and they do not serve your gods
or worship the golden image which you have set up
One of the more famous stories found in the Bible is that of the ordeal endured by the three young captives deported to the court of Nebuchadnezzar the conquering king of Babylon upon his defeat of Judah and Jerusalem in the period of 605-586 BC. In the first wave Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego have gone to the court to be trained-up in the culture of the Babylonians that they may serve that powerful king. One is invited to revisit the passage describing this ordeal found in Daniel, chapter three.
Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold...
There are certain Jews who have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods
or worship the golden image which you have set up.
It is not the intent of this article to review the entire chapter. A single thought came to my mind while sharing with some men in a bible study we hold on Monday nights. Allow me to speculate and even postulate to expand that thought.
When the members of the court came before the king to announce that there were certain Jews who refused to obey, bow down, or worship the image, the king was enraged and threatened the three of them with a violent death. Their response was immediate. Filled with certitude and resolve, they were determined to suffer whatever consequences that might follow. Their response was more than an intellectual determination; it was a reflection of who they were.
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath... (vv. 16-19 bold added)
Now what kind of persons can utter such things under such circumstances! And so my mind began to speculate concerning the essence of these young men. "Reading between the lines" I speculated that these three had been chosen for the court because of their special nature, namely, "their intelligence in every branch of wisdom, their discerning of knowledge, and being endowed with understanding" (1:4). These young men had been raised in the knowledge of and the fealty to Torah law. They had been trained up in the way of the God of Abraham. Their inner nature had been forged over a function of time and that process produced more than an intellectual understanding and approval of the life-style demanded by that God; it was in their viscera; it was who they were. At the moment of crisis, they did not serve the false gods of a gentile kingdom and neither did they bow down to and thus prostitute themselves to a gargantuan idol capable of cowering the entire known world of the Babylonian kingdom. They were steeled to be faithful to the God of Abraham their father and to the God of Moses their law-giver.
So, let's fast forward 2600 years to today.
To those of us whose tendency is to take the bible literally when reading various passages that describe the close of the age and the return of Christ in power - one question should dominate our thought process: Will I be able to stand? To those of you who are less than inclined toward a literal understanding of things eschatological I invite you to a least postulate such a condition.
Violence will rule the day (II Tim 3:1-5), death is promised us for refusal to take a mark and to worship a man and his image (Rev. 13:14-18) and apostasy will bifurcate the church (Mt. 24 - be sobered by the entire chapter). To those of you who have an eschatological position that disagrees with the above scenario, please do not let that position propel you on to a rabbit trail. The godless world that currently surrounds us is becoming increasingly violent and the strong tendency is for those who are proactive in it to coalesce around two enemies: Israel and the Church. This freight train is gaining momentum and those driving that train are not deterred by our eschatological belief- system, nor by our theology. License to sin, not accountability, is their goal and we are in the way.
So I ask myself that question: Will I be able to stand? Will I be steeled like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, or will I join that great apostasy predicted by the Lord Himself when I have to face my own Babylonian statue - in whatever form it might take in my life - at whatever moment-of-decision that is demanded of me? So many "Christians" are living a shallow life in this country; an untested faith dominates their psychology and I fear for them as our present age is becoming increasingly violent and godless. All of this to say that a little bit more sobriety concerning the time in which we live would be more that productive. Our faith may be tested more than we anticipate.
To those of us whose tendency is to take the bible literally when reading various passages that describe the close of the age and the return of Christ in power - one question should dominate our thought process: Will I be able to stand? To those of you who are less than inclined toward a literal understanding of things eschatological I invite you to a least postulate such a condition.
Violence will rule the day (II Tim 3:1-5), death is promised us for refusal to take a mark and to worship a man and his image (Rev. 13:14-18) and apostasy will bifurcate the church (Mt. 24 - be sobered by the entire chapter). To those of you who have an eschatological position that disagrees with the above scenario, please do not let that position propel you on to a rabbit trail. The godless world that currently surrounds us is becoming increasingly violent and the strong tendency is for those who are proactive in it to coalesce around two enemies: Israel and the Church. This freight train is gaining momentum and those driving that train are not deterred by our eschatological belief- system, nor by our theology. License to sin, not accountability, is their goal and we are in the way.
So I ask myself that question: Will I be able to stand? Will I be steeled like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, or will I join that great apostasy predicted by the Lord Himself when I have to face my own Babylonian statue - in whatever form it might take in my life - at whatever moment-of-decision that is demanded of me? So many "Christians" are living a shallow life in this country; an untested faith dominates their psychology and I fear for them as our present age is becoming increasingly violent and godless. All of this to say that a little bit more sobriety concerning the time in which we live would be more that productive. Our faith may be tested more than we anticipate.
