And the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, [O] peoples, nations, and languages,
One voice carries across the plain of Dura. The call goes out to every people under Nebuchadnezzar's rule. It raises the question that shapes the whole chapter. What happens when the state takes God's place and makes worship a matter of law?
Nebuchadnezzar ruled an empire of peoples who shared no god and no language. One writer traces the herald's opening words back to that problem.
The God of Heaven granted Nebuchadnezzar much power and glory, so at once he used it to glorify himself in this gigantic golden image. Many different peoples were under his sway, each with their many gods, whom they worshipped. Now let them keep their local gods, but let them also have a kind of 'super-religion.' That would bind them together under his rule. So the herald cries out, 'O peoples, nations, and languages.'
Another writer says such behaviour is not strange at all once we look at our own hearts.
Such conduct would make no sense at all if we did not know the subtle motives that stir and govern the human heart. It would make no sense either if we forgot that we ourselves have often used the blessings God has granted for our own profit and self-exaltation.
Nebuchadnezzar had already seen a great image in a dream, with a head of gold. What he does next with the authority God gave him is the striking thing.
Imperial power is in the hands of the Gentiles. The first thing we are told of that power is that he used it to set up idolatry. He abused it, rather, to give idolatry a splendour unequalled in the old world. One thing at least is plain: whether the golden head of the great image had suggested the thought or not, at any rate it did not stop him. On the contrary, here we find him turning the authority which God had put into his hands to this frightful use.
Another writer sees an older strategy behind the king's plan. It always leaves the true God out.
The first thing the civil power sets up is idolatry. Its 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, and the way that faithfulness shows itself... This is not an unusual way with Satan. He stirs up in the civil power the desire for unity. And no motive works on the mass of people more powerfully than the influence of religion.
The herald does not invite; he orders. And the order reaches into the conscience.
The third chapter shows man taking control of the conscience. That has marked his rule wherever he has had the power for it. Nebuchadnezzar's image stands out as the one he has set up. To refuse to worship in the prescribed way is therefore rebellion against himself. Again and again, we may say, the civil power has claimed to be the religious power too, wherever it could. Freedom of conscience is a precious gift. But in our days it is a sign that absolute authority is decaying. It will not last, and will give way at last to the worst spiritual despotism the world has ever seen.
Why did the crowd go along with it? One writer finds the answer in how little the king asked.
From man's point of view, this was a very simple religion. All it demanded was one act of bowing before an image, and then the matter was finished. Such a religion suited man's fallen nature perfectly. There was a magnificent image to appeal to the eye and beautiful music to charm the ear. There was one single act of bowing that was over in a moment. It cost nothing out of the purse, and it raised no question of sins to trouble the conscience.
One writer sees the same pull toward a common religion in our own day, and traces it on to the end.
Is it not significant that the whole trend of things in our own time is toward a common religion?... It is certain that the last head of Gentile power will do exactly what the first Gentile head attempted. Revelation 13 shows this clearly... But God cared for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego twenty-five centuries ago. He will know how to strengthen faithful witnesses like them in the last dreadful crisis.
- Command — The herald does not persuade. He orders. To refuse the worship he prescribes counts as rebellion against the king himself.
- Unity — The command reaches every people and language, and that shows its purpose: one religion to bind a divided empire under one ruler.
- Substitute — The unity on offer always works one way. It pulls people from the true God and puts something else in His place.
- Ease — The crowd obeyed because the demand was cheap: something to see, music to hear, one brief act, and no question of sin.
- Test — What costs the crowd nothing costs the faithful everything. That is why such a decree tests God's people, then and at the end.
that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up;
At the sound of the band, every person in the empire must drop to the ground before a statue. One decree turns politics into religion, and raises a question that outlives Babylon: how far does a ruler's power reach?
Nebuchadnezzar ruled many nations at once. One writer shows what the civil power wanted from a single religion.
