Daniel 3:1-30
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The prophet Daniel had come to Babylon some time before the destruction of Jerusalem and the desecration of Solomon’s Temple in 587 BC. He was part of the first wave of Judea's carried off by Nebuchadnezzar , while King Jehoiakim was allowed to remain as figurehead in Samaria. Instead of carrying off Israel’s king, Nebuchadnezzar carried off some of the best and brightest people, including Daniel, as well as vessels from the Temple.
Even though the Lord allowed His Jerusalem and her Temple to be destroyed, He provided leaders, prophets for His people to speak His Word of comfort and peace. Though kingdoms may fall and churches themselves be ransacked and destroyed, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the preached Word and rightly administered Sacraments by which our Lord Christ safeguards and supports His true Church, even in exile. Such is the picture we receive here from Daniel concerning the Three Young Men.
King Nebuchadnezzar ruled a vast empire that was multiethnic, multiracial, and multilingual. A true melting pot of the Near Eastern, ancient world. And this diversity was widely celebrated and touted, as the king’s herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image.
Now like all world superpowers, the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar boasted in its ultra-mutli-culturalism, but it could not tolerate multi-religiosity. Or, more specifically, it was intolerant of those religions that did not promote their version of tolerance. The exclusive monotheistic worship of the Hebrews must be stamped out. For like Christians in Rome about a millennia later, these Hebrews, whose religious beliefs were exemplified and confessed not only in their worship, but also in their lives, were construed as traitors, insurrectionists, and rebels to Babylon and her divine king.
But his is a feigned deity. For unlike the living God who speaks and summons the earth, who hears the prayers of His people and rescues them from the hand of the Egyptians, and whose glory shines forth in the Temple, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar is deaf, dumb and blind. Unlike YHWH Sabaoth who swears by His own name ad enacts oaths with His people, the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar must be fashioned from elements mined from the earth and pushed out onto the plane by the hands of the god-makers. The prophet Isaiah mocks the foolishness of idolatry, saying:
The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil.[b] He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
The foolishness of our idolatry is just as great. We do not form and fashion our idols of wood and stone and precious metals (though some are), but we form and fashion them from our own illusions and delusions, our own ideologies and worldviews, our own fleshly lusts and desires. We, the creatures, attempted to remake our creator, and in so doing are just as foolish. Such self-deception allows us to control the gods who control our world. But, we forget our true identity, a “me” not defined by me, but by my loving Father who is my gracious God and King.
Nebuchadnezzar, in his blatant idolatry, is attempting not only religious unity, but national unity. To worship the image is to obey the king. To bow down to the image is to kneel before the emperor, to submit to him in all things, acknowledging the state as supreme and divine.
These three young men, whose Persian names alone are given, refuse to deny their true Creator, King, and Lord. They will not abandon their true humanity to become enslaved to a false god, a worldly idol that is deaf to their prayers, blind to their need, and mute to forgive their sins.
It is interesting - and perhaps more ought to be said of this elsewhere - that they work in the governmental employ of Nebuchadnezzar, as does Daniel, their friend. These Hebrews, these Old Testament Christians, do not flee the world, but seek to live in it, though they are not of it. They serve honorably in their vocations, living by faith toward God and in loving service to their neighbor. It may be said that such men are necessary for the proper ordering of the state as the left-hand realm in which God works.
But it is their fellow politicians who report them, perhaps out of professional jealousy or personal rivalry. Either way they are blessed for such persecution and ridicule for the name of Christ and hauled before the fickle King Nebuchadnezzar who behaves as a spoiled child, demanding uniformity and refusing to tolerate respectable honor without total obedience. He does a deal with the three young men - worship the golden image or be burned alive. And who is the god who shall deliver you from my hand? You see, it was egomaniacal all along; he wasn’t interested in religion, but in subjugation.
