THE FOURTH MAN
“He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (Daniel 3: 25).
The story of the fouth man began with the three Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were thrown in the fire for refusing to bow down to king Nebuchadnezzar’s image some two thousand years ago; (Daniel 3:12). They
refused to worship the king’s image because they worshipped the true God, the God who has protected them and their fathers for thousands of years. When the king heard of their refusal to bow to his image, he summoned the three and questioned them. “Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?..if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:14). They again refused to hearken to the voice of thevking. The king was infuriated and commanded that they should be burned alive! Because of his great anger, the king told his subjects to increase the furnace seven times hotter than usual and throw the three Hebrew men into it. The order from the king was so hasty and the fire too hot that “the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” (Daniel 3:22). As they entered into the furnace, there appeared a fourth man in the fire with them. When King
Nebuchadnezzar looked intently in the fire, he was astonished to see four men.
There has been so many arguments among the bible scholars as to who the fourth man in the fire with the three Hebrew men was. Some say he was an angel, some say God the Father, and others say it was Jesus that appeared in the fire. In all of these arguments there is a general consensus that a supernatural being was the fourth man in the fire. Going by what King Nebuchadnezzar said after seeing the strange being “and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” it will be safer to go with what is written than what is not written. Those that disagrees with this position said, it is not possible for a pagan King like Nebuchadnezzar to know what the Son of God look like since he doesn’t even believe in the true God. However, I truly believe he spoke by revelation. If God can open the eyes of a donkey to see and recognize an angel, then he can do the same to a man when He is on a mission. From what we later learnt about King Nebuchadnezzar, it is very clear that he was at the centre of God’s plan during his reign. Being the king that rules the world then, it is obvious he will be God’s primary target in proving that He alone rules and reigns in the affairs of man. God must have opened his eyes and made him confess it was the son of God in the fire, the same way he later made him realize after he was turned into a beast (Dan.4:34).
The fourth man in the fire couldn’t have been an angel as many suggest, if that was the case, God would have made the king to see and cofess he was an angel and possibly make him mention the Angel’s name, the same way he mentioned “the son of God” specifically, which shows that he knew who he saw. I pray that in whatever situation you are in right now, may the Fourth man show up for your deliverance! Amen!