The story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and the fiery furnace is a vivid one. I remember first hearing it in Sunday school when I was a little kid. Three guys who stand up to the king whose decree would compromise their faith are punished by being thrown into a burning furnace. They should have been incinerated. The guards were. But, God miraculously protects them and they not only survive but are rewarded for their faithfulness.
I don’t think I asked at that time
if the story was historically true or not.
I just assumed that every Bible story told by an adult was true. But as an adult such questions do come time
mind; and also an ability to understand this story on a much more sophisticated
level; for indeed, there is more going on than a child would pick up.
As
to whether it is true or not… Well, God can do anything. So I won’t go so far as to say it is
untrue. However, it is not just the fact
that it requires a suspension of the laws of thermodynamics to work, the
literary style is crafted in such a way as to be more of a spoof, or a satire,
than as an historical story. And whether
there is historical truth behind it or not, this story gets at the issues of
ego and the use of power.
First
there is this gigantic golden statue. We
are told it is sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. That works out to being ninety feet high and
nine feet wide. We should get the image
of an obelisk (like the Washington Monument) in our minds rather than a
statue. Dutch theologian Ton Veerkamp
describes it as a “golden monstrosity”.
Remember,
it is at about this time in human history that gold becomes money, or a medium
of exchange. Earlier in the book of
Daniel we learn that King Nebuchadnezzar likes to be considered the “king of
kings”. His ego is gargantuan. Among the things he does is set up this enormous
monument to himself made of gold.
Whether Nebuchadnezzar ever actually did erect such a thing to himself (and
the Babylonians were known for creating colossal statues and monuments) the
point is that he could. He could
amass that much gold!
This
story is all about power.
You
may have found it somewhat annoying, or maybe silly, the way the text said
numerous times, “the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the
treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the
provinces”. You start to think, “Okay,
enough, I get it already!” But this is
part of the storyteller’s style.
Commentator Daniel Smith-Christopher notes, “This frequent repetition of
orders, usually repeated word for word, gives the impression that all the
minions of the Babylonian emperor obey his whim to the letter. This is what he wanted, and this is exactly
what happened.” (New Interpreter’s
Bible, Volume VII, Pg. 62)
Similarly
it becomes annoying the way the story lists the musical instruments over and
over again, “horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical
ensemble.” You start to think, “How
‘bout if you just say ‘every time you hear music’?” And that would be the point. Notice how invasive the decree of
Nebuchadnezzar is. He does not say
something like: three times a day you have to bow down to my statue, or
whenever you hear the official trumpets sound, or anything like that. No, it is any instrument and all forms of
music.
Andre
LaCocque in his book, The Book of Daniel, (pg. 57) notes that the
instruments cover the entire economic spectrum.
The ‘flute’ was a simple peasant instrument. While the lyre would be made of precious
metal or ivory and would be an aristocrat’s instrument. He also notes that instruments like the
trigon and an entire musical ensemble had a bad reputation with the
Greeks. In their culture they were
associated with shameful public spectacles.
This may have been the case with the Babylonians too, but it isn’t
proven. Still, if LaCocque is correct,
then the decree is meant to cover all economic classes: rich and poor, native
and foreigner, shameful and proud. In
other words, more of the idea that Nebuchadnezzar wanted his power to invade
all aspects of everyone’s life throughout the empire. He was demanding universal obedience from all
his subjects at all times.
As
the story sets it up Nebuchadnezzar was demonstrating to his empire that he had
the gold and the power to do whatever he wanted.
The
story doesn’t tell us how all Jews reacted to the king’s decree. We just focus in on three Jews who held
positions of leadership: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They are caught and brought before the
king. Will they obey and worship this
statue set up by the king? Or will they
stay true to their faith and suffer the consequences?
As
we read through Daniel we discover this to be a recurring theme. Will the Jews compromise on their faith? The answer is no. And when the consequences come God protects.
What
is perhaps the most powerful statement of faith in the book of Daniel comes in
verses 17 and 18. The men say, “If our
God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and
out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.
But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods
and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” We will come back to that in a bit.
At
these three Jews refusal to obey this tyrannical king’s command the king throws
a temper tantrum. He doesn’t just
command that they be executed he makes a big deal of way overheating the furnace. Apparently King Nebuchadnezzar has no regard
for the life of his faithful subjects either because he seems unconcerned about
the death of his guards as they throw the three men into the furnace.
Nebuchadnezzar
then observes four men in the furnace. The fourth is presumably a protective
angel. And significantly, don’t overlook
this point, the men were thrown bound into the furnace. Now they walk around unbound and
unburnt. God not only protects them from
the tyranny of the king and his absurd reaction to disobedience, God frees them
as well.
Stories
like this one about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego have been used by Jews and
Christians alike to say that with enough faith all things are possible. That if you faith is deep enough and pure
enough nothing can hurt you, not even an overheated furnace.
But
there are problems with those thoughts.
Most obviously, when something bad does happen people immediately think
their faith is lacking or not pure enough.
People can beat themselves up endlessly when things don’t improve. Or, people can become so obsessed with
believing in things without doubt that they forget that their faith is not an
end unto itself. Faith is a means to
relationship with God and wholeness of life.
It is not a measuring stick of its own.
And
the other problem is what we read in verses 17-18, which is where we’ll
conclude. The three men say that if it
is God’s will that they be spared then so be it. And if not?
What happens if they are not saved?
Has God failed? Has their faith
failed?
Remember,
the time the story presents itself as being written in is during the Babylonian
captivity. The Jews had lost everything
and had been hauled off into exile. And
at the time of the writing of the story – centuries later – life for the Jews
was still miserable under the oppression of imperial forces.
The
answer, and this is a statement of true faith, “But if not, be it known to you,
O king that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden
statue that you have set up.”
These
three men never asked for divine protection.
And whether they got it or not didn’t matter. They were going to stay faithful to God
whether it benefitted them a lot or did nothing for them. It is hard to stay strong in faith when you
feel no benefits from it.
Though
it is unlikely that this story is historically true, it does speak to deep
truths. Tyrants will always emerge and
want complete obedience. Powerless
people get caught and hurt. Whenever we
are in power, we need to exercise it with responsibility and kindness. When we are the powerless we remember that
God is with us whether we benefit or not.
This
story in Daniel is a story of great defiance because of faithfulness. If we are ever so tried may God give us the
faith that is needed.
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