WHO NEBUCHADNEZZAR REALLY SAW

  There is divergent views who Nebuchadnezzar saw in the fiery furnace; not only in the furnace but in the fire. Who was that fourth person? Some believe an angel of God, and others believe The Angel of God.  What is the difference? Angels present messages from God. The Angel of God sends one specific message to mankind — the gospel message.

  The “gospel” is the “absolute truth,” according to Webster’s Dictionary. Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” in a very Platonian manner. He wanted to debate philosophically. Jesus had explained before the question was even asked: “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37). Hence, the Voice (or Word) of Jesus is the absolute truth. That brings us to the Word.

John wrote, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1-2,14)

  As the Word, Jesus is the Flesh of God — God’s Image. The Word is the absolute truth, and the gospel is that He is graceful, and the Way to eternal life. Pilate was about to witness that. He saw the truth! Truth is Jesus’s Voice. John said that the Word was there in the beginning. If so where was the Word in the beginning? “And God said, ‘Let there be light: and there was light’” (Gen 1:3). The Light is symbolic of absolute truth. Jesus was there in the Garden speaking the gospel. When God speaks, that is THE MESSAGE. God is THE ANGEL with the message of truth. GOD is Light, and His Voice presents that message. THE ANGEL OF GOD is the Messenger or Voice of God. That Voice is the Word, and He is called Jesus.

  Adam and Eve communed with God. After creating, God rested, and after that, He took a stroll to see how His creatures were performing. Not so well, we find out! As He approached the mutated two, it is written, “They heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”

  The Voice had legs. He was in some form.  We know what that form was. The Voice resembled Adam because Adam was molded in the image of God, and in their image, to wit: “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’… So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” (Gen 1:26:27).

  The Voice was in the form of Adam. Adam was also the Son of God. The plural words “us” and “our” refers to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… the Godhead. Jesus is the manifestation or image of the Godhead. The Voice and Form of Jesus is what God looks like. Jesus looked just like Adamkind when His Voice was heard again, walking in the Garden Paradise of Israel.

  Cease thinking of three separate Beings. The Father is the Mind of God, the Holy Spirit is the Power of God, and His Flesh is the physical Form of God. The Voice was the Word of God walking in the Garden with legs, and certainly all the other features that resembled Adam. Jesus was the protype to whom Adam was made. Adam was made like God in His Image. That physical image was as a Man like Jesus.

  Then years later, Jacob wrestled a “man” (Gen 32:24) who turned out to be Jesus.. How is that known? “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” That “man” had legs and arms. Jacob called Him, “God.” That man conversed with Jacob. He had a Voice. That man altered the form of Jacob when he withered his thigh. That Voice has Power to reform Jacob a little different than Himself. Jacob wrestled Jesus.

  Now consider who Nebuchadnezzar saw saving the three faithful men from perishing:

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 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. (Dan 3:24-25)

  “The fourth is like the Son of God.” The Aramaic word translated for “is like” is “demah” which means, “resembles.” That fourth “man” either resembled Adam or Jesus. Which was it? Jesus saves; he has the Power to do that. Adam does not! Adam was no supra-man; Jesus is! If it had been a mere man in there, Nebuchadnezzar would not say that he “resembled” a man. He was making that specific man special. That man had saved the other three men from perishing. Nebuchadnezzar could as well have said, “That man appears to be the Son of God.”

  There in the oven, that “man” was saving. The theophoric name, “Jesus” means “Ya saves,” referring to Yahweh (God). Nebuchadnezzar was naming Jesus as the man who saved them from perishing. That is the gospel. That is John 3:16, which I should not need to quote!

  Of special note is about the Son of God… “and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” He made it clear; that the man was not a “man” but was a form of a man. Why would he have said that? Because, God, to most, had no form. Nebuchadnezzer had seen Jesus a little differently than Moses. The form that Moses saw was a burning bush, and later the glory of God. They too were forms of God. The wrestler man was another form, but Jacob saw that Man as God!

  The Holy spirit was in the furnace. God’s Holy Spirit had taken on the form of a man. Who that was should be obvious; Luke saw the Son of God, to wit: “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.’” God’s “beloved Son” — the Son of God — was flesh, but His form or “shape” was bodily. The Holy Ghost of God looked like Jesus. Its form like the Holy Ghost who Nebuchadnezzar said resembles the Son of God. Obviously, that was not an ordinary angel coming down on Jesus, but THE ANGEL OF GOD — His messenger of the gospel truth.

  Many envision a dove coming down. That is not the case. The motion of the bodily form of the Holy Ghost was like a dove would glide. Luke saw the Son of God, both in the Flesh and in the Spirit. The “Ghost” of Jesus resembled whom? Jesus, the Son of God. Nebuchadnezzar saw what Luke saw. He saw the bodily shape of the Holy Spirit hovering over the three righteous men to save them… sort of like a dove, would you not think?

The Father Himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of Me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape. (John 5:37)

  Theretofore, the Jews to whom Jesus was speaking, had neither heard nor seen the “shape” of God. Before Jesus, God was without form. God said, “I AM THAT I AM” and that is Existence. God is seen in the creation, but not specifically so! God took on flesh to bear witness to His Existence. I AM in the Old Testament is Ya. Jesus is “Ya saves.” Ya took on flesh to save, and that is what He appeared to do in the fiery furnace.

  In conclusion, Jesus bears witness to God. He is God manifested to mankind. God used His form to manifest Himself to Nebuchadnezzar. Unlike Moses who saw God in the form of the Spirit of Glory, Nebuchadnezzar saw God in the form of Savior, who did what? Save three men from perishing.

  The Voice that walked saved Adam and Eave by providing coats of skin to preserve them in the world. The Voice that entered the fiery furnace, provided His own “skin” to hover over and save the three men. The Word said nothing in the furnace but presented an awesome message. I AM called “Jesus,” or “Ya saves!” When Jesus put on perishable flesh the gospel continued with, I AM He. Jesus said Ego Eimi (Greek for I AM) forty-eight times. He made it clear that He alone, not Judas nor even John the Baptist, is THE GREAT I AM.

  I AM (Ya in Hebrew nomenclature), was in that fiery furnace. So that Nebuchadnezzar would be humbled, God “borne witness” by showing His bodily form. Not bear witness, but “borne.” The birth from Mary and the Holy Spirit birthed Jesus. The fiery furnace was the “womb” that borne the form of God. To do what? Save men from perishing.

  The Son of God in the fiery furnace is not hyperbole, symbolism, or myth. It is a picture of Jesus and His Purpose. What was it that Jesus would do in His time? Face death to save the faithful! That is what He did in the fiery furnace, but there was one difference — His form was not from Mary, but created by God for the witness to the One True God, just as Jesus is God’s way to “borne witness” for the same Purpose when Jesus was born a Man.

  The idol statue of Nebuchadnezzar was the form of a man who would presume to be God. The real McCoy in the fiery furnace was the Spirit of God who would show Nebuchadnezzar the real God by revealing to him the True God’s Image — the very Form of God! The statue of Nebuchadnezzar showed his pride and arrogance, but the Image of God as a Man humbled him!

(picture credit: churchofjesuschrist; "Three Men in the Fiery Furnace")