Three Men and an Arrogant Emperor - Daniel 3 and its relevance for us today
Speaker:
Andrew Fountain
Date:
Sun, 2022-03-13 Video cover image by Pexels
- Let’s take this distant story in a distant land at a distant time under a hot sun
- and connect it to us right here and now in Toronto
- so that it means something very directly and specifically to us.
- If you have trouble viewing this video, you can try watching it directly on Vimeo
- Play Audio
Sermon Slides - Three Men and an Arrogant Emperor - Daniel 3 and its relevance for us today
Take your mind away from here in Toronto on a cold winter’s day, to a distant land under a hot Persian sun 2½ thousand years ago
1. Background
- For centuries the nation of Israel had been turning away from God,
- Filling his temple with idols, and breaking all his laws
- God patiently sent them prophet after prophet, but they rejected or killed them
- Finally God’s patience ran out and the nation is in captivity.
- Living in a far land. Discouraged and persecuted.
- We have a lot of archeological remains from that time
- (actually a few years later than this event
- We are going to be looking today at King Nebuchadnezzar,
- but these images are a few years later in Daniel’s lifetime in the days of King Darius)
- 25m x 15m in size, and 100m off the ground
- Zoom in:
- Zoom in some more:
- Can you guess which is the emperor Darius?
- Notice anything about the people in front of him? hands tied, captives
- Under his feet is one of his enemies
- Flying up to the right of him is a demonic god figure, blessing the king
- Authored by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC
- The inscription is approximately 15 metres high by 25 metres wide and 100 metres up a limestone cliff in three ancient languages
- A life-sized bas-relief of Darius I, the Great,
- holding a bow as a sign of kingship,
- with his left foot on the chest of a figure lying on his back before him (reputed to be the pretender Gaumata)
- Darius is attended to the left by two servants
- (Today’s account is about Nebuchadnezzar, who was slightly earlier, but had the same attitudes)
- and nine one-metre figures stand to the right, with hands tied and rope around their necks, representing conquered peoples
- The divine symbol of Faravahar floats above, giving his blessing to the king.
Now let’s go back to the time of our story, and King Nebuchadnezzar is on the throne
- There was a generation who were young when they were taken into captivity, and grew up in this foreign land, but held fast to God
- One of this generation was young man named Daniel
King Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
- The run up...
- (Eventually Daniel was chosen to be one of the “wise men” in the nation)
Daniel 2:31–36
- “You, O king, were watching as a great statue — one of impressive size and extraordinary brightness — was standing before you. Its appearance caused alarm.
- As for that statue, its head was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of bronze.
- Its legs were of iron; its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay.
- You were watching as a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its iron and clay feet, breaking them in pieces.
- Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were broken in pieces without distinction and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors that the wind carries away. Not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain that filled the entire earth.
- This was the dream. Now we will set forth before the king its interpretation.
based on NET Bible
- Can any of you who know the account tell me what this means?
- Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian (Alexander), Roman, Jesus
- b.t.w. this is one of the reasons that I am optimistic about the church in this age.
2. The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
- But then at some indeterminate time later, we read that the king actually built a statue:
- Statue: maybe tried to build the one from his dream (must have forgotten what the symbol meant)
- 90 feet high! 9 feet wide —a 9-story building
- Some people might think these are mythological dimensions
- But here’s an example of another giant statue from ancient times “Heracles”
- Bright shining gold, burning and dazzling in the sun out in the hot plain.
- But its no good if nobody sees it,
- …officials from all the empire, the whole world would bow.
- What message is he trying to convey with this statue
- Nebuchadnezzar is the supreme being!
- Hundreds of civil servants and provincial rulers have arrived, with their servants and retinues,
- the music starts, solemnly they all bow to their great emperor.
- But three men didn’t bow.
- These men were the three friends of Daniel:
- Shadrach, Meshach & Abed-nego
(Why was Daniel not mentioned?)- not spotted
- away at the time on business
- These men were the three friends of Daniel:
- These men had enemies, who hated them and what they stood for. (v8)
- They made sure the king knew about it.
skip to verse 8 ↓ ↡
Daniel 3:1–2, 8–18
- King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made. It was ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
- Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he had erected.
- Now at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought malicious accusations against the Jews.
- They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever!
- You have issued an edict, O king, that everyone must bow down and pay homage to the golden statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music.
