Singing the Songs of the Lord in a Strange Land November 7, 2004
Daniel 3
“You’re Fired!”
The Story
We have followed Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego) through exile from their land, to being chosen for training in the King’s court. They honoured God by refusing to eat the king’s food & God honoured them with good heath and great wisdom. God Gave Daniel the supernatural insight into the dream that was troubling the king, and the king rewarded Daniel and the boys with some of the highest political positions in the land.
This meteoric rise to power by these 4 Jewish men does not go unnoticed by the other wise men in Babylon and they wait for their opportunity to pull the rug out from under these new rulers.
The opportunity comes when the king, Nebuchadnezzar, decides to create this great idol on the plain of Dura. We are not told who the stature is of, but it is likely one of the Babylonian gods: Babylonian kings were not known for setting themselves up as gods.
All the same, Nebuchadnezzar makes worship of the idol mandatory – he is trying to consolidate state worship. So… when the band strikes up, everyone is supposed to bow down to the new idol.
Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego don’t show. The king doesn’t notice, but the astrologers, jealous of their position do.
You might be wondering, “where is Daniel in all of this?” The answer is, we don’t know. He isn’t mentioned. We can guess that he didn’t bow to the idol, but that he had too much favor with the king for the astrologers to go after him just now. – they wait for a new king to try to take Daniel down.
The Astrologers come to the king and make a big stink about the three, and the king blows his top – he is not used to being disobeyed.
He gives them one last chance to bow down to the idol, he reminds them about the furnace and threatens them with their life. He throws down the gauntlet, so to say: he declares that no god is able to save them from his power.
They stay standing. They tell Nebuchadnezzar. “We do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, You Majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
Idols in the Marketplace
In most workplaces, the boss is not going to set up a big statue, play some music and have everyone bow down and worship. We are usually much more subtle than that. But we have our idols all the same.
John Calvin said that the human mind is a “factory of Idols”
Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshiped. - Augustine.
An idol can be a person, an institution, or an idea or ideology.
How to recognize an Idol without the gold & stone…
What do you do with idols?
Worship them – this can happen when there is a “cult of personality” when one person is held is such high regard that they can do no wrong.
Sacrifice to them – This is where it is most obvious that institutions can be idols – often times the language sacrifice is applied to them.
“(institutions) make claims upon human beings for idolatrous commitment in that the moral principle that governs any institution – a great corporation, a government agency, an ecclesiastical organization, a union, utility or university – is its own survival. Everything else must finally be sacrificed to the cause of preserving the institution, and it is demanded of everyone who lives within its sphere of influence – officers, executives, employees, members, customers, and students – that they commit themselves to the service of that end, the survival of the institution.” – William Stringfellow
Placate them – keep them happy or incur their wrath.
Trust in the power behind them – this is seen most powerfully in ideologies – when we trust without thinking the process of privatization, or nationalization, or where free market ideals or socialist ideals are applied as if they are the infallible word of God. Certain business methods might fall into this category.
Protect them – I see this in the idolatry of the family institution – when all is done to protect the name of a family when horrible things are going on. This is where we can sacrifice our children for the sake of the family – the family is supposed to be there to protect the children, not the other way around.
Blasphemy
Tom Higa operated his Chevron gas station on a corner block in San Francisco for more than 25 years. It was the old-fashioned kind of shop where the attendant would wash the windows and kick the tires. Tom began working as an attendant in 1964. After eight years of hard work, he took over as owner and picked up the station lease with Chevron.
In 1989, Chevron told Tom the shocking news that it would not renew his station lease. The underground storage tanks on the property were in need of replacement at a cost of about $150,000. Oil company officials expressed that the station was outdated and no longer matched the Chevron image.
Tom didn’t see it coming. He had consistently met or surpassed the gas sales goals Chevron had set for his station; in fact, his operation was returning on average a healthy 12 percent profit. "I wasn’t going to become a millionaire, but I earned enough to keep my family secure and deliver a good return to the corporation. I don’t know what profit level it would take to satisfy Chevron," wondered Tom.
The financial analysts at Chevron headquarters had indeed crunched the numbers and concluded they could do better. By closing Tom’s business, demolishing the station, and building a commercial building on the site, the property could return at least a 15 percent profit margin. Chevron corporate saw it as a clear-cut business decision to maximize its profits.
