A new law had just been passed by the king of Babylon. All the important people had to go to the plain of Dura for a special dedication of a statue the king had set up.

The statue was huge! Solid gold, about 90 feet tall. That’s about 5 or 6 times as tall as a giraffe!

The king had a very strict rule about this statue:

“To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up” (Daniel 3:4).

As soon as the music started to play, everybody had to bow down and worship this golden statue. Worship? Really? Yes, that’s what the king said.

What does it mean to worship someone or something? It means to adore and honor as we would to the only One worthy of worship—the Creator of everything in the whole universe. God’s Ten Commandments say, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them” (Exodus 20:3–5, first part).

Would you bow down and worship a statue? Would that be right, even if the king said you had to do it? Look what he said next: “And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace” (Daniel 3:6).

Three young men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—were faithful to God, so they would not bow down to the statue, even if they had to be thrown into the fiery furnace. They told the king, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3:17, 18).

That made the king very angry, so he heated up the furnace seven times hotter and had them thrown into the furnace. So, in they went. The flames were so hot that the men who threw them in got burned up themselves just by being close!

But suddenly, the king was amazed to see a fourth person in the furnace. Look! Jesus was in there with the faithful ones, protecting them!

So, the king told the three young men to come out of the fire. “And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them” (Daniel 3:27).

The three young men had not known whether God would save them in the fire or not. But they were not worried. Even if they had to die for obeying God, they were willing to do it. But Jesus saved them from the fire and the king had to say, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God” (Daniel 3:28). Let’s worship only Him, too!—BHM