Living for God in a Hostile World
Nebuchadnezzar has a
dream
Nebuchadnezzar
dreamed a dream – a dream of some importance – a dream from the Lord. The most
powerful man in the world is not protected from the voice of God. Realising he
has dreamed a dream of undoubted significance Nebuchadnezzar devised a
test. Since Babylon was full of idols and deities, and he was supporting a
whole host of officials and servants allied to these gods, he decided to ask
them to supply the dream, and then interpret it. Failure to supply and
interpret the dream carried the death sentence. Many complained that
Nebuchadnezzar was being unreasonable,
but they could not prevail. Execution orders were issued. Then Daniel stepped
forward. He committed himself, in the name of the Lord, to tell the dream and the
interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar and all Babylon were going to be confronted with
unanswerable proof that only Israel’s God was real, sovereign and limitless in
His wisdom and power.
But
first Daniel called a prayer meeting – for himself and his three Hebrew
friends. We are not told the content of Daniel’s prayer, but we do see his
confidence that the information received was accurate when we read of his
prayer of thanksgiving:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are
His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up
kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have
understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the
darkness, And light dwells with Him. “I thank You and praise You, O God of my
fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, And have now made known to me what
we asked of You, For You have made known to us the king’s demand.” (Dan. 2:20–23)
Armed
with munitions from above, Daniel spoke to the king. Daniel asserted that since
Jehovah gave the dream, only Jehovah could provide the interpretation. The
dream was of a statue (perhaps an idol) which was mostly made of metal. It had a head of gold, chest and
arms of silver, stomach and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and
clay. In the dream a stone quarried out of a mountain struck the image on its
feet, and the image disintegrated and turned to dust. The dust was then carried
away by the wind. The dream was a prophecy, and demonstrated:
(i)
God’s wisdom (it laid out God’s programme for the nations), and
(ii) His power (He
will bring it to pass).
It
was another example of the clear message of the book - the sovereignty of God:
‘… the Most High God rules in the
kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses’
(5:21).
The
dream told of the deterioration of future dynasties until earth’s wisdom and
power would have lost all worth. Only at that time would Messiah come. The
ability of Daniel to receive and relay from heaven future world events to the Babylonian
monarch produced a remarkable confession. Nebuchadnezzar admitted:
“Truly your God is
the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could
reveal this secret” (2:47).
Daniel and his
friends were promoted, and began a ministry that was designed to establish one
main truth to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus, and Darius – the truth that YHWH
is on the throne of world affairs - ‘our God reigns’.
Babylon will try to
intimidate you
Chapter three
of Daniel records the tightening of the tension between Babylon and the
faithful Israelites. Mainly it was a clash of cultures – a conflict between the
idolatry of Babylon and Israel’s monotheistic culture that forbade idolatry.
Perhaps with memory of his significant dream, Nebuchadnezzar erected a huge
statue overlaid with gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide. The image, the
height of a seven or eight story building, was clearly designed to impress. But
it also had a second purpose; it was also designed to unify the multinational
peoples of the empire, both politically and religiously. The opening ceremony
in the capital city of the empire was given a musical setting by the Babylonian
state orchestra. Nebuchadnezzar demanded a public demonstration of complete
loyalty to himself and his patron god, Nabu. This would be evidenced by a
public ceremony when all people were commanded to fall down before the idol and
worship. The pledge of allegiance to Nabu would amount to a pledge of
allegiance to his viceroy, Nabu-kudurriusur, that is, Nebuchadnezzar himself.
The population was expected to give complete obedience. Failure to worship the
idol carried the death sentence.
But
when the music sounded and foreheads touched the ground there were three men
still standing. The three who refused to acknowledge the golden image and offer
obeisance were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Israel was in captivity because of its tendency to worship idols,
but here were three of its young men prepared to stand alone, even to die,
before bowing down before the Babylonian image. The three Israelites were
brought before Nebuchadnezzar and given a further opportunity to obey the edict and worship the image. But they
loved YHWH more than life itself, and refused. They defied Nebuchadnezzar with
courtesy. On the other hand Nebuchadnezzar derided YHWH with the words, “who
is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”
(Dan. 3:15)
Now in this serious,
life threatening experience, the benefit of their previous training came to
their aid. The discipline of body, mind and spirit would now be of supreme
importance in their survival. They responded,
“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” (Dan. 3:16–18).
Such a
refusal, including as it does the implication that the God of the Hebrews could
protect them from the flames, incensed
Nebuchadnezzar and the execution
order was issued. The furnace was fed with fuel and the heat increased until
the Chaldean officials were satisfied that the death of the Hebrew rebels was
certain. But then something happened
that no-one had anticipated. Although they were cast
into the fire they survived with the help of a mysterious fourth person. When
commanded, they climbed out of the furnace, but not the fourth who disappeared.
They had suffered no harm and the fire had had no
effect. YHWH had indeed been able to deliver them from the furnace.
The
lesson is obvious – in Babylon, the Just must live by faith. Coming face to
face with an undoubted miracle, Nebuchadnezzar declared:
“Blessed be the God
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His
servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and
yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their
own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which
speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall
be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is
no other God who can deliver like this” (Dan 3:28,29).
So
the wisdom of God had been validated when Daniel had previously interpreted the
king’s dream, and the power of God had been validated when the hottest fire
that man could generate could not affect His servants – our God reigns!
More from the life of Daniel next time.
