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WHO IS GOD? (Daniel 3:1-30 Sept 11, 2005)

My blood begins to boil and my temperature reaches critical when I hear people make statements like:

Well my god is a god of love – he won’t send people to hell. Or – I have my god – you have yours – let’s just leave it at that. Or – if there is a God – He won’t be like your God, the God of the Bible.

It is said that in the beginning God created man in His own image and then man returned the favour. Instead of letting God be God – men have shaped Him into a domesticated, friendly Santa Claus of their liking. And that is why the place we have to start in any Gospel presentation is – Who is God? Before you can have a relationship with God – you have to know who He is. That is why we run the course – Introducing God – because we have to show men and women just who God is. And because the fall has made us so self-centred – so man-oriented – when we encounter a God who will not share His glory with anyone else – a God who demands total and unquestioning obedience – a God who says – Abraham kill your son and expects obedience – we rebel.

I don’t like that God. That God doesn’t feel right. That God can’t be the true God.

And yet, the God who created heaven and earth and all that is in them gathered Moses on top of Mouth Sinai and cried:

I am the Lord your God … You shall have no other gods before Me. The very first of the ten commandments deals with the fact that God is the only God.

He alone is God He alone is worshipped He alone is sovereign

And until we come to grips with this foundational truth – we will not learn anything else. Proverbs 9:10 tell us:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom begins with knowing who God is. Whether we like it or not – God is God – the One who revealed Himself in the heavens, in the Word and in Jesus.

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And He doesn’t give a hoot whether we think He should be different or whether we don’t like the way He is. He said to Moses – I am who I am. We don’t get a say. Ours is simply to bow down. Ours is to trust and obey. Ours is to extol His glory. This is a lesson all men must learn. This is a lesson Nebuchadnezzar – the King of Babylon – had to learn. And as we will see this week and next week – this is never an easy lesson. After Daniel revealed the king’s dream and its interpretation – something no man – no other god could do – Nebuchadnezzar said this in Daniel 2:47:

Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings. I’m sure Nebuchadnezzar thought this was a great compliment. In fact it is blasphemy! Nebuchadnezzar was raised in a worldview that says – there are many gods. Some are mightier than others. If you align yourself to the mightiest of these gods – your prosperity is assured. Here is Nebuchadnezzar’s mistake. He is like the Hindu I shared with many years ago who listened intently and said – Jesus is great – I will worship Him too. But God is to be worshipped alone. There are no other Gods. He is not one god among many gods. He is not the great god among many lesser gods. He is the only God. There is no other god but Him. But what this king has to learn, what every man women and child has to learn, is that this God is the one true God.

He alone is God He alone is worshipped He alone is sovereign

And the education of this pagan King continues in chapter 3 of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar still has to learn – Who is God? Through these Hebrew captives, Nebuchadnezzar had come to learn of Yahweh – the true God. What has to happen now is that he has to learn who God is. Look with me at Daniel 3. In the first verse we find that despite the events of chapter 2: Nebuchadnezzar still doesn’t know who God is. v. 1

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Verse 1:

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Why did Nebuchadnezzar do this? If you remember back to chapter 2 – Nebuchadnezzar has just had a dream – in the dream the King saw a huge statue of a man – the head was of gold, the arms and chest of silver, the abdomen and things of bronze and its legs were iron. Daniel gave him the interpretation of the dream. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold – then the other parts of the statue represented other kingdoms that came after him. Put yourself in Nebuchadnezzar’s shoes. You have only been king a few years. You live in a world where kings were assassinated, overthrown and replaced. Now this God of immense power, the God of the Hebrews tells you – you will be replaced by other kingdoms. What do you do? We have to understand that the way Nebuchadnezzar viewed prophecy and the way we do are two different things. We understand that God is in control and His will be done. When God declared He had removed the kingdom from Saul and given it to David – no power in heaven or earth can change that. But the prevailing wisdom in Nebuchadnezzar’s day was that messages from the gods helped you shape your destiny. You cut open a sheep and looked at its liver – and the message of the liver is – you will lose this battle. So you don’t fight the battle – you change your destiny. Nebuchadnezzar thought that Yahweh was giving him a message that could help him change his destiny. What Nebuchadnezzar had to learn was that God sets history – not gives us hints so we can change history. So Nebuchadnezzar erects this statue. Although the text doesn’t directly say so – most likely it is a statue of him. And instead of just the head being gold – the whole thing is gold. He doesn’t want his kingdom to end. He doesn’t want his kingdom to be replaced by the inferior kingdom of silver.

