“If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18, ESV).

Daniel 2 tells the story of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon having a troubling dream that none of his wise men could explain. He demanded they not only interpret his dream but also describe the dream itself–otherwise they would be executed! Daniel, a Hebrew exile to Babylon, prayed to God who revealed to Daniel both the dream and its meaning. Daniel then explained the dream and its interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar and prevented the execution of the Babylonian wise men including himself and his three fellow exiles.

At the end of Chapter 2 King Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed: “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery” (vs. 47). Nevertheless, by the beginning of Daniel 3, some eight years later, Nebuchadnezzar’s acclaim for the sovereignty of Israel’s God seemed to have dissipated. In Daniel 3 Nebuchadnezzar made a 90-foot high golden image, presumably of himself, for all the Babylonians to worship!

Though not explicitly stated, there seems to be a literary connection between the stories in Daniel 2 and 3. In Daniel 2 Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a statue with a head of gold, which represented Nebuchadnezzar’s empire: “You are the head of gold” (Daniel 2:38, ESV). The body of the statue was made of several substances representing the rise and fall of multiple historical empires after the Babylonian empire. But, in Daniel 3 Nebuchadnezzar made an entire image of gold.