Daniel 3:2, commentary and pictures

Nebuchadnezzar summoned every rank of rulers and officials to the dedication of his golden image on the plain of Dura, making its worship a public act of the state enforced by death in the fiery furnace for refusal. The image was made wholly of gold to exalt Babylon and the king himself and to set aside the prophecy that other kingdoms would follow his. It was forced worship of a human invention by civil power, compelling conscience and punishing loyalty to God in place of obedience to His law. The same coercion will be repeated in the last days when human authority exalts a spurious Sunday sabbath in place of the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment and enforces it by law with penalties including death. Against such decrees God's people are to show unyielding loyalty to His commandments, as the three Hebrews refused to bow and Christ Himself delivered them in the furnace.

Setting and Historical Details

Nebuchadnezzar summoned every rank of provincial officials and rulers to the dedication of the image he had set up on the plain of Dura, making the dedication a public, government-sponsored act of worship. The officials called were the princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counsellors, sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, gathered to give universal homage to the image. Their assembly was part of his effort to glorify Babylon and himself, to suppress the prophecy of kingdoms that would follow Babylon, to exalt the king, and to make image worship the established religion of the country by law.

The image was golden, made from treasures obtained in war to represent the one he had seen in his dream, about ninety feet high and nine feet broad, exceedingly costly, magnificent, imposing and majestic in the eyes of an idolatrous people. In general form it resembled the image of his vision, but it was made entirely of gold. It represented Babylon's glory, magnificence and power, and more particularly the king himself, the kingdom of Babylon, and the excellence of Babylon.

Attendance was enforced by proclamation and decree: at the sound of the musical instruments all the rulers and people were to bow down and worship, and anyone who failed would be immediately cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, killed, or otherwise put to death on pain of death. The gathering came after Nebuchadnezzar had been influenced by light direct from Heaven, the fear of God, and an acknowledgment of the living God's power, but after a few years of prosperity he became filled with pride and self-exaltation, forgot his acknowledgment, and resumed idol worship with increased zeal and bigotry. In that pride he set up a golden image representing himself in the plain and gathered the rulers to compel all to bow down to it.

By Daniel's interpretation of the dream Jehovah had been exalted as more powerful than earthly kings, and things foretold against Babylon and other kingdoms to come hereafter had been presented to him. Nebuchadnezzar read that interpretation through his own idolatrous mind, understanding and ambitions instead of reading his dream in the light of the living Oracles, flattered by the honor that Babylon was gold while each later kingdom was a baser metal showing decrease in value as nations separate from God, and urged by heathen counselors he placed himself before the people as an object of worship to convert all nations to its worship, and God let him follow his own invention. His proud spirit was later humbled before the multitude at Dura, where he again acknowledged that God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation, having lost sight of the noble conception of God's purpose concerning the nations given him in the dream of the great image. An idolater by birth and training at the head of an idolatrous people, he still had an innate sense of justice and right, and God was able to use him as an instrument for the punishment of the rebellious and for the fulfillment of the divine purpose, giving him Tyre after years of patient and wearing labor to conquer it and giving him Egypt also, so that as nation after nation was added to Babylon he grew in fame as the greatest ruler of the age.

Motives Behind the Gathering

The summons of every provincial rank to Dura was to glorify Babylon and the king himself, to suppress the prophecy that kingdoms would follow Babylon, to demand supreme loyalty to Babylon, and to convert all nations to worship the image. The image resembled the king's dream-image in general form but was made entirely of gold, representing Babylon's glory, magnificence and power, and more particularly the king himself and the excellence of Babylon. He had read Daniel's interpretation, which exalted Jehovah above earthly kings and foretold things against Babylon and other kingdoms, through his own idolatrous mind, understanding and ambitions instead of accepting it. The dedication with its decree to worship or be thrown into the fiery furnace was therefore his effort to display an idolatry supposed to be of sufficient authority to turn all nations to its worship.

The assembly was a scheme to exalt the king and to make image worship the established religion of the country by law. That law enforced obedience to human enactments in opposition to God's law and compelled even the Hebrew captives to choose between human laws and God's law. The officials' scheme stirred enmity against the Hebrew captives, but the youths were determined to serve the Creator, the King of kings, whatever the cost. The verse thus means forced worship of an idol of man's creating through civil power. It stands for using authority to compel religious allegiance, to punish loyalty to God, to elevate human laws in place of God's law, and to attempt control of conscience, which belongs to God alone.

That false worship depended on position and authority to compel those who acknowledge God as Creator and Sovereign to bow to human enactments. It depended also on outward display and outward beauty to influence the senses, for the image was impressive and attractive, and with beautiful music to charm the senses it did honor to the prince of darkness. It had no inward purity and beauty, running counter to the commandments of God. The same principle operates when churches depend on parade, ceremonies, display, ornaments, shrines, embroidered altars, and magnificent architecture to attract and hold the senses, entrapping men by the enemy, while the attractive outside makes up for the absence of the Spirit of God and conceals spiritual poverty and apostasy.

