The King’s Pride | Sunday, June 25, 2023

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits... And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace... Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "...Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace... But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." (Daniel 3)

A 2,600-year-old story of pride, conformity, and three men who would not bow — and what it means for faithful believers facing the fires of our own age.

There Is Nothing New Under the Sun

Most things in our culture that appear new are simply repackaged and rebranded under a different name. Solomon, the great wise king of Israel three thousand years ago, observed this when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 1: "That which has been will be... and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, 'See, this is new'? It has already been in ancient times before us." Even Solomon looked back on ancient times and said the same thing.

Over the last several years something has seemed new to us that is actually not — cancel culture. The idea is that if you do not bow to the dictates of the culture around you, you will effectively be excommunicated from it. What is new is that with social media and the interconnected web of industry, an individual can lose far more than social standing. A person can be cut off from banking or credit.

In Revelation, John looked forward and said a time would come when you would be restricted from buying or selling if you did not take the mark given at that point in time. We live in times like that. With some societies adopting social credit scores, it may come to a point where you cannot buy or sell if you will not bow to the dictates of your time — a kind of social assassination. You are still breathing, but your livelihood is restricted. There is nothing new under the sun.

Where We Left Off

The text before us in Daniel 3 reads like something out of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times — it fits our context perfectly. Last week, Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were within the household of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that bothered him and called all his enchanters together to tell him both the dream and its interpretation.

Daniel came forward and described the great and terrible image the king had seen: a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a body and thighs of brass, and legs and feet of iron mixed with clay. Daniel told him these represented four kingdoms — first Nebuchadnezzar's own Babylon as the head of gold, then the Medo-Persian Empire, then the Greek Empire under Alexander, and finally Rome. How did Nebuchadnezzar respond to hearing himself called the head of gold?

The King's Pride

Nebuchadnezzar's response is to build an entire image of gold, ninety feet tall and nine feet wide, and set it up for all people to bow down and worship. Most commentators agree this was an image of himself. He gathers the satraps, administrators, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, and magistrates, and through a herald commands that when the music sounds, all peoples, nations, and languages shall fall down and worship — and whoever does not will be cast immediately into the burning fiery furnace. He is saying, in effect, "You will worship me, and if you don't, you're dead. You will be canceled."

Many Christians read Daniel 2 and conclude that Nebuchadnezzar became a follower of the one true God. His confession is striking — he fell on his face before Daniel and said, "Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, the revealer of secrets." He then promoted Daniel and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. It is understandable why people see a conversion there.

But his actions are not consistent with that confession. He makes a ninety-foot image of himself and commands everyone to worship him. The king in his pride exalts himself. This brings to mind the New Testament word, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall," and the words of Jesus in Luke 18: "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled."

Counterfeit Followers of God

This was not really a conversion. The world is filled with counterfeit, false followers of God. There are and always will be those who say the right things at opportune times but are no more Christian than this table or this stool — and perhaps less, in that they actually oppose the working of God.

It is an unfortunate but real fact that many counterfeit followers find their way into positions of power, often placed there by true believers who see a faux faith and assume genuineness. Not every person who owns a Bible, or even places a hand on one in an oath of office, is a true follower of God. You will know them by their fruits. It is more the actions of an individual than their profession that reveal them. Nebuchadnezzar made a great confession, but that did not mean he was a follower of God.

Cultural Conformity

So what happens? "At that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn... all the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image." This is cultural conformity. The culture is always seeking to press you into its mold. Paul tells believers, "Do not be conformed to this world." We have been called to be set apart, separate, and different.

Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and Daniel had already set themselves apart in a minor way in Daniel 1, refusing to partake of the king's delicacies. That was a small thing then; now they face a much bigger situation. This forced conformity continues today. Interestingly, our culture loudly values individualism, self-realization, and self-actualization — yet when you get right down to it, the vast majority of people simply conform to cultural norms. It is easier to go with the flow.

The Informers

But not everyone bows. "Certain Chaldeans came forward to accuse the Jews." That is not new; it has been going on a long time, almost as if there is something behind it. They remind Nebuchadnezzar of his decree and then inform on 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."

There will always be informers — social justice warriors, the cultural conformity police. There is nothing new under the sun. These Chaldeans had long been the advisors to Babylonian kings and were not happy that these up-and-coming young men from Judea had been set over the provinces. They had been looking for a reason to be rid of them, and now they had their opportune time.

Genuine Followers Stand

Genuine followers of God stand when everyone else bows to counterfeits. The genuine and the counterfeit can be difficult to tell apart — that is what makes a good counterfeit good. But ultimately the counterfeit is seen for what it is, and both are revealed by their fruit. Recall the wheat and the tares: tares are a weed that looks much like wheat in its early stage, indistinguishable until the harvest, when the wheat brings forth grain and the tares do not.

Jesus said in Matthew 7: "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits... A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit... Therefore by their fruits you will know them." We must carefully assess whether a person's life is lived consistently with their profession.

This raises the question many ask: where is Daniel? I can assure you he was not out in the valley bowing to the golden image — but he is not in this story. Don't read too much into that. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had a more publicly facing role over the province, while Daniel was in the palace, perhaps dispatched elsewhere. He is simply not here in this passage.

Put on the Spot

Nebuchadnezzar, "in rage and fury," brings the three men and asks, "Is it true... that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image?" He offers them another chance and then asks, "Who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?"

Ultimately the truly faithful followers will be put on the spot for their faith and faithfulness. You can fly under the radar for a time, exist as a kind of covert Christian temporarily, but eventually you will have to stand. These three were not hiding their opposition; it simply had not yet come to the king's attention. When the music played and everyone else bowed, they would not. Their dissent was not covert — it just hadn't been raised yet.

