I'm going to give you more passages this morning for Daniel chapter 3.
I encourage you to turn there with me.
Daniel chapter 3 is at page 739.
You can get my help from the wall there.
Let's do something to do.
A little stretch, because I'm going to go for a long time this morning,
and you're going to need it.
Just kidding.
All right, Daniel chapter 3.
Let's start, since it's a bit of a longish passage,
I'm just going to read the first 23 verses, and we'll pick up from there.
Okay?
Verse 1.
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits,
and its breadth 6 cubits.
He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors,
the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates,
and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image
that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors,
the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates,
and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image
that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
And they stood before the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
And the herald proclaimed aloud,
You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,
that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe,
and every kind of music,
you are to fall down and worship the golden image
that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
And whoever does not fall down and worship
shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.
Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre,
trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,
all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down
and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward
and maliciously accused the Jews.
They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar,
O king, live forever.
You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn,
pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music
shall fall down and worship the golden image.
And whoever does not fall down and worship
shall be cast into the burning, fiery furnace.
There are certain Jews whom you have appointed
over the affairs of the province of Babylon,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
These men, O king, pay no attention to you.
They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage,
commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought.
So they brought these men before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them,
Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?
Now, if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe,
and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good.
But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.
And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,
O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
But if not, be it known to you, O king,
that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury,
and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.
And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.
Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments,
and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.
Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated,
the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace.
Go ahead and sit down.
God, we do ask for your help now as we come to your word,
that you would allow us by your spirit to have an understanding
of what you're saying to us and teaching to us about you and about us
and about your gracious provision for us.
And Lord, what it means to respond faithfully to who you are and what you've done.
Be with us now, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
In 1934, in Barman, Germany, a group of church leaders, theologians, and laymen
gathered to consider how they would respond to the greatest crisis they had ever faced.
Almost immediately after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933,
Protestant Christians faced pressure to arianize the church,
expel Jewish Christians from the ordained ministry,
and adopt the Nazi Führer principle as the organizing principle of church government.
Sadly now, just one year later in 1934,
many churches had already bowed to Hitler's ideology.
And now, here, how would these church leaders respond?
Would they capitulate to the theological claims of the Nazi state,
perhaps in the name of German unity,
or in the name of church unity,
or a great risk to their churches and their lives,
would they resist?
Well, in great courage, they chose the latter.
And they drafted what's become known as the Barman Declaration.
We reject, they wrote, the false doctrine that the church could and should recognize as a source
of its proclamation beyond and besides this one word of God,
yet other events, powers, historic figures, and truths as God's revelation.
We reject the false doctrine that there could be areas of our life
in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ,
but to other lords.
The Barman Declaration stated in no uncertain terms,
in the face of a totalitarian regime,
that the church gives exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
No other powers, no matter what their threats,
will take the place of Christ as Lord.
And our chapter this morning is meant to inspire
such unconditional allegiance to God.
But you know, it's meant to do so not just for church leaders and theologians,
and not just at momentous events and moments in history,
but it's meant to do so for all of us.
You see, friends, the book of Daniel is a lot about what it means
to be the church in the midst of the world.
Not separated from the world, not assimilated into the world,
but being the church in the midst of the world.
What does it look like to live as citizens of the kingdom of God
in the midst of the kingdoms of this world,
especially when the kingdoms of this world seem to have the upper hand?
And we're going to learn three things from this text
about living as citizens of the kingdom of God
in the midst of the kingdoms of this world.
First, the pressure we will face.
Second, the confession we should give.
And third, the assurance that we can have.
So first then, the pressure we will face.
When chapter 3 opens, these three young Jewish men,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are not priests,
not religious leaders, not super all-star saints.
They're civil servants in the Babylonian Empire.
In fact, at this point, they've become high-ranking officials
in Nebuchadnezzar's administration.
They're out working in the world.
And it hadn't been all smooth sailing to this point.
In chapter 1, you remember, they had to negotiate ways
of maintaining their Jewish identity
in the midst of their Babylonian training.
In chapter 2, their lives were actually in danger,
along with all the other Babylonian wise men and counselors,
because of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
But through it all, God had preserved and even promoted them.
They flourished in their training, with their prayers.
Daniel was able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
So they had hit some critical bumps along the way,
but through it all, God had put them in positions
of authority and influence, even though as a people,
the Jews were in the midst of exile.
So far, so good.
But in this chapter, things take a turn.
