Daniel: The many lures in Babel’s tacklebox (6)
Text: Daniel 3:1-12
Now I think I told you all this, but I can’t remember… but Daniel chapters 2 through 7 are written in Aramaic. And that is so interesting to me, because those chapters are dealing with the purpose of God in history. Aramaic was the international language of trade during that time, so just about anyone could read what Daniel writes here. And then it switches back to Hebrew in chapters 8-12, where it’s dealing with the interpretation of God’s works in these world empires – and how that relates to the people of God.
(SO, kind of like parables – It’s only intended for those with ears to hear)
And so, we’re in Daniel chapter three this morning… and we’re going to be looking at verses 1-12. (READ TEXT).
Are y’all picking up on a pattern here? We’re in chapter three, and three times now we’ve seen instances where the people of God are faced with a crisis because they won’t compromise their faith. So three times God’s people get tempted to compromise, and three times, they refuse to do that, and three times they get rewarded for standing strong.
So what can we learn from that?
Well… I think that the first thing we can learn is that Satan’s attacks against God’s people don’t just stop after the first time he fails. You might get victory over a temptation, and then the very next day be faced with that same temptation again. The devil is relentless in his assaults against God’s people. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6 to put on the whole armor of God, and every day the devil is going to check to see if we missed a piece. To see if we geared up properly.
Jesus told His disciples “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
And the devil is going to assault us to see if we’ve actually done that. His temptations and attacks expose whether or not we’re practicing those spiritual disciplines given to us in Scripture.
So that’s the first thing: Don’t ever let your guard down. Keep watching. Keep praying. Put on the whole armor of God every single day and tighten your straps on that armor throughout the day.
The second thing I think we see here is that God rewards faithfulness. We don’t remain faithful for the reward. We’re faithful because we love Jesus… but in being faithful, God does reward us. He blesses us. It might come in the form of a promotion like we’ve seen in our text. Or it might just be that we’re brought closer in our walk with the Lord. But God is good. And He loves to bless His people. He’s a loving father who loves to give good gifts to His children.
Our text starts out with Nebuchadnezzar building a 90’ tall image out of gold. And I don’t know about y’all, but I read that and I go, “Oh man… did he ever miss the meaning of the dream God gave him.”
(Not sure if you’ve all seen this in Scripture or not… but man has an incredible propensity to miss what God is saying. It might be because we tend to be thick headed… It might be because we’re sinners and don’t really want to hear what God says. It might be because we think we know more than God does… It might be for a number of reasons, but Nebuchadnezzar definitely misses God’s meaning behind the dream in the last chapter.)
Now this thing is 90 feet tall, but only 9 feet wide, so most likely it’s an obelisk with an image engraved on it rather than a statue.
Other commentators have said it might have been an image of a serpentine type creature, maybe a dragon. Regardless… Nebuchadnezzar builds this thing, and then he calls all his Satraps, and Perfects, and Governors… that’s his nobility and politicians, and tells them when the music plays, everyone in the kingdom must bow down and worship this image. (Kind of an early form of Bohemian Grove you might say…)
And I want you to understand what we’re seeing here. Nebuchadnezzar is not a guy who thinks things through all the way. He does this… He builds this massive image, and demands everyone worship it, and says if you don’t, you will be thrown into a burning, fiery furnace.
And of course the devil is behind this… the Babylonian people would have no problem bowing down to an image… they already did that. They were pagans. But the Hebrew exiles… that’s going to be a different issue right? They’ve been given the 10 Commandments. They know what God has said about worshiping graven images, and that there is no other God than the One True God.
They remember the golden calf incident during the Exodus.
So, it’s another temptation to compromise.
And you can probably imagine the arguments against being faithful… That thing is just made of gold. It has no real power, or authority. What would it hurt to bow down and bend the knee. It’s no big deal? Why can’t you just go along to get along? Besides, where was God when we got conquered?
Let’s look again at our text. Verse 1 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar made this image, and set it up on the plain of Dura – that’s about 20 miles south of Babylon by the way… at the end of verse 2, it tells us that all the nobles and politicians came to the image “that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.” Verse 3, it again uses that phrase, “the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.” It uses it twice actually. Again, we see it used in verse 5 “the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.” And finally in verse 6 we see it again.
SIX TIMES our text tells us that this image had been set up by Nebuchadnezzar.
Now some smarter people than I can tell you about Biblical numerology and that six is the number of man… it’s the number of incompleteness… But you don’t have to be some kind of scholar in numerology, or theology, or even eschatology to get the idea here. Daniel is driving a point home. He’s trying to make sure we understand that Nebuchadnezzar is in rebellion and idolatry, and is opposed to God.
In chapter two Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and Daniel very clearly told him, “Hey Neb… your kingdom is going to fall… and another will come, and another after that, and another. But God is going to break them all into pieces and set up His Kingdom, and His Kingdom will never end.”
And basically, the idea here is that Nebuchadnezzar is thumbing his nose at God.
The dude is a megalomaniac. A narcissistic megalomaniac. He’s got all this power, and all this wealth, and what does he do? He builds this image to a false god, and demands that people worship the god he has created.
This image isn’t a beautification project… it’s not maintaining infrastructure or anything like that. It’s an example of unchecked power being used in a egotistical way by a tyrant king.
And I think there’s something to be said about the music used here as well.
Now the ESV says that the instruments used here were a horn, a pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, and bagpipe, and then “every kind of music”… In other versions, you might read the instruments mentioned are cornets, trumpets, dulcimers, zithers, harps, drums, flutes, sacarbucha (an early form of trombone) and other things. The problem is that some of these instruments are written in Aramaic, some of them are in Greek, some were from Spain, and the truth is, we don’t know what some of them were in ancient times. But the idea here is that there was a whole orchestra playing…
Music is powerful. It can provoke emotion, and create an emotional response – and again, this is something the world knows pretty well. And uses to their advantage. Music can be used in teaching, and influencing, and creating culture. And all religions use music in their worship practices… The difference between Christianity and every other religion, is that our music that we use in worship is centered on God, and is to bring glory to God. So the lyrics are important. But also, the Bible tells us not to get into “vain repetition”…
I think John MacArthur said it best when he was asked about modern contemporary music used by a lot of congregations in worship.
He said, “It’s like 7 – 11. The same seven verses repeated eleven times.” Over and over, and over again. There’s a lot of focus on “I” and on “feelings” than on God or Jesus in those songs. And for some weird reason, there seems to be a lot of references to nature… You know… wind, water, waves, oceans, mountains.
Of course, those who love God and are faithful to God aren’t going to worship an image and a false god.
And that’s what we see in verses 8 through 18 with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They know what the king has commanded – that if you don’t worship the idol, you die… and they’re willing to take that risk. Again, these Hebrews we read about in Daniel, know God, they love God, and they fully understand that Babylon… be it the actual, historical Babylon… or this fallen world – is not their home. They understand that there is a spiritual reality here, that is just as real as the physical world they live in, but also that what they do in this life has consequences in eternity. And just like we’ve seen before, and throughout all Scripture – when you take a stand for God, the world doesn’t like it.
In-fact; the world hates it. And let me tell you why… When a believer takes a stand for God, and doesn’t conform to the worlds standards, it condemns the world and the worldly.
There were probably hundreds, if not thousands of Hebrew captives in Babylon… so why is it that in this Book of Daniel, we are only reading about four of them?
Let me just tell you, there is no worse feeling than when you’re trying to stand strong for Jesus… you’re trying to live for the Lord, and do the right thing… You’re trying to obey your Scripture informed conscience, and people who profess Christ tell you, “Be quiet! Don’t rock the boat! Don’t make life harder for the rest of us.”
Like I said, faithfulness to the Lord convicts and may eventually condemn the worldly, because really what they’re saying is, “Why can’t you commit spiritual adultery against God like the rest of us? If you do it, I’ll feel better about myself when I do it.” And I know, that sounds really harsh… but its true.
A better way for us… a Biblical way for us… is to say, “Ok, let’s stand strong for Jesus. And when I stumble, you call me to repentance in a loving, but true way… and I’ll do the same for you. And let’s lock arms in this together, because we’re stronger together, and let’s not excuse compromise with the world, but pull our brothers and sisters back into formation.”
So God’s faithful servants are caught in the crossfire once again. They’re caught between loving God, and being faithful to God, or compromising with the world, and bowing down to false gods. And notice that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren’t out standing in a picket line, or trying to be social justice warriors. That only happens in free countries where people have rights… not in tyrannical regimes. And even then… it tends to only happen when people confuse social justice with the Gospel. Instead, they just quietly resolve within themselves that they’re not going to bow down. And it wasn’t an issue until some of the Chaldeans got jealous of their appointed positions and then pointed them out.
We may want to live at peace with the world, but you have to understand, the world doesn’t want to live at peace with you. It wants you to conform or die.
But I’ll say it again, and I’ll probably say it a few more times as we go through this book – the way to not conform is to love Jesus. The way to follow Jesus is to love Him. The way to live for Him is to love Him… As our love for Jesus grows more and more, we love the world less and less.
Love the Lord your God with ALL of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It doesn’t say, “some of your heart,” or “part of your heart”, or even, “Most of your heart.” ALL OF YOUR HEART.
May God help us to do that, each day, as long as we have breath.
CLOSING.
