Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says of chapter 4, “In chapter 4, we find one of the most famous stories of the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar creates a 90 foot golden statue of himself and commands the whole realm to bow down and worship it. Because they refused to bow down, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace heated to seven times the normal temperature. So hot was the furnace that the men who threw them in were consumed. However, when the king looks in to see how his Hebrew slaves were roasting, he saw them walking around unhurt. In fact, he notices that, instead of three, there are four people in the furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar notes that the appearance of the fourth is god-like.
After they are removed for the fire, the author never identifies the fourth person. Christian preachers are fond of making that fourth person out to be Jesus, but there is nothing in the text to suggest that this is a messianic sighting. Some rabbis have suggested that the fourth was actually Daniel, who is mysteriously missing from this vignette.
No one really knows for certain what the teller of this parable intended beyond the point that God is with those who have the courage of their convictions. The writer may have recalled Isaiah’s promise that “when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned.” (Isaiah 43:2)
Taking this story literally raises a whole range of issues that we cannot resolve, but, if we treat it like any of the profound stories that Jesus told, we are free to think of all those people of faith who have been through the fires of life, but were not consumed. It is as if God was with them…”
Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says of chapter 4, “In chapter 4, we find one of the most famous stories of the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar creates a 90 foot golden statue of himself and commands the whole realm to bow down and worship it. Because they refused to bow down, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace heated to seven times the normal temperature. So hot was the furnace that the men who threw them in were consumed. However, when the king looks in to see how his Hebrew slaves were roasting, he saw them walking around unhurt. In fact, he notices that, instead of three, there are four people in the furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar notes that the appearance of the fourth is god-like.
ReplyDeleteAfter they are removed for the fire, the author never identifies the fourth person. Christian preachers are fond of making that fourth person out to be Jesus, but there is nothing in the text to suggest that this is a messianic sighting. Some rabbis have suggested that the fourth was actually Daniel, who is mysteriously missing from this vignette.
No one really knows for certain what the teller of this parable intended beyond the point that God is with those who have the courage of their convictions. The writer may have recalled Isaiah’s promise that “when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned.” (Isaiah 43:2)
Taking this story literally raises a whole range of issues that we cannot resolve, but, if we treat it like any of the profound stories that Jesus told, we are free to think of all those people of faith who have been through the fires of life, but were not consumed. It is as if God was with them…”