Up to this point, they were able to navigate
their allegiance to God and their position in Babylon
without much conflict.
In fact, they were sort of the rising stars of the empire.
Then Nebuchadnezzar builds a 90-foot tall golden image
and demands that all the officials of his kingdom
bow down and worship.
And suddenly, the pressure to conform,
the pressure to abandon their exclusive allegiance to God
comes barreling down on these three young exiles.
Now, you see, Nebuchadnezzar in this chapter had a problem.
You see, he had conquered this vast number of nations
and people groups and had consolidated them
into his empire.
But the problem was, how would he keep the whole thing together?
What would he do to bring unity and ensure common loyalty
from such a diverse group?
What would keep his empire from splintering apart?
And his answer, of course, is the golden image.
The image, by the way, probably didn't represent
Nebuchadnezzar himself.
It probably represented one of the Babylonian gods.
But still, it was the image he had set up,
as the narrator emphasizes over and over again.
So he was going to take personally
any rejection of the image.
You see, this image was a test of ultimate loyalty to him
and to the power of his state, to the power of Babylon.
And of course, Nebuchadnezzar wasn't saying
that they had to stop worshiping their own gods.
The ancient Near East, much like the modern West,
was very pluralistic.
You can keep your gods in private, whatever works for you.
But here, you better worship this one.
You better prove your loyalty.
Now, my guess is that few of us have had to confront
the pressure to bow before a 90-foot-tall,
nine-foot-wide, gold-plated totem pole.
But the pressure to worship some other god than God
is still alive and well today, isn't it?
We just don't make statues of them anymore.
You see, friends, what the Bible tells us
and what our experience shows us
is that the human heart will always worship something.
The natural tendency of the fallen human heart,
whether individually or corporately as a society,
will be to exchange the worship of the Creator,
the one true God, for some created thing.
To make ultimate something in the place of God.
And as Christians living in the midst of the world,
as we should be, seeking to be salt and light,
seeking the good of our city and our communities
like these three young exiles,
serving faithfully in the positions God grants us,
as we live in the midst of the world
as citizens and ambassadors of God's kingdom,
we will face pressure to conform
to the gods of the world around us.
At work,
in pursuit of the common goal of profit,
will there be challenges to go against your conscience,
to let slide your loyalty to God
as the pursuit of profit becomes the God of profit?
Maybe by fudging just a little bit
on those quarterly reports.
That's what everyone does after all.
Be a good team player, your supervisor says.
At school,
when your friends are all eagerly talking
and agreeing about their views on sex or gender or religion,
and then slapping each other on the back,
they turn to you and say,
you agree, don't you?
You're with us on this, right?
You're not one of those, are you?
Again, that pressure to conform.
Or you're in the studio or in the lab,
and the God of success or approval
means that all your peers are putting in 60,
70, 80 hours a week.
And you,
are you really going to leave this early?
Are you really serious about being here?
Do you really deserve to be here?
Or maybe even in your family.
This is the way we've always done things.
This is what it means to be a part of this family.
The pressure to conform.
And look a little more closely at the anatomy
of this pressure here in chapter three.
First, this idol is very impressive, is it not?
90 feet high, covered in gold.
Second, it seems to me a real need.
Unifying the empire.
A well-organized government's a good thing, right?
Getting everyone on the same page.
Keeping conflicts at a minimum.
It's seeking a good goal, right?
Third, literally everyone is doing it.
The list of officials in verses two through three
are representatives of the entire empire.
All the people, nations, and languages of the empire
have their highest ranking officials present.
Talk about peer pressure, right?
Even the band is an international ensemble.
Instruments of every kind from every place.
Wouldn't it be rude?
Just a bit culturally insensitive not to just go along?
No.
But of course, those three things are just the tip of the iceberg, aren't they?
Not content to just wow the attendees
by the impressive height of the image
or the international makeup of the ensemble,
Nebuchadnezzar issues a threat.
If you don't worship,
you'll be thrown into a burning, fiery furnace.
So much for freedom of conscience.
And suddenly we realize that we're not playing games anymore.
Refusal to worship will cost you your life.
You know, some of us have encountered this story so often
in children's Bibles or in Sunday school
that it's become so sanitized in our minds.
We've almost become immune to the horrible threat
that these men faced.
Real and certain death if they did not comply.
And you know, at first,
when we get to verse 7,
it seems like these three young exiles
are able somehow to get out of the line of fire.
Perhaps as officials in the very province of Babylon,
they weren't required,
like these dignitaries gathering
from all the far-flung corners of the empire,
perhaps they weren't sort of required
to prove their allegiance in this way.