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In the mindset of the time – the king was a son of the gods – their representative. He is hoping to please all the gods – including this very powerful Hebrew God – and earn the right to have his kingdom last. By getting all the peoples to bow down – he is getting them to worship all the gods he represents – and hopefully he will win the favour of all the gods. This is a huge statue – ninety feet high – nearly thirty metres tall – almost four times the height of this building. In fact of the statues of antiquity – only the Colossus of Rhodes was bigger – and then only just. We don’t know if the whole statue was gold or if it was just gold plated – either way it is a fortune in gold. We are told the statue was ninety feet high and nine feet wide. These are strange dimensions. Either the statue was very skinny – like a totem pole – or more likely these dimensions include a pedestal that it stood on. Also note that Nebuchadnezzar erected this statue on the plain of Dura. We are not sure exactly where this is – but a huge pedestal from the period was found on a plain sixteen miles south of Babylon – and may be the pedestal for this very statue. Regardless, it is away from the city and this explains the absence of Daniel in this chapter. In chapter 2 verse 49 we find that Daniel was at the king’s court. He couldn’t leave Babylon – the city itself – he had the king’s work to do. But the very fact that Nebuchadnezzar would erect such a statue shows that he still doesn’t know who God is. And because of this:

God must show who He is vv. 2-15 Verses 2-7:

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counsellors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counsellors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed: “To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.” Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations

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and men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

In those days, worship of the king was tied up with worship of the national gods. Nebuchadnezzar is trying to win the favour of the gods so that his kingdom may be the one to last. He commands that all the people from every province send their representatives to bow down in homage to this image – or else they are to be cast into the blazing furnace. In this Nebuchadnezzar broke the first and second commandments:

You shall have no other gods before Me. And you shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

An idol is anything that takes God’s place of unrivalled pre-eminence in our lives. He created us to worship Him and Him alone. God is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another – especially these lumps of wood and stone. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t yet grasp this – but the lesson is coming. However, any Jew would have had these commandments burned into the psyche from their mother’s womb. Daniel had to stay in Babylon – so he wasn’t among those commanded to visit the statue and pay homage. But his three friends – Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were. And now they had a choice to make. Basically the choice they had to make is this:

Do you always obey God or do you decide when to obey God?

Are God’s commands absolutes or do circumstances dictate when we should obey?

This is a question that men have struggled with since the Garden of Eden. In 1966 an Anglican theologian, Joseph Fletcher, published his book Situation Ethics. Basically his premise was that ethics depends on the situation. There are no absolutes – everything is relative depending on the situation. He gives many examples.

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God says abortion is wrong. But, what about tough situations? Rape, incest, a deformed child? Fletcher makes says the situation moves the ethics. But the problem is once you decide what you will and won’t do – you become God. You decide right and wrong. You become the judge of good and evil. And you only have to read Fletcher’s book to see that we don’t’ end up as good judges. He speaks of a young woman, jilted by her lover, who is in a state of great depression. A married man, with whom she works, decides to comfort her by having “an affair” with her. He provides her with love, support, self-worth, companionship. According to the Bible adultery is sin. According to Fletcher – it depends. He manages to make the married man comforting the depressed woman by an adulterous affair into a noble deed, for the man acted out of concern for his friend. Fletcher needs to learn the lesson Nebuchadnezzar learned. God alone is worshipped – and God is to be obeyed – no matter the situation. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego knew this and now they have a choice to make:

Do they obey God or do they decide when to obey God? If there is ever any room for situation ethics – it is their situation. Let’s face it – their situation is grim. Unless they bow down they will die. They could reason like this:

