You Survived the Fire! Let God Take the Smell, Too!

Can I tell you about three men who should have smelled terrible?

Picture it. Babylon, circa 600 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar has erected a golden image ninety feet tall and commanded every living soul at the ceremony to bow down and worship it. The penalty for non-compliance? A furnace. 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow.

So, they were hauled before the king and given one last chance to comply. When they politely declined, with what I can only imagine was the most serene look on their faces, they were bound and thrown into that furnace. It was so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were killed just by getting near the opening. The flames swallowed those three faithful men whole.

And then... nothing.

Well, not nothing. Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in a panic. "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" His advisors confirmed it.