They were already on the team, you see.
Maybe the ceremony didn't quite include them at first.
And so, wisely,
they kept quiet
and kept their heads low.
We don't know for sure.
We're also not sure where Daniel is
while all this is taking place.
The text is silent,
so all we can do is speculate.
Was he away on the king's business?
We just don't know.
But we do know that
in addition to the threat of the furnace,
these men also face the jealousy of their co-workers,
and the pressure mounts even more.
Their low profile is suddenly blown.
In verses 8 through 12,
certain Chaldeans,
that is Babylonian officials,
counselors, scholars,
maliciously accuse these three men.
And what's their motivation?
Well, we see from their conversation with Nebuchadnezzar
that it seems to be
wanting to get some professional revenge
on these foreigners
who've been given such high position
in their city,
at their game.
And all this leads to a confrontation
with Nebuchadnezzar himself.
The pressures, the threats, the accusations
bring everything to a crisis.
Nebuchadnezzar surely can't have members
of his own administration
embarrassing him
before the gathered officials
of his entire kingdom, right?
And so, justly,
he gives these three men a chance
to come and bow
and make things right.
Let's brush this under the carpet, fellas.
But if they won't prove his authority,
he will.
He will prove his authority
and absolute rule
by casting them into the fire.
And who, he says,
is the God
who will deliver you
out of my hands?
Now, many of us won't face
such a literal life-or-death confrontation.
Although, for Christians worldwide,
this is a reality for many.
And we ought to be in prayer
for our brothers and sisters globally.
But for us,
the threat,
the accusation,
the confrontation
still will present us
with a cost.
Maintaining our loyalty to God
will at times be very costly.
Our physical lives
may not be at stake,
but perhaps our reputation will be.
Or our professional success,
our job security,
our family's approval,
maybe even a close friendship.
The fire will threaten
to consume something costly,
something dear to us.
And as we stand in a position
of weakness,
outnumbered,
at the mercy, it seems,
of those in power over us,
that taunt will become
a doubt in our hearts.
who is the God
who is able to rescue us?
So how should we respond
to the pressure?
That brings us to the second point,
the confession we should give.
In verses 16 through 18,
we're given the incredibly brave response
of the three young exiles.
It forms sort of the center
of the whole text.
And what we see in their confession here
is a picture of robust,
biblical faith.
Dale Ralph Davis,
in his commentary on Daniel,
summarizes it this way.
This sort of faith, he says,
knows the power of God,
guards the freedom of God,
and holds the truth of God.
It knows the power of God.
In the height of his pride,
Nebuchadnezzar declares,
who is the God
who can deliver you
out of my hands?
And the men reply,
the God whom we serve
is able to deliver us
from the burning, fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us
out of your hand, O king.
We have no need to answer you
in this matter.
The men have no doubt
that the creator of the universe,
the almighty Lord of all,
is able to snuff out
this flaming furnace
as easily as you or I
would blow out a birthday candle,
whether it be seven times hotter
or 70 times hotter.
This is the God
who created the stars
and the planets
and every living thing
with a simple, sovereign word.
He is able.
Nebuchadnezzar can't even keep
his empire from falling apart.
It's his inner insecurity
and anxiety
that drives him
to build this idol
and that's also why
he bursts into rage
when his rule is threatened.
He knows deep down,
just like all of us,
that we aren't in control.
But God,
God orders and preserves
all things
according to the counsel
of his will.
What are the hands
of Nebuchadnezzar
compared to the hands
of almighty God?
God.
The confession of faith
knows the power of God,
but it also guards
the freedom of God.
Perhaps the most powerful moment
in the whole chapter
are those three words
that begin verse 18.
But if not.
They know God is able
to deliver them
and still they confess,
but if not.
God may not choose
to do so.
You see,
these young men
don't treat God
like we so often do,
like a cosmic
vending machine
that if we just
insert the coins
of religion,
out-clunk the soda
bottles of God's blessing.
It's an easy exchange,
isn't it?
But no,
they don't presume
to know
what God's plan is
in this moment.
They don't presume
to tell God
what he must do
or not do,
and they don't think
that they deserve
to be saved
because they've been
so faithful to God.
They're utterly open
to the possibility
that God may not
choose to deliver them.
Faith in God,
real robust
biblical faith in God
means guarding
God's freedom
and entrusting
oneself to him
whatever he decides.
And third,
the confession of faith
holds the truth of God.
