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Daniel 3:26-27 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, 27 and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorch ed, and there was no smell of fire on them.
THE phrase “born again” is a powerful image of the Christian life. Jesus first illustrated his salvation over mind, body and spirit to Nicodemus in John 3:5 “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” To be born again is to live in God’s salvation without a scent of sin to keep you from heaven. You have lived through the deadly fire of sin’s temptations to walk free from sin’s death. Out of the fire came Shadrach (Hananiah), Meshach (Mishael) and Abednego (Azariah) without a scent of fire on them. They had entered the fire fully trusting God to protect their lives. Daniel 3:17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. What do you think life was like for Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah after this? We will see the king honored them with higher offices in Babylon. But do you think their worldly positions mattered to them? Would they not live in triumphant devotion to the LORD God, knowing he had personally come to preserve their lives? Would they eagerly testify to all they met of God’s power and mercy? It is as if they have a second life to live. I hope as you are in Christ you realize the God (you) serve is able to save (you) from even Hell’s raging inferno. I pray you live, treasuring life because you know the Mighty One has graciously rescued you from Satan’s death sentence. May our born again lives be a constant testimony of God’s power to save. 1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. Daniel 3:24-25 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, O king.” 25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
IF you’ve been following these Daniel lessons, you know I’ve held a high importance to the names of our four heroes, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. In this famous story of God protecting three faithful men, here is a review of their names’ meanings. Note the “el” at the end of “Mishael” and the “ah” at the end of “Hananiah” and “Azariah”. “El” means “God (Provider),” and “yah” or “ah” is a form of God’s name “Yahweh”. The full meaning of Yahweh is given in Psalms 50:1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. The psalmist declares Yahweh is the all-powerful, sovereign authority over all the earth. The Mighty One certainly displays his power over the three men amid the raging fire to protect his own. God will protect you, too, against any intense heat of evil’s persecution. In addition, each man’s full name described other traits of God: “Hananiah” means “Yahweh is gracious” – God is gracious to protect them here, isn’t he? “Mishael” means “Who is what God is?”. Certainly no created being could withstand these flames. And “Azariah” means “Yahweh has helped.” God surely helped here, didn’t he? What would happen if we began to tell this story with the Hebrew names? People might ask, “Why do you use those names when the Bible says Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Does it matter? In reply, you can tell them about their Hebrew names. As you explain, you will glorify God to know how the meaning of their names point to God’s salvation from the fire here and from a fiery hell forevermore. The fourth nameless man in the fire is often considered the pre-incarnate form of Jesus, the Son of God. When the king says he looks like the son of a gods, he should have said, “He looks like the Son of God.” This is the glory of God come to earth. We can connect this to Jesus’ resurrection. He stood alive in glory after a brutal death. He ascended to heaven to sit in glory to come again in power. Revelation 14:14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. It is good to be under the protection of the God who is a gracious eternal helper like no other. I pray you are. Jeremiah 10:7 Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. Daniel 3:19-23 Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual 20 and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. 21 So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. 22 The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 23 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.
IN a moment his attitude toward them changed. The king’s favor for Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah became a murderous rage. With disregard for any just law or civil order Nebuchadnezzar moved to please his sin-blackened heart, to kill God’s faithful. Murder is mankind’s great sin against one another. The first recorded sin of man sinning against man is Cain killing his brother Abel in Genesis 4. Seven generations after Cain came the proud boast of Cain’s descendant Lamech in Genesis 4:23 “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” This is a picture of a prosperous culture defying the image of God. Pleasure and self-indulgence were mankind’s greatest priorities with Cain, Lamech and Nebuchadnezzar. This is still sin’s heart attack on mankind today. Murder was also one compelling reason for God to purge the world with the Great Flood. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth (Genesis 6:6). In response, after the flood God established capital punishment to protect us from each other. Genesis 9: 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” Murder is more than killing another, it is destroying God’s creation especially made in God’s image. We must know we are precious to God. He made us to bear his image to one another. We are to love God and love each other, so God will be praised and exalted. Love brings us to peace with each other, united to love and worship God. After all, this is the purpose for which God has created us. Our task, then, is to obey Jesus’ life command from Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Seeking his own kingdom of power and self-worship led to Nebuchadnezzar’s hateful rage. Seeking God’s kingdom will lead us to join with God and with mankind in humility, love and honor. Isaiah 30:18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Daniel 3:13-19 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
