Exploring My Strange Bible - Faithfulness in Exile: Daniel Part 2 - The National Idol

Episode Date: February 5, 2018

I did this teaching a couple of years ago about Daniel Chapter 3. It is a famous story in the Old Testament about the three guys who get thrown into this Babylonian furnace because they won’t worship an idol of the kingdom of Babylon as if it is God. Because most people are introduced to this story as a children’s story, they miss out on the extremely adult themes in this chapter. This is not a children’s story. It is an example of how nations exult their power, national security, and the economy as if they were God. Let’s dive in and learn together.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. In this episode, we're continuing a series that's exploring the Old Testament book of Daniel. This is a teaching I did a couple years ago about Daniel chapter 3. It's a famous story, perhaps one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament,

about the three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who get thrown into this Babylonian furnace because they won't worship an idol of the kingdom of Babylon as if it is God. Unfortunately, because most people are introduced to this story as a children's story, they miss out on the extremely adult themes being treated in this chapter. This is not a children's story. It's an expose on how nations exalt their power, national security, and economy as if it is God and force people to give their ultimate allegiance to it and know as if it's divine. And if that doesn't sound like a contemporary and relevant theme to you, I don't know what planet you're living on. Daniel 3, practice an extreme punch,

get ready for it. Let's dive in and learn together. I invite you to grab a Bible. That's what we do during this time. Grab a Bible, turn one on, and go to the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. And we're going to spend another time exploring another story in the book of Daniel as we're journeying through it. This is a book that tells the story of four Israelites, four of God's people who are taken captive from their home city in Jerusalem, and they find themselves exiled in Babylon, in a foreign land. They're adjusting to new culture, and it's the story of their struggle to be faithful.

So that's why we've called this whole series Faithfulness in Exile. And this week, as we're in chapter three, it's another one of these stories. It's actually one of the more well-known stories. It's the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. You know this one? Yeah, many of you do know this. My hunch is that many of you know this story because you were maybe first exposed to it. It exists in your memory because of talking vegetables is why you know this story.

For better or worse, that's the reality here in America. Or you know it from a form that you were first introduced to it, which was in some sort of cardboard children's book, you know, with the hard covers. And this is one of those stories in the Bible where once it lodges in your memory at a young age, if that's true for you, it's hard to ever graduate beyond that, which is namely that it's a good religious story with a moral of obey God no matter what, at all costs. Which is, that's a fine, that's fine, right? But then to think that that somehow wraps up what this story is all about is a tragedy, because it robs the story of its real power.

This story is actually not a child's play at all. This is a dangerous, extremely explosive story. The issues that are the focus of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, even to say it, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, makes you want to think of a children's song or something like that. But man, the focus of this story is not child's play. It's actually really uncomfortable. Because what this story focuses on is two things that you're never supposed to bring up in polite conversation. And that's

politics and religion, right? If you're at the barbershop, you're at dinner with your friends or in-laws or whatever, just don't start talking about either of these two topics. It's probably not going to go well. But Daniel 3 is going to force us to go there. So, you know, Surgeon General's warning, if you're tempted to be uncomfortable or agitated as we explore this story, I'm just the messenger. You might be tempted to focus your agitation on me because my mouth is the one making sounds and talking to you. But all I'm trying to do is unpack what this story is really doing. And if you have a problem, I just want to remind you, your problem's with the Bible, not with Tim. Deal? Can we

shake on that? All right. Some of you have tomatoes in your pockets or purses, but don't throw them. Throw them at your Bible. So here's what I want to do. Since the talking vegetables have hijacked this story for us and our culture, I just want to put an image in front of us that I think will shake us awake, help us realize that the stakes are high when it comes to this story. You'll see a picture here of two individuals, one of whom most of you ought to know immediately who one of those men is. It's obviously Adolf Hitler. And the man to his right is a man you maybe, I don't know,

maybe you've never heard of him before. His name is Baldur. Baldur von Schirach. And Baldur, he was like the ideal German youth. And Balder, he was like the ideal German youth. He joined and enrolled in service of the Nazi party when he was 18. And within eight years, by the time he was in his mid-20s, he was the head and the architect of Hitler Youth.