We are a long way from Palestine. Chances are no Jew will see us refuse to bow down and if any do – they will be bowing down too – so they won’t say anything. God put us in these positions of power – why squander our lives – we can do so much good for Israel and the Jews where we are. Nebuchadnezzar is the king and God wants us to obey our rulers. And it is not as if we are really worshipping this hunk of metal. They might make us bow down on the outside – but in our hearts we are faithful to our God – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

They could have reasoned like that. I could almost be convinced by this reasoning. But they knew the folly of it. You don’t trifle with God. Verses 8-15:

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For this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought charges against the Jews. They responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: “O king, live forever! You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the golden image. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”

These Chaldeans weren’t very grateful. Daniel had just saved their necks. They were facing death when they couldn’t interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But they weren’t happy that these Jews had outdone them in the interpreting of the dream and had received the positions of honour. Now they saw their chance. These three men refused to bow to the situation ethics. If it cost them their life so be it. They are hauled before the king who is infuriated. How dare anyone defy his order! He tells them they have one last chance. The musicians will strike up again. Every eye will turn to them – and if they refuse to bow – into the furnace. In Nebuchadnezzar’s mind – to refuse to bow before the image is defy him – to deny the gods of Babylon –it publicly undermines his authority – and it might lead to fulfilment of the dream and an end of his kingdom. And what is more, he couldn’t understand why they would refuse. Nebuchadnezzar had paid homage to the God of Israel. They could worship their God – just don’t slight the gods of Babylon. He couldn’t let this act of public defiance go unpunished. But notice the key question:

What god is there who can deliver you out of my hands? Nebuchadnezzar has spent his life worshipping carved images and statues.

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His gods speak through goat livers and clouds and entrails. His gods are capricious. They are not all powerful. They do not shape the future. They cannot deliver men from the hands of the king – the son of the gods. But Nebuchadnezzar has no idea who the true God is. But the three friends do.

This is who God is. vv. 16-18

He alone is God He alone is worshipped He alone is sovereign

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He can 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.”

Don’t worry about troubling the musicians. We aren’t going to obey. We can’t obey. Our God commanded us not to worship any idol. They knew who God is. He created the heavens and the earth. He is all powerful. And it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another. He is the only God – we can worship no other. He brooks no rivals – they cannot bow before this idol. They understood the choice before them. Face the wrath of an earthly king or face the wrath of the Creator and Judge of the universe. It was an easy choice for them. They knew that God doesn’t deal in situation ethics. God commands – we obey. He is God – we are men. They knew that if God so willed – He could crush the earth to dust – so rescuing them from the hand of the king is nothing. But, they also understood something Nebuchadnezzar didn’t. God decides the future not them. He works all things according to His purposes. If it suits His purpose – He will rescue them. If not – they will die. But the one thing they won’t do is compromise. You don’t bargain with God yo obey Him.

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The saints of every age know this. You obey – you stand firm – even if it cost you your life. John Piper shares the story of the life of Marie Durant. Marie lived in the late Seventeenth century in the South of France. She was brought before the Catholic authorities charged with the Huguenot heresy. The Huguenot heresy was to accept the Protestant teaching that salvation comes from faith alone. At the time she was just fourteen years old – bright, attractive, marriageable. She was asked to abjure the Huguenot faith and accept the teachings of the Catholics. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behaviour. She was only asked to say the words, “J’abjure” – I abjure. No more, no less. She did not comply. Together with thirty other Huguenot women she was put into a tower by the sea. For thirty-eight years she continued. And instead of the hated word J’abjure she, together with her fellow martyrs, scratched on the wall of the prison tower the single word – Resistez, resist! Marie sat in that tower with thirty others. All she had to do was say one word and she was out. Instead, she watched the day change into night and the summer into autumn. She felt the slow systemic changes within her flesh. The drying and wrinkling of her skin. The stiffening of her joints. The slow stupefaction of her senses. She could not be nourished by the temporal hope that tomorrow things would get better, for they would not. All hope of a normal life, husband, children, freedom – all vanished, for her faith.1 No matter the cost – the child of God obeys. These three men understood that. We have seen that:

Nebuchadnezzar still doesn’t know who God is. v 1

God must show who He is vv. 2-15

This is who God is. vv. 16-18 Now we move on to see that:

God shows who He is. vv. 19-27 Verses 19-27:

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. He

1 Cited in John Piper, Future Grace (Portland: Multnomah Books, 1995) pp. 171-172.

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commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.” He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire. The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.

