Never Bow

Celebrates the “six-day war” in 1967 when Israel essentially conquered East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, as well as large swaths of land to the North and the South.

Coming in to talk with the owners of our hotel “Hotel Jerusalem”.

This was a day when many in their family had died. This is a day when “their people” lost homes.

I was just swept up in the moment with no real idea of what it meant.

No one filled me in on the deeper meaning… or gave me time to consider the stances, the pros and cons. We were in the moment, and all the people everywhere we could see were all in on it.

It was… honestly pretty awesome!

But there’s a reason the Bible calls people “sheep” so often.

In 2005 In Turkey, A Suicide Sheep Jumped Off A Cliff And 1500 Sheep Followed The First One.

The first 450 died, the rest (no joke) lived because of the soft cushion of falling on the previous hundreds.

Let’s go… let’s do it!

Who are you following? Where are they leading you?

Daniel 3:1–18 (ESV)

1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

Cubit is 18 inches. So we are talking 90 feet tall!!! That is our church stacked on top of itself a few times (with steeple). Absolutely towering over everything else.

Gold. At least gold plated… blazing bright. It sounds insane… but this is the guy who built the Hanging Gardens, one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. Building incredible things is what this guy does!

And here is the part the Veggie Tales giant bunny version of the story misses.

Nebuchadnezzar has a CRAZY dream about a fork… wait, a statue.

Remember the dream with the statue? Nebuchadnezzar took the WRONG message away from that dream.

Oh, the other colors are other kingdoms… and I’m gold? Let’s make the whole THING gold, then! Then I am the kingdom and I last forever… and maybe if we all worship that we can magically force it to be true!

This is a response to, a rejection of, an attempt to rewrite prophecy by force of will and by force of worship.

2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather 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 King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

3 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.

So who’s there? Everybody’s there!

All of the leaders. all the wise men. All the smart men. All the dudes who get stuff done.

All the coolest and most powerful and influential people you know, all gathered together. Looking at this incredible statue.

4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,

5 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.

6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.”

7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Talk about an incredible multimedia presentation! You have the scene, you have the incredible and majestic work of art, unveiled for the first time. You have all the people and power gathered....

And now you have the rising symphonic soundtrack. The moment of the movie where the music swells super huge and super loud… it isn’t a movie this is REAL life. And I bet the music was AWESOME!

How incredible? Did you catch this… bagpipes???

“a wind instrument composed of a goatskin bag with two reed pipes, one for filling the bag with wind from the mouth, the other pierced with holes for the fingers to provide various notes.”

Stephen R. Miller, Daniel, vol. 18, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 114.

I… had no idea. Incredible music. The guy who can build a 90 foot gold-plated statue can afford the BEST musicians. Just imagine the emotion of the moment, and then everybody bows down.

And to add to the drama, to make it absolutely clear… it isn’t just the manipulation of visual and audible and social pressure… if you don’t do it we will kill you.

Threat and carrot. So it is ABSOLUTELY no surprise that everyone bows.

Except three young men. They don’t seem to have been giving advance warning. They didn’t have a lot of time to think and consider. I’m sure they were tempted to be caught up in the moment. I’m sure they noticed the bagpiper and were suitably impressed.

But they. Didn’t. Bow.

And people noticed.

8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.

9 They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever!

10 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.

11 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

12 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.”

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king.

Get them!

14 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?

15 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?”

He is ready to queue it all up again. Play the soundtrack again, take it from the top!

Maybe the missed the cue, maybe they didn’t catch it… there is no win and they are going to die if they don’t!

They speak up “don’t bother with the music. We won’t bow.”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

17 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.

18 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.”

How great the pressure was. The power of the music, the media, the peer pressure of all the people and all the leaders… Would you have bowed?

Absolutely Incredible courage.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to give the king, the kingdom, the gods or anyone else the worship that belongs to God alone.

They aren’t certain of what God will do, but they are certain that He is able, and He alone is worthy of worship.

There is a beautiful simplicity to this. The king says “worship this” and they are sharp enough to recognize “oh… that giant statue isn’t God. So… no.”

There isn’t a lot of nuance here. It’s very clear. Is God glorified in this? I YHWH made famous here?

No? I’m out.

It is clear… but it isn’t anything like easy.

