something important.

Nebuchadnezzar is not asking people to give up their gods.

Babylon was comfortable with many gods.

He is asking them to add one more.

Just one more act of loyalty.

Just one more bow.

But that is exactly how idolatry works.

It rarely begins with rejecting God.

It begins with adding something beside Him.

But in that moment,

Nebuchadnezzar is demanding something that belongs to God alone

In Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar had already been told something important.

It is very helpful remember,

A good amount of time has passed between chapter 2 and chapter 3.

Perhaps most likely around 15 years or so

Daniel and his friends are no longer young trainees in Babylon.

They are now established officials in the empire.

Nebuchadnezzar is no longer the newly crowned emperor.

He has defeated his enemies and now seeks to unify the kingdom.

Which also means Nebuchadnezzar has had plenty of time to forget what he once learned about the God of heaven.

In chapter 2, Daniel said to him:

“The God of heaven has given you the kingdom.”

Nebuchadnezzar had real authority.

God had given him real power.

But now he pushes that authority further than God ever intended.

In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold.

But now he builds a statue that is entirely gold.

It is as if he is saying:

I am not just the head.

I am the whole statue.

My kingdom will never fall.

My authority has no limits.

But not everyone bows.

And some officials are quick to point it out.

They come to the king and accuse Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The men Daniel had helped place in authority.

They say,

“These men have not shown proper respect to you, O king.

They don’t serve your gods, and they don’t pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

It is interesting, that to them, showing respect means doing whatever the king says without question

It means serving the gods he serves, and even worshipping the King if he demands

And like their king, they are driven by pride and jealousy,

Eager to remove these exiles from positions of honor they themselves desire.

So Nebuchadnezzar summons Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

And when they stand before him, something interesting happens.

The king gives them another chance.

“Now if you are ready, when you hear the music… fall down and worship the image.”

These men not random citizens.

These are men he knows.

Men he trusts

Men Daniel helped place in authority.

So it seems that Nebuchadnezzar assumes there must be some mistake.

Surely they misunderstood the command, they can still worship their God!

Surely they will correct themselves.

They just need to show loyalty to the king as well.

Just one public act of allegiance.

Surely they will bow.

But then he adds the threat.

“But if you do not worship, you will immediately be thrown into the blazing furnace.”

And then he asks the question that reveals his heart.

“What god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

Which should really cause us to pause and chuckle a bit,

Just last chapter you couldn’t even handle a few sleepless nights and a dream

Do you really think the God who revealed your dream and gave you your kingdom cannot take it away?

Yet, Nebuchadnezzar believes power determines truth.

If he can threaten the furnace, he can control loyalty.

Because in Nebuchadnezzar’s mind,

the one with the power decides what is true, what is right,

and who deserves allegiance.

And that is exactly what makes this moment so important.

This is no longer just about a statue.

This is about who truly rules.

Because sooner or later every person must decide:

Will we trust God, or will we trust the outcomes that power promises us?

Abiding faith trusts God more than it trusts outcomes.

The question underneath all of this is the same one we asked earlier.

Who is your king?

So how will these men respond when the king demands something that belongs to God?

The Faith That Won’t (v.16-23)

Listen to the very first thing they say.

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.”

Think about how bold that sounds.

They are standing before the most powerful ruler in the world.

The furnace is already burning.

And the king has just given them a second chance.

He basically says,

“I’ll play the music again. Surely you will bow this time.”

Most of us in that moment would start explaining ourselves.

Trying to smooth things over.

Trying not to offend the king.

Trying not to sound like we are talking back.

But their response is calm and direct.

“We do not need to defend ourselves in this matter.”

In other words, there is nothing to debate.

Our allegiance is already settled.

And then they explain why.

“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire.”

They believe God has the power to rescue them.

They know the God they serve.

He is not weak.

He is not distant.

He is able.

Then comes one of the most powerful lines of faith in the entire Bible.

“But even if He does not…” v.18

Even if God does not rescue us.

Even if the furnace burns.

Even if obedience costs us our lives.

“We will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up.”

That is real faith.

Faith does not mean God must give us the outcome we want.

Faith means we trust God even when we do not control the outcome.

This is the kind of faith these men have

Their allegiance is not based on survival.

Their allegiance is based on who God is.

Because abiding faith trusts God more than it trusts outcomes.

And Nebuchadnezzar cannot handle that.

because the moment he realizes they will not bow,

The text says his face changes.

His expression twists with rage.

(Bilbo gif)

The king who offered a second chance now burns with fury.

He orders the furnace heated seven times hotter.

An idiom, for the hottest it can get!!

The strongest soldiers in his army bind these men.

Still wearing all of their clothing

And they throw them into the fire.

The fire is so intense that the soldiers carrying them out are killed by the flames leaping out of the furnace

And so, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fall bound into the fire.

Because when power cannot force loyalty, it tries to destroy those who refuse.

And for a moment, it looks like the king has won.

The God Who Meets Us In the Fire (v.24-30)

The men are bound.

The furnace is raging.

The strongest soldiers in Babylon are dead.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have fallen into the fire.

But something important has already happened.

Something we often overlook

The miracle has begun before the furnace.

Because before the fire ever touched them,

They had already settled something in their hearts.

Abiding faith trusts God more than it trusts outcomes.

The greatest miracle in this chapter is not that God saved them from the fire.

