Chapter 3
The first words of the first verse are "King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold..." He didn't figure out that Daniel's God was the only God, and that He didn't care much for idols and images. Remember the verse in 2:
47 The king answered and said to Daniel, "Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery." [Dan 2:47 ESV]
2020-The King understands that God is greater than gods, but he still believes there are many. He believes in God but he is ignorant of the theology of God. His ignorance not only keeps him from "conversion", but leads to further sin on his part. Since his understanding of God has increased, his responsibility has increased, and getting it wrong is more costly than before. The more you know, they more you bear responsibility for sin.
Per Rummages sermon last week, this idol was distorted. 10 tall and 1 wide. For me, that would be 64" tall and 6.4" wide. More like a pillar than a statue. Similar proportions to the Washington Monument. The phrase "that Nebuchadnezzar had set up" is repeated many times. I think Hance preached about this one time. Neb did all the setting up. God over-ruled it all. This statue was Nebuchadnezzar establishing himself as an object of worship. He was hereby putting all on notice that he himself was to be worshiped, on pain of death. Many religions have used this method of making converts. Rummage said something about those measurements....Ah...there were 6. The number for man. The proportions - 60 cubits high, 6 cubits wide. Man again. Also, there are three sixes there...
2020-It seems to me there are many parallels between Nebuchadnezzar at this point and the actions of Antichrist in Revelation. Here, it is not that Neb requires the people to worship him, but that they worship this idol, this inanimate, incapable thing of an idol that he has set up. Doesn't Antichrist do the same at first? There is the beast and the false prophet, and they set up an idol. The idol they set up can actually talk I believe, but it is nevertheless an idol. It must be important that the worship be directed by Neb/Anti at first, and then that worship usurped and redirected to them personally. Does Neb ever require that they worship him only? As the age of Israel ends with Neb as Antichrist this first time, and in the Double Punishment part, Antiochus Epiphanes, so the age of the Gentiles ends with Antichrist, doing the same things that were done to end the Jews. Oh my...so much fits perfectly! But...Wasn't Antiochus Epiphanes during the intertestamentary period? Perhaps he doesn't even count. Maybe he is a Satanic diversion to keep us from seeing the real march of history. It was the Romans who ultimately and finally destroyed the temple. Didn't they also set up a statue in the temple and require the Jews to worship it? And that was after the new covenant was delivered. Perhaps this is the event that we should worry about? Did A-E set up an idol? I need to look into all this. This line is important. LATER in 2020, but same day. This is all wrong. The statue Neb set up was nowhere near the Temple. So not at all the same as A-E and AC.
The Jews don't worship the statue. Some Chaldeans come forward to accuse them. Politics. Power plays. If you can't outsmart them, if they are truly better than you, then you assault them on another front. You attack their loyalty, and their obedience. Hmm...Gun control. These are people who won't be ruled. So equate them with murderers and cut throats every time a murderer or a cut throat makes the news. Trump can't be bought, can't be corrupted (yes, maybe because he is already basking in his own version of corruption), but in any case, he won't "bow to the authority" of the Democrats. So his character must be attacked, and he must be torn down for "questionable practices" that pale in comparison to the good he does. Same kind of attack the Chaldean's made on the Jews. It was about who had power, and how to get some of it, never about the accomplishments or the motives of those attacked.
2023 - "people who won't be ruled", in the previous paragraph, is not the best wording. A better phrase is "people who worship a higher than you". People who test your philosophy, your orders, your rules against what the Bible says. People who have their own "highest authority" and are willing to die before converting to yours. In Neb's day, such people could be killed where they stood. I think the same happens today, but takes this kind of government longer. But that is changing. New laws provide short cuts to isolating such people quickly and shutting them up. Big tech participates in this with their censorship. I know. A lot of what is censored is about politics, not religion, but these other things are just practice and perfection of the tools that will be used one day against religion. The real question, the scary question, is about just how quickly we are closing in on this day in the US. The whole world is going - religious bastions are showing their willingness to compromise:'We are all children of God:' Pope Francis says homosexuality is not a crime in interview", https://news.yahoo.com/children-god-pope-francis-says-203105707.html
Any church that so disavows orthodoxy will not have a very difficult time crawling into bed with the man of lawlessness. (3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, [2Th 2:3 ESV]). We are even denying chromosomes, because that is the only way to get past "male and female, created he them". We are trying to undermine God all the way back to creation, to Genesis.
It is going to get harder and harder. Sons against fathers, husbands against wives, sisters against brothers....Even believers own families will turn against them. 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. [Mat 24:10 ESV]. This verse comes before the MoL is revealed. This could be today. Is today in some places. One day it will be the way of things worldwide. It will be very hard.
Neb is furious when he hears these charges. Neb has S, M, and A brought before him. There is no indication that he "hopes" the charges are untrue - as will be the case later with Daniel. He is likely seething with anger as he asks if the accusations are true. Then he tells them he's about to give them a chance to worship him, as required. He's going to make sure they understand the rules. And he also makes it plain that if they don't, he will without hesitation have them burned alive. He knows what Daniel had done with the dream. He knows that Daniel's God is the same God these three worship. Yet knowing all this he is arrogant enough to say "...And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?" Not only has he deified himself, he has also set himself at the top of the pantheon of gods. He sees himself as more powerful than ANY god!
2023 - See the blatant irrationality of this kind of thinking? We cannot expect "truth" to prevail, because truth is not discernible to those who place themselves above God.
They answer that it doesn't matter. Either God will save them, or He will not. But either way, they will not violate God's 1st Commandment by worshiping this image.
Nebuchadnezzar loses his temper with them. "Filled with fury" in the ESV. Temper seems to have been one weakness of his, pride was the other. These two brought him down. He has them thrown in the fire. We know the story. Those who threw them in are killed by the heat, then Neb sees not three but four walking around in the furnace, unhurt by the fire. The fourth is like "a son of the gods". We don't really know who this fourth one was. Could have been Jesus, but I don't see why it necessarily should be him. Could have been an angel, sent by God to protect them in the fire. What Neb knew is that this fourth had a supernatural appearance (MSB's description, not mine.)
Nebuchadnezzar orders that no one, anywhere, ever, insult the God of S, M, and A. If they do, they are to be torn limb from limb. If a whole country does this, that country is to be laid waste. Then this man who considered himself higher than any god says this:
"...for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way." He recognizes that the living God is unique. There is only one God. 2020-No, that's wrong. He still does not recognize that there is only one God. For a second time, he has recognized that the God of Daniel, and of S, M, and A is more powerful than any other god. But he still most certainly believes in other gods. He orders that the God of the Hebrews not be insulted. BECAUSE, no other god can do what this God does. But his theology is still wrong. He is still polytheistic. He does not understand that there is ONLY ONE.
2023 - Hmm. This is the second "lesson" God has given to Nebuchadnezzar as to who He is. And twice, he has failed to fully comprehend the lesson.
S, M, and A are again promoted in Babylon. We have no information on what happened to their accusers....