The Gold Image and the Blazing Furnace: There are a couple of loose links between chapter 2 and chapter 3. First, when the astrologers (Chaldeans) accuse the three friends, they refer to them as “some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon” (3:12), alluding to their promotion in chapter 2 (2:49). Secondly, the term “image” generally connects chapter 2 to chapter 3. First, Nebuchadnezzar sees an image (2:31; NIV “statue”); then he erects one (3:1). It is unlikely, as some have suggested, that because Nebuchadnezzar was identified as the head of gold (2:38), he sought to make a statue of himself. The text does not indicate that the dream of chapter 2 inspired the image of chapter 3. Furthermore, the two are dissimilar, for in the dream statue, only the head is of …