If you don't know about Hitler Youth, Google it know, Wikipedia, it's fascinating as a social experiment of indoctrinating a whole generation of youth in the ideology of the Nazi government. And so he was the architect of that, and he was so successful at it that he was elevated to state secretary. And so he was a close personal counselor of Adolf Hitler. And there's a famous interview that Baldur did with the London Times a number of years before World War II broke out. But these were some of the final words of that interview that echoed hauntingly over Europe as

the years went by afterwards. And these are the closing words of the interview. He says, One cannot be a good German and at the same time deny God, but an arousal of faith in the eternal German. That was the center, the superman, the ubermensch. The pinnacle of human history was Germany. That was the center, the superman, the ubermensch. The pinnacle of human history was Germany.

That was the worldview. So the arousal of faith in the eternal German is at the same time an arousal of faith in the eternal God. If we act as true Germans, we act according to the laws of God. Whoever serves Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, serves Germany. And whoever serves Germany, serves God. Tell us what you really think, Baldur. So, wow.

And the reason why the room is so quiet and the reason why we cringe inside is because we know where these ideas led. After 10 years of him saying these words, millions and millions and millions of people are dead. Like a death on a scale that human history hadn't quite seen before except the World War a couple of a scale that human history hadn't quite seen before, except the World War a couple decades before that. That's why we cringe.

There's something horrifying that happened here, where one particular tribe or nation's values, their culture, their state religion, and their ideology was elevated up to heaven. It was stamped with the authority of the gods. And they marched forth in the name of that view of the world and of themselves. And it became their job to subdue any opposition, right? This is the kind of idolatry of national identity that leads to horror and evil in our world.

This is what Daniel 3 is about. Daniel 3 is an expose about the human idolatry of their own national identity. It's what happens when human beings, human collect together and combine resources and seek safety and refuge and security. And that's like, we have to govern ourselves, right? That's just a part of being human and the human story. But there's something unique that happens when certain tribes and certain nations elevate their way of life and stamp it with divine authority and then go on to say everybody else needs to recognize this too. It's horrifying. Now, of course, Germany wasn't the first people group to ever do this, and they're not the last people group to ever do this. But this is what this story is about. And what it raises the question then, the overriding question,

is that when God's covenant people find themselves living in a nation or a kingdom that's going down this path, what should they do? And let's say that the particular nation that God's people are living in doesn't go down quite this path, but it goes about idolizing its national identity in some other way. What are God's people to do? Welcome to Daniel chapter three. Do I have your attention? This is not a children's story. Daniel chapter three. Let's Now King Nebuchadnezzar, he made an image of gold 60 cubits high and 60 cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Now I always like to poke fun here because cubits, what on earth? I thought this

is a translation into English. Like, what, cubits? So if you go back to your tables of weights and measures, which is in every Bible that you've ever held before, or you don't have to do that, you should have a footnote or something. How big is this thing? have a footnote or something. How big is this thing? The ballpark of 90 feet. 90 feet. Now, I don't know if that seems big to you. I think that's pretty big. I don't know. Does anybody know how high the ceiling is? It's a real question. I don't know off the top of my head. Is that 40 feet or is that 60 feet? It's about 40. So let's say twice that high. If you were to go outside, probably the height, maybe the height 90 feet, we're talking to the top floor of the high school. Anybody want to disagree? Agree? Okay. So did you notice how tall the building was when you walked in? Is it tall?

Okay, so did you notice how tall the building was when you walked in? Is it tall? It's pretty tall. It's pretty tall. So there you go. That's about, it's an enormous statue made of gold, most likely plated with gold as opposed to solid gold. So that's really big.

