Daniel 3.28-Nebuchadnezzar Praises The God Of Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 7, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 3:28-Nebuchadnezzar Praises The God Of Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego
Lesson # 103
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 3:28.
This evening we will study Daniel 3:28.
Daniel 3:28 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. (NASB95)
“Responded” is the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb ʿǎnā(h) (עֲנָה) (an-aw´), which means “to exclaim” in response to a previous situation and to “exclaim” is to cry out or speak in strong or sudden emotion.
Here we have Nebuchadnezzar crying out or speaking in strong and sudden emotion as a result of witnessing the miraculous deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the blazing, fiery furnace.
“Blessed be” is the masculine singular peʿil (Hebrew: qal passive) passive participle form of the verb berǎḵ (בְּרַךְ) (baw-rak´), which means “worthy to be praised” and its subject is of course the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Therefore, the word denotes that Nebuchadnezzar is exclaiming that the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego “is worthy to be praised” by the entire human race.
That the king is thinking of the entire human race is revealed by his decree he issued as recorded in verse 29.
“His angel” is referring to a class of supernatural being, sent as a messenger to do God’s bidding and here it is used by Nebuchadnezzar to describe the unidentified person in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego whose appearance the king described in Daniel 3:25 as being “like a son of the gods!”
The Hebrew equivalent of this noun is also the noun mǎl∙ʾāḵ (מַלְאָךְ) (mal-awk), which means, “messenger” and is used in the Old Testament with reference to “elect” angels (Gen. 19:1; Ps. 91:11) and men (Deut. 2:26; Josh. 6:17) and of the “preincarnate” Christ (Gen. 22:11; Zech. 3:1).
In Isaiah 43:2, the Lord promises the Judean exiles that “when you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.”
This explicitly says that God promises the Jewish exiles that He would be personally present with them when they walked through the fire.
Thus, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked through the fire, the preincarnate Christ was the fourth person in the fire with them and is described by Nebuchadnezzar as an angel.
“And delivered His servants” is a purpose clause since the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” is a marker of purpose meaning that it is introducing a statement which presents the purpose of God the Father dispatching the preincarnate Christ to deliver Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from death.
“Put their trust” is the third person masculine plural hitpeʿel (Hebrew: qal) passive perfect form of the verb reḥǎṣ (רְחַץ) (rekh-ats´), which means “to put one’s trust” in something or someone referring to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego “placing their trust or faith” upon their God.
This faith was demonstrated by their obedience to their God’s command in Exodus 20:3-5 to not worship idols and their obedience to this command resulted in them disobeying the king’s command to fall down in order to worship the gold statue he had erected of himself.
“Violating the king’s command” is a result clause since the conjunction wa is a marker of result meaning that it is introducing a statement which presents the result of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego trusting in their God.
“And yielded up their bodies” is a result clause since the conjunction wa, “and” is a marker of result meaning that it is introducing a statement which presents the result of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego defying the king’s command to worship the gold statue of himself as a result of their faith in their God.
“Yielded up” is the third person masculine plural peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb yehǎḇ (יְהַב) (yeh-hab´), which means “to sacrifice, to give up” and denotes that these three young men “gave up” or “sacrificed” their bodies as a result of defying Nebuchadnezzar’s order in order to obey their God.
“So as not to serve or worship any god except their own God” is a causal clause since the conjunction dî, “so as” is a marker of cause meaning that it is introducing a statement which presents the reason why Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego sacrificed their bodies, i.e. sacrificed their lives.
“Any god” is referring to the pagan gods which the Babylonians and the rest of unregenerate humanity worshipped and served in disobedience to the God of Israel’s command to not do so.
“Except their own God” is contrasting the gods which unregenerate humanity serves and worships and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego serving and worshipping their God who is the God of Israel, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind.
Daniel 3:28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed and said “The God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is worthy to be praised, who dispatched His angel in order to rescue His servants, who trusted in Him. Consequently, they defied the king’s command so that they sacrificed their bodies because they refused to serve or worship any god except their own God.” (My translation)
The king’s praise is an expression of his faith in the God of Israel.
The Aramaic verb berǎḵ which we translated “worthy to be praised” appears only once in the book of Daniel whereas its Hebrew equivalent bā∙rǎḵ (בָּרַךְ) (baw-rak´) appears 75 times in the Old Testament.
When the word is used of praising God, the individual praising God is always a believer and never an unbeliever and thus Daniel 3:28 is recording for us the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar.
The king’s statement about the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego constitutes a “doxology” which denotes a brief ascription of praise to God.
It is fitting for Nebuchadnezzar to burst into a doxology of praise of the God of Israel since he witnessed a great miracle, in which the God of Israel was revealing Himself to the king as omnipotent.
The declarative statement “the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is worthy to be praised” also expresses the king’s worship of the God of Israel as a result of witnessing a great miracle.
Worship of the Lord involves “reverence” for Him, which is an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
As a result of Nebuchadnezzar witnessing the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego rescuing them from death, the king’s attitude toward the God of Israel is one of deep respect and awe for Him.
Worship of the Lord also involves “respect” for Him, which is to esteem the excellence of His Person as manifested through His attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
As a result of this great miracle, the king is esteeming the excellence of the person of the God of Israel as manifested through His attribute of omnipotence.
Worship of the Lord involves “awe” of Him, which means we are to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for Him.
Nebuchadnezzar possesses an overwhelming feeling of reverence and admiration for the God of Israel as a result of delivering Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from death.
Worship of the Lord also involves “wonder” towards Him, which refers to being filled with admiration, amazement and awe of Him and reaches right into our hearts and shakes us up and enriches our lives and overwhelms us with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for Him.
As a result of witnessing the God of Israel rescue Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from certain death, Nebuchadnezzar is filled with admiration, amazement and awe for the God of Israel.
The miracle reached right into his heart and shook him up and enriched his life and overwhelmed him with an emotion which was a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence and fear and love for the God of Israel.
The faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego impressed Nebuchadnezzar immensely and immeasurably because in his experience he never witnessed a person demonstrate such loyalty to their god and especially the kind of loyalty which is willing to give up one’s own life to be obedient to their god.
Yet, this is exactly what he saw in these three young Jewish exiles.
Through the great miracle, the king found out for himself, why these three young Jewish exiles exercised such great faith in their God and were obedient to Him to the extent that they were willing to die in order to maintain obedience to their God.
The king now understood why these three were not afraid of him and not afraid of his threats of putting them to death.
Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion came about not only through the actions of the God of Israel delivering Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from death, but also through the courageous actions of these three.
God used His action in delivering these three as well as the faith of these three in Himself to bring about a change of attitude, i.e. repentance in the king.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s faith in their God appropriated the power of their God which resulted not only in these three being delivered from physical death but more importantly delivering Nebuchadnezzar from eternal condemnation, which is the second death.