Daniel chapter 3 verses 1 through 30. Here, for this is the word of the Lord. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth was 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 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 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 in worship shall immediately be cast into a fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, the 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 a 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 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 down into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men 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 are not burned. 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 any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads 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 is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Thanks be to God for his holy word. Although the book of Daniel was written thousands of years ago, it is still relevant for us today. We may not be able to relate to every detail nor to the context, but we can still relate to Daniel and his three friends and the pressure that they face. And all of us know that life itself comes with a lot of pressure. There is the pressure of time, Most of us live according to a set schedule and routines emerge. And right when you think you have retired from a set schedule or routine, new schedules and new routines emerge like knowing when to take your medication. Also, there are societal, cultural and familial pressures. There is always a pressure to live up to certain expectations or norms. And if you refuse to conform or live up to them, you will be ostracized. There is peer pressure or the pressure to be part of the in crowd or always in the know. There's even pressure within the church. The pressure to have all your ducks in a row, to have your whole life cleaned up by your own efforts rather than by the grace of God. So to say the least, life is full of pressure. But the constant reminder in this book is that we do not stand alone when we face pressure. And the greatest pressure we face in the Christian life is the pressure to conform to the ways of the world, the pressure. to deny God and to serve other gods, the pressure to sin. After Nebuchadnezzar praised God for revealing his dream and its interpretation to Daniel, who would in turn reveal it to Nebuchadnezzar, you would think that he would have turned a new leaf. Rather, he would fulfill what it means to be a tyrant. and impose pressure on the people of Babylon to conform to him and to his gods. And he did this by imposing the worship of an unholy image. It seems that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to prevent the dream from coming true. He wanted to prevent the head of the statue in his dream, which represented himself and his kingdom, from being overthrown by a lesser kingdom. So he made an image, a statue, head and all, made entirely of gold. It stood about 90 feet tall and nine feet wide. And he made this image in order for men to worship it. We don't know what the image was. It may have been a statue of himself, or the statue he saw in the dream, or a statue representing the Babylonian gods, or a combination of all of the above. But we know that throughout this text, it emphasizes that it was an image that Nebuchadnezzar set up himself. So instead of humbly bowing the knee and submitting to God who revealed the dream to him, and the God whom he just praised in chapter two, verse 47, he goes the complete opposite direction. He tries to play God by raising up a false god for men to worship. Because Daniel just made it clear that only God can raise up kings and bring down kings. But Nebuchadnezzar wanted some of that power as well. So he wanted to demonstrate that he too can raise up a symbol for a nation to unite around that would seem imperishable. And the location of the statue was on the plain of Dura, which is believed to be the same plain, the plain of Shinar, where the Tower of Babel was built. Now, this is significant. The Tower of Babel was a defiant symbol of unity. It was a symbol erected for mankind to unite around in disobedience to God's command to spread out and fill the earth. Instead, man in his sin wanted to make a name for himself and unite in defiance of God. This tower of Babel reached the heavens to symbolize the fact that man can reach the heavens on his own, apart from the grace of God, again, in defiance of God's provision. Notice the similarities in the building of the Tower of Babel and the building of Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. There is a clear pattern of behavior in the fallen governments and in the fallen nature of man. This was obviously Nebuchadnezzar's way of making a name of himself or for himself. One moment he was praising God, the next moment he was building a false idol in his name. And he believed. that the building of this image would somehow save him in the end. He wanted to save himself and reverse what he saw in the dream. But not only that, it was an attempt to reverse what happened at the Tower of Babel when God came down and confused their language and scattered mankind around the world. Because he didn't just build this image for the sake of beauty or something to admire, There are statues around our country which we would drive by and say, that's a beautiful statue erected in honor of so-and-so. No, instead he sent for all the governing officials of Babylon, the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the rest of the officials in the province to gather at the dedication of this image. This image, much like the Tower of Babel, was a symbol of unity. He was seeking to unite the whole world represented by these officials around this one image. Listen to what the herald proclaimed as they stood before the image Nebuchadnezzar set up. 