The Book of Daniel by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 27, 1908

The Book of Daniel

By Editor

Nebuchadnezzar’s Acknowledgment of God

THE EDITOR

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god that is able to deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Dan. 3:28-30.

With most telling effect had the three Hebrew captives proclaimed in Babylon the gospel of salvation through faith in the power of God to deliver. Not in a mere form of words, as expounding texts from a book, with suitable introduction, logical divisions, and an appropriate appeal to the emotions, did they present their subject. A representative audience had gathered in obedience to the royal command, and these believers in the true God were summoned with the others to take part in the dedication of the great image, the personification of the religion of Babylon. In the face of threatened death, these three servants of the living God testified of their faith by refusing to do homage to any false god. On their hearts had been written that law which said: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” To the command of the king of Babylon they opposed the command of the King of heaven, and they staked their lives on the outcome.

The Gospel of Deliverance

It was the purpose of God that the gospel of the kingdom should be made known in Babylon, but according to the divine plan this must be done through human instrumentalities. Some one must be found who is willing to be used for this purpose. It would be altogether useless to proclaim the words of the prophets read from the sacred rolls, as they would be to the people of Babylon only on a par with the sayings of their own wise men. The message to Babylon must needs come with such authority and power as would witness to its super-human origin. The gospel of deliverance must be presented in fact and not in theory. The preachers of this gospel must themselves be lost and saved, not as in a play upon a stage, but in the actual fact of experience.

That implicit trust in God which led these three Hebrew captives to yield their bodies to be committed to the burning fiery furnace was not the result of any miraculous exhibition of the divine presence. They had chosen to be the servants of God because of the revelation which he had made of himself in his Word and his works; and having come to know him as one able to save their souls from death, they chose to remain loyal in the service of such a King, even though it might involve the destruction of their bodies. The circumstances were such that it would be to the glory of God and the extension of his kingdom if he should reveal to the multitude of heathen worshipers his power to save, by showing himself to be the ruler of the most destructive element. Through the visible he would speak to them of the invisible. By delivering the bodies of his servants from the power of the fire, he would proclaim his ability to deliver the souls of the Babylonians from the power of sin. By making himself known as above all other gods, he would summon the people to forsake the other gods and to serve him.

The Victory of Faith

In his description of the experience of the three worthies, Nebuchadnezzar seemed, like Caiaphas, to speak “not of himself.” It would be difficult to express more in fewer words. The deliverance of the believers through the ministry of an angel, their service of God maintained uninterrupted not by active opposition but by submission—all this is included in Nebuchadnezzar’s statement. What a remarkable turn of affairs! The word of the haughty king of Babylon is changed by the captives from Jerusalem. The king was conquered, and his word brought to naught, not by meeting him on his own ground and opposing force to force, but by transferring the conflict to the spiritual realm, and by thus uniting to their weakness infinite Power. This involved, however, the utter extinction of self, as if already consumed in the fiery furnace, and that complete submission to the will of God which enabled him to reveal his power to the glory of his own name. The victories of faith are gained through submission. True and faithful believers conquer by yielding.

“Not to the strong is the battle, Not to the swift is the race, But to the true and the faithful Victory is promised through grace.”

The Continual Service

It is evident that the temple service at Jerusalem had been to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego more than a mere form. The continual service there carried on by the continual burnt-offering, the continual showbread, and the continual incense-offering, maintained by the continual priesthood, and the revelation of the divine presence in the cloud of glory over the mercy-seat, must have conveyed to their minds the gospel lesson of the true offering for sin, the true Bread from heaven, the everlasting righteousness, the forgiveness of sin, and the revelation of the glory of God in living temples; and as the service in the typical temple was a continual service, so must those who yield themselves to become temples of the living God, serve him continually and him alone. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” So did these three men refuse to permit even Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, to interrupt their loyal service by his command to fall down and worship a false god. The personal God who had revealed himself in the sanctuary was to them the only true and living God. An uninterrupted fellowship with him was to them the laying hold “on the life which is life indeed.” They could yield their bodies to the pleasure of the king, but their minds must be stayed on God alone.