Now what? What? What is this about? This is the story that begins with a king making a huge statue. A statue of what? What is this about? This is a story that begins with a king making a huge statue. A statue of what? Is it a statue of their national god? Is it a statue of Nebuchadnezzar himself? The story doesn't say, and I think that or unknown. Lots of kingdoms and lots of people groups made gigantic statues of the gods and so on. In the ancient world, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was one of the tallest statues known in the world. It was way taller

than this one. It was of a god. And this is great trivial pursuit, if you don't know already. But it was called the Colossus of Rhodes. And Rhodes is an island, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It's actually off the coast of modern-day Turkey. It's one of the first islands that you would come to if you were crossing the Mediterranean to go into Greece. And this is one of the classic artistic renditions. It's about 120 years old. There's other ones where, based on the description, some people think that it was at the entrance of a harbor and that the statue had its legs, one on each pillar of the entrance of the harbor, and the ships had to go through it. Nobody actually knows.

Either way, it's really big. It's way bigger than this one. And it's of a god, Helios, the sun god. So this isn't, for ancient readers of this story, it's like, oh yeah, Nebuchadnezzar's one of these kings who does these kinds of things, right? But what's interesting, this is of a Greek deity, right? Helios, the sun god. But it's mysterious by its absence or conspicuous by its absence. What is this image all about? So let's just pause. In ancient history, people could, you know, make statues like this,

but the detail isn't given here. Why? Well, for readers of the book of Daniel, if you were here last Sunday or if you know the book of Daniel, this is Daniel chapter 3. 3 comes after 2. Good job. And what was Daniel chapter 2 all about? It was about King Nebuchadnezzar

who has a dream. A dream about what? About a huge statue, image, a gigantic image, and the image represents what? What is it a symbol of? It's a symbol of kingdoms, of national power, right? A whole train of kingdoms, and Nebuchadnezzar is the gold head of that kingdom.

So maybe, you know, he was inspired by his dream to then go and make this thing. You know, we don't know. But this statue is an embodiment of the king, of the Babylonian empire, of its gods. It's the whole deal, all merged together. You guys with me here? So we're not told. It doesn't matter whether it was an image of the king or of the gods. The whole point is this is precise. In the book of Daniel, it's portraying human kingdoms and their exaltation of their own power and so on in the form of this image or this statue. And we walk into Daniel chapter 3. Now, just to, once again, so okay, ancient people groups made big statues like this embodying their national identity and so on.

And that's cute, you know, or primitive. So aren't we glad that we've moved past this in the modern world? So just to remind us that in New York Harbor, at this moment, stands a statue that's actually way higher than either one of these ancient statues. And what is this an embodiment of? So we don't have national ceremonies where people bow down to the Statue of Liberty,

but I dare say that if it was a statue of George Clooney, it wouldn't have the same meaning. You know what I'm saying? The whole point is that this thing is an image that embodies a national value of our particular kingdom or nation. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying we still do this in the modern world.

Are you guys with me here? So here's where the story goes. This is a symbol of national identity of Babylon and of power and self-exaltation. Where's the story going to go? Verse 2. So Nebuchadnezzar summoned the, get ready, the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the advisors,

the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all of the other provincial officials to come to the governors, the advisors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all of the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image that he had set up. Now, is that a long list? That's quite a list. It's going to get repeated about five more times before the story's over, and you might think it's so weird. So it is weird. The point is to kind of weird. So it is weird. The point is to kind of make you think this is so ridiculous, this list of people. The whole point, it's a literary technique to say every possible government official, the entire Babylonian government shows up for the Satan. That's the point. And it's just every term that you... Satrap. Satrap.

Anyway, I don't know. It sounds like a bird trap, but anyhow. So all these officials. And so the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the advisors, the treasurers, the judges, the 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.

What a scene. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do. As soon as you hear the sound of, get ready for another list, the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre.

This is not funny, but it is funny. The zither, the lyre, the harp, the pipe, and all kinds of music. You must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the blazing furnace. Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn and the flute and the zither and the lyre and the harp and all kinds of music, all of the nations and all of the peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. How are you guys doing? Did you get the scene?

This happens in many stories. None of the main characters of the book have even appeared yet. You've got to set the stage here. So Babylon here is being presented for readers of the book. It's this iconic, kind of almost archetypal representation of the most powerful empire at the time in the ancient world, exalting its own power to the place of the gods. It's Nebuchadnezzar, it's the gods, it's their military power, it's their way of life. It's their culture. All of its being. And all of the world is being asked to give its allegiance,

declare its allegiance to the statue. So it's not just about that they go and sing praise songs and bow down. It's that they give allegiance. That they recognize that Babylon defines reality. Babylon gets to define what's right and wrong. Babylon defines what success and failure is. Babylon is God. That's what's happening here.

And all of it is symbolized in this image. Now, we won't take a whole bunch of time to go into this, but I just want to remind us, again, if you were here last week, the fact that human kingdoms being represented by an image, this is a very clear illusion. The author is giving us as many little clues as the author can to remind us of another biblical passage that talks about humans ruling as an image. Pop quiz. If you were here last week, what page of the Bible should you be thinking of? Page one. Page one of the Bible. Because page one of the Bible sets the stage for the whole storyline of what humans are and of what humans are here for. And the first description

in the Bible of what humans are here for is to exist as an image. So God created humanity in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, that is humanity. Male and female, he created them. So individually as a species and then together as a community, they are the image of God. God blessed them and said, be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground. And you see at the top here, the Hebrew word selim that gets translated as statue or image, it's also one of the standard biblical words for idol.

Now, Israel was called to never make an image of God. One, because to do so would be to take some image available within creation, a created thing, and then to treat that as if it's the creator. It's to blur the distinction between creator and creature. And so that's a violation and it's reducing God to something less than who God truly is. But the other main reason is based out of this story. The reason Israel wasn't to make images of God is because the story of the Bible began with God making images of himself. Images already exist of God. You don't need to make more. You are one, and you're sitting next to one.

And how do human beings image God? And the story highlights it by ruling. God's the king of the world, but the storyline of the Bible is that God has chosen to partner with and to rule the world through his images, his image-bearing creatures who rule the world on God's behalf. And what's happening here in this story is this image here is now representing this distortion of the fabric of the universe. Because now all of a sudden you have humans worshipping this image in the shape of a human. But what does this image represent? It represents human rule. It represents humans creating a nation and an empire and a way of life and a culture,

and then treating that as if it's God. Are you with me? And so it's very dangerous, right? Human history shows us this is extremely dangerous when human beings mistake the life that they have created with God itself. And so all of a sudden, worshiping this image is not a way of being faithful to the creator. It's a way of ousting and usurping the creator, which is exactly what the story goes into. Look what happens in verse 8. Now in this time, some astrologers came forward and they denounced the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, may the king live forever. Once again, practical wisdom from the book of Daniel. If you ever meet

a king, just say that. Say that first. May the king live forever. Your majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the province of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So they're Babylonian names, not their Hebrew names. They don't pay any attention to you, your majesty. They serve neither your gods, nor do they worship the image of gold that you have set up. Do you see what they've done right there? They've just connected three things. They don't honor you, they don't serve your gods, and they don't worship the image, which is a representation of their kingdom and their empire.

Do you see? It's the unholy trinity. Right? So it's the imperial power embodied in the king, and that king exists with the authority and in partnership of the gods, and all of that embodies and is carried forward by the image which represents their kingdom and so on. There you go.

That's the triad right there. And so note, it's the king's personal honor, the national story and identity, and then their civic religion is all merged together here and represented. And so by the fact that these three aren't participating, they're now a threat, right? Because they don't conform to this exaltation of their national gods and of their national power.