Nebuchadnezzar took the refusal of these three friends to bow before the image as a personal affront, a public challenge to his leadership. The building of this statue required the use of a huge furnace – for bricks, smelting the gold, and for some of the internal parts of the statue. Usually the oven only needed to be heated to a few hundred degrees Celsius. But it is known that when required they could reach 1000 degrees. When Nebuchadnezzar says heat it to seven times – it is an idiomatic way of saying – make it as hot as possible. When the furnace was good and hot, he ordered some of his strongest men to tie them up and hurl them into the fire. Put yourself in the shoes of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. You watch the coal get heaped in and see this oven get super-hot. You can feel the heat. You know death approaches. Maybe God will understand if you waiver – you are only human. You can repent of your weakness later. But these men didn’t waiver. They stayed firm. They were thrown into the furnace. Because the furnace was super-heated, the men who threw them in were killed simply by getting close enough to hurl them in. But the three friends were unharmed. And Nebuchadnezzar was stunned to see the three men joined by a fourth – one who looked like a son of the gods.

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Who is this? It must be either an angel or the preincarnate Lord Jesus. Which one is it? We don’t know – and that is not the point. As king, as the human representative of the gods – Nebuchadnezzar held the title – son of the gods. But here was a son of the true god – and he was not supporting the king – but these three men. Nebuchadnezzar had sought the favour of the gods. These men had been true to their God – and their God had again shown His power and might. These men were protected from the flames – not a singe – not even the smell of the fire was on them. Nebuchadnezzar should have understood. Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the one true God. He and He alone is to be worshipped and honoured. But as the last verses show even now:

Nebuchadnezzar still doesn’t know who God is. vv. 28-30 Verses 28-30:

Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.” Then the king caused Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego to prosper in the province of Babylon.

Basically, Nebuchadnezzar is saying this:

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Wow! After the dream stuff I knew your God was great – but I didn’t know the half of it. You want to worship Him alone – go for it – and no one will stop you. And no one will speak anything against your God. Your God is the Host High God – He is the most powerful. And because you men are servants of those most high – I will honour you with even greater power in the kingdom.

Sounds good? No! – it is still blasphemous! Look at it:

There is no other god who is able to deliver in this way. Your God is the most powerful of the gods.

What he doesn’t say is – what he has to say is – your God is the only God and the only One to be worshipped.

He alone is God He alone is worshipped He alone is sovereign

God created us all. God demands the worship of all men – even great kings like Nebuchadnezzar. Sometimes the lesson has to get really tough – and this lesson of learning just who God is – it is not over for this king. It gets far worse in chapter 4. But that brings us to the lesson we have to learn. This chapter is in the form of what is known as a chiasm. Chiasms have the crucial part in the middle. Nebuchadnezzar still doesn’t know who God is. v. 1

God must show who He is vv. 2-15

This is who God is. vv. 16-18

God shows who He is. vv. 19-27 Nebuchadnezzar still doesn’t know who God is. vv. 28-30 Here the crucial part is – who God is. And the point for us is to ask – do I know who God is? I’m sure you aren’t like Nebuchadnezzar in that you haven’t built an idol or worship a pantheon of gods.

