For prophecy lovers the Book of Daniel is a favorite portion of the Bible. Daniel was of royal lineage and he and many others were deported from Israel to Babylon at the order of King Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord blessed Daniel with many visions and insights regarding the future.

There are many prophecies and foreshadows in Daniel, and my wife just discovered one that I had never seen nor heard of before. Brother David Guzik has written many Bible commentaries, some of which are available on BlueLetterBible.org. In his commentary on the famous fiery flaming furnace (I love alliteration) Brother Guzik reports on an end time foreshadow.

The incident starts with an image that King Nebuchadnezzar had made, which was sixty cubits high and six cubits wide (interesting numbers). He demanded that everyone bow to this image and the three Jewish young men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah refused to bow. They are better known by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The king demanded that they be thrown into the furnace, which was so hot that the men tasked with putting the three into the furnace died as a result of the heat.

And then Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth man walking around in the furnace, and this man looked like the Son of God! (Daniel 3:25) Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. The three young men walked out of the furnace unharmed, without even the smell of smoke about them. The king declared that there was no God like the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Contained within this event are at least six foreshadows of end time persons and events:

• The king is like the Anti-Christ who forces the whole world into an idolatrous religion. (Revelation 13:12)
• The image created is like the image that all the world was commanded to worship on pain of death. (Revelation 13:15)
• The fiery furnace is like the Tribulation which will effect the entire world. (Revelation 7:14)
• The three Jewish men are like the portion of Israel that will be protected during the Tribulation. (Deuteronomy 4:30-31, Revelation 12:14)
• The soldiers who perished from the heat are like the followers of the Anti-Christ who will lose their lives when the Lord returns. (Revelation 19:21)
• The mysteriously absent Daniel is like the Church which is not present at the time of Tribulation. (Revelation 3:10, First Thessalonians 1:10, Isaiah 26:20-21)