Don't Let Music Influence You To Do The Wrong Thing

Daniel 3:1-12

Topic: Don’t let music influence to do the wrong thing

Whether you want to admit it or not, all of us have been influence by some type of music. Whether it be Jazz, Blues, Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, Hip Hop, Classical, or Gospel; all of us has been influenced by some type of musical style. Now, it has been said that God gave the gift of music so we can hear the melodies of the heart. Music in itself can be used to uplift the soul, elevate the mind, calm our fears, relax the mind, promote peace, and love. But music, when used the wrong the way, it can corrupt minds, entice you to sin, entice you to be violent, to dress inappropriately, to disrespect one another, and to influence to do something foolish that can cause you end up in jail, or end up dead.

And that is the basis for this message. In these passage of scriptures, we are going to see three young Hebrew men; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to bow down to a golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had built up for himself when they heard a certain sound of music being played.

Now, King Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon. According to biblical history, King Nebuchadnezzar was known to be a powerful king, who had led Babylon to defeat many nations, and bring many nations to be subjected to his rule. King Nebuchadnezzar was known to be a cruel and ruthless king who would kill anyone who had crossed him or slighted him in any form or fashion. Also King Nebuchadnezzar was an idol god worshipper in that He had a large and tall golden image to be built, in that whenever the people would hear some musical instruments playing in the air, he wanted everyone to bow down at that moment to worship this 9 foot golden image. Now according to biblical history, it has been said that this golden image was a statue of King Nebuchadnezzar himself, or a statue of Bel, which was an idol god that the Babylonians worshipped.

Now in Daniel 3:1-8, we see that as the music was being played, everyone who heard the music being played started to bow down and to worship this golden image that King Nebuchadnezar had built. Yes, everyone bowed down to worship this golden image, except for these particular three Jews; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

But notice something here in this text. Now notice in Daniel 3:8 that it says, after the music had been played, it says that certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews for not bowing down to worship the image. But yet in Daniel 3:12, the accussing Chaldean only mentions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego not bowing down. Now the question is being asked; since they accused the Jews for not bowing down to the golden image, how come only Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was being pointed out for not bowing down to the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had built? You see, when the Babylonian army overtook and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, King Nebucahnezzar had instructed his army to keep alive and bring the best of the young Jewish boys back into his palace so he could train them in the ways of the Babylonian culture, and to hopefully make them forget about the true and living God. And there were more than three Jewish boys that was brought out of Jerusalem and brought into the Babylon captivity. In matter of fact, one of those Jewish boys that was brought along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the other Jewish boys to Babylon was Daniel himself. But notice this here. Notice that they don’t accuse Daniel for not bowing down to this golden image because if you know Daniel like I know Daniel, he would not have bowed down either. Nor do they accuse any other Jews, but they accused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Now the question is, why were they single out? Well if you look at Daniel 3:12 it says, “There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods, or worship the golden image which you have set up.”

Now notice there were other Jews that did not bow down and worship the golden image, but these accussing Chaldean only pointed out Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for not worshipping the golden image. Why? I believe it was because these three Hebrew men had been appointed to be over the affairs of the province of Babylon. In other words, it was because they had been promoted to positions of leadership in the Babylonian government and because they had been promoted to positions of leadership in the Babylonian government, that could have somewhat ruffled the feathers of some of the Chaldeans, who felt that they should be in charge and be in positions of leadership. No doubt some of the Chaldeans were jealous of their promotions. And because they were promoted to be on top, these Chaldeans were trying to find something to bring them down.