This will be the case for you too. As a follower of God there are things you say you cannot do, and in most cases it goes unnoticed. But there may come a point where it reaches the attention of someone over you: "Do you really believe this? Will you really oppose this?" The instinct in that moment — and it is strong — is to go with the herd. The herd instinct is powerful, and so is the instinct for self-preservation. When the light is shined on you, the inclination is to divert attention. But the confrontation comes.

Faithful in the Face of the Furnace

As our culture moves further from trust in God and the Scriptures, you will increasingly be told to believe or do things contrary to your conviction. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah faced exactly this. They had already lost so much — their homeland, their language, their friends and family, even their manhood, likely made eunuchs. I suspect they reached the point of asking, "What more can you do to us?"

Paul wrote in Philippians 1:20, "According to my earnest expectation and hope... Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Be careful when the culture causes you to conform in order to get the grade, the promotion, or keep the job. It begins with seemingly small things. A decade ago, putting pronouns in your email signature or posting a particular tile or flag on social media would have seemed absurd; now in some places it is a thing, and being overlooked is the cost of not conforming.

It takes courage and commitment to remain faithful in the face of the furnace. We must be discerning about which red lines we will not cross — some people have a red line for everything, and their no's become worthless. But increasingly there will be situations where you might be canceled for your convictions.

You might say, "Pastor, you work at a church — how would you ever be canceled?" Over fifteen years of pastoring I have been canceled on a minor level many times. When I say something that doesn't align with stated cultural views, someone will say, "I'm not going to that church anymore." Some leave quietly, some leave a Yelp review, some send a note, some come and meet with me to ask if I really believe this. A day may come in our nation when teaching certain things from this book costs a church its tax-exempt status. We have already discussed it as a leadership team: so be it. If people only give for a tax benefit, that is on them. We do not give to the Lord for a year-end deduction.

"But If Not"

"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.'"

This is one of the greatest bold statements in history — perhaps top five — similar to Martin Luther in the 1500s standing before the council: "Here I stand. I can do no other." Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He does not, we will not do it. A mic-drop moment: take our lives, do what you will, King.

Jordan Peterson became widely known because of a stand he took in 2016, when the Canadian government moved to compel certain speech around pronouns from those in publicly funded institutions. He said, "You have to be able to say no. And what no means is that you're not going to do it, and I don't care what happens... There isn't a damn thing that can be done to me to make me allow the government to monitor my speech." He added that totalitarian states develop when individuals give up their right to exist with their own thoughts and sacrifice their souls to the dictates of the state — "you falsify your being bit by bit and you end up where you don't want to be." I think that's true. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said no.

When Standing Firm Doesn't Win

Nebuchadnezzar, full of fury, his expression changed, commanded the furnace heated seven times hotter and ordered the three men bound and cast in. The fire was so hot it killed the mighty men who threw them in, and the three fell down bound in the midst of the burning furnace.

This does not run out the way we would write it. If we wrote the story, the moment they declared their faith, the room would shake and Nebuchadnezzar would fall on the ground. But it doesn't always work that way. Taking a stand does not always mean rescue from the trial. Those who take a stand don't always win. Sometimes they lose in the classroom, in the conference room, the promotion, the job — sometimes everything, sometimes even their life. That probably won't happen to you in our culture at this moment.

Yet Paul wrote, "Christ will be magnified in my life, whether by life or by death; to live is Christ, to die is gain." The man who wrote that was in prison for his faith and within three years would be beheaded. Genuine followers are proved authentic in fiery furnaces.

The Fourth Man in the Fire

That is not the end of the story. Nebuchadnezzar, astonished, said, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered, "True, O king." He said, "Look! I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." It has long been held that the fourth man is the Son of God — Jesus, who was and is and is to come, who pre-existed His incarnation and shows up at opportune moments in the Old Testament.

Nebuchadnezzar called them out: "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out." The fire had no power over their bodies; not a hair was singed, their garments unaffected, not even the smell of fire on them. He then made his second great confession: "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him... because there is no other God who can deliver like this." Underline that — there is no other God who can deliver like this. And he promoted the three over the province.

God Is With You in the Fire

Nebuchadnezzar's confession is wonderful, but it is not the focal point. The point — repeated throughout Daniel — is that God was with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He was with them when everything was stripped away and they were taken to Babylon, with them in the fiery furnace, and He will be with Daniel in the lion's den. If God was with them in those things, He will be with you in whatever you go through.

As our culture moves further from God and how He has revealed Himself, you will experience increasing opposition — small at first, but growing over time. Jesus said, "If they hated Me, they will hate you." His earliest followers were persecuted; many died as martyrs — burned, crucified, beheaded, stoned, thrown to beasts. At this very moment, in places without the freedoms you enjoy, believers are still being put to death for their faith in Christ. God is with them in the fire, and they look for a city whose builder and maker is God.

Let Your Light Shine

Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you... rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." How can you rejoice in the fire? Because of that reward. "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world... Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

It used to be that Western culture was so infused with the Christian worldview that being a witness for Christ was like a light shining on a bright day. But as darkness comes upon our culture, you will shine brightly. May we not cover it up and whisper, "Yes, I sort of believe those things." Let your light shine.

You will increasingly find yourself in Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah moments — perhaps not today, perhaps in small things first. Peter, shortly before his crucifixion, wrote, "The genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to the praise, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ at His revelation." That is the testimony of the martyrs across two thousand years, and may it be ours as well, if ever we are called to suffer for His name's sake. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would embolden Your servants and empower us. Jesus, You promised that we would receive power when Your Holy Spirit came upon us, to be witnesses unto You in our culture, in our time, in the place where we live. Would You fill us afresh and anew by Your Holy Spirit in power, and embolden Your people to speak boldly the truth, the good news of the Gospel. God, give us Your boldness, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said Amen.