Furious with rage, we read, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And so these men were brought before the king. Now, Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don't serve my gods or worship the image of gold that I've set up? gods or worship the image of gold that I've set up. Now, when you hear the sound, you ready? Another time. Of the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, and the pipe, and all kinds of music. If you're ready to fall down and worship the image I've made, it's great. Very good. But if you don't worship it, you'll be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. So they have their own little personal ceremony now

on trial. And he concludes with this line, then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand? So this is clearly a man intoxicated with his own power

and with his own imperial role in the power of his kingdom. He equates himself to a god here. I'm god to you. There is no god that can rescue you because Babylon's god. And I'm god. I hold your life in my hands. Look at their response. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, we don't really need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve,

he's able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not deliver us, we want you to know, your majesty, that we're not going to serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up. That might be the most polite, the most polite rebellion I've ever read in the Bible. Are you with me? That's how polite they are. What you were expecting was something, I don't know,

filthy pagan blasphemer, well, you know, this kind of thing. Infidel. No. It's just like super polite. Even if our God does not deliver us. So first of all, they just say, we're not going to have a theological debate right now. We don't believe that you're God.

We don't believe that you're God. We don't believe that Babylon is God. We don't believe that your gods represent the one true God. So we're just not going to have that debate right now. We don't need to defend ourselves. And if you want to kill us, that's fine. Our God will deliver us. Our God might deliver us from the furnace and we'll continue living on, but our God may not do that. Either way, you're not God and we're not interested in having a debate, your majesty. I've been just like, you know, I'm saying how infuriating this would be because they're the nicest people you've ever met, but you have to kill them now.

Are you with me? It's very important. We're going to come back to this, but pay attention to that. The nature of their resistance is to be very polite and completely peaceful, but also full of conviction and trust. And whether their God delivers them, whether or not,

that's not the issue here. We just fundamentally disagree with who you think you are and who you think Babylon is. Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious. He was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And his attitude towards them changed, like yours would too. Now, this is the New International Version. Some of you have a different translation right there.

His attitude toward them changed. What else? Other translations? The expression of his face. It's a word play. It's hard to do in English. Literally, it's the selem of his face changed. So the king of Babylon creates a Selem that embodies him and his kingdom's power and authority. But he can't control these three men who won't give their allegiance and devotion to it. Do you get it?

You're supposed to snicker or laugh or something. He can't control his own image of his face. He just unleashes this affront to his authority. So he commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men were still wearing their

robes and trousers and turbans and other clothes. This is great Babylonian fashion right here. So the whole point is haste. They don't put them in detention. They don't strip them. They're just on the spot. They're tied up.

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. And these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace. The portrait of Babylon here, it's very careful, right? So you have this king who's quite full of himself. But then you also, what happens when a leader and a nation, right, exalts itself to this divine status? Well, first of all, this is delusions of grandeur. But second of all, as we're going to see in the story, just human life becomes

very expendable. When a nation exalts and deifies its own power and authority, how do you know when a nation's idolized its own power and authority? Human life becomes much less valuable. It's expendable. And so the king will throw away human lives just to destroy the human lives of the people who offend him. These soldiers, right? I mean, their stories are untold, their families, their own...

But the whole point is that they're nothing to him. Human life becomes of less worth when nations idolize themselves. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement. What? What? What's happening? He asked his advisors, Wait, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? They replied, yep. Yes, your majesty. Would you ever say no to anything that this kind of guy says? Yes. Yes, your majesty. Then he said, well, look, I see four humans walking around in the fire.