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. So they were not only to unite around this image, but everyone was called to worship this image. If not, there would be dire consequences. Now this has been a pattern seen in many tyrannical governments around the world throughout our history. Historically, this is what Rome did to the early church. They created statues in honor of their god, Caesar, and required Christians to confess that Caesar is Lord. And if they didn't confess this, there would be serious consequences. We have witnessed this in more recent times, such as countries like Communist China, as well as the Soviet Union. After there was a revolution of the people, so to speak, The dictators of these countries erected large statues or monuments symbolizing the forced unity of the people, and the people were to swear complete allegiance to what these statues represented. They were to be united in their allegiance to the government. There was no room for dissent. even though they weren't called to necessarily bow down and worship false gods, yet they were called to place the government above every other allegiance, even God. God was to be second place. But the truth that the Bible teaches is that God is above every nation and above every allegiance. even our own nation here. And this is where we see some resistance from a small dissenting minority. We see in this text a holy resistance. And I say a holy resistance to distinguish it from other forms of resistance. So far, we haven't seen Daniel and his friends take part in any sort of rebellious resistance. They weren't resisting the government because they felt that their freedoms were being hindered. nor was this a cultural or civil resistance. It's funny to me, in cultural Christianity, this is what most Christians go for, the civil and the cultural resistance, but they hardly take part in a holy resistance. What's an example of a holy resistance? To resist the worship of their own personal idols on the Sabbath day to gather with God's people. In our so-called Christian culture, there is no more Sabbath. There is no Lord's Day. And you see the hypocrisy. Because the line that was crossed was purely religious. Remember from the previous chapter after Daniel revealed Nebuchadnezzar's dream, these men were placed in places of authority at Daniel's request. They became Babylonian governors or officials themselves. Daniel and his three friends were submissive to the Babylonian authority until they were being forced to worship another god or disobey the one true God. Daniel is a good book to demonstrate to Christians how to live as pilgrims and exiles in a foreign land and where to draw our lines. And some of us will draw our lines at different places, of course, but nevertheless, there are lines that secular authorities should not cross. And this is the ultimate line. We are called to be submissive to every governing authority until they cross this line. Among the crowd of governing officials, three young Jewish men stood out. They stood out especially to the Chaldeans who came forward and maliciously accused them. They sounded like they wanted to gain some favor from the king since they lost some of that favor when Daniel did what they couldn't do for the king, when Daniel revealed the dream to him. They repeated the same prayer to their gods and said to the king, O king, live forever. You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of all these instruments shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever doesn't shall meet their end in the burning fiery furnace. Well, Guess what? 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. Nebuchadnezzar responded with furious rage and commanded that these three men be brought before him. And when they were brought before him, he asked them if this was all true. But also he gave them another chance as he repeated his ultimatum. If at the sound of the many instruments and music they fell down and worshiped the image he made, all would go well with them. If not, they would be immediately cast into the burning fiery furnace. And in his arrogance, he closes with these words, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Nebuchadnezzar thought that he was all powerful. He thought that he was God himself. He wanted to be in control of the one who rises and the ones who fall. He even promised blessing if they bowed and curses if they did not. He tried to play God. But what was their response to the king? They responded with faith in their God, the one true God. They 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." Now, the translation of this text has been debated. Due to the wording of the original language and the context of this text, it has been argued, and rightfully so, that these three men were not presuming or making a faith claim that God was definitely going to deliver them. They weren't saying that since God is able to deliver us, that he will deliver us, no. The most favored translation goes something like this. If the God whom we serve is willing to save us, he will do so. This is similar to when Jesus said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us, so it would be our God who would deliver us out of your hand, O King. Yet Jesus also said, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. This is the mindset of these three young men. This distinction is important because there will be times when God is able to deliver us, yet He will not deliver us from worldly troubles. Think of Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked God, His Father, to remove the cup of suffering from Him, but