Daniel 3:25

As soon as I began to pray about what to do for this picture, the simple art style and simple imagery of “version 1” came to my mind. I couldn’t shake the imagery of Christ enveloping the three men in the fire, keeping them safe in Himself. So, as almost a way to “scratch” the itch of this picture, I drew the image in this style.

Version 2 takes the same idea but presents it in a style more similar to my other work. Both of them have shared themes.

First, both images represent Christ as the “one like a son of the gods” who was with them in the furnace. I think this is at least possible for the story, and in regard to Christian persecution it is certainly Christ and not an angel in whom we are guarded, so I wanted to make it clear that God the Son is the one “in the midst of the fire” with His people.

Secondly, in both images I highlight Christ’s wounds, both through the red cross in the halo of His glory and by showing the wounds themselves (or, in version 2, the blood of His wounds). I did this because – even though in the Danielaccount the men are not hurt at all by the flames – fire typically represents trials in scripture, and the idea of God with us in the midst of the flames (Isaiah 43:2) hints that He will bear our suffering with/for us. We of course see that this is true in Christ. So, He is the God who is WITH us, even in the furnace, and His being WITH us is no more clearly manifest than in the fact that He now and forever bears the wounds of our suffering and our curse. So, in these pictures the wounds of Christ are a way of visually highlighting His nearness to His people in the midst of their hardships.

Thirdly, though I don’t show Nebuchadnezzar or the onlookers in either image, I’ve tried to place us as the viewers in their position. What I mean is this: in the Daniel account, one of the things that’s always stood out to me is the distance at which we see the events in the furnace unfolding. We are never taken in to the furnace, only left to marvel on the outside with Nebuchadnezzar and the rest. The way the narrative maintains the “privacy” of those moments in the furnace seems to highlight the intimacy and fellowship that the Lord has with His people in the midst of trials. God holds secret fellowship with His people in the Furnace, and until we ourselves are in the furnace, what transpires between Him and them is, in part, a mystery to us….

And so, in both pictures I tried to maintain that “secret fellowship” that God has with His people in the midst of hardship. You see it in version 1 in the way that Christ forms a sort of circle around the men with His face toward them and theirs toward Him….and you see it in version 2 in that the entire image is obscured by the heat and flames of the furnace.