And their confession is superb: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Our God will save us, for He is God. Or He won’t but He is still the only true God. At times it is not the will of God to rescue His children from danger or death. At times he allows martyrs. It does not negate His divinity or diminish His mercy. Rather, His children testify to His power and salvation by facing death, knowing He is the One who has overcome death and the grave. So too with the three young men, they honor and submit the king by obeying God, and receiving in their bodies the punishment for their obedience.
The septa-heated furnace shall turn their bodies into whole burnt offerings. They are flung into the flames, so hot that they kill the soldiers who bound them. And it is here, in the LXX that our text includes the Song of the Three Young Men. Like Jonah in the belly of the fish, like our Lord from the Cross, their pious young Christians pray in the very midst of danger; they praise and glorify the Lord for His wondrous deeds.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up with haste. He saw something outrageous and unbelievable in the furnace. Not only were the three men unharmed, but they were walking around, and there was a fourth man among them, with the appearance like a son of the gods. This super-heated furnace is meant to be their tomb, but rather than die, they live. They are seen walking around with the Angel of the Lord, the Pre-Incarnate Christ, who enters their death with them. Again Isaiah wrote, When you walk through fire you shall not be burned (Is 43:2).
They are not saved “from” the fire, but are saved “in” the fire, even as Christ Jesus, this Uncreated Angel, shall take up flesh and blood, be wrapped in the cloak and tunic or our flesh and blood, our sin, and share in our death. He doesn’t save you “from” death, but “in” death. For He entered your tomb, and though you should die, yet you live. You are baptized into His death and resurrection, clothed with His death-defying garment of righteousness and you walk around in Christ, the Son of the Most High God.
St Peter wrote in his first epistle: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:3-7)
This is our true Easter theology - the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to you and you to the world. This is the joy and hope of this Holiest Week soon upon us. Our Lord Christ did not eschew suffering and sorrow, cross and trial, but precisely in them redeemed mankind. He offered up His body on your behalf that you may join Him in suffering. So shall He strengthen and preserve you in both body and soul in the midst of suffering and the cross. The smell of death is not upon you. You belong to Him. For there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way.
In the of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The prophet Daniel had come to Babylon some time before the destruction of Jerusalem and the desecration of Solomon’s Temple in 587 BC. He was part of the first wave of Judea's carried off by Nebuchadnezzar , while King Jehoiakim was allowed to remain as figurehead in Samaria. Instead of carrying off Israel’s king, Nebuchadnezzar carried off some of the best and brightest people, including Daniel, as well as vessels from the Temple.
Even though the Lord allowed His Jerusalem and her Temple to be destroyed, He provided leaders, prophets for His people to speak His Word of comfort and peace. Though kingdoms may fall and churches themselves be ransacked and destroyed, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the preached Word and rightly administered Sacraments by which our Lord Christ safeguards and supports His true Church, even in exile. Such is the picture we receive here from Daniel concerning the Three Young Men.
King Nebuchadnezzar ruled a vast empire that was multiethnic, multiracial, and multilingual. A true melting pot of the Near Eastern, ancient world. And this diversity was widely celebrated and touted, as the king’s herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image.
Now like all world superpowers, the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar boasted in its ultra-mutli-culturalism, but it could not tolerate multi-religiosity. Or, more specifically, it was intolerant of those religions that did not promote their version of tolerance. The exclusive monotheistic worship of the Hebrews must be stamped out. For like Christians in Rome about a millennia later, these Hebrews, whose religious beliefs were exemplified and confessed not only in their worship, but also in their lives, were construed as traitors, insurrectionists, and rebels to Babylon and her divine king.
But his is a feigned deity. For unlike the living God who speaks and summons the earth, who hears the prayers of His people and rescues them from the hand of the Egyptians, and whose glory shines forth in the Temple, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar is deaf, dumb and blind. Unlike YHWH Sabaoth who swears by His own name ad enacts oaths with His people, the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar must be fashioned from elements mined from the earth and pushed out onto the plane by the hands of the god-makers. The prophet Isaiah mocks the foolishness of idolatry, saying:
The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil.[b] He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
The foolishness of our idolatry is just as great. We do not form and fashion our idols of wood and stone and precious metals (though some are), but we form and fashion them from our own illusions and delusions, our own ideologies and worldviews, our own fleshly lusts and desires. We, the creatures, attempted to remake our creator, and in so doing are just as foolish. Such self-deception allows us to control the gods who control our world. But, we forget our true identity, a “me” not defined by me, but by my loving Father who is my gracious God and King.
