Daniel 3:16–18

We serve a mighty God capable of keeping all that we entrust to Him.

His ways are above our understanding but they are always for our eternal good.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

You’ve stood... caught between what God says and what makes sense. Each of us knows what it’s like to search the night for light. Perhaps outside an emergency room, on the gravel of a roadside, on the manicured grass of a cemetery. We’ve questioned God’s plan. Let me urge you to do what Joseph did – obey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world.

God still looks for Josephs today. Common people who serve an uncommon God. Would you be that kind of person? Will you serve…even when you don’t understand?  Max Lucado

Daniel 3:16–18

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” The New King James Version

The three men would rather die than obey Nebuchadnezzar’s command. Their faith in God’s ability to deliver them and their unwavering stance in the face of martyrdom has served as an example to all exiled and oppressed Jews. Their statement here shows that they did not need to make a defense before the king; they had already made up their minds as to whom they would serve. Compliance was unthinkable to them. Even if death is the consequence of noncompliance, they will still hold fast to their religious commitments and trust God for deliverance. A courageous proclamation of faith. God is both able and faithful to deliver His people. 

If God elects not to deliver them from death, they will not regret their decision to stand firm. Their bold address to the world power demonstrates that they fear God more than the king. Their stated refusal to obey effectively seals their fate; Nebuchadnezzar will not tolerate open defiance. Faithlife Study Bible

we have no need to answer you: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were not being arrogant; they were admitting their guilt.

God … is able: The response of the Jewish young men is a model of confidence in God and submission to His will. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego recognized God’s sovereignty and power. But if not: While the faithful men knew that God could deliver them, they were also aware that God may have chosen not to do so. 

Faith in God may not translate into victory in every circumstance. To these men the outcome was irrelevant, for what was at stake was not God’s ability or their own lives, but their faith and obedience to serve Him regardless of the cost. The NKJV Study Bible

The faithful servants of God find him able to control and overrule all the powers armed against them. 

Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. If He be for us, we need not fear what man can do unto us. 

God will deliver us, either from death or in death. They must obey God rather than man; they must rather suffer than sin; and must not do evil that good may come. Therefore none of these things moved them. The saving them from sinful compliance, was as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace, as the saving them out of the fiery furnace was in the kingdom of nature. Fear of man and love of the world, especially want of faith, make men yield to temptation, while a firm persuasion of the truth will deliver them from denying Christ, or being ashamed of him. We are to be meek in our replies, but we must be decided that we will obey God rather than man. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

We should obey the powers that be until they tell us to disobey and dishonor God (Rom. 13:1), then we should obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29). If we are called to pass through the fire, Christ walked there before us, and will walk there with us (John 15:20), and nothing will be lost by being true to Him. Summarized Bible: Complete Summary of the Old Testament

Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Job 5:19 

He shall deliver you in six troubles,

Yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.

Jeremiah 1:8 

Do not be afraid of their faces,

For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 15:20 

And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;

And they will fight against you,

But they shall not prevail against you;

For I am with you to save you

And deliver you,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 15:21 

“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,

And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”