Surviving Babylon: I Will Not Bow Down
KEY VERSE
16 “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”- Daniel 3:16-18
SURVIVING BABYLON PART 5
I Will Not Bow Down
While the governments of this world virtue signal their secularity, governments by nature are theocratic. Whether they would like to admit it or not, they exist by the pleasure of YHWH for the pleasure of YHWH (Ro 13:1). And yet, in a fallen world, every human institution ends up turning in on itself, worshipping the creature rather than the creator (Ro 1:25).
In this sense, every government is still a theocracy, albeit a broken one. The real question, however, is which “theos” (god) will end up bowing down to?
THE SETTING
In Daniel 3, Babylon is bowing down to a golden idol. And not just any golden idol, the very statue that took center stage in chapter 2.
There, God sent a prophetic vision of a strange statue to Nebuchadnezzar, showing him what was about to take place in the future. His empire (the golden head of that statue) would end. Another would rise up in its place called Persia (Silver shoulders and chest) followed by Greece (Brass midsection and thighs) then Rome (Iron legs) and concluded by a divided and decrepit Jewish state that was in bed with Rome (the iron feet mixed with clay).
Now clearly this would be a very ugly and pitiful looking statue if the point of this vision was God teaching Nebuchadnezzar how to be build statue. But that is not the point at all. The statue is there in dream like form to point to two things. 1) How future time would come about in present time. And 2) How even the greatest of all human kingdoms were laughably limited. Remember, this statue had a golden head that was was held up by feet of clay. As glorious as it’s head may have been, the statue was not built to stand. It was built to fall and God was taking an active role in it’s demise.
And this is precisely what happened in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. After each successive kingdom rose and fell, the final kingdom was struck with a mortal wound by God, who then inaugurated His own eternal Kingdom here on earth. Much more could be said, but the gist is this: Human kingdoms are limited; at just the right time the Son of God would come; and while overthrowing the kingdom of the Jews, He would also inaugurate a Kingdom called the church.
But, Nebuchadnezzar, apparently missed that memo.
For as soon as he realized that he was the head of gold, He began plans to make a very large statue, entirely of gold. Instead of bowing down and worshipping the creator, who would begin an everlasting kingdom, Nebby commanded the world to come and worship him.
RESISTANCE THEORY
As soon as the edict to bow was issued, Daniel’s friends understood the cost. They would either have to bow down to this abominable idol, or they would have to disobey their government.
In the Bible, God establishes governments for a very limited yet good purpose. They exist under the authority of YHWH (Ro. 13:1) and are to wield their power to restrain evil in society, to promote the public good, and to serve at the pleasure of God. Whenever a government goes outside of these guidelines, they must be defied.
For instance, if a government edict commands us to do what God has already forbidden, then that edict must be rejected. Obedience must not be given. The same is true of its inverse, if a government edict attempts to prevent God’s people from doing what God commands in His Word, that edict again must be rejected.
In this passage, Nebuchadnezzar was commanding forced participation in false worship. You will either bow down and worship my image or you will die in the flames. To obey God in moments like these, we must be willing to resist; even if the consequences are being thrown into a furnace and being burned alive. God is worthy our allegiance.
TODAY
When government performs her God ordained function, we must obey it. We must obey when it makes laws, honor when it punishes evil, and humbly serve when it legislates policies for the public good. But, when government commands us to do the unbiblical, or forbids us from doing what is Biblical, we cannot bow down!
Today, you likely will not be forced to bow down to any golden statues, but you will pressured to support things that violate Scripture. If bowing down is a form of allegiance, you will be asked to “bow down” to many things in our society that are no less egregious than a golden idol. We must remember that God’s authority is higher than the state and even if they threaten punishment and death, we must not bow down when they ask us to defy our God.
One last thing, we must know our Bibles! If anything, the world we live in is better at disguising their idolatry than Babylon. No longer will they parade a massive idol out in public, today idols are disguised as “love”, “social justice”, “equality:, etc. If we do not have a sophisticated understanding of what God commands and what God forbids, we will be tricked by sophisticated expressions of idolatry our world invites us to participate in.
We must be wise. We must be Biblically literate. And we must NOT bow down!
We hope you will join us as we walk through the book of Daniel together and please feel free to share this content with anyone you think might be blessed by it!