- And whoever does not bow down and pay homage must be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.
- But there are Jewish men whom you appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego—and these men have not shown proper respect to you, O king. They don’t serve your gods and they don’t pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”
- Then Nebuchadnezzar in a fit of rage demanded that they bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego before him. So they brought them before the king.
- Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that you don’t serve my gods and that you don’t pay homage to the golden statue that I erected?
- Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?”
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, “We do not need to give you a reply concerning this.
- If our God whom we are serving exists, he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well.
- But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”
based on NET Bible
- Notice that they have faith that God can rescue them, but he has not revealed that he will, so they say they will trust and obey him either way.
Here is the king,
- Absolute ruler over one of the most glorious empires the world has ever seen.
- He is the supreme being, he cannot conceive of any greater.
- Absolute Fury that anyone should dare to stand against him. v13
Artist’s impression of the scene:
He seems a bit surprised that anyone should not bow...
- “is it true?...”
- He is being reasonable.
- He’s not demanding that they stop worshipping their God.
- Why, there must be hundreds of different gods in his empire!
- They can’t be so conceited and intolerant
- as to place their little local deity above the emperor!
- Why should they be so exclusive?
- But if they want a showdown, here is the furnace,
- We’ll see about which god is stronger” v15e [“and who is the God...”]
- So here we have these three men, isolated, alone, before angry tyrant.
- We know the end of the story… they didn’t
- There on the hot plain, with the hot furnace a horrible reminder.
- All the officials are watching.
- The three men must have been tempted in their hearts to rationalize: any suggestions how?
- Is it really that much they are asked to do?
- Not worshipping it!
- Bowing down slightly to the left
- I’m going to think of it as bowing to God
- Really it is just a vow of loyalty to the king... isn’t it?
- God had put them in these places of authority,
- Surely he would not want it all thrown away?
Do you ever feel trapped?
- You are pinned down by your circumstances, no way out. (Take a moment to consider)
- These men must have felt trapped.
- The only way out was this unimaginably cruel death.
- We know what happened—put that out of your mind.
- Yet everyone was watching them.
- God himself had been challenged.
- This was the knife-edge test of faith.
Has your faith been tested?
- When I first started working in Canada…
Describe furnace.
- There it was... Everyone was watching them....
- King wants to see their horrible end...
- Suddenly he jumps up, astonished,
- but it’s not the fact that they are still alive,
- not that they are walking unharmed in the middle of the fire, (ropes burned)
- but that there are four of them.
- and the fourth is ...different. (??)
- how amazing that Christ himself should so identify with his people.
- Is. 43:1–4
- They came out perfectly unharmed.
- Everyone was there to see.
- Nebuchadnezzar. still did not really understand!!!
- but what an encouragement to God’s people!
- Here’s another place where this truth is expressed:
3. The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
- How can we apply this to us?
- We are not in the same position now!
- We may suffer terribly through illness, but not the same
- I feel that the main point we can learn is this,
- crucial to our whole Christian life,
- as important to us, here in Toronto in the 2020’s, as out on the hot eastern plain.
- This vital question, asked of those three men, is asked of us now:
- Does God have The Exclusive Authority in your life?
- or he just one of many competing demands
- work, family, home, friends, hobbies, career,
- all jostling for place and time.
- We face the same challenge, but quieter:
- no outright worship, just giving a bit more time to other things,
- that really belongs to God.
- In some ways it would be easier to have a clear-cut test
- no white-hot furnace, just having to miss out on promotion,
- or status, or moving to a better area.
- example of athlete training (exclusive...)
- Each of you will have many decisions to make:
- if you do give God the exclusive place, he will be with you: Josh 1:9
- Jesus Christ said this time and time again when people wanted to follow him
- …let the dead bury their dead
- Does God have The Exclusive place in your life?
or he just one of many competing demands:
- Is Jesus worth it?
- So want to ask you: where in your life right now...
- If there aren’t any, you’re not a human being
- E.g. Final degree exams on a Monday morning—should I go to church?
- If you are not a follower of Jesus today, the choice is the same
- He asks for total allegiance
- But offers incredible security and hope for the future
- These three men ended up with far more.
- We read that the King promoted them to higher positions of authority in the Kingdom
- Luke 18:28 “See we have left all and followed you”...
Updated on 2022-03-13 by Andrew Fountain
- Login to post comments