They're unbound and they're unharmed. It's like the fire incinerated the ropes. And the fourth looks like a, what? A son of the gods. Now, to put into the mouth of a non-Israelite, this is just the way of saying looks like a divine being, like a son, a member of the divine

group of beings. There's a divine being in them with these three. So Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and he shouted, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the Most High God,

come out, get out of there, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, get out of there, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. Remember their words here. If our God delivers us from your hand, or if our God does not, you don't have power, you're not God. Did God deliver them from the fire? Did they get thrown into the fire? So in one sense, they did not get delivered from the fire. But then in another sense, did they get delivered from the furnace? Yes. So what they were not

spared is going into the furnace. But then all of a sudden what they find is that God has entered the furnace with them. God's with them, so to speak. Nebuchadnezzar said, Praise be to the God... Oh, excuse me. They came out of the fire. Verse 27.

The satraps, the prefects, the governors, the royal advisors crowded around them. When they saw that the fire hadn't harmed their bodies, no hair of their heads was singed, the robes didn't even, I mean, they could just wear the clothes to work tomorrow. There was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel. He's now made a conclusion about who the son of the gods was, an angel, a divine messenger, and rescued his servants. They trusted him and they defied the king's command. They were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I decree, what a rash, right? What a rash person. I decree that the people of

any nation or language who say anything against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. There's the story. How you guys doing? Is this a children's story? Is this a story that you could rob of all its most powerful elements and make understandable to children? Yes, and I would suggest that's exactly what's happened with the talking vegetables. But there's just so, holy cow, there's so much, so much more happening here. Notice that the king doesn't therefore declare that, oh, I am not God, and the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is the true God,

and we're all going to worship and give a lead. That's not what happens, is it? He just says, these guys have something going on with them. Don't mess with them or their God or else I'll kill you. That's what he says. And that's kind of true to his character that we're seeing in the story here. What's this story about? This is a story about one particular nation, but it's Babylon.

And Babylon in the Old Testament and right on through into the New Testament, This is a story about one particular nation, but it's Babylon, right? And Babylon in the Old Testament and right on through into the New Testament, it refers obviously to a historical kingdom in Israel's history. But the portrait of Babylon in the Bible becomes something like, in the Transformers, in the cartoons, back when I was a kid, there was this one Transformer. It was a bad guy, Decepticon. And it was called the Constructicon.

And there were actually six different, like a dump truck and a bulldozer, and they were all robots. But then when they really had to kick some butt, what they would do was combine into this ultra thing, you know? Does anybody remember the Constructicons? Nobody. Nobody. Okay.

Or Voltron. Think of Voltron, right? The whole point is some mega creature that's made up of every other creature, you know, and they combine forces and become... That's Babylon in the Bible. Babylon's larger than life. It appears right in the first pages of the Bible in the Tower of Babylon. And it's this image of humanity unified to God.

We'll build a tower that reaches up to the gods, right? This affront to the gods. And then right on through into Israel's history, it becomes this archetype of this self-exaltation of humanity and human kingdoms. And so it's why the author of the vision of the Revelation at the end of the New Testament will use Babylon to describe this archetype of humanity in conflict and rebellion. There you go. It's larger than life here. It's about an ancient kingdom, but this ancient kingdom just becomes an image of just everything that's wrong with the human race.

And this story is an expose on the danger and the horror and the ridiculous consequences that happens when human kingdoms exalt themselves and when they elevate their national way of life to the place of the gods and stamp it with divine authority. And so it raises the question then, what are God's people to do? Like how are God's people to respond in a situation like this? Because we can't, like this isn't just an ancient thing. This is part of the Bible's depiction.

And God's covenant people have always throughout history found themselves living in different kingdoms that exalt their national identity to divine proportions. And I think it's a unique question and problem for us living in the modern West. If you're older than 16, which I'm scanning, most people in the room, you're older than 16? The fact that you're older than 16, which includes me too, means that there's something about you that 100, 200 generations have gone by. You are associated with a chapter in human history

that's not pretty. If you're older than 16, you're born into this century where more humans were murdered at the hands of other humans on a scale and a proportion that's never been known in human history. You were born in the bloodiest century in human history if you're older than 16. That's part of our legacy to the future. And how did that happen? Well, for lots of reasons and lots of things, but one of the main perpetrators was national ideologies where a nation began to exalt itself to the place of a God, Germany being one case. Of course, there were many of these regimes that banished God, right,

like multiple of the communist regimes, but in so doing, they just elevate themselves to the place of God by trying to banish the idea of God by putting themselves... Are you with me? That's the 20th century. The 1900s was that legacy. And it's precisely because of what this story is all about here. This isn't an idol issue.

