Daniel 3:7
Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
At the appointed time on the plain of Dura, when the instruments sounded, all the assembled peoples and nations together bowed down before the golden image the king had set up in obedience to law. The image exalted Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar himself, for flattered over being shown as the head of gold, he perverted the light and determined to make an image all of gold to be worshiped as God. That falling down was false worship and homage belonging to God alone, honoring darkness with outward display and music to charm the senses and compel obedience against God's commandments. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to dishonor God, and though cast into the fiery furnace for their loyalty, Christ walked with them and preserved them unharmed until the king acknowledged the superior power of God. Their enforced bowing stands as the model for the last conflict, when church and state will unite to demand universal honor to Sunday as an idol sabbath in place of God's holy Sabbath, and God's people will manifest the same principle of holding God's law as the rule of conduct above every human law.
Setting and Enforced Worship
This moment belongs to the account of the golden image set up on the plain of Dura, coming after the dream in which it was revealed that God would establish an everlasting kingdom. On the appointed day, when the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and all kinds of music sounded, the assembled peoples, nations and language groups fell down together before the image Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Their bowing was universal and law-commanded, for the people were commanded by law to worship it when the music sounded. Nebuchadnezzar's renewed idolatry had made worship of the image the country's established state religion through laws devised to compel obedience in direct opposition to God's law, a human law designed to exalt the king and to compel action against God's law.
The golden image represented the kingdom of Babylon and more particularly Nebuchadnezzar himself, his glory and the excellency of Babylon. It was exceedingly costly, magnificent, impressive and attractive, magnifying the king who ruled over that kingdom. He had been told he was the head of gold in the dream of earthly kingdoms passing away before the kingdom of heaven fills the earth, yet flattered by heathen counselors over that head of gold, he placed himself before the people as an object of worship. He perverted the light by reading the interpretation through his own idolatrous mind and ambitions instead of reading his dream in the light of the living oracles. He determined to make an image all of gold to take the place of God and be worshiped as God, supposing its display was sufficient authority to convert all nations to its worship.
Falling down before the image was an act of worship and homage, but such homage belonged to God alone. It was false religion honoring the prince of darkness, running counter to the commandments of God, with no inward purity and beauty and no inward holiness. It depended on position of authority to compel without question those who acknowledge God as Creator and Sovereign to bow to human enactments. It depended also on beautiful music to charm the senses, and on parade, ceremonies, outward display and outward beauty to entrap men and hold their senses. That outward display was used to make up for the absence of the Spirit of God and to conceal spiritual poverty and apostasy. The mass worship seemed to give idolatry a lasting place as the state religion, and by it Satan hoped to thwart God's purpose of using captive Israel in Babylon to bless the nations.
Faithful Refusal and Deliverance
Daniel 3:7 belongs to the history of the Lord's wonderful deliverance of the three Hebrew worthies, and the falling down of all peoples, nations and languages to worship the golden image shows the course of the children of disobedience in contrast to the obedience of the three Hebrews, teaching principles regarding the working out of the Lord's purpose for both the children of obedience and the children of disobedience. When the music sounded the peoples, nations and languages bowed down to worship the image Nebuchadnezzar had set up, but that bowing was an act of worship and homage which belonged to God alone. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego refused to join them and to dishonor God, remaining loyal to the God of heaven rather than worshiping the idol, serving Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords whatever the cost, even though the king's command threatened them with the fiery furnace and worship of the image had been made the country's established religion through laws devised to compel obedience in direct opposition to God's law. The three Hebrew captives who cherished the knowledge of the true God refused to worship the exceedingly costly and magnificent image that represented the kingdom of Babylon and magnified the king who ruled over it, after heathen counselors flattered him over the head of gold representing Babylon and caused him to place himself before the people as an object of worship.
The events severely tested the integrity of Daniel and his companions and showed an idolatrous nation the power and faithfulness of the God of Israel. For their loyalty they were cast into the burning fiery furnace. Christ Himself walked with them through the fire as an angelic presence beside them, and the Lord Jesus was with them and preserved them from all harm so they were unharmed. Daniel's three faithful companions refused to bow when the decree demanded that people of every nation and language worship the golden image representing Babylon and more particularly its king, and Christ walked with them in the fiery furnace.
The miracle so wrought upon Nebuchadnezzar's heart that he believed in God and acknowledged His superior power. As Nebuchadnezzar's advisers schemed to ensnare the Hebrew captives by getting the king to decree that every knee should bow to the image, so men now strive to turn God's people from their allegiance. Those who make cruel enactments to destroy God's people are destroyed by the recoil of their own actions, as those who sought to destroy Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were themselves destroyed.
Final Conflict Over Worship
The bowing on the plain of Dura when the music sounded was universal, law-commanded worship demanded from all peoples, nations and languages, and it stands as a lesson for this day as a model for laws that exalt human authority over God's law and demand worship from everyone. That enforced bowing is repeated when church and state unite and human laws demand that all honor Sunday as a sacred idol sabbath in the place where God's holy Sabbath of the fourth commandment should be, just as the image demanded homage from people of every rank. As advisers schemed to ensnare the Hebrew captives by getting the king to decree that every knee should bow to the image, so men now strive to turn God's people from their allegiance, and those who make cruel enactments to destroy God's people are destroyed by the recoil of their own actions as those who sought to destroy Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were themselves destroyed.
It will be repeated when the law of God is made void by a national act, when Sunday is exalted and sustained by law, and when keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath is counted disloyal to the laws of the land. At that time the world and the church unite in making void the law, while wolves in sheep's clothing through blindness of mind and hardness of heart seek with satanic hatred to compel conscience against those loyal to the commandments. Though innocent of wrongdoing, many of God's servants will be given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those inspired by Satan and filled with envy and religious bigotry. Especially the wrath of man will be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and at last a universal decree will denounce these as deserving of death.
The refusal of the three worthies to bow when peoples, nations and languages bowed at the sound of the music marks the contrasting choice to obey God. That episode illustrates that a time would come in the Southern States when people would face decisions for or against God's commandments. Then the same principle the three Hebrews manifested will be made manifest in God's people when truth is overborne by falsehood. Duty then is not to give up loyalty to God, but to hold God's law as the rule of conduct, to make its value manifest, and with increased zeal to love God's commandments above gold.
Men, whether king or subjects, must not read the Scriptures and God's providences in the light of their dreams and fancies, but must read their dreams in the light of the living oracles. Nebuchadnezzar perverted the light given in the interpretation of his dream by reading it to fit his own idolatrous mind and ambitions, setting up an image representing his own glory and the excellency of Babylon in hope its display would convert all nations to its worship. The same pattern of false religion, which runs counter to the commandments of God and has no inward purity, holiness or beauty, continues when churches depend not on Christ the divine Teacher but on ornaments and shrines, embroidered altars and magnificent architecture to attract and hold the senses. It depends on authority to compel without question those who acknowledge God as Creator and Sovereign, and on beautiful music, parade, ceremonies and outward display to charm and entrap the senses, hold the senses, and conceal spiritual poverty and apostasy for lack of the Spirit of God.