No, the greatest miracle is that they trusted Him even if He did not.

They had already decided.

God is worthy of their allegiance.

Even if obedience costs us everything.

That kind of faith does not come from human strength.

It comes from abiding with God.

Yet, the story is not finished.

Because suddenly the king looks into the furnace.

And the text says he jumps to his feet in amazement.

“Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”

And his advisors answer,

“Certainly, O king.”

But Nebuchadnezzar says,

“Look! I see four men walking around in the fire.”

Unbound.

Unharmed.

And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

Now notice something else incredible.

The fire killed the soldiers outside the furnace.

But it does not touch the men inside.

Their clothes are not burned.

Their hair is not singed.

There is not even the smell of smoke on them.

The only thing the fire burns is the ropes that bound them.

And they are walking.

Free.

In the middle of the flames.

And they are not alone.

God walks with them.

Because throughout the Bible,

Walking with God and obeying God are deeply connected.

To “walk with God” means to live faithfully in His ways.

And that is exactly what these men are doing.

They refuse to worship another god.

They refuse to bow to an idol.

They are walking in obedience.

And in the middle of the fire, God walks with them.

From Nebuchadnezzar’s pagan view, that is the best description he has.

But when Christians read this moment in the light of the whole Bible,

We see something even deeper.

Because from the very beginning,

God has always been a God who walks with His people.

In the garden of Eden, God walked with Adam and Eve.

Humanity was created to live and walk in God’s presence.

But sin broke that fellowship,

And the story of the Bible becomes the story of God drawing near again.

And here, in the middle of a furnace in Babylon, God does exactly that.

The King who walks with His people in suffering.

The One who does not stay distant from the fire, but enters it with us.

And for Christians, this moment points forward to something even greater.

Because the God who walked with His people in the fire

would one day step into our world Himself.

Our King who would take on flesh, enter the furnace of human suffering,

and walk through the fire for us

Jesus

You

So what does Daniel chapter 3 ask of us?

Because most of us will probably never face a literal furnace.

But we do face moments where allegiance is tested.

Moments where the pressure is real.

Moments where it would be easier to bow just a little.

Just one compromise.

Just one quiet act of loyalty to something other than God.

That is how idolatry usually works.

Not by rejecting God outright.

But by adding something beside Him.

And often underneath that is something even deeper.

The quiet belief that we know better than God.

That we know what the right outcome should be.

That if we just take control, bend the rules, or compromise a little,

we can make things work out better.

That is exactly what pride does.

It trusts our wisdom more than God’s.

And it usually tempts us in very ordinary ways.

Power.

Approval.

Security.

Success.

Comfort

Things that promise a better outcome if we just bow a little.

But abiding faith does the opposite.

Abiding faith trusts God more than it trusts outcomes

And sometimes the temptation feels reasonable.

It feels like the right outcome.

Which is exactly why it becomes so dangerous

There is a moment in The Lord of the Rings that captures this really well.

In the story, Boromir is a noble warrior from the kingdom of Gondor.

His people are on the edge of collapse.

Their enemies are overwhelming.

It feels like the end of their world is coming.

And Boromir desperately wants to save his people.

Traveling with him is Aragorn.

The rightful king of Gondor.

And together they are carrying something called the One Ring.

The Ring has immense power.

The kind of power that could defeat enemies and win wars.

But it also corrupts anyone who tries to use it.

Aragorn understands this.

But Boromir begins to believe something different.

He starts thinking,

“What if we used the Ring for good?”

“What if we used its power to save our people?”

The outcome sounds noble.

The outcome sounds reasonable.

But Aragorn knows something Boromir has forgotten.

You cannot take hold of the Ring

and still remain loyal to what is good

Because corrupted power always demands your allegiance.

And Boromir gives in.

He tries to take the Ring from Frodo.

In that moment the power he wanted to use for good begins to control him.

Frodo escapes

And almost immediately Boromir realizes what he has done

He sees the corruption.

He sees the pride.

He sees that he trusted power instead of what was right.

But Boromir does not stay there,

He repents

When enemies attack, Boromir fights to protect the hobbits.

He gives his life defending them.

And as he dies, Aragorn kneels beside him.

Boromir looks at him and says,

“I would have followed you, my brother… my captain… my king.”

In the end, Boromir remembers where his allegiance belongs.

And Daniel chapter 3 presses that same question into our lives.

Who is your King?

Because abiding faith trusts God more than it trusts outcomes.

Sometimes God rescues us from the fire.

Sometimes God walks with us through the fire.

But either way,

He is still the King.

Sooner or later our different loyalties collide.

Work.

Family.

Culture.

Moments where something in our world asks us to compromise what we know belongs to God.

Moments where the pressure is not to reject God, but simply to bow a little.

To go along.

To stay quiet.

To protect the outcome.

Because those moments are not theoretical.

They happen in ordinary places.

At work when doing what is right might cost you influence or opportunity.

In friendships when laughing along would be easier than standing for what is right

In family gatherings where bringing up Jesus would make things uncomfortable

In private decisions where no one else would ever see the compromise

And in those moments the question becomes very simple.

Will I trust the outcome

Or will I trust the King.

Because abiding faith trusts God more than it trusts outcomes.

So when those moments come, we strive to do what these men did.

Because the King who walked with them in the fire

Is the same King who walks with us today.

So We are able to stand for Jesus.

Even if it costs us everything.