These men may not know
what God's sovereign will is,
what he's decreed
to happen in this moment,
whether he will save them
or not,
but they know
what God's revealed will is.
That is,
they know what God
commands them to do.
You shall have
no other gods
before me,
God says,
and they resolve
to obey.
Now,
imagine how they could
have responded
in this moment.
I mean,
it would have been
pretty easy
to just justify
bowing down
to this stupid statue,
wouldn't it have been?
After all,
what's a ten-minute bow?
We know we don't mean
anything by it.
The gods of the nations
are nothing.
We serve the one true God.
A simple little act
of prostration
isn't going to change that.
And besides,
hadn't God put them
in this important position?
Didn't God have a purpose
for them there?
Didn't the other Judean exiles
need friends like them
in high places?
Wouldn't it be better
for them
to keep their position
and remain useful
to God?
Wouldn't it be much
more expedient here?
Much more useful
for God's kingdom
to just take a little bow.
What use would they be
to God
if they were burnt
to a crisp?
We can often reason
the same way,
don't we?
But listen to what
Charles Spurgeon has to say
in a sermon
on this same text.
He says,
if an act of sin
would increase
my usefulness tenfold,
I have no right
to do it.
And if an act
of righteousness
would appear likely
to destroy
all my apparent usefulness,
I'm still to do it.
It is yours
and mine
to do God's will
though the heavens fall
and to follow
the command of Christ
whatever the consequences
may be.
That is strong meat,
you say.
Well,
be strong men
and women
and eat it.
You could only
get away with that
in the 19th century
in London,
I think.
And yet so often
we don't eat it,
do we?
In those moments
when the pressure
mounts
and the cost
is high,
I know my own
heart, friends.
I waver
and I falter.
We aren't
brave
like these three men,
we aren't courageous.
When our boss
tells us to fudge
the numbers,
we fear losing
our jobs
and so we go along.
And when our friends
are all assuming
that we'll just agree
with their views
and their ideas,
we fear losing
their approval
and their friendship
or afraid
of being alone.
And so we laugh
along with them
in the moment
and say and do things
we know we shouldn't
say or do.
So often we aren't
Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego.
When the band plays
and the furnace is lit
and everyone
is bowing down,
down we go too.
But thankfully
there's more
in this passage
for us to see.
Yes, this text
is meant to inspire us
with the example
of these three
young men.
It's meant to model
the strong,
bold confession
we should give.
But friends,
even more than that,
it drives us
to our third point,
the assurance
we can have.
The assurance
that will empower
our weak hearts
to stand strong
when they're weak,
to be brave
when we're afraid.
And what is
that assurance?
You know,
it's not immediately
what you might think.
The promise
of this passage
is not
that God
will rescue us
from the furnace.
Sometimes we will suffer.
Sometimes we will
even lose everything.
Everything.
God doesn't always
save us
from the furnace,
but He meets us
in it.
Let's pick up
in verse 24.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar
was astonished
and rose up
in haste.
He declared
to his counselors,
did we not cast
three men
bound into the fire?
They answered
and said to the king,
true, O king.
He answered
and said,
but I see
four men unbound,
walking in the midst
of the fire
and they're not hurt
and the appearance
of the fourth
is like a son
of the gods.
Then Nebuchadnezzar
came near to the door
of the burning
fiery furnace.
He declared,
Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego,
servants of the Most High God,
come out and come here.
Then Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego
came out from the fire
and the satraps,
the prefects,
the governors,
and the king's counselors
gathered together
and saw that the fire
had not had any power
over the bodies
of those men.
The hair of their head
was not singed,
their cloaks were not harmed,
and no smell of fire
had come upon them.
Nebuchadnezzar answered
and said,
Blessed be the God
of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego
who has sent his angel
and delivered his servants
who trusted in him
and set aside
the king's command
and yielded up their bodies
rather than serve
and worship any god
except their own god.
Therefore,
I make a decree,
any people,
nation,
or language
that speaks anything
against the God
of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego
shall be torn limb from limb
and their houses
laid in ruins,
for there's no other god
who is able to rescue
in this way.
Then the king promoted
Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego
in the province
of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar looks
into the furnace
and to his surprise,
he sees a fourth man
with them
in the midst of the fire.
And they are all unbound,
walking,
unscathed.
And this fourth man
to Nebuchadnezzar
looks like a son
of the gods,
which for a pagan Babylonian
like Nebuchadnezzar
means a divine being,
or as he says
down in verse 28,
an angel.