Nebuchadnezzar, in his blatant idolatry, is attempting not only religious unity, but national unity. To worship the image is to obey the king. To bow down to the image is to kneel before the emperor, to submit to him in all things, acknowledging the state as supreme and divine.
These three young men, whose Persian names alone are given, refuse to deny their true Creator, King, and Lord. They will not abandon their true humanity to become enslaved to a false god, a worldly idol that is deaf to their prayers, blind to their need, and mute to forgive their sins.
It is interesting - and perhaps more ought to be said of this elsewhere - that they work in the governmental employ of Nebuchadnezzar, as does Daniel, their friend. These Hebrews, these Old Testament Christians, do not flee the world, but seek to live in it, though they are not of it. They serve honorably in their vocations, living by faith toward God and in loving service to their neighbor. It may be said that such men are necessary for the proper ordering of the state as the left-hand realm in which God works.
But it is their fellow politicians who report them, perhaps out of professional jealousy or personal rivalry. Either way they are blessed for such persecution and ridicule for the name of Christ and hauled before the fickle King Nebuchadnezzar who behaves as a spoiled child, demanding uniformity and refusing to tolerate respectable honor without total obedience. He does a deal with the three young men - worship the golden image or be burned alive. And who is the god who shall deliver you from my hand? You see, it was egomaniacal all along; he wasn’t interested in religion, but in subjugation.
And their confession is superb: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Our God will save us, for He is God. Or He won’t but He is still the only true God. At times it is not the will of God to rescue His children from danger or death. At times he allows martyrs. It does not negate His divinity or diminish His mercy. Rather, His children testify to His power and salvation by facing death, knowing He is the One who has overcome death and the grave. So too with the three young men, they honor and submit the king by obeying God, and receiving in their bodies the punishment for their obedience.
The septa-heated furnace shall turn their bodies into whole burnt offerings. They are flung into the flames, so hot that they kill the soldiers who bound them. And it is here, in the LXX that our text includes the Song of the Three Young Men. Like Jonah in the belly of the fish, like our Lord from the Cross, their pious young Christians pray in the very midst of danger; they praise and glorify the Lord for His wondrous deeds.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up with haste. He saw something outrageous and unbelievable in the furnace. Not only were the three men unharmed, but they were walking around, and there was a fourth man among them, with the appearance like a son of the gods. This super-heated furnace is meant to be their tomb, but rather than die, they live. They are seen walking around with the Angel of the Lord, the Pre-Incarnate Christ, who enters their death with them. Again Isaiah wrote, When you walk through fire you shall not be burned (Is 43:2).
They are not saved “from” the fire, but are saved “in” the fire, even as Christ Jesus, this Uncreated Angel, shall take up flesh and blood, be wrapped in the cloak and tunic or our flesh and blood, our sin, and share in our death. He doesn’t save you “from” death, but “in” death. For He entered your tomb, and though you should die, yet you live. You are baptized into His death and resurrection, clothed with His death-defying garment of righteousness and you walk around in Christ, the Son of the Most High God.
St Peter wrote in his first epistle: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:3-7)
This is our true Easter theology - the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to you and you to the world. This is the joy and hope of this Holiest Week soon upon us. Our Lord Christ did not eschew suffering and sorrow, cross and trial, but precisely in them redeemed mankind. He offered up His body on your behalf that you may join Him in suffering. So shall He strengthen and preserve you in both body and soul in the midst of suffering and the cross. The smell of death is not upon you. You belong to Him. For there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way.
In the of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
RSS Feed