And Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the justices, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Nebuchadnezzar has just raised a golden image on the plain of Dura, and now he sends for the men who run his empire. The summons raises the question the whole chapter turns on: what happens when a ruler uses God-given authority to demand what belongs to God alone?
The list of titles is not decoration. It is the empire's entire administration, ordered to attend in person.
Having set up his image, the king gathers together the political leaders of his kingdom: the princes of the royal house, the military leaders, the judges of his courts, the financiers, the counsellors. All must be present at the dedication of the image.
The next verse repeats the same roll call of eight, and the repetition is part of the message.
For the moment he was the top of the pyramid. Beneath him, holding him up, were "the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces." Our chapter gives this eight-fold description of important people twice, as if to impress us with how solid that pyramid was. From this position, which looked impossible to challenge, the great king issued his decree, and it was in effect a decree defying God. And God took up the challenge through three devoted servants that He had in reserve.
Calling every official from every province was a political move as much as a religious one. Commentators see the king using religion to hold a mixed empire together.
History and experience show that nothing divides and breaks up nations and families as sharply as a difference in religion. On the other hand, nothing binds nations together as powerfully as unity of religion, whether it is false or true... Nebuchadnezzar seems to have recognised these facts, and he tries to secure political unity by setting up a religious unity.
Others trace the same instinct back to Satan, and note what such a demand does to God's people.
The first thing the civil power sets up is idolatry. The aim is a religious unity, but it always separates the people from the true God and puts something in His place. This becomes an occasion for testing the faithfulness of God's people... This is not an unusual way with Satan. He stirs up in the civil power the desire for unity, and no motive works more powerfully on the masses than religion.
In the previous chapter this king had been told that his kingdom came from the God of heaven. Now he summons that kingdom to bow to a statue.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king to whom God had committed the government of the world, sets up an image of gold in the plain of Dura... Possibly the image of his dream had suggested this idolatrous image to the king. If so, it only shows that if what God gives is not held with God, it will be debased to our own ends.
Every official obeyed the summons, and obeying a king is usually right. But that duty has a limit.
Obedience to the governing authorities is a sacred duty. But we can give that obedience only inside the circle of their own lawful authority. The rulers in Jerusalem stepped outside that circle when they ordered the apostles not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. Rulers who do that must be told what Peter and John answered: "We must obey God rather than men." Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch, yet he stepped outside his own domain when he issued his decree, and claimed for himself what was due to God alone.
The gathering at Dura opens the long stretch of world rule by nations other than Israel. Commentators see in it a preview of how that stretch ends.
It is remarkable that at the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, Nebuchadnezzar, the first head, claimed for himself almost divine honours. He made a great image, and the worship of it was to set up a kind of super-religion, uniting the different religions across his wide empire... Our chapter shows us that the times of the Gentiles will end just as they began, and with what looks like greater success, for those who refuse to worship the image of the beast will be killed.
- Summoned. Every rank of the empire — satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, justices, magistrates — comes to one spot. The repeated list shows how solid the structure looked.
- Motive. Nothing binds nations together like a shared religion, so the king used one worship to secure one rule.
- Debased. Nebuchadnezzar bent God-given authority to his own ends. Any gift not held with God goes the same way.
- Limit. Obey rulers inside their lawful sphere. When they demand what is due to God alone, the answer is: "We must obey God rather than men."
- Repeat. The same demand returns at the end of the age with the image of the beast. At Dura, God answered the whole pyramid through three servants He had in reserve.
Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the justices, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.