And you know,
commentators for centuries
have wondered
about the identity
of this fourth man.
Was it just an angel
or could it be
someone even greater?
The text doesn't tell us
for sure.
But we do know one thing.
The point
is that God was present
to them
in the fire.
God was with them.
And you know,
the real reason
that fire didn't consume them
was because centuries later
there would be
another young Jewish man
who also lived
in a time
when God's people
were under foreign rule.
And this young man
would demonstrate
courage and obedience
not just in one moment,
but he would be
perfectly obedient
to God
his entire life.
But when his moment
came
to face the greatest test,
instead of having
his friends
with him
at his side,
making the good confession
with him,
they would deny
and desert him.
And instead of knowing
God's intimate presence
in the midst
of his torture,
the father would
turn his face away.
Why?
Because you see,
friends,
when Jesus Christ
died on the cross,
he was taking
the only fire
that could really
destroy us.
In complete
faithfulness
to the father,
he was bearing
the flames
of divine judgment
that all of our
unfaithfulness
deserved.
For all of our
wavering,
for all of our
treachery,
our king came
and he bore it all.
And because he
quenched that
fire for us
and rose again
in victory,
we know that
if we're trusting
in him,
then, friend,
there's no fire
left
that can truly
harm us.
Even if we
lose our
very life
itself,
we cannot
ultimately
be consumed.
because of
what he's
done.
Because of
what he's
done,
friend,
there's no
fire that
this world
can throw
at you
that he
will not
take
and turn
into a
refining
fire
for your
good.
He'll
meet you
right in
the middle
of it.
Isn't
not this
the great
promise with
which the
New Testament
opens?
Emmanuel,
God
with us.
In the
midst
of the
furnace,
his
fellowship,
his
friendship,
his
presence
will meet
you there.
And in
the end,
it will be
for his
glory
and for
yours.
When Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego
step out of
the furnace,
there in
verse 27
are all
the officials
of the
nations.
And there
are all
the king's
counselors.
And they
all see how
great God
is.
They all
witness the
great
deliverance,
the great
vindication
of God's
servants.
And even
Nebuchadnezzar
glorifies God.
The one who
scorned their
God now
turns and
blesses him.
There's no
other God
who's able
to save
in this
way.
Friends,
one day,
all of
God's
creation
will witness
the
vindication
of God's
church.
In the
new heavens
and the
new earth,
we will be
raised with
Christ.
And God
will make
all things
new.
One writer
put it this
way,
Christ did
not keep
them out
of the
furnace,
but found
them in
it.
He does
not always
shield you
from all
distresses
and dangers,
but it is
in the
loneliness,
in the
betrayal,
in the
loss,
that the
fourth man
comes and
walks with
you.
He has
the knack
of both
exposing you
to,
yet keeping
you through
waters and
rivers and
fire and
operating rooms
and funeral
parlors and
an empty
house.
The fourth
man can
always find
his people.
And so,
friends,
when the
pressure is
mounting,
and when it
seems like the
whole world
is bowing
down,
stand
fast.
fast,
stay firm,
don't give
in,
don't lose
heart.
The only
flames that
can really
harm you,
the only
furnace you
really need
to fear has
been quenched
by your
faithful Savior.
And now
these fires
you face can
only refine
you.
The fourth
man,
the Lord
Jesus Christ,
will meet
you in the
flames,
and you
will not
be alone.
When through
fiery trials
thy pathways
shall lie,
my grace
all-sufficient
shall be
thy supply.
The flame
shall not
hurt thee,
I only
design thy
dross to
consume,
and thy
gold to
refine.
The soul
that on
Jesus has
leaned for
repose,
I will
not,
I will
not desert
to its
foes.
That soul
though all
hell should
endeavor to
shake,
I'll
never,
no never,
no never
forsake.
Let's
pray.
Oh Lord
Jesus,
what a
promise we
need to
hear,
that you
are with
us in
the flames.
Oh God,
by your
Holy Spirit
would you
take that
truth and
bury it
deep in
our hearts.
Make it
come alive
this week
to us
God,
as we
seek to
be your
ambassadors
and servants
in this
world.
God,
you've
placed us
here to
love this
city and
to love
our neighbors
and to
see peace
and justice
flow like
rivers.
But God,
we know at
times we
face the
pressure and
we face
the furnace,
so God,
help us
remember in
those moments
Jesus,
who took
the flames
for us
so that we
might be
refined.
Amen.