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But, we can fall into the error of Nebuchadnezzar – we can worship a god of our own making? I hear it all the time – even from those who claim to know Christ. Robert Schuller – the American pastor – says that “the Reformation erred in that it was God-centred rather than man-centred.”2 He didn’t like the fact that the reformers went back to the God-centredness of the Bible. He likes a God that lets us be important too – a God who will share His glory with us. You can remake God into a being who lets you share His glory and who says that your career, your family, your happiness are as important as His glory. Or you can remake God in any number of other ways that make Him more palatable to us. The book God Under Fire – Modern Scholarship Reinvents God points out some of the most common ways. In the introduction, it compares the way the media and society have portrayed God over the past forty years or so. It points out that for most of the twentieth century the very notion of God was under fire. He was seen to be just another superstition to be shed as our society grew in its rationalism. But towards the end of the twentieth century God made a comeback. Once Time magazine declared God was dead. Now it carried stories about the resurgence in faith in God. Television began airing series like Touched By An Angel and Conversations With God. When Bin Laden struck on 9/11 – politicians, musicians and editors all spoke of God. But before we rejoice about this, listen to what Eric Johnson and Douglas Huffman say in this introduction:

The careful observer will note, however that God has come back from cultural exile quite different. This newer version is a kinder, gentler God – less threatening, more congenial, and more affirming. No longer the almighty, all-glorious centre of the universe, this God seems to be more centred on us, less interested in obedience, and more concerned with our happiness. This God is actually quite harmless, supportive of all religion, and on everyone’s side. Since no one is alienated from this deity, no one needs salvation from sin; on the contrary, God seems to think quite a lot of us. Certain behaviours that used to bother God don’t trouble this God anymore. Hell seems to have been largely done away with. …

2 Cited in Michael S. Horton, The Law of Perfect Freedom, (Chicago, Moody Press: 1993) p. 73

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One wonders if this deity underwent psychotherapy while gone and came back more open and relaxed, having worked through whatever was bothering “him” back in those premodern days. … By most reckonings, God is more acceptable than before being exiled. … God is more popular than ever. Not! Upon close inspection, it becomes obvious that this new, improved deity is not the same God as was vanquished earlier in the twentieth century. This God is an impostor. While he bears a superficial resemblance to the historic Judeo-Christian God in some important respects, other features are distorted, and still others are absent.3

They go on to talk about the way God has changed. In Bible Colleges and churches in this city – God has become bound by time, He no longer knows the future, He is not totally sovereign, He changes, He has decided to get rid of hell and He is now male and female – He is more like us. He doesn’t demand obedience, He let’s us decide what is important. He doesn’t shape the future, He lets us do that. We have recreated Him in our image. And I tell you – right now, this morning – in churches across this city, men and women are bowing down at the feet of this very impostor. Brothers and sisters – the only God you can worship is the One presented in the pages of Scripture. You may not like some things – you definitely won’t understand some things – and you won’t like to obey some things. You may not like that He is sovereign even over a world filled with evil and pain. That He sends our favourite aunt to hell if she refuses to repent. That He elects men and women as He will – even if we can’t reconcile that with our notion of free will and justice. That He will punish those who refuse to persevere to the end – even if they seemed to serve Him for a time. That He demands our obedience in all things. That He directs your life down some hard paths. And you may not like this God. He may seem too severe. It may not be the way you would like God to act. If you don’t like this God – there are plenty of user-friendly versions out there for you to fall down and worship. You can be like Nebuchadnezzar and create the kind of God you want and worship him.

3 Eric Johnson and Douglas Huffman, God Under Fire (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002) pp. 12-13.

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But, I tell you – there is no other true God. No one else has can save us. You can walk into Koorong and you will find scholars who have made God far more palatable – and you might sleep far easier with a kinder gentler God running this world. But not me! The sovereignty and majesty and holiness and justice and glory of God demand that the God of Scripture is the only way an almighty being can be. There is only one true God. Worship Him, Serve Him and Love Him. If it costs you your life so be it. I trust Him. I know He works all things together for good. And by His strength – I will seek to obey Him. Brethren, I don’t know how to say this more clearly – know the true God of the Word and accept no substitutes. It is hard work. At times we can struggle to understand why God says, does and allows such things. Worshipping the true God has never been popular. But worship Him – and know the greatest of blessings in this life and the life to come.