The gathering teaches that king and subjects must read dreams in the light of the living Oracles, and must not read the Scriptures and God's providences in the light of their dreams and fancies. Nebuchadnezzar was flattered that Babylon was gold while each later kingdom was a baser metal showing decrease in value as nations separate from God, and urged by heathen counselors he placed himself before the people as an object of worship, and God let him follow his own invention. The image was exceedingly costly and magnificent, magnifying the kingdom of Babylon and the king who ruled it, with all commanded to bow down before it. The gathering therefore warns against setting God aside, trusting human wisdom, and cherishing self-exalting feelings like Nebuchadnezzar's, which brings a trying experience.

Last-Day Parallel to Sunday Laws

The gathering on the plain of Dura for the dedication of the image is a lesson and pattern for the last days, and the enforced worship there will be repeated when God's servants, though innocent of wrongdoing, are given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those inspired by Satan and filled with envy and religious bigotry. The wrath aroused against the three Hebrews will especially be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, ending at last in a universal decree denouncing them as deserving of death.

As Nebuchadnezzar exalted his golden image and required all to bow down and worship it, representative leaders will exalt Sunday and seek to have all people observe and honor it. That Sunday so presented as sacred and placed before people for universal honor has no sanctity, not a vestige of sanctity, and is nowhere commanded in God's Word to be reverenced on the first day of the week. As the image on the plain of Dura was set up by human authority, so this spurious rest day has been exalted by human authority.

The golden image set up by human authority foreshadows the setting up of an idol Sunday sabbath, a false Sabbath and spurious rest day, in place of the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment which God hallowed and blessed as His memorial of creation and sign between Him and His people, His commandment-keeping people. The seventh-day Sabbath identifies God as Creator, while the counterfeit sabbath is exalted in its place and men are commanded to keep it holy. To accept the rival day in place of God's Sabbath is to transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath, trampling the Sabbath of the Lord and His law underfoot.

That trampling makes Sunday a false Sabbath and an idol, and includes exalting the papal spurious sabbath and the papacy's image and observing the world's sabbath. In this age men claiming to be Christians call the world to worship the image they have made, and this is the mystery of iniquity, the devising of satanic agencies, carried into effect by the man of sin and promoted by Papal power. As Babylon enforced worship of the image, a corrupt union will enforce reverence for the Sunday institution.

That enforcement will come by oppressive laws placing all who will not observe the spurious sabbath under oppression, as all who would not bow to the image were to be killed. The law of God will be made void by a national act exalting Sunday by law and sustaining it by law, counting keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath disloyal to the laws of the land and compelling conscience. A proclamation and future decree compelling worship of the Sunday institution will punish refusal with imprisonment and death, and oppressive laws will compel worship of the rival sabbath with restrictions on buying and selling. The ceremony and formalism, vainglory and oppression seen in the course pursued by the heathen king is being, and will continue to be manifested in our day.

Those who now oppress and punish people for refusing false worship, who bruise and imprison their fellow men to force worship of an idol sabbath without one text of Scripture for its authority, repeat what Nebuchadnezzar did in gathering the rulers to enforce worship of his golden image by oppression, imprisonment, and suffering of body and mind to compel God's chosen ones to be untrue to God. Instead of following Christ and the Lamb, they follow the leader expelled from Eden and heaven, develop the attributes of Satan, and show guile in their mouths.

The coercive dedication foreshadows the end of the world, when Babylon falls in an hour of feasting and reveling. Students of God's Word must work away from the customs and appointments of the world's great counselors and be prepared like the wise virgins with oil in their vessels to meet the Bridegroom. When rulers support the spurious sabbath promoted by Papal power and suppress religious liberty by legislation to compel conscience, God will act in judgment.

Loyalty and Deliverance Lessons

The gathering belongs to the history of the Lord's wonderful deliverance of the three Hebrew worthies. That deliverance sets forth important principles regarding the working out of His purpose for the children of obedience and the children of disobedience. The events tested the integrity of Daniel and his companions and showed an idolatrous nation the power and faithfulness of Israel's God.

The officials summoned to the dedication were part of a plan to exalt the king and establish image worship as the country's religion, compelling obedience to human laws that opposed God's law. Against that compulsion the three faithful servants were determined to serve the Creator, the King of kings, whatever the cost, and refused to bow the knee. In their refusal they made manifest the principle that actuates God's people, unyielding loyalty to the commandments of God when human law commands disobedience rather than yield.

Christ Himself walked with the three in the fiery furnace, preserved them from harm, and manifested Himself to them. That presence so wrought upon Nebuchadnezzar's heart that he was moved to acknowledge God and His superior power, believed in God, and learned that their God is the living God. Yet Babylon's fall still came.

The same principle will be made manifest by God's people when truth is overborne by falsehood. Duty then is not to give up loyalty to God but with increased zeal to hold fast to Him. They are to make manifest the value of His law as a rule of conduct and not yield conscience.

Their refusal is the pattern for a coming period in work among the colored people in the Southern States, when decisions will be made for or against the commandments of God. Until that period comes believers must not act presumptuously. They must not be encouraged in defiance and resistance, lest the way be closed to fields of work not yet touched.