{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-3701","native_reference":{"book_number":340,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":19,"verse_to":19},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: And so indeed they prevailed, if it is necessary to speak the truth, the boys… For as strong as the word of the boys was, so was the king wrathful and he said, \"Heat the furnace seven times hotter,\" who was, as always, already defeated by them. For the king prevailed in terrestrial matters, but the three boys prevailed in faith towards God.<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 2.25.2-3</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: But someone will say, \"And so was not Daniel, being a friend of the king, able to intercede on their behalf and pardon the three boys?\" He was able, but it happened in this way so that the great works of God may be shown and the Babylonians may learn to fear God, and on account of this find rest, so that also their faith may be shown and God may be glorified in them. For if this had not happened the Babylonians would be able to say, \"If Daniel did not intercede with the king on their behalf, these boys would today be destroyed in fire,\" and reckon grace to be human rather than the power of God.</p><p>But why was the king not sorely pricked, having actually seen Daniel, who was a Jew, and why did he not say to him, \"Why do you not worship the image?\" He no doubt would have said to the king, \"Because I do not worship works made with hands, but the living God who made heaven and earth and has lordship over all flesh.\" Just as he answered Cyrus in the presence of Bel. The king, having been stunned, said to him… … Bel, except according to the thoughts of the satraps. \"For thirty days if one should ask any God or man but from you, he shall be cast into the den of lions.\" [Daniel 6:7] So it was necessary for the three boys alone to be glorified in the furnace, but before Bel and the reigning Cyrus, it was necessary for Daniel alone to be cast into the den of lions, each of them arranging their own part and observing their own season, so that even Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Babylonians, who saw that the three boys were not destroyed by fire, may glorify God, and Cyrus the Persian, who saw that Daniel was not swallowed by the lions, may be taught that God alone is the God of heaven. And so in this way in due time God administers the affairs of men through his slaves the prophets and persuades all men to come to knowledge of himself. [1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Timothy 3:7]<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 2.25.4-26.4</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Verse 19. \"Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the aspect of his countenance was wholly altered.\" In certain Psalms the titles contain the notation; \"On behalf of those who are to be wholly altered.\" And so the expression \"wholly altered\" is ambiguous, comprising both the idea of change for the worse or change for the better. Now of course the alteration of Nebuchadnezzar's visage cannot be reconciled with a favorable sense. And after all there are some authorities who refer even the Psalm-titles to a change for the worse, on the ground that those who by nature have known God have been changed by the vexation and fury of their mind to a position of hostility towards Christ and His saints.<br/><i>— St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER THREE</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"da86df0e261e30a1fdbaf514c402345f12d03ea0739f3adb48f7fa495f28c201","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":3701,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"3e404bc360069dcd1cfde5eb6f6f53b29f875e12fef3c0df8dab6f861b7d7906","translator":null,"work":null}