Daniel 3

This morning, we move away from Daniel a little bit and we look at one of the most well known Sunday school stories of all time, the story of the fiery furnace. Three men are put into a situation where they have to choose between God or face certain death. They make a decision that challenges us to think about what our commitment to God is, what our dedication to Jesus Christ is. So presumably after the whole incident with Nebuchadnezzar and his relief at the interpretation that Daniel had given him, sometime after that, he builds a giant golden statue. The statue is massive.

It's presumably not made of gold entirely, but laid or plated with gold, which was actually a well established art in that time. Now the Bible interestingly doesn't say what the statue depicted, whether it was a god or whether it was an animal or even whether it was Nebuchadnezzar himself. But the Bible and history tells us that emperors generally had a knack for delusions of grandeur. In fact, the technical term is called megalomania. And so the chances are that this statue was representing Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Emperors would do this to establish their authority in a certain area so that they would gain the respect and the obedience of their subjects. And there are examples of this sort of idea where emperors actually thought of themselves as gods, as a gift to humanity. The pharaohs of Egypt, we know, were considered to be living gods in Egypt. They were, yes, gods who walked among men. Likewise, in Jesus' time, the Caesar of Rome considered himself to be a god that was to be worshiped.

So when we see this statue representing something, we could probably suggest that it was Nebuchadnezzar. We could probably, in some way, see that it was something that was redirected back to give himself glory. The time of Babylon then was a time of great peace. They had developed great technology and great warfare systems that had conquered a huge part of the Middle East. So there was peace, there was prosperity, and in order to maintain this, Nebuchadnezzar built this statue and it was something to behold.

Now just imagine the atmosphere. The Bible tells us that the satraps and the governors, in verse three it says, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all other provincial officials assembled at the dedication of this image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. There was a great band playing. It's here in verse five. "As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, the pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold."

So there's a lot of people, a lot of chatter and noise, and at the same time, there's great background music and there's just this great atmosphere. And the call is, in light of this atmosphere, when they hear a great noise come from the band, they are to fall down and bow their knee to this image. Now people had crowded together. There was an air of expectation. There was a huge and impressive band and it was building to this crescendo.

Men and women from every tongue, so these were people that had come from miles and miles away, stood and were about to worship this statue of Nebuchadnezzar. People swept up in the emotion and in the atmosphere of the situation forsake any values, any allegiance they may have had to their own god. Remember, these were people from very different cultures. And these people who had worshiped in their own way were in fact willing to bow their knee. In fact, we could probably suggest that there were Jews that were there.

Jews who at the sound of the trumpets, of the lyres and the harps, were willing to bend their knee at this impressive image of gold. Now whether the people recognised it or not, when that noise came and they bowed, they were in fact being manipulated to worship an idol. It was magnificent. It had all the trimmings and everyone was doing it. It makes you wonder though, doesn't it, how much we are influenced by popular thought?

How much we are influenced by the trimmings, by the atmosphere, by the emotion around us. Whether we recognise it or not, the truth is we can be manipulated to worship things that are not God, idols. And these come in all sorts of wonderful, interesting, nicely packaged ways. New age spiritualism, Buddhism. Now fantastic things that break away from traditions, traditions that have hurt us, traditions that have disappointed us, and there is this new spiritualism, so attractive that we can enter into.

You know, I'm surprised by the amount of times I've heard Christians speak about karma. Karma. You know, I've done a good thing, good things should return to me. I won't do bad things because if I do bad things, bad things will come to me. Christians who think this way.

Now it actually begins to affect our outlook on life and it could come in religions, but it can also come in ideologies, in concepts or ideals of how life should be. The idea perhaps, and this is a big one, that the hunt for romance is the be all and end all in life. The hunt for the biggest thrill of your life is coming together in a relationship with a man or a woman. If you're my age perhaps, and maybe a little bit older, you will remember in the eighties, late eighties, early nineties, a string of cartoon series which were on which pushed this agenda of environmentalism. Do you know the cartoon Widget the World Watcher?

Or if you know of Captain Planet perhaps, you will notice this huge emphasis on looking after the environment. In Captain Planet, for example, Gaia, the Greek god of the environment, mother earth, actually being represented there in that cartoon. And there's no wonder then that as we grow older, my generation, Gen Y's, more Greens are being voted into parliament. There's this huge emphasis on environmental actions. Politics and daily living is completely gone down that way. And so this is this ideology that was being processed and being promoted amongst my generation.

And they were all impressive and easy to swallow and just enjoyable to be a part of. The truth is we should not be fooled into thinking that our culture, that Australia is a non-religious society. Don't be fooled. Even if they tell you, even if we say we are secular, we are still very religious. Culture is not a neutral thing.

Culture is not a neutral thing. It has an agenda to push. It has idols to create. Our current way is saying we idolise ourself. We are number one.

We, if we're not idolising ourselves, we idolise celebrities and we are really interested in their life. We were all surely very devastated to hear about Kim Kardashian and her divorce this week. And so we idolised the romance of that whole thing and how that didn't work out. We idolised the environment today. Now the people at this statue, interestingly enough, probably didn't think what they were doing there was worship.