There is every kind of pressure on these young men. Again, they are like 20 ish, maybe. Tops.

And their leader, the guy who has led the way so far in standing out and standing up to the king, Daniel, he’s not there.

In a moment, with all the pressure on… and all they have to do is quickly bow to a statue.

If they did… no one would even notice. Right?

I mean small “sign of respect.” It’s their culture. “When in Babylon” as the people say. A small sign of respect to the king, let others think it’s worship, I know what’s in my heart. I’ll cross my fingers and it doesn’t count.

Small ask and HUGE penalties to not doing it.

And it’s super obvious when everyone in a crowd bows down to the ground and you’re the only ones left standing. “Hey, they didn’t bow!”

With incredible courage, in the moment of truth, these three young men put it all on the line for YHWH. Because they recognize this fundamental truth of the Universe:

Only YHWH is Worthy

Note: they don’t know that God is going to save them. (More about that next week). They know (verse 17) that God is able to save them. But not that He will. Incredible faith.

But they do know this. Nothing and no one else is ever going to be worthy of worship.

And God, YHWH, is NEVER NEVER NEVER going to be “okay” with them worshipping a lesser substitute. Our God is a jealous God. Jealous for us.

The first few commandments of the Big 10 are ALL about this! I am the LORD your God… have NO other gods before me.

What Jesus called the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, all your soul, ALL…

Because He is God of gods, Lord of lords, King of kings, nothing and no one else is EVER worthy of worship.

So these guys don’t know what God is going to do. But they know He and He alone is worthy of worship. And it doesn’t matter what else it may cost them, they aren’t fooled about who has the power here.

Who is able. Able to save. Able to deliver. Either punishment or salvation.

And we’ll get to the salvation part. To the fiery furnace. All of it… SO COOL!

But we need to take a moment to step into the sandals of these courageous men.

Never Bow

In a thousand ways the enemy, the world and those in it will manipulate and command us to bow to other gods. Don’t. This is the greatest commandment.

We, human beings, we are social creatures, made to live in community, and made to be affected, shaped and influenced by those around us. That is as God intended.

But we live in a fallen world, where sin corrupts, and the world is sold out to the enemy, so the largest influences on culture, crowds, media, friends, all of it is… evil.

And the enemy is so very good at playing all the pieces together to pull your attention off where it should be.

Sometimes it really is as obvious as Nebuchadnezzar makes it:

How about this one. The Oscars. A bit on the nose?

But we live in a society that worships celebrity.

If Ariana Grande (#3 influencer in the world) got on her Insta and told everyone to take a knee and send thoughts and prayers… millions are going to do it. Really regardless of what she tells them to bow to. Or for.

Maybe that’s not it for you. It isn’t for me.

But if all the smartest and coolest people around me all started buying Teslas… man, I am investigating that. I am considering it.

But every action we take declares something or someone as worthy of our time and attention. And our worship belongs to God and God alone.

Who Created us. And who is able to deliver us… and oh by the way, already has.

Christ alone is worthy of all glory and all honor and all praise.

And so we have to learn an inner check a thousand times a day. Does this action glorify God?

That isn’t the same as “is this a church thing?”

But it doesn’t matter if everyone in the WORLD is all joyfully singing a

Money,

Sex,

Science, Religion…

or Self.

Family.

Comfort?

Beauty,

Education.

Any of these can become an idol. Are they inherently bad? No.

Nor are public gatherings to admire awesome statues to awesome bagpipe music. That can all be great.

Where is the heart directed? Who gets the glory? That’s what matters. It’s all that matters.

And our command from our Creator and Deliverer is this. He gets all the glory. That is, again, the fundamental law of the Universe. It was all Created by Him. Through Jesus for Jesus.

And we will never bow to anyone but Him.

Never Bow

That means we are going to stand out. Stick out like a sore thumb.

It means we are going to be different. Inherently so.

And the “oh, you’re one of the cool Christians who… bows to the idol like the rest of us...” That’s not actually the compliment you think it might be.

Be as respectful to all as you possibly can be. But don’t sell out to other gods. Don’t settle for other gods.

Be courageous… and worship Christ alone.

But look around. You don’t stand alone.

These are your brother and sisters who will stand with you. Who have your back… even to the furnace.