THE KING OF BABYLON EXALTS HIMSELF ABOVE GOD.
By W. W. P.
ALL the world was represented at the dedication of this image. It was a world-wide proclamation of the greatness and power of Babylon. And the command that all the people should “fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up,” was issued in order to compel all the world to acknowledge this greatness and power as supreme. The dedication of the image was really a deification of the kingdom of Babylon, the state, as represented in Nebuchadnezzar, under whose rule Babylon had attained to such a pinnacle of greatness. The refusal to worship the image would thus be regarded as high treason against the state, or kingdom, of Babylon, and was to be punished with death in “a burning fiery furnace.” No opportunity was given to the people to exercise any choice in the matter. In Babylon the people are not allowed either conscience or free will. Their religion is prescribed to them by the state, and consists simply in the acknowledgment of the greatness of the state, and the right of the state as represented by the king to have undisputed control over both the bodies and the souls of men. The right of the individual man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, apart from the dictation of the state, is wholly ignored, and the king assumes to become the keeper of the conscience of the people. Thus it has always been in all false religions. Substituting the visible for the invisible, the worldly for the heavenly, the human for the divine, they must depend upon the compelling power of the flesh instead of the ‘drawing power of the Spirit; and upon the threat of pains and penalties enforced by the state, instead of the love that gives itself, in order to secure and hold their followers. This is the philosophy of all religious tyranny and persecution. When it is once granted that the state has any right to prescribe to the people what or how they shall worship, or whether they shall worship at all, then the punishment of those who refuse to obey those commands of the state is not persecution at all, but simply a just provision for the enforcement of the laws. So it was in Babylon of the Chaldees, and so it is in the Babylon of to-day. The command of the king, accompanied with the threat of death in case of disobedience, had its intended effect, and “all the people . . . fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.” We are facing the same issues to-day, and another world-wide effort will be made to compel all the people under the threat of death to accept man in the place of God, and the commandments of men in the place of the commandments of God, and there is only one way of escape; for “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8. And this power of the gospel of life to deliver from the fear of any earthly power was known and proclaimed that day “in the province of Babylon.” “Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image; and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” The refusal of these men to obey the command of the king was a most flagrant offense, as the Chaldeans viewed the case. Their nation had been conquered by the king of Babylon, and they were captives; but at the request of Daniel, and in recognition of his service rendered to the king, they had been “set over the affairs of the province.” And yet in spite of all this, they refused obedience to the royal decree. Although raised to the dignity of administering the laws of the realm, they themselves disregarded the law in the presence of “all the rulers of the provinces.” And to disregard this particular law on this particular occasion was certainly to show public contempt for the person of the king, and was a most aggravated case of high treason. This is the method of reasoning adopted by those who deify the state, and claim for it supreme authority both in temporal and in spiritual matters. “It is the law,” they say, “and it must be obeyed. Every loyal citizen will regard the law of the land; and to disregard it willfully is to show a spirit of disloyalty which ought to be punished as practically treason against the state.” And this method of reasoning will justify all the persecutions from the time of Nebuchadnezzar until now. It is not persecution to enforce a just law, even though it may bring severe punishment upon the offenders. “Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” The king proposed to deal fairly with these men. It was hardly thought possible that they would persist in their refusal to obey duly constituted authority, and especially when the certainty of the penalty was held before them. Of course there was no suggestion of a change of the law; for was not the king of Babylon the king of all the earth? And had he not conquered all the Jews? And shall he now be conquered by only three of them? If the God of the Jews is stronger than the king of Babylon, why did he not deliver Jerusalem? Nebuchadnezzar was yet to learn of the power of the kingdom of God within, through which one is “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man,” and by which he experiences the indwelling of “him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” But God had committed this gospel to these three men to proclaim in Babylon, by their loyalty to the principles of his kingdom even in the face of death, and this attempt of King Nebuchadnezzar himself to dissuade them from their loyalty to their King only served to give the greater force to this second message from the God of heaven to the king of Babylon. “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so,267our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” There is only one answer to be returned to one who seeks to turn a true child of the kingdom from his loyalty to his God, whether it be the king on his throne or the humblest peasant, and that answer is so simple that it can be made at once. The motto is, “Faithful unto death.” These men had heard the voice which fills every loyal heart with hope and courage: “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.” Isa. 51:7, 8. Nebuchadnezzar might do what he would with their bodies, if he was willing to assume that responsibility; but so long as they had the control of them, they would yield them to be instruments of righteousness, and not prostrate them in worship before any other being than the King of heaven. Their answer was the same as was given in the wilderness when the same temptation was pressed by “the god of this world,” upon the Son of man: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” As faithful and true witnesses, they said, with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” W. W. P.