They thought they were just being respectful of Nebuchadnezzar. The Hebrew word actually, when it says here to worship, means can mean to serve as well. Can mean to obey. And so what we see here is the people perhaps thinking they are showing respect rather than worship to Nebuchadnezzar. The same thing we know was expected of Christians in Jesus' time and just shortly after afterwards, where the emperor, where Caesar expected on one day in the year to have a little bit of incense burned to him.

Just five minutes. Just a day out of the year to say that the emperor is our king, he is our lord and we serve him. And Christians, many, many hundreds of Christians were killed for their insubordination because they would not do that. It was just one day. And I'm sure there were Christians then who said, it's fine.

It's just one day. We aren't worshiping. We are just paying our respect. But the situation of our story is one that is just dripping with atmosphere and emotion. There's music in the air.

The magnificent statue of gold caused all leaders, intelligent men and women from Babylon to bow down in respect. All except three. In verses 8 to 18, we see that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Rach, Shach, and Benny, they get dobbed in for not bowing their knee, for not bowing to the statue. Babylonian astrologers and wise men, probably motivated by jealousy, probably motivated by political ambition, go to Nebuchadnezzar and say there are three Jews, these gentlemen who have not bowed their knee to you.

And the emperor is absolutely furious, which for me is another indication that this is not some god. I think this was a personal insult to him. And so he gives them one chance, one more chance. He says to them, if you don't bow to the statue, you'll be thrown into a blazing furnace. And then he asks this ironic question that sets up the story.

He says, "And who or what god will be able to rescue you from my hands?" Let's have a look at their response in verse 16. "In response to this question, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 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. 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.'"

Despite all the hype, despite all the pressure, despite even facing a flaming excruciating death, the three men dug in their heels and they remained standing. Our God is able to save, even if he does not. We want you to know there's no way we're bowing to this image. It's unlikely in our day and age that we'll be faced with this sort of decision where we will be forced at the point of death to worship something else rather than our God. But the thing that makes this hit close to home is that Nebuchadnezzar didn't ask these guys to make this statue their religion for the rest of their life.

It was a five minute thing. It was a one day a year thing. The Babylonians were actually known for their openness to other religions, to other cultures. That's what made them such a peaceful, prosperous nation. Each individual culture could worship their own god, whatever that was.

But just this one day, just this one time, pledge your allegiance to the king, to the emperor. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in fact, could worship this statue and worship their God. There was no problem with that. But these three men said there is only one God and He alone is worthy of worship. Similarly, today, most people don't have a problem with saying that you're a Christian but that you believe in karma.

In fact, if you start saying that, that's actually very open minded. That's actually very tolerant. But as soon as you say karma is a load of rubbish, then you will face the fury of their wrath. You can be a Christian and cohabitate, and in other words, live with a partner and you'll be thought of as being enlightened, as being modern, as being not stuck in traditional ways. You can be a Christian and do that.

That's fine. But as soon as you say marriage is the only environment in which a man and a woman can be sexually united, well, then you're accused of bigotry, then you are traditionalist, then perhaps you're just a heartless individual. The same goes for topics like environmentalism, homosexuality, drinking, abortion, all those sort of things. Hot topics, very, very relevant to our situation. But for Christians like Rack, Shaq, and Benny, things are black and white.

Yes or no? What God's will is for us and what God's will for us is not. But in many cultural situations, the temptation for us is to be both, not just to be one or the other, to compromise. If we stick to our guns, then we are offensive and that will make people furious. In fact, it might even make them want to hurt us emotionally or physically.

And so the story goes on. We see in verses 19 to 27 that exactly this is what happens. They say, no, we're not going to compromise. And Nebuchadnezzar flies off the handle and he actually doesn't emotionally hurt them so much as tries to physically hurt them.

And it says in verse 19, have a look, that Nebuchadnezzar's attitude towards them changed. Remember, they had been promoted to his topmost advisers. They were trusted by Nebuchadnezzar. And in this one instant, his attitude towards them changed. He had once loved them.

He had once respected them and trusted them. He had given them wealth. And again, it just shows how friendly people can become enemies overnight when it comes to a commitment to Jesus that is unwavering. So these young men are thrown into the fire. Now this fire, this furnace in fact, historically has been shown in archaeology to have existed.

Huge kilns made for bricks, for heating and drying bricks actually existed in the time of Babylon. And they had this huge chimney that probably was used in this situation for the men to be thrown into. And so lo and behold, they get thrown into it, but they don't get incinerated instantly as was expected. In fact, they don't die at all. The Bible says their robes didn't even smell like smoke.

Now not only was this an amazing salvation, but to add even more to this already awesome event, their robes didn't smell like smoke. For the Israelites who heard this story, who were in this situation where they were faced with compromise, for the Israelites who heard this story, they would have been reminded of Isaiah 43 that said that when you pass through the waters, when the rivers flow over you, they will not sweep you away. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, says God. The flames will not set you ablaze. That is a promise of God to His people.

