Word of Salvation – Vol. 33 No. 02 – Jan 1988

 

Who Is The King?

 

Sermon: Rev. M. C. De Graaf on Daniel 3

Reading: Acts 16:16-40 & Daniel 3

 

Brothers and Sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ,

Perhaps one of the saddest outworkings of sin in the world is intolerance toward those who are different.  Just think of RACISM, that ridiculing or persecution of someone purely because of skin colour, or accent.  We see it on a large scale in many countries around this world.  But we also see it on a smaller scale in nearly every school and neighbourhood in this country.  Accepting or even tolerating someone who is different is something mankind really struggles with.  You don’t have to be in South Africa, or Lebanon or Uganda.  You see it everywhere in one form or other.  Wherever two cultures or groups of people need to assimilate, there always seems be a tension.  Mankind is too self-centred, or perhaps too insecure to always be open to the unusual.  And it you happen to be one of the unusual, if you happen to be the only kid in your class who wears glasses, or if you can’t communicate because you don’t know the language, it can be a very painful experience.  The ridicule and prejudices of those who ARE in with THE crowd can make life very miserable!  A goat among the sheep, an ugly duckling…!

The Book of Daniel deals with a small group of Israelites who must have really understood what it means to be a stranger in a strange land.  Foreigners in that great city of BABYLON.

The Babylonians at that time were the greatest power in the East.  They had conquered the mighty Assyrians and ruled an empire which stretched from modern-day Afghanistan in the east through to Turkey in the west.  And in 605 B.C. these Babylonians were allowed by God to enter Jerusalem.  THEY DIDN’T ACTUALLY destroy the city or subject it totally, but rather they plundered a few things from the temple, and made the Judeans pay taxes.  And when they left, they took with them a small group of princes who were going to be trained to serve in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.  Perhaps they intended these young men to be hostages, we’re not sure.  In any event, when the Babylonian army withdrew these men were forced to go along!

As we read on in the O.T. we see that the Jews rebelled twice.  And second time, the Babylonians came back in force and totally destroyed the city, forcing its people into Exile – resettling them in a safer place where the Babylonians could keep an eye on them!

GOD’S PEOPLE DRAGGED FROM THE PROMISED LAND.  It is a very painful part of O.T. history.  At first glance you would think God had abandoned them, just simply breaking all those promises He made to them.  BUT… when you read the background to the Exile, you see the people rebelling again and again: worshipping other gods, burning their children as offerings.  When you see God sending His prophets one after the other: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Amos, Hosea – the list goes on – all warning, calling the people back, THEN you can’t help but think that those people deserved everything they got.  AND by human standards, by human concepts of justice, you’d think Israel’s history was over.  BUT you see the Bible isn’t just a moralistic tale of good over bad, the baddies getting it in the end, the good ones striving on.

IT IS THE STORY OF GOD’S WORK HERE ON EARTH.  IT IS THE STORY OF GOD’S PLANS AND GOD’S GRACE COMING TO FRUITION – often despite human efforts.  And for God’s plans to come to His appointed end, for His redemption to come to mankind, he had chosen Israel.  So we have before us the story of Daniel.  Daniel and his friends.  These men were part of that group of princes that the Babylonians had taken in 605 B.C.  As Princes they were from the line of David.  Links in the chain of promise, which stretched back to Abraham and forward to the coming Messiah.  So we see here God’s Kingdom still moving forward on earth.  BUT we would have to admit that it doesn’t look like much of a KINGDOM by human standards.  Those princes sure look vulnerable there among the Babylonians.

In Chapter One we see the confrontation over the food served to idols.

Only God’s hand which made them healthy and strong helped them survive the challenge.  But over the next few chapters things seem to get better.  Through God’s grace they gain status and influence in the court and they are given power.  HOWEVER as we see in the chapter before us today all this power gave them a certain vulnerability which lowly people would not have had.  The story we are looking at today really begins in Chapter two where we see Nebuchadnezzar have that dream of the statue with its bottom line interpretation that His kingdom would not last forever.  God raised up and destroyed kingdoms as it fitted in with His plans.  ONLY HIS KINGDOM IS ETERNAL!!

As a reaction to this, Chapter Three begins by telling us that the King built an Image of Gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura near Babylon.  Like many kings the idea that his power would not last forever had obviously shaken Nebuchadnezzar and he responded by building this great memorial to himself and His nation’s power.  In a way you can see it as a challenge to God and His kingdom which Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream.  To understand what was happening there on that plain of Dura it is very important to realise that in the ancient world the whole concept of the state and its power was very closely linked with the state’s religion.  The two things STATE and RELIGION were inseparable.  For example, the king was often seen as one of the gods.  So that statue both symbolized the religion of the nation and its political power.  And of course that included praise for King Nebuchadnezzar and the power he felt he had acquired through his own efforts.

