Stroll through Scripture for Sunday August 11, 2024

Based on Daniel 3:1-30

Nebuchadnezzar just doesn’t get it.  In chapter two he dreams of a great statue and is told that his and the succeeding empires would all fall.  And here he is building a large statue to be worshiped.  What part of the interpretation did you miss oh great king?  

As I mentioned in last week’s Stroll, Nebuchadnezzar is an exaggerated version of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the ruler of the Seleucid empire, which controlled Israel at the time when the book of Daniel was written.  The author goes out of his way to be over the top in a mocking kind of way.  Everything about this story is over the top.  The statue, the gathering of everyone (listed over and over again), the extreme furnace, the narcissistic approach of the king who changes his mind on a whim.  It’s all over the top and shows the ridiculousness of empires and emperors thinking that they are in control.  They are not.  God is.  

Nebuchadnezzar is like so many narcissistic authoritarians – rash in his decision making, primarily concerned with boosting his ego, willing to throw those loyal to him away at a moment’s notice, keeps power through fear and violence, and is stuck in the continue short term.  Everything narcissistic authoritarians touch dies or is destroyed, including their own supposed power.  The fall of Nebuchadnezzar approaches.  It’s just a matter of when.  

This is contrasted with the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  They are patient, calm, and trusting in the Lord.  When they are about to be thrust into the fiery furnace, they do not waver.  And they do not make any expectation of God to save them either.  Their faith isn’t dependent of God showing them favor. 

One of the deepest lines that the three speak is this – “…be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”  In essence what they are saying is: if you kill us, you are just making permanent for all eternity, that you could not get everyone to believe your lies and comply.  You are a failure!  

Why?  Because empires and emperors are never satisfied.  They always need more.  They must have full compliance.  Any speck of truth that they are not divine cannot be allowed to stand.  They are the antithesis of Shalom – wholeness, completeness, enoughness.  

The fiery furnace is made to be extra hot, much like Nebuchadnezzar’s anger.  And just like the fiery furnace that consumes the kings most faithful, so will the king’s anger.  Eventually, it will consume him as well.  But it does not consume, or harm in anyway, the three faithful followers of God – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  

This is a story of extreme contrasts – of faithfulness and idolatry, of shalom and empire, of peace and violence, of life and death, of composure and ridiculousness, of order and chaos.  Why would anyone choose the way of Nebuchadnezzar or any who follow his ways?  

Questions for reflection:

• How do the examples of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego call on us to live in the midst of chaos, violence, and power?
• How are we called to support people like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who risk their lives to remain faithful?
• What lessons do you see in this story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace?