3:19 The determination of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to withhold the form of allegiance that Nebuchadnezzar required made the king as angry as he could be. He apparently ordered the furnace heated to seven times its normal heat to make an example of them. Seven times more is a proverbial expression for much more in some passages (cf. Prov. 24:16; 26:16), and it probably has that meaning here too.
"His furnace was hot, but he himself got hotter! And when a man gets full of fury, he gets full of folly. There is no fool on earth like a man who has lost his temper. And Nebuchadnezzar did a stupid thing. He ought to have cooled the furnace seven times lessif he had wanted to hurt them; but instead of that in his fury he heated it seven times more."122
3:20-23 The fact that they were fully clothed when thrown into the furnace (v. 21) will feature later in the story.123That the men who threw them into the fire perished is testimony to the faithfulness of God's promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:3).124God cursed those who cursed His chosen people. Their fate should have warned the king.
"Judging from bas-reliefs, it would seem that Mesopotamian smelting furnaces tended to be like an old-fashioned glass milk-bottle in shape, with a large opening for the insertion of the ore to be smelted and a smaller aperture at ground level for the admission of wood and charcoal to furnish the heat. There must have been two or more smaller holes at this same level to permit the insertion of pipes connected with large bellows, when it was desired to raise the temperature beyond what the flue or chimney would produce. Undoubtedly the furnace itself was fashioned of very thick adobe, resistant to intense heat. The large upper door was probably raised above the level of the fire bed so that the metal smelted from the ore would spill on the ground in case the crucibles were upset."125
