Many have wondered what the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar looked like. Perhaps it looked like the Statue of Liberty maybe or Michelangelo’s statue of David, perfect in form? Some of you may be thinking of Phidias’ great statue of Zeus at Olympus which is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. These are three beautiful, wonderfully proportioned works of art.
We’re forced to imagine what the Babylonian king’s statue looked like because Daniel chapter three is really the only reason we know about it. If it did exist, it doesn’t any longer.
A golden statue, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. Do you have a picture in your head?
You’re thinking, What’s a cubit?
Historians guess that sixty cubits would make this statue about ninety feet tall. The width, then, would be about 9 feet wide. For perspective, picture Big Tex at the Fair Grounds in Dallas. Now picture another Big Tex on top of the first one, but with his boots only 9 feet wide…and Gold. It’s an odd looking Big Tex. Daniel gives proportions Salvador Dali would be proud of, not Michelangelo. I picture a massive waif-thin Oscar-Award- trophy-looking-thing swaying awkwardly high up in the sky.
This should be in our imaginations when thinking about this wonderful story of God’s deliverance…realizing that our story begins with an image of the ridiculous. Which is fitting…because this story is full of ridiculousness and hyperbole.
I wonder if it shouldn’t be read with the ending credits to the old Benny Hill show in the background…characters scurrying about back and forth across the tv screen…(read fast)he sent for satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, to assemble and come to the dedication of the statue he set up for himself. Deep breath...
Soooo…(read fast)the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials assembled for the dedication of his lanky golden statue. Now, When you are standing in the presence of the golden image of the Great man-god Nebuchadnezzar you will hear the sounds of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical abomination to the ear. When you hear this, regardless where you’re from, whether you understand this commandment or not, you must bow down and worship like you really care even if it is out of total fear. If you don’t worship the king in love… you die.
Hmmmm…can you see the set up coming…? Why would they write it like this?
Now, there were certain Chaldeans who went to the king denouncing the Jews. ‘O king, you see there are these Jews in your high court who refuse to acknowledge you as god. They do not worship you!’ … Oh you jealous Chaldeans! …whoever you are.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown under the bus and into the furnace. True to his over-the-top personality, the king became enraged and gave them one last chance…but they would not worship his ugly statue. Without flinching they stood up to the hot-headed king…nothing against you King, but we will never worship anything but our God.
The king blew his stack…their good faith was returned with suspicion and condemnation. The ill-tempered king took their unshakeable loyalty to their God as disloyalty to him. For the king did not notice that they had approached him wearing their best clothes, or maybe he just didn’t care.
Heat the furnace seven times hotter than normal, said the tyrannical king. Into the pit they went...
(pause in confusion…)
How many men did you throw in there guys? Three? I see four. Why aren’t they’re burning up…and seriously who threw a fourth guy in there?
No one threw a fourth into the fire.
And something then clicked…
The angry king softened…boys you can come out now. And the Satraps, and the prefects, the governors and the king ’s counsel gathered and stood in awe…real awe…they saw the blazing hot fire had no power over these righteous boys. They didn’t even smell bad. They disobeyed the king and lived to tell about it…thus revealing the God who saves his people is greater than the god-king who condemns his. In delicious irony, the murdering, ill-tempered crazy, unpredictable ruler ends up being the protector of God’s people…if anyone just tries to say something against these boys or tries to hurt them, I’ll have ‘em drawn and quartered! Queue Benny Hill’s theme song…
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The king, in all his power had no idea that he was part of God’s saving plan for his people. Daniel is set in the midst of what is called the exile. After the warnings by God’s prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, God finally handed his Southern Kingdom over to a brutal enemy, the Babylonians. They burned Jerusalem to the ground, and marched the smartest and brightest in all Israel across the desert to Babylon (which is just south of Modern day Bagdad) to be integrated into Arab culture.
The idea behind integrating a conquered enemy, rather than wholesale slaughter was that it was cheaper and more effective. In many ways it was also even more cruel. Being in exile, time away from one’s homeland dims the memory.
For a Jew it was devastating, the Land and the Temple were everything.
The land tied the people to Yahweh. Without the land it was next to impossible to know who they were anymore.
Amnesia steals the soul.
So the next best thing is to identify around something even while in slavery. The thinking was that when they did ignore God and his commandments back in the day, God forgot them in return. Therefore, living a holy life according to His Commands might get God to remember them anew.
Thus the focus on pure living.
Which meant they certainly couldn’t live like their captors. Though it looked like God had forgotten, it is crucial to believe He is a faithful God.
… apocalyptic books like Daniel help interpret life when times seem impossible. Proclaiming a very deep truth…that in the end all will acknowledge God as the only One to be worshipped.
God is for the little guy, like Israel and our three heroes. And that bullies, like King Nebuchadnezzar, mock themselves in the end.
Nebuchadnezzar’s of the world are only in charge because God must want them in charge.
God is always glorified, even, in the dark days.
Indeed it is when times seem unbearable, that He pulls us from the embers. Therefore we must be watching for God come back…to appear again. We must be in the ready to rejoice when the true ruler of the earth reveals Himself. For this is how you treat a king, especially the true king.
This is what we do on this third Sunday of Advent, we rejoice in the Lord coming back, because He has remembered His people.
How do we rejoice?...
We live well, we live holy lives…
It is good, right and a joyful thing always to live for the One who lives for us. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are especially poignant in Advent. For this child is proof that God does not forget. He has not only come to protect the little guy, God literally becomes the little guy.
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