This isn't ancient peoples. This is our problem of the human condition right now. And so what are God's people to do? And I just want to develop a few thoughts as we close, based off of the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which made us laugh. off of the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which made us laugh. And it made us laugh because it seemed so simple and silly, but yet it was very powerful.

How are God's people to respond? Well, it seems very clear that the story is advocating resistance. Resist. Resist. resist. Resist the temptation to equate your nation's values and civic religion and way of life with the one true God of heaven. Like, resist at all costs.

Because that's the way of compromise. But resist how? What form should God's people's resistance take? And what's remarkable about this story is it doesn't take the form of public protest. You know, they don't march down to the plain of Dura with signs, you know, God hates idols. They don't do that, do they?

They don't. But they are resisting, aren't they? Their resistance begins as just this peaceful non-participation in the national idolatry. That's the form that it takes. It's peaceful. They don't even draw attention to themselves. Nebuchadnezzar would have never even known that they were resisting if they hadn't been ratted out by these other people. And so there's something really remarkable about that. It's this peaceful non-participation. But their non-participation doesn't mean withdrawal. It doesn't mean that they all moved to the plains of the desert

and started their alternate community. What do they do for a living? They have government jobs. They serve the kingdom of Babylon, making it the best place that they can possibly help make it. So they haven't withdrawn. They're fully engaged.

But they don't participate in the national idolatry. It's this knife edge of faithfulness of God's people in exile. They dress like Babylonians. They talk like Babylonians. But they don't participate when it comes to those things. So that's the first thing. And that's actually what makes their resistance

so difficult to deal with for Nebuchadnezzar. Because let's say they didn't go the protesting route, and let's say they didn't go the non-participation route. Of course, they could have resisted with force in some way. They could have gone down to the plain of Dura with explosives lining their belts and stood next to the thing, and they could have done that. And that's easy to deal with for Nebuchadnezzar because you just arrest them and then you kill them

because they were trying to kill you. But the power of the resistance of God's people in this story is their innocence and is their peaceful demeanor and their nonviolent resistance. Are you with me here? That's the power. Because what they're saying essentially is, look, you have the power to kill us, but what does that mean? That doesn't make

you God. Our God's the true God. He has the power of life and death, and so if he chooses to keep us alive or if he chooses to let us die, you're not God. So it's their innocence. It's the fact that they're actually not a threat to Nebuchadnezzar that makes the power of their witness so significant. Are you with me here? And it's this story right here. This is one of a number of stories in the Bible that helped the early Christians develop what today we could call like a political theology, a way of thinking about how should Christians behave and relate to whatever nation or kingdom that they happen to find themselves living in. And it's very clear that the first thing is that you have of these, you have God's people. They're living in Babylon,

and they're being faithful to their God. And so if Jesus' covenant people, if we're being truly faithful to Jesus, it means, first of all, a resistance of national idolatries. But it doesn't mean a withdrawal and just a wholesale condemnation of the nation in which we find ourselves too. It's the knife edge, right? And so Jesus' followers, right, they find themselves in cultures and places, but the fact that they happen to live in a certain nation doesn't define their identity, right? If I'm one of God's people, a part of Jesus' covenant people, then I am first and foremost, I'm a follower of Jesus. And people, then I am first and foremost a follower of Jesus. And so I identify myself by my relationship to God through Jesus,

