Daniel 3:28-29

Nebuchadnezzar’s acknowledgment of Yahweh’s superior power was an advance upon his earlier tribute to Yahweh’s ability to reveal mysteries (Daniel 2:47). The pagans believed that the gods used messengers to carry out their will. Evidently the king viewed the fourth person in the furnace as a messenger from Yahweh. This deliverance made Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego’s God superior to all others in Nebuchadnezzar’s eyes. He had to acknowledge Yahweh’s sovereignty over his own god, Nebo, in this respect. Therefore he issued a decree ordering everyone to respect Yahweh and to say nothing against Him.

Nebuchadnezzar’s ability to cancel one of his laws and replace it with another is an evidence of the might of his personal power. Rulers of the Medo-Persian Empire, which replaced the Babylonian Empire (cf. Daniel 2:38-39), could not do this; it was impossible for them to override a previously written law (cf. Daniel 6:8; Daniel 6:12; Daniel 6:15; Esther 1:19). Nebuchadnezzar made Judaism a recognized religion with rights to toleration and respect. [Note: Goldingay, p. 75.] His edict may have been responsible in part for the fairly comfortable conditions under which the Israelites lived in Babylonian exile.

This chapter began with Nebuchadnezzar intending to unite his kingdom under one religion (Daniel 3:5), but it ends with him acknowledging Yahweh’s sovereignty and permitting His worship. This does not necessarily mean, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar abandoned his pagan polytheism and cast himself wholly on Yahweh in saving faith, though some interpreters have concluded that he did come into a saving relationship with Yahweh. [Note: E.g., Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 709.]