WORSHIP THE IMAGE OF GOLD DANIEL 3:1-7

WORSHIP THE IMAGE OF GOLD   DANIEL 3: 1-7

photo courtesy of Revelation:  Faith and Furnace

   (1) King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.  (2) He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers,treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up.  (3) So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, 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.

   (4) Then the herald loudly proclaimed ,"This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of ever language:  (5) As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.  (6) Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace."

   (7) Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

LIFE APPLICATION STUDY BIBLE COMMENTARY

   3:1  In Babylon's religious culture, statues were frequently worshiped.  Nebuchadnezzar hoped to use this huge image as a strategy to unite the nation and solidify his power by centralizing worship.  This gold image may have been inspired by his dream.  Instead of having only a head of gold, however, it was gold from head to toe.  Nebuchadnezzar wanted his kingdom to last forever.  When he made the statue Nebuchadnezzar showed that his devotion to Daniel's God was short-lived.  He neither feared nor obeyed the God who was behind the dream.

   3:2 Satraps were governors over major divisions of the empire, serving as the chief representatives of the king.  Prefects were the governors over conquered cities.  Governors were civil administrators over provinces.

   3:6 This blazing furnace was not a small oven for cooking dinner or heating a house; it was a huge industrial furnace that could have been used for baking bricks or smelting metals.  The temperatures were hot enough to assure that no one could survive.  The roaring flames could be seen leaping from its top opening, and a fiery blast killed the soldiers who went up to the large opening.

MY THOUGHTS

   Have you ever witnessed to someone who just doesn't get it?  These four Hebrews were over all business in Babylon.  Do you think they were silent as the image of gold was being constructed?  Since they were publicly worshiping The One True God, surely they had something to say about an image of gold being built to be worshiped.  And being placed in a position of authority over the natural born "establishment", there must have been a lot of animosity toward them.

   We are informed that not all seed is planted on fertile ground.  We read in Matthew 13: 5-9, that some of the seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil  It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  He who has ears, let him hear.

   Which kind of soil do you think King Nebuchadnezzar was?  Was there any in his kingdom who knew about Daniel and his God and believed?  We know that God's words never goes out and comes back empty.  Isaiah 55:11.

H. A. IRONSIDE COMMENTARY

   Why do you think this particular story was told and recorded in the Book of Daniel, a prophetic book?  This event, though actual history, is a typical scene picturing the trial and deliverance of a faithful remnant of Daniel's people that is to take place in the Time of the End.  There will come a day when what the Lord Jesus calls "the Abomination of Desolation, spoken  of by Daniel the prophet," is going to be set up in Jerusalem by the Antichrist of the future.  (Matthew 24: 15)

   After the Church has been caught away to heaven, at the close of this dispensation, the Jews will be deceived into owning the claims of a blasphemous impostor claiming to be the Messiah.  He is going to place the "Abomination that maketh desolate".  He will demand that all men worship the image that he sets up; and thus the scene of the plain of Dura will be reenacted.  In that day, as the past, a remnant among the Jews will refuse to own his claims or to obey his voice.  This will be the signal for the breaking out of the great tribulation, "the time of Jacob's trouble;" but many of the faithful shall be saved out of it, just as these three Hebrew young men were preserved by God in the midst of, and eventually delivered from, the furnace of fire.

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