All the government officials, governors, army officers, everyone with any kind of responsibility, was called on to come to the dedication this great symbol of Babylon’s power.  They were called to show their subjection to it and all it symbolized.  When the music began they were expected to drop to their knees showing that Babylon alone was god.  Babylon stood by its own power!!!  Having conquered the armies and the gods of all other nations it was obviously the greatest!

Because of their positions in the government, Daniel’s friends were also ordered to come to show their loyalty and subjection.  Any-one who refused to do this was seen as a traitor and would be punished by immediate death.  The music began, and all the people, nations and men of every nation fell down and worshipped the image of gold that the king had set up.  All, of course, except Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  These men refused to do this.  And it’s interesting to note that this fact was picked up very quickly by other members of the court (the NIV calls them Astrologers, the original simply calls them Chaldeans).  It seems that these men resented the success of these Jews.  You can see it in their accusation in vs.12: “JEWS whom you HAVE SET over…!”  As Daniel found out later (in chapter six) there were those who were jealous of these foreigners’ successes.

As we noted in the introduction those who are different are so often vulnerable to attack by the IN crowd.  The Jews have found this throughout history.  Just think about those other ovens in which so many of them were burned just this century.  BUT it would be wrong to see this PURELY on a racial level.  The Chaldeans accuse the men of refusing to worship the gods of Babylon and the image that the king had erected.  So religion and the affairs of state were also involved.  The three were dragged before the King who, interestingly enough, gives them a second chance to be loyal, warning them of the dire consequences of their action.  To this the three reply that they have no intention of defending themselves.  They lay themselves purely on the mercy of God who may or may not save them.  They knew that in either case HIS Glory will be proclaimed.  It is to His Kingdom that they owe allegiance.  And they have no intention of worshipping any other thing, person or nation, whatever the earthly consequences may be!  We know how the rest of the story went.  The anger of the king over being challenged, the furnace, the three being thrown in, and the way God showed that He was with His children by appearing as the ANGEL OF GOD there in their midst.  And then that acknowledgement by Nebuchadnezzar of God’s power!

But let’s think for a little while about that answer of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  In a world that demands conformity, they were willing to be different.  Not because they were so super brave, BUT rather because they saw what was happening in its proper perspective!  It was not simply a question of how things affected them.  It was not simply a confrontation between them and the great king, (then of course they would have been afraid).  The confrontation was between the KINGDOM OF GOD AND the Kingdoms of Man.

BECAUSE OF THIS it is interesting to note that the three were not entirely sure God would save them from the tire.  God is an almighty God who will care for His children.  BUT we can’t take that to mean that all will be easy for us and we will be saved from suffering or death.  God may have other plans for us.  A young Christian who lived through the concentration camps of WWII tells how he was helped by the presence of an older Christian who did not survive.  One day he asked this older fellow prisoner, “Will the war last long?”  And he replied, “Nobody knows how long the war will last.  To us it is an unimportant question – it is in God’s hands.  The only important question is HOW WE ARE GOING TO LIVE THROUGH IT.”  We don’t just follow God because we feel that by doing so we’re going to come out on top!  We obey because God DEMANDS obedience of His children.  Other than that we simply trust in Him.  HIS KINGDOM WILL BE ESTABLISHED!  All we can ask is: what part can we play in it?  Not: what are we going to get out of it!!

Many people claim that that fourth man in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was actually the Christ.  We cannot be sure.  Scripture does not tell us.  But in a way it is a prophecy of what Christ was going to do.  He came to earth and he partook of man’s humanity and suffering just as that angel did in the furnace.  And through His coming CHRIST brought comfort and peace to those who follow Him.  Just as the angel brought comfort to those three in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace.  Through Him we become part of the Kingdom.  And that means we are different from those who are not part of the Kingdom.  Just as light and darkness are opposites so are we.  We’re like foreigners, strangers.  Called on to worship our King while everyone else is on their knees before their cars, or televisions, or education, or their music, or their jobs, or their new homes, or whatever god they have created!

This allegiance to the Lord and HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM may result in ridicule or worse.  But there just is no room for compromise!  Our King demands total allegiance.  Like the prisoner in the Nazı death camp, we don’t know how long our battle may continue.  It may be only a few days; it may be for many years.  We may even be called on to make the ultimate sacrifice, who knows?  Who really cares?  It is irrelevant.  The only important issue is whether we dare to stand up in obedience when every other knee around us bows to the image of gold.

AMEN.