YOU know what Peter said about the devil, don’t you? He put it this way: 1 Peter 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Peter was writing to a new church under attack. It is a spiritual reality that when the church moves in the Spirit’s power, the devil will rage against it with all his evil devices. Peter’s teaching to “be self-controlled and alert” means to keep your eyes centered on God against all temptations, in all struggles. That’s exactly what our three faith heroes do here. King Nebuchadnezzar seems to care about his chosen leaders. He knows they have some power of the “God of gods” (Daniel 2:47) working in them. But as we said then, the king was not confessing the LORD God as the only true God. Nebuchadnezzar’s god is the golden statue - anything that points to himself. God’s three faithful men, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, stand for God and insult the king. They know their lives are not their own. With the remarkable confession, “We do not need to defend ourselves.” they belong forever to the living God. This is an extraordinary testimony centuries before Christ’s gospel. How do they know eternal life is for God’s faithful? The Spirit has told them so. He has spoken to their hearts and minds through the patriarchs and the prophets that God is the living, eternal God. The One Ture God they worship is He who came in living power to call Moses to save the Jews: Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” Indeed, they lived for God – mind, heart, soul and body. This is a good reason to celebrate these faithful warriors and to remember their God-centered names. John 8:58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” Daniel 3:8-13 At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You have issued a decree, O king, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, 11 and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. 12 But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon-Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah – parentheses mine) – who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”
DO you think Babylon’s officials accused God’s three faithful servants to honor the king or to elevate their own position? Remember that after Daniel interpreted the king’s dream, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon. The king’s consultants had become second to the Hebrew captives. Here is the perfect opportunity for evil to oppose and even destroy God’s faithful men. Centuries later, the historian Luke records a pivotal moment in the apostle Paul’s ministry in Corinth. Amid some mission success Paul also experienced much opposition form the Jews and Greeks. The city was a crossroads for many pagan cultures – similar to Babylon’s multiple cultures. That’s when our Loving God encouraged Paul: Acts 18:9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. Did Paul listen to and trust his Lord and Savior? Indeed he did. That is why years later, near the end of his life, Paul could write, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7) Do you see what God does? When the enemy attacks, he battles back with people prepared for battle. Paul’s faith empowered him to stand fearlessly before the enemy. The church grew. In the same way, threatened with man’s violence, Azariah, Hananiah and Mishael were ready to stand for God, and the Lord’s power would triumph. Even more, the Son of God has declared the Triune God’s final war against Satan. He has died on sin’s cross, so his resurrection would defeat evil. His living power is unstoppable. Whenever and wherever the enemy opposes you, have faith. Fight the good fight with God. 1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel 3:1-7 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. 3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it. 4 Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” 7 Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
A man has formed a statue. A man decrees all to worship it. A man declares a hellish death for those who disobey. What vanity to form a 90-foot gold plated statue to be an object of worship and to establish your own hateful laws. A man is replacing the LORD’s rule. This is the conflict throughout Scripture. Satan tempts our hearts to form our own gods, so we can be like God (Genesis 3:5b). Exodus 32 describes how Moses’ brother Aaron, the anointed High Priest of Israel, was like Nebuchadnezzar. He, too, formed a golden statue, a calf at the base of Mt. Sinai even as Moses was on the mountain to receive God’s commands. Self-worship is the height of denying God – vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes 1:2a). Daniel and many faithful Jews are in exile because the rulers and majority of the Jews rejected the LORD’s rebuke: Jeremiah 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. 5 Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.” How can we worship some object we have made? Do we think we are as God? Yes, sadly we do. That is the sin issue that binds mankind’s soul to seek first the desires of mankind. The time had come in Babylon for God’s redemptive plan. It was time for God’s people to fear God, to Know God and to stand for God. The time has come in our culture to stand. Who will do so? Philippians 3:3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. Daniel 2:46-47 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
I don’t think we can fully understand the king’s face-down response to Daniel. Consider how powerful the man was. He could casually order anyone’s death. At his command cities were burned, people were enslaved and cultures destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar could order the construction of marvelous architectural wonders. His power is absolute; yet, he bows before this captive Hebrew slave from Judah. This is what happens when God’s power is faithfully declared to the world. Countless Christians who have faithfully served God while suffering persecution testify to God’s power transforming their persecutors to call on Jesus. Daniel truly told the message to his captor. He didn’t back down or compromise what God had given him to see and say. His faith is real and active. His heart is living for God. Through the centuries, the LORD God has used his prophets’ words, Jesus’ miracles, the Spirit’s power and the Christian’s testimony to awaken people to God’s salvation. See this example: Acts 14:8 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Sinful pride in people such as Paul became relentless faith. Unbelievers believed and told of Jesus. Today, too, countless stories detail God’s miraculous work among the faithful. We all know of God’s healing, regenerating lost souls (including our own!) and watching over our everyday lives. One point to note here is that the king does not become a true believer in God’s power. He still sees the LORD God as one of many. His confession, “your God is the God of gods” is evidence he still believes in the idols of Babylon. He does not fully commit to God’s commands: Exodus 20:3-5 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” How’s your faith? Do you believe in God’s transforming power? How do you live into that? Are there “gods” to remove from your life? Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Daniel 2:44-45 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands — a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.”