And so what we see here is this promise coming to reality. Nebuchadnezzar counts and there are four people in the burning furnace, not three. He doesn't know what he's seeing and he shouts out, "It looks like a son of the gods." Not only does God protect them, but He sends an angel to comfort them in that trial, in that desperate situation. The fire was so hot, in fact, the Bible says that it killed the guards who had walked on that platform to throw them into it.

The guards burnt alive. God does and should receive worship alone. But the great thing of this story is that He doesn't save, He doesn't intervene from a distance. He can.

He doesn't snap His fingers and say, well, you're immune to this fire. He sends an angel. We don't know who that was. He sends a representative of Himself to be with those three men who would have been scared out of their brains. God assures us and He comforts us in our deepest moments of fear by His presence with us.

His presence. God is so powerful and He can do the most outrageous things. He can create the earth with a word, but He chooses to be present with us. We see it ultimately in our Lord Jesus Christ. God did not decide to save humanity from afar.

He didn't decide that this act of salvation removed and disengaged. Lived and breathed alongside our ancestors. And instead of some supernatural thing that could have happened in the heavens to make us clean and to forgive us, Jesus came as a missionary into our world to be present, to be visible. One John speaks about the fact that we could touch Him. We could see Him.

We could feel Him. God alone is worthy of worship. How often will we say that? How often will we sing that though? God alone is worthy of our worship.

But we know that worship includes the conduct of our lives as well. You know, double time and a half on a Sunday at work, it's a very tempting offer. It's good pay. But even though it means that you miss out on church, is that saying that God alone is worthy of worship? Now I'm not going to get heavy.

I'm not going to get, you know, all guilt trippy, but it's a question we need to ask ourselves. The attitude, I don't feel like coming to church this morning. It's a really nice day. I've got a jet ski full of fuel. Is that reflecting an attitude that would come perilously close to bending the knee in a situation with a golden statue?

We profess God alone is worthy of worship, but God wants us to live out that statement as well. When the Bible tells us that we should be stubbornly refusing to be persuaded that God shouldn't be worshiped alone. If you lose your job because you don't work on Sunday, so be it. We can profess, even if I was to lose my job, O employer, my God is able to save me. You might say, "Come on, KJ.

Is worshiping an idol and not working on Sunday really the same thing? Or should I say, worshiping an idol and working on Sunday, really the same thing?" But remember the culture of Babylon. It wasn't just to make this statue your god for your whole life.

It was five minutes. It was an hour or maybe a day tops. This wasn't to make the statue your god forever and ever. It was to make Nebuchadnezzar god for just an afternoon. What's the harm in that?

We could be sure that they were Jews, they were Christians, they were faithful people who bowed their knee that day. I mean, if it was just these three and we know that there were thousands and thousands of Jews in Babylon at that time. It was just a quick bow and you could get on with life and you could go back to worshiping God. That was the culture in Babylon. That is our culture today.

Our culture's religion isn't Buddhism. It isn't Hinduism. We know it's definitely not Christianity, but Australia does have a religion, and that's the religion of self, the religion of individualism. Serve yourself and live the entourage lifestyle. That is a religion and there's no denying it.

We worship ourselves. John Calvin, who was one of the great theologians of the Reformation, said that humans are perpetual idol factories. Perpetual idol factories. We pump out idols all the time, and we are constantly under threat from bowing the knee. That is why we come here on Sunday.

That is why it is important to meet together as God's family. It brings us back to the God who alone is worthy of worship. We encourage one another when we meet like this in song, in Scripture reading, in teaching, in Christian fellowship. And we cannot downplay how important Christian fellowship is in our worship life. We encourage one another to stay the course, to not serve other gods or idols.

Well, we see in verses 28 and 30, this story ends like the usual. Nebuchadnezzar is absolutely blown away by this amazing miracle. Nebbe, that poor, dumb, bipolar king, is absolutely astounded by this act of salvation and he is dumbfounded by this God of Rakshak and Benny. He cleans them up, he gives them a giant Christmas bonus, and he makes a huge decree across the entire empire that anyone who says anything against the God of Israel will be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into rubble. I mean, that's quite hypocritical because ten minutes earlier, he was saying, "What God can save you from my hands?"

And really, if he was to stay true to his own decree, he would need to be cut into a thousand pieces and his house be turned into rubble. But God astounds Nebuchadnezzar and yet He doesn't bring judgment on Nebuchadnezzar yet. Nebuchadnezzar says a whole lot of stuff, good stuff about this God, but he doesn't personally come to a point of brokenness before God. Not yet. But you know what?

We have a God who has saved us from the fire. Jesus Christ saw our predicament as perpetual idol factories. He saw our predicament of heading towards self destruction and eternal unhappiness. We have bowed the knees so many times to other things in life, but Jesus Christ took on the fire of God's punishment, the furnace of God's judgment. He was the Son of God amidst the flames.

And instead of death and destruction, we've been given life and peace. Instead of death, destruction, being consumed, incinerated by God's holy and just action against us, Jesus has brought us life and peace. What a God we serve. What a God we serve.

You know, who alone is worthy of our worship in light of that?