He didn't. He didn't. Christ had to endure the cross. So these men told the king, if God is willing to deliver them, He will do it, but if not, Whatever their fate would be, they were not going to worship this false idol that he set up. God's will for their lives was unclear, yet they resisted in his power and they rested in his sovereign plan, whatever that plan may have been. Either way, they weren't going to compromise in their commitment to their God. God was going to be glorified whether they died or whether they didn't die. Now, many Christians are led to ask themselves, Do I see myself taking this sort of stand? If this was me and I was brought before governing authorities and they asked me to deny Christ or die, what would I do? Now, we can get hung up on the question and speculate about the what ifs. But the Lord doesn't promise. to deliver us from persecution, nor does He promise to send us into persecution. We don't know what God's will is for us, but what He does promise is to be with us. He does promise daily grace to strengthen us, to uphold us, and to sustain us in order to face whatever fiery trial is ahead. Remember what Jesus told the disciples. Don't worry about what you're gonna say. you will be told in that very hour what you are to say and it will come from the Spirit. And there was a fiery trial here ahead for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they will face the consequences for refusing to worship this false idol. Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face changed against them. 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 fiery furnace. And they did so with their cloaks, tunics, hats, and all. In fact, the furnace was so overheated that the flames killed the mighty men who threw them in. Now, what we can learn so far from this text is to recognize how it was only three men who resisted the king's command. They were surrounded by government officials representing a multitude of nations, and only these three men Resist it. Tell me today that it isn't a small minority who are standing up for the truth of God. This is a common and normal expectation for the Christian living in this world. There will be times when you will have to stand alone in the face of error and sin. The book of Acts records the various times that Paul was brought into custody and stood alone before government officials as well as religious leaders. Although he showed the same respect for and submission to authority, he followed the principle that Jesus taught to render to Caesar that which is Caesar's, yet he would not turn from his mission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. And the ultimate example of resistance is found in Jesus Christ himself, who resisted the world and its enticements perfectly and completely. He resisted the devil and his temptations in the wilderness. Remember, Satan tempted him by offering him the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, if he would only fall down and worship him. But Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. He resisted the world around him during his earthly ministry. He was falsely accused, maliciously accused, just like these three men. And he was sentenced to death on a cross. He would go through the fiery trial of taking on God's wrath and judgment on behalf of sinners. He resisted to the point of shedding his own blood. He was obedient to the point of death. Now ask yourself, is this how we stand against our own enemies? But not just our enemies. Not just our enemies without, what about our enemy within? Is this how we stand against our own personal sin and the idols of our hearts? These false idols that promise us blessing if we bow or curses when we don't. I'm afraid not. The ultimate truth that we must acknowledge is that we are not like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. On an average day, we are much like the officials who were standing around waiting for the call to worship this false idol. We don't need a government to tell us to put our God in second place. We do that all on our own whenever we give in to temptation and sin. all the while knowing that our idols can never save nor grant us any lasting satisfaction. Yet our God still, through the good news that Jesus died for our idols, still calls us to find everlasting satisfaction in Him. So we are called to bow before Him, put our trust in Him, no matter what we are up against. Because everything was stacked up against these three faithful young men. yet they trusted in their God, whether he would deliver them or not. This is an example of what Jesus said to his disciples. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Did these young men find their life after losing it? Well, notice the irony. Nebuchadnezzar, who thought he was all-powerful, couldn't keep his servants alive. Yet the one true God kept his servants alive. As Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery furnace, he rose up quickly, astonished at what he saw. He asked his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They were like, yeah, but I see four. And they're unbound, walking in the midst of the fire without getting burned. And the fourth guy, he has the appearance of a son of the gods, like an angel, in other words. Throughout church history there has been debate on whether or not this was the pre-incarnate Christ. We don't know for sure, but we know it was a divine being, God's emissary, one sent by God to be with his people. God has done this throughout Israel's history to communicate that he is present with his people. And the greatest demonstration that God is with us was when he sent his only son, Jesus, Emmanuel, God, with us. So after witnessing this awesome demonstration of God's presence, Nebuchadnezzar went to the door of the burning fiery furnace and called on the three men as servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. We begin to see a change in Nebuchadnezzar's attitude here. This was unexpected and shocking. He was beginning to acknowledge the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And as they came out of the fire, all the officials, the satraps, The prefects, the governors, and the counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had no power over the bodies of these men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them." This is a fulfillment of what we heard this morning in Isaiah. 