Tom panicked. He was nearing 50 with two young children. Chevron officials suggested he might enter a computer-training course. To Tom, the idea was absurd; such a career detour did not match his skill set or his interests. He knew what he had a passion for, and that was running a gas station.
The neighbors got San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos involved. He contacted Chevron, but they would not budge. The mayor informed him that Chevron’s plans to develop the property might not go as smoothly as the company had projected. In fact, he threatened him on the spot with a stringent environmental impact procedure that in all likelihood would lead to delays and substantial unforeseen costs.
A pitched political struggle ensued. Agnos and the city council went ahead with the environmental impact legislation, Chevron’s plans to re-purpose the property were thwarted, and Tom Higa’s Chevron went on to operate at a healthy profit for another decade.
As mayor, Agnos held a quarterly luncheon with the chief executive officers of the major corporations with headquarters in San Francisco. The atmosphere turned chilly shortly after the mayor’s showdown with Chevron. Agnos recalls entering the dining room to an awkward silence. Moments after all were seated, the CEO of one of California’s major banks raised his voice so that all gathered could hear: "Arthur, you realize that we’re pretty upset at you over this environmental legislation."
He said “Here’s a man with a family to support, owner of his own franchise for 16 years, the business is thriving. Then a wealthy corporation announces it’s going to shut him down. He’s always made money for the company, yet some green analyst in headquarters figures on paper the company can make a few percentage points more. So let me ask you something: How much is enough?"
All conversation and movement came to a stop. Agnos, it seems, had uttered an unpardonable blasphemy. The bank executive came back with emotion: "Arthur, the very fact that you can ask that question terrifies me."
When you’ve asked a simple question about some aspect of the company, and the response to tantamount to accusing you of blasphemy – there’s your idol. In this case the idol is profit – businesses need to make a profit, but when it is profit at any cost, it becomes an idol.
Breakout groups:
What are the idols in the sphere that you walk in? career, family, school…
How do you feel pressured to “bow down to them?”
Worshiping God Alone
The Jews did not send their protest to the king that they were being asked to do something that they could not in good conscience do. They did not take their case to the human rights tribunal – they just did not show up when the music played.
There are times when we think that we need to raise a great big stink about what is going on – but there are many times when our non-participation is enough. When we refuse to bow down to the favorite idol, sooner or later we will get noticed – you may not want to be noticed – look what happened to Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego!
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Because there is Idolatry all around us, we might be tempted to just pull out and exit as much as possible from the systems of the world – but Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not off the world – we can serve the corporation without worshiping the idols of the corporation. It is too bad that often times we as chrisrtians bail out of culture, but take the idols with us. Instead of being in the world and not of it, we place ourselves out of the world, but are completely of it.
The Fiery Furnace
Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego did get noticed, by their enemies. You might be noticed by the person who wants your job, or the person who feels the sting of the quiet rebuke that you holy life gives, and there could very easily be backlash!
Nebuchadnezzar gets so angry that his face becomes distorted with rage! He has the furnace heated up so hot that the guards that throw the three men into the furnace die from the heat.
But when he looks in, he sees the men walking around – and there is a fourth with them!
God doesn’t promise us that he will keep us out of the fiery furnace, but he promises to never leave us alone. There may be times that we will suffer for standing up against the idolatry around us – we will not always be blessed.
When we do land in the fiery furnace, we also need to be realistic about the reason that we got there – are we being persecuted fort the sake of the kingdom of God, or are we being persecuted because we are really obnoxious about the kingdom? I’ve had people tell me that they are being persecuted for Jesus sake when they seldom came to work on time, seldom did the job that they were supposed to do, couldn’t take instruction and never listened. Your best witness at work, is not explaining the gospel to your boss, it is doing the best job you possibly can!
1 Peter 2:11-12
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
As it happens, the men are rescued from death in the furnace – God does a miracle and they are able to walk in the fire without getting burnt, singed, or even smelling of fire! But they are willing to go into the fire without assurance of the rescue - They tell Nebuchadnezzar. “We do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, You Majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
There is this sense that good or bad, we need to make this stand – they are rescued, but many people of God are not – the church is as persecuted today as it ever has been, if not more. If we stood against the idols of our corporate culture more, we too might be persecuted. We might hear those famous words “you’re fired!”
Jesus says Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Matthew 5:10-12
In the end, the king recognizes that Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego have done the right thing, and with a little kick against the conspirators, he gives them even more power than they had before.
Commitment – Lord I will bow to you.