and my mission is to seek God's kingdom and to love God and to love other people. That's how Jesus defined what it meant to follow him. And if I'm truly loving God and I'm truly loving other people, I'm going to seek the best for my community and my nation and so on. But I do so out of a completely different motivation. Not because I think that my nation is the best nation, or it's because I believe that my nation exists under the rule and the authority of God

and that I'm called to contribute to it as one of image-bearing human and as a follower, a follower of Jesus. And this is what one of the most significant early thinkers and theologians of the church, a pastor and theologian named Augustine. And in his great, very significant work, The City of God, he developed this theology of what we would call dual citizenship. And that's what this is, dual citizenship. It's saying my first and foremost identity

is as a member of God's kingdom, which is a multi-ethnic international movement that gives its allegiance to Jesus, who's the king of the world. And whether or not Nebuchadnezzar knows it, he's a servant of the king of the world. And whether or not Nebuchadnezzar knows it, he's a servant of the king of the world. And there are times when I might need to try and remind Nebuchadnezzar that he's not God. And the power of that resistance will be in its peaceful, non-violent manner, where there's no

accusation of revolt. I'm just reminding Nebuchadnezzar that he's not God and that he should do the right thing. But at the same time, it often means this prophetic community, this community of resistance, but it resists by seeking the well-being of Babylon at the same time. And it's the knife edge, and it's the challenge that God's people are called to. Are you guys with me here? It doesn't fit any of our categories, right? Especially in Western politics,

like the way our party system works and our politics and so on. We want someone to fit in one of those. And this doesn't fit in any of those, right? I mean, someone could be a member of Jesus' kingdom and find themselves compelled because of policy debates

and so on to fit in any one of the number of parties, right, that exist in our government. But the danger and what all of us are called to

is to dethrone, right, our national identities and to exalt the one who is the true image of God. If I'm a follower of Jesus, I actually do believe there is one

place where you can find a physical, embodied image of God. It's one place. And the Apostle Paul put it this way. He said, And how does Jesus, the image of God who represents heaven's rule and authority over earth, how does the Son go about ruling the world? God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things,

things in heaven, things on earth, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. The Son of the gods enters the furnace. The image of God allows himself to be consumed in the fires, in the violence of human idolized kingdoms. He was there with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and he's there on the cross. And he's allowing the consequences

of the horror of national idolatries, this Roman cross, to kill him. And Jesus is victorious over the idolatrous kingdoms of this world precisely through his love and his life and his resurrection, conquering their power. There's a million ways why this is something

that American Christians need to hear in 2016. I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to mean to you in your circles and in your family dialogues about religion and politics. But this is something, I think it's timely that we're here in Daniel chapter 3. And foremost, whatever the debates go, and as you go into community groups,

and as you go talk and think about this, where it all leads us is to the cross. Because the cross is the place where we find God's rule and authority, his self-giving love, giving up authority in order to take it up in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And so when we come to the bread and the cup today, we're declaring allegiance to the King. We are participating in the kingdom of God that says our God chose to conquer death and human evil by letting it conquer him so that he could overcome it with his love and with

his life. Amen? Amen. Let me close in a word of prayer. Jesus, we thank you for the wisdom and the power of the scriptures. We thank you that they don't say what we want them to say but you speak to us a word here that reminds us that we are not God that reminds us that you are

and that your deity and your power is revealed foremost in your love in your sacrificial life and death and resurrection that was for us. And so, Jesus, we declare our allegiance to you as a community. We want to love you and we want to love our neighbors. We want to seek the best of our city and of the place where we live. Thank you for the place that we live. Give us wisdom as to when we are to resist. Give us wisdom as to when we are to resist. Give us wisdom as to when we are to serve.

Thank you for your grace, Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen. You guys, thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. We're going to keep exploring the book of Daniel. So powerful. Such a prophetic word to our contemporary moment, both in, gosh, the first millennium BC and the second millennium AD. So let's keep rocking. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Thank you.