43 verse 2, where the Lord promised Israel, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flames shall not consume you. What this is a picture of is a picture of complete deliverance and salvation. When Peter speaks of fiery trials that the Christians will go through, we cannot help but think of the fiery trials of these three young men. But also we should think of the fiery trial that Jesus had to endure. Jesus had to resist bowing to Satan and what he promised him. He promised him a kingdom, but a kingdom without a cross. But Jesus knew that he had to go to the cross and bear the fiery wrath of God for sinners, and he would be faithful to the death. And although Jesus was strengthened by an angel as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went to the cross, yet when it was time to bear the cross, no angel was there to help him. He had to face this fiery ordeal alone, unlike these three young men. Also, unlike these three young men, he died. He died to deliver us from the fiery judgment that is reserved for God's enemies. In his death, he delivered us from death. He died to give us life so that when we walk through fire, we shall not be burned and the flames will not consume us. He died in our place taking on the fiery pain that we all deserve for all of our own compromise and all of our sin. Also, he delivered us from our sin and he is continually delivering us from our sin as he is making us more holy and strengthening us to renounce and turn from sin to serve him. He is in fact making us more like Shadrach, Meshach, and a bendigo, and more importantly, he is making us more like himself. And what is more promising for us is that right now, he is with us. We will never experience the loneliness and the abandonment that Christ felt on the cross. Even in times that we feel that we are abandoned and alone, He is always with us through every fiery trial. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now after viewing the divine deliverance of these three young men, Nebuchadnezzar praises God and issues another decree in place of his previous decree. 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 is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. The wording here is the same wording of his earlier decree in chapter two, when he commanded all the wise men to tell him and interpret his dream. If they didn't, they would have been torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins. Now, whether or not this is a sign that Nebuchadnezzar is coming to his senses, we're not exactly sure yet, but we know that the Lord has caught his attention with this divine miracle. The Lord stepped in at the right time and showed favor to His people. It was upon witnessing this that Nebuchadnezzar decided to promote Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon to higher positions than that which they already occupied. You can say that after they trusted God with their lives and for His glory, they were exalted. And Nebuchadnezzar commanded that all nations, tribes, and tongues united around the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or better, the God of Hananiah, Mishaiah, and Azariah, the God of Israel. Now what we see here is pointing forward to what was to come in Jesus Christ. This was pointing forward to the true reversal of the curse of the Tower of Babel. At the cross of Christ, he killed the hostility between Jew and Gentile, and now the kingdom belongs to all nations, ethnic groups, and languages. This is what was fulfilled during Pentecost when the flaming tongues fell upon those proclaiming the mighty works of God and how Christ died and was raised from the dead. You could say Nebuchadnezzar here in his turning fulfilled what God the Father would do to Christ as he would exalt him and all the nations would one day bow before him. So what is our response to this wonderful work, this divine miracle that he performed here? What is our response to the mighty works of God even in our lives? Is it praise? Do we bow in humble and reverent worship? Think of the miraculous deliverance we have in Christ. That's a miracle. Anyone sitting here right now who believes in Jesus, that's a miracle. You did not do that on your own. He delivered us from judgment. He united us to himself and to a new church family. which is diverse. It's a diverse group of people from many nations, tongues, and tribes. And he is sanctifying us by the work of his spirit through the ministry of the church. And we continually have forgiveness in Christ, free forgiveness in Christ. Whenever our idols take hold of us, we can always go back to him in our time of need. So let us celebrate the victory that Christ has secured for us and remember the words of Paul in the hopeful future event which this event points forward to, because Christ's death was not in vain. As he being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him. and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Every knee will bow to this image, the image that God the Father has set up in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. to the glory of God the Father. Amen.