Religion and the Government

The decree issued by Nebuchadnezzar indicates two things: First, that he recognized that the God of the Hebrews was superior in power; and, second, that he failed to comprehend the character of the true God. He recognizes the “God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego” simply as another god to be admitted to the pantheon, greater in might than the other gods, but not known as the one only God. Of this new deity, whose standing is thus assured, Nebuchadnezzar announces himself as a patron. As the other gods of Babylon have been under the protection of the state, so the same place is assigned to the God of the Hebrews, and the curse of a state religion, the loss of freedom of choice, is proclaimed ostensibly in behalf of the new religion.

Nebuchadnezzar’s law against blasphemy has in one form or another survived the wreck of kingdoms, and is now in force in many places, and advocated by many eminent expounders both of civil law and of the Christian religion. Among the laws established by the general court of Massachusetts in 1642 was the following: “If any persons shall blaspheme the name of God, the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous, or high-handed blasphemy, or shall curse God in a like manner, he shall be put to death.” Similar laws were in force in other colonies, and they have been retained in some States. In the District of Columbia there is a law, which was part of the Maryland law when the District was set off from that State, still nominally in force, according to which the penalty for blasphemy is for the first offense to have the tongue bored and to pay a fine of twenty pounds sterling. For the second offense to have the letter B (standing

for blasphemer) burned upon the forehead, and to pay a fine of forty pounds, or in lieu thereof to suffer twelve months in prison. For the third offense, “the offender being convict as aforesaid, shall suffer death without the benefit of the clergy.”

All such laws are contrary to the very spirit and essence of the divine government. A necessary prerogative of man made in the image of God is the freedom of choice, and what God has conferred by creation no man has the power to take away by legislation. All laws which attempt to enforce any of the duties which man owes to God, deprive of their freedom of choice even those who wish to serve God. This principle in its application to Sunday legislation has been clearly set forth in these words: “The fact that the Christian voluntarily keeps holy the first day of the week, does not authorize the legislature to make that observance compulsory. The legislature can not compel a citizen to do that which the constitution leaves him free to do or to omit at his election. The act violates as much the religious freedom of the Christian as of the Jew. Because the conscientious views of the Christian compel him to keep Sunday as a sabbath, he has the right to object when the legislature invades his freedom of religious worship, and assumes the power to compel him to do that which he has a right to omit if he pleases. The principle is the same, whether the act of the legislature compels us to do that which we wish to do or not to do.” The gospel of the kingdom does not need the support of the state, in the way of laws or decrees. Nay, more, any such attempted aid is a hindrance. The threat of temporal punishment does not transform the life, and at best only tends to hypocrisy. Religion is purer, and the state more prosperous, when there is no union between the two.

Conclusion

A new experience came into the life of the proud and boastful king of Babylon. He who had scornfully asked, “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” now declares, “There is no other god that is able to deliver after this sort.” The statement is true in its fullest sense, although Nebuchadnezzar did not make a right application of it; and the deliverance of the three worthies which so impressed the king of Babylon, has been put on record for the benefit of all people, that they may have confidence in the God of heaven as being able to deliver from the power of darkness and to translate into the kingdom of the Son of his love. Unless this lesson is learned from the record, it will as much fail of its purpose now as did the experience itself in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

The faithfulness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was rewarded with increasing temporal honors. Instead of losing both their lives and their positions as a result of their refusal to obey the royal mandate, they are now promoted in the province of Babylon.

The lesson of this third chapter of Daniel is applicable in the most literal way in the present generation. The time is drawing near when the whole earth will be a burning fiery furnace. “The heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” The God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is the only one able to deliver from this universal conflagration, but that deliverance must be first revealed as salvation from sin; and when the image to the beast is made, and “another beast” shall “cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed,” then will the believers of this day be brought to face the same test which came to the three Hebrew captives. The difference will be in this: In the olden time those who did not worship were to be consigned to the burning fiery furnace; in this time, those who do worship will perish in the fires of the last day. Just now is the time to learn those lessons of faith and loyalty in continual service which will enable every professed servant of God to pass safely through the final crisis. For every such one there will be promotion in the kingdom of heaven.