The three friends of Daniel refused to bow to and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. Why doesn’t Daniel suffer the fate of the fiery furnace?

In Daniel 2:48-49, Daniel is promoted as a ruler over the land of Babylon. He requests that King Nebuchadnezzar also promote his three friends. They become stewards of the province of Babylon. But Daniel is promoted to the king’s court.

This may make the difference between those who have to bow down to the statue Nebuchadnezzar makes in Daniel 3:1-7. For some reason, he is not singled out by the Chaldeans who accused his three friends of not bowing down to the image.

Daniel is absent during this entire segment of the book were his friends suffer the consequence of going to the fiery furnace. Why isn’t he singled out? The only reason I can think of for Daniel not being singled out as another Jew who did not bow down is that he may not have been involved in this group of leaders.

It’s possible that being sent to the king’s court meant that he was not part of this experience at all. If he was, the Chaldeans were unaware that he did not bow down as well. Based on the rest of the book, we can surmise that he would refuse to about down to any idol.

This is the only reason I can think of for why Daniel was not included in the other group of Jews and sent to the same fate. Later on he will not escape scrutiny and end up in the lions’ den.