Musar sobre Daniel 3:21

The issue is the following: Since Abraham meant to demonstrate his dedication to G–d when he refused to recognize Nimrod as a deity and allowed himself to be thrown into the furnace, i.e. to die in order to sanctify the name of G–d, he should have been burned. A צדיק does not perform an act of קידוש השם, expecting to be saved by a miracle. On the contrary, his major merit accrues to him when his intention is carried out. This is why the Ten Martyrs at the time of Hadrianus are extolled by us thousands of years later, [see the liturgical poem אלה אזכרה in the Mussaf prayer of the Day of Atonement. Ed.] On the other hand, there is a reason that G–d saved Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah, who submitted to exactly what Abraham submitted to at the hands of Nimrod, and whom G–d saw fit to save (Daniel 3,21); they are not mentioned there by their Jewish names). At that point in the story it was necessary to refute the scoffers and non-believers seeing that Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah had proclaimed their belief in G–d's ability to save them from the fiery furnace, after Nebuchadnezzar had challenged G–d by saying: "Who is the god who can save you?" Had G–d allowed these three men to die, His name would have been desecrated rather than sanctified. Abraham was good, and under normal circumstances he would have been burned, -as he had expected to be; however, the reason G–d saved him was that Isaac had as yet not been born. Since it was part of G–d's plan that Jacob should be born to Isaac, and that Jacob should found the Jewish nation with his twelve sons, and the purpose of מעשה בראשית (seeing that Israel is called ראשית), was for the Jewish people, the descendants of these twelve tribes, to accept the Torah at Mount Sinai, Jacob had to "save" Abraham from that furnace so that G–d's plan should not be frustrated.