20230617

son of the gods

Daniel 3:24-25 (JDV)

Daniel 3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up amazed. He said to his advisers, “Didn’t we throw three men, tied up, into the fire?” “Yes, of course, King,” they replied to the king.
Daniel 3:25 He answered, “Notice! I see four men, untied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of gods.”

son of the gods

Nebuchadnezzar’s description of the rescuer that he saw in the fire is not informed by our biblical understanding of who Jesus is. But you have to admit, his description of what he saw fits quite well into our Christology.

Barnes said, “The word does not refer to anything special or peculiar in his form or figure, but it may be supposed to denote something that was noble or majestic in his mien; something in countenance and demeanor that declared him to be of heavenly origin” (191-192).

He said the language “is in the plural number, and in the mouth of a heathen would properly be used to denote the gods that he worshipped” (192).

The Hebrew readers throughout the age and Christian readers after them would recognize the significance of what Nebuchadnezzar saw. In a similar way, things are happening to your neighbors that they will find hard to understand. Only those who know Jesus can trace his face in the peculiar happenings of life. Speak to your neighbors about the “son of the gods” they do not know.

Barnes Albert. Notes Critical Illustrative and Practical on the Book of Daniel with an Introductory Dissertation. Leavitt & Allen 1861.