Unshaken by Difficulties
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Have you ever felt the pressure of a deadline, the pressure of expectation at school, at home, or the pressure of peers? Pressure is real but doesn’t have to cause us to be shaken. When the “heat is on” we can look to God’s Word to see how to face life’s pressures. Daniel is a person who has faced a variety of tests. For the most part, I don’t know a great deal of people that desire and enjoy test. For some, there is a level of anxiety when even the word test is mentioned. But these are the kind of tests that bring blessing. Because before every blessing there comes a tests. We often struggle with the idea that God tests us but throughout the Bible we see time and time again that God will often test people before bringing the blessing. He desires to ensure that we are strong enough to receive the blessing before giving it to us. There are practical ways found in Daniel chapter 3 that gives us confidence to stand up to pressure and remain unshaken despite the test and difficulties that come up in each of our lives.
The Difficult Situation
The Difficult Situation
Obstacle Constructed
Obstacle Constructed
When we find Daniel’s three friends we find them as their society is starting to make a change for the worse
We find that Nebuchadnezzar has set up this golden image and many scholars agree that this is an image of himself
Which has to be the most prideful, arrogant, and vain thing he could ever do
Imagine loving yourself so much that you think it is a wise thing to build this golden image of yourself
Due to cost, this most likely was a wooden image that was outlined or covered with gold and sat prominently on a pedestal for all to see.
In short, Nebuchadnezzar is trying to make a name for himself here.
Of course, an action like that isn’t unprecedented in the scriptures.
In fact, several commentators note that this passage in Daniel contains a number of echoes that draw us back to the Tower of Babel event in Genesis chapter eleven.
The people that are gathering are not here to give glory to God; they are here to glorify Nebuchadnezzar and the image he sets up.
But when we read through this account of the dedication, what we see is that this whole display is absolutely foolish.
In fact, commentators note the monotonous repetition of lists of people who attended the dedication.
The decree is made that when the instruments sound
Every person was to bow down and to worship this statue.
Not only did Nebuchadnezzer think highly of himself but he wanted others to think so too
He desired to be worshipped as if you would worship God.
Those that refuse to obey will be thrown into a blazing furnace
These officials were so confused
They thought there was going to be a dedication to a new government statue
But his pride and arrogance said that they would only worship him.
This is extreme pride and arrogance.
The king is using this demand that all come to the ceremony and the demand to bow down and worship as a test of allegiance
This idea of someone wanting be worshipped and treated as a god seems so extreme
But I submit to you that we have this happening in our own society today
I want to pause and compare how the things that were happening in Babylon over 2,500 years ago is still happening in our western society.
We share this form of idolatry to worship
We create these larger than life things to be worshipped in our life
They are not made of gold or even a statue
We don’t see a great deal of people bowing down to them physically
These images can be found in our modern temples
Movie theaters
Stadiums
Concert halls
Social media
We create these images that are larger than life
Music, movies and movie stars, athletes are all bigger than life.
These are images that have been created
These people who are human and have flaws yet we value them. We spend money to listen to them and to watch them
In some people’s heart, they even worship them
Understand the definition of worship is simply to attribute or to give something worth and value.
None of us are sitting at home carving wooden figurines and bowing down to them
But many of us idolized a vision for our careers or the perfect relationship
We somehow fool ourselves into thinking that those idols can settle the restlessness of our hearts.
In the end, when we do that, we rob God of his glory, just like the people at Babel do. We become enslaved by objects of our own creation. Like Nebuchadnezzar in our text, we actually grow more restless in the process.
Obedient Crowd
Obedient Crowd
This grand form of idolatry was accompanied by music
Elaborate and well-produced music
This reminds us that there is power in music
Both good and bad
The people hear this and they fall down
According to one theologian, as soon as they were hearing (meaning the music touched their ears) they fell down
There was total and immediate obedience to Nebuchadnezzar’s command
Idolatry in our lives feel normal
Especially when we look our in the world and see people getting along pursuing the idols they are pursuing
The idols that our hearts inclined to pursue
It only feels right and natural
The Decision Stated
The Decision Stated
In the midst of an obedient crowd there are three Jews that protest and refuse to be involved in bowing down to this image
We learn that the reason that these men don’t bow is because they are fixed on someone else.
They are fixed on someone more enchanting than any image of gold.
These three men are called out by the Chaldeans who have a political motivation to remove these Jews who were promoted to high office along with Daniel.
They were careful to make sure that Nebuchadnezzar knew that the individuals that were protesting were Jews
These men were resented by the Chaldeans for their testimony.
If you read chapter 6 of the book of Daniel, it is Chaldeans that accuse Daniel for praying to God and ultimately end with him being in the lion’s den.
Just like with Daniel, these three men found themselves in a place where they had found favor with the King but also those around them
Because they behaved themselves wisely, they were promoted in no time
They also reminded the king that he had given these Jews a position of authority
Had these Chaldeans not mentioned it, this failure would not have been discovered
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were not public neither were they hidden
Three Hebrew men must have known they would be discovered yet they obeyed God rather than man
“You will not be able to go through life without being discovered: a lighted candle cannot be hid.”
This causes a level of rage to swell up within the king
In fact he is so furious that there is a possibility that there are some in his kingdom who do not unanimously agree with his command to worship
He approaches them and gives them one last change to recant, fall down, and to worship the image
He issues a warning to them
Either you worship or you will be cast into the fiery furnace
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego respond to this ultimatum the same way that we see Daniel respond in the previous two chapters.
They confidently rest upon the providence of God whatever the outcome.
They are fixed in faith on who God declares himself to be in his word.
Namely they serve a God who directs all this for his glory and the good of his people
They declare with quiet and yet bold confidence to the king that there is only one God that they bow down to worship.
Whether it’s in the providence of God to deliver them or not
They are determined not to break the first and second commandment. They entrust their fate to God’s good hands.
Illustration: I fear that for many of us rather than having fixed faith on God we find ourselves bowing down to the idols that we create in our life. To the idol of perfect relationships, friendships, and perfection all over. Whether this is because of the obedient crowd around us or because our we have not completely fallen in love with who God is, we find ourselves being lured away by idols.
Truth is, both then and now, there will at times be a cost associated and courage required in our faithfulness, in our obedience. No doubt about it, it takes courage to go against the grain and swim upstream. And though the cost of our faithfulness and obedience today may never be intense persecution and death, though it may never be as steep and severe as what those three men faced long ago, we should be prepared and not surprised if our faithfulness comes with a cost.
Conclusion: If I am honest, I debated preaching the rest of the chapter. Not because of length but because if you know the rest of the account, the three guys are ultimately thrown into the furnace but God protects them and delivers them safely out of the furnace. While I could easily make the application that when we are faithful and fixed on God, that He will deliver us from our difficulties, for this message that isn’t the part that I want to emphasize tonight. These men were not unshaken because they knew that God would deliver them. If we look at the text, I believe the text reveals to us that they weren’t sure if God would. They believed he could but were unsure if He would. Although no doubt existed in the minds of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego about the ability of their God to deliver them, they humbly accepted the fact that God does not always choose to intervene miraculously in human circumstances, even on behalf of his servants. Yet despite that no apology was offered for their stand. God help us to have unshakable faith despite the difficulties that we may face.
Stephen R. Miller, Daniel, vol. 18, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 119.