DANIEL says the dream means that after the kingdoms represented by gold, silver, bronze and iron – Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome – will come a worldwide kingdom? This, in fact, has happened. The world-covering kingdom is the church of Jesus Christ. What else is worldwide? What else has lasted since the church began in Acts 2 beyond all earthly kingdoms? What other organization has endured revolution, scandal, rejection, persecution and rebellion to still proclaim God’s message across the globe? Consider that through the ages mankind has developed great technology to subdue other nations. The horrors of 19th-century warfare gave way to even worse killing fields in the 20th century. Weapons of enormous, deadly power remain at the ready to defend or to attack. Politics change. Passions shift from one cause to another. What will last? Of course, it is the Kingdom of God founded on Jesus’ passion to the cross. Scripture declares this is God’s future vision for mankind: Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. And there are many New Testament prophesies of the coming Kingdom, including Revelation 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Daniel declares to King Nebuchadnezzar that the king’s time and all earthly kingdoms are limited. The “Rock of Ages” – the Holy God Almighty – will transform earthly nations into one true nation, one people under his rule. This is a vision for your life, too. Know God’s power is beyond all earthly matters. Jesus’ resurrection and ascension assures you God’s story continues to become reality. Trust his power to rule your life and to rule the world now and forever. Amen. Revelation 21:5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Daniel 2:41-43 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
WE have indicated the statue’s iron legs represented Rome’s power standing over continents. Then we have this image of iron and clay toes. How does Rome’s strength mix with weak clay? We can see in history that Rome, although immensely strong, was also weak and divided for various reasons. One element of “clay” in Rome would be its many very different cultures. It was impossible for Rome to truly dominate its citizens’ minds and actions. Even its more democratic form of government may have been a weakness that led to its demise as many factions opposed each other, sometimes violently (a good lesson for us all). The Jews in Rome were a good example of opposing the government. Also, Rome was an idol-worshiping culture. Morals were made of clay, shifting and reshaping the culture into crumbling foundations. Without God’s Word as its sure foundation, one’s house, nation and church will fall. Job 4:18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, 19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream reveals kingdoms cannot stand on their own strength. Paul encourages the church to recognize this truth. We must stand in God’s strength: 2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. Think of it. God has placed his perfect, treasured message into our sinful lives. We are weak vessels, jars of clay easily chipped and broken, until the Holy Spirit transforms us into Jesus’ likeness. To the LORD God belongs the glory. He empowers and sustains us to be steadfast. When temptations try to mold you to disobedience, know you can trust God’s Word to keep you in the Light. Your faith foundation will remain sure and strong when you walk in God’s power. Matthew 7:25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock Daniel 2:39-40 “After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron — for iron breaks and smashes everything — and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.”
DANIEL has just affirmed the king’s God-appointed role as the earth’s most powerful ruler. But Daniel’s next words might have been difficult for him to say. This proud, powerful and angry king could violently object to, “After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours.” How could an inferior kingdom replace Babylon’s king of kings? Indeed, this is the Lord’s message, and this was the prophecy of kingdoms to come after Babylon. History records the statue’s various metals represented three powerful kingdoms to rule from eastern Asia to southern Europe to eastern Africa and to India. The silver chest and arms is Medo-Persia. The arms represented the two countries Media and Persia combining as one under Cyrus the Great. You will see Cyrus in 2 Chronicles and Ezra. He is the ruler who would allow the Jews to return to Israel to fulfill God’s promise to return his people after 70 years in exile. The bronze belly and thighs represented the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered the Persians first in Greece, then the Mid-East to control Persia’s vast holdings. The Greeks ruled for 300 years. The iron that breaks and smashes everything is the Roman Empire. The bronze legs represented Rome’s vast rule that stood over the ancient world – most of Europe as well as India. Daniel did not know the names and times of these future kingdoms. But he knew in God’s plan they would come. Daniel is God’s loyal spokesman. His voice could be seen as rebellious to Nebuchadnezzar, who craved supreme power. Surely he thought his kingdom would stand the strength of time to overcome all attempts to destroy it. But power is fleeting isn’t it? The Lord will give it to earthy rulers, and he will remove it. There are very, very few people whose leadership impacts generations beyond their lives. You, in contrast, have been raised up to lead for Christ. Your task is to build a legacy of faith into your family that will last forever. You know all nations will fall one day. You know the Kingdom of God is forever. Whom will you serve? Psalms 45:5 Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. 6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. |
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January 2025
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