14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up?

15b … if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

— Daniel 3:14, 15b

7 But the LORD abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment.

8 He judges the world with justice; He governs the people with equity.

— Psalm 9:7-8

19 that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

21 God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

— 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and salvation from Christ to you.

King Nebuchadnezzar set up a huge golden idol/statue and ordered all people to bow down to it. When Daniel’s three friends – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – refused to do so, the king condemned them. The condemnation of them portrays the inability of human beings to deliver righteous judgment. These men suffered unjustly because they remained faithful to the one true God. Only God can judge humanity adequately, perfectly, and righteously.

Every person sins, rebelling against God and His standards for life. All people deserve God’s just condemnation. Though the world rejects this thought, God will judge everyone and render their eternal sentence of either life or death. In love and grace, God offers humanity an undeserved gift – the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God who took the judgment we deserve. God’s Son died in the place of all who put their faith in Him, so we may have eternal fellowship with God.