The first thing the civil power sets up is idolatry. The aim is to establish one religion for everyone. But it always separates the people from the true God, and puts something else in His place. This becomes an occasion for testing the faithfulness of God's people, and the manner of it. … Satan drives the civil powers to establish unity, so that everything under their authority is well ordered and regulated.
The band does not accompany the worship. It starts it.
The signal to worship the image was a burst of all kinds of music from the finest band in the king's dominions. Where religious feelings did not exist, the sweet and sensuous sounds of harmony had to produce them. How subtle the schemes of Satan! For here we really have the history of all religious music. It appeals to nature and stirs natural emotions. But the Spirit of God has no part in them, for those who worship God "must worship in spirit and truth."
Nothing in the decree is hard to do. One writer shows why that made it so easy to accept.
From man's point of view, this was a very simple religion. All it demanded was a simple act of prostration before an image, and then the matter was at an end. Such a religion was well suited to man's fallen nature. A magnificent image appealed to the sight. Beautiful music charmed the ear. One act of bowing was over in a moment. It made no demand on the purse, and raised no question of sins to trouble the conscience.
The first instrument named is a horn. A Bible dictionary gives the word behind it.
In Daniel 3:5-15 the word is qeren and means "horn or cornet."
Older translations call one of these instruments a "dulcimer." It was not a stringed instrument.
sumponyah. A musical instrument made of two pipes inserted into a leather bag, somewhat like the bagpipes, or the Italian sampogna. Daniel 3:5, 10, 15. It was not, like the modern dulcimer, made with strings.
Obedience to rulers is a duty. But this decree crossed a line.
The decree needs a little examination. It was the intrusion of man's will into God's domain. Obedience to the powers that be is a sacred duty. But we can give that obedience only within the circle of their own lawful authority. Sometimes rulers step outside this circle. The rulers in Jerusalem did it when they ordered the apostles not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. They must be answered as Peter and John answered them: "We must obey God rather than men." Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch. Yet when he issued his decree he stepped outside his own domain, and claimed for himself what was due to God alone.
One writer sees this scene repeated at the far end of history, when the image of the beast appears.
Something remarkable happened at the beginning of the times of the Gentiles. Nebuchadnezzar, the first head, claimed almost divine honours for himself. He made a great image, and the worship of it was to set up a super-religion, uniting the different religions across his wide dominions. So he glorified himself. But a mere handful of godly Jews defied him, and he was defeated when he tried to wipe them out. … Our chapter shows us that the times of the Gentiles will end just as they began, and with even greater success, it seems. Those who refuse to worship the image of the beast will be killed. This time God will not step in to frustrate the plans of these wicked men, as He once did with Nebuchadnezzar.
- Signal — the music is not background. It is the trigger, making religious feeling where none exists.
- Strategy — one forced religion was the cheapest way to hold a many-tongued empire together: the true God pushed out, something else put in His place.
- Simplicity — one bow, one moment, no cost, no question of sin: the decree asked just what fallen nature is willing to give.
- Stop — obey rulers inside the circle of their lawful authority. When they claim what is due to God alone, obey God rather than men.
- Sequel — the times of the Gentiles open with Nebuchadnezzar's golden image and close with the image of the beast — this time with no rescue.
and whosoever doth not fall down and worship shall that same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
Nebuchadnezzar has set up a towering golden image. He has gathered every official of his empire to its dedication. Now the herald names the price of refusal: instant death in a blazing furnace. One sentence turns a ceremony into a test of who owns a person's conscience — the king, or God.
The empire had many peoples to hold together, and the image was the king's way of doing it. One writer names the motive:
The first thing the civil power sets up is idolatry. The aim is to establish a religious unity. But it always separates the people from the true God and puts something else in His place. This situation becomes a test of the faithfulness of God's people, and of the way they show it... This is not an unusual way with Satan. He stirs up in the civil power the desire for unity. And nothing moves the masses more powerfully than the influence of religion.
The demand was short and the penalty was plain. The problem was not the harshness but the subject. A ruler may command inside his own sphere, and here he stepped outside it:
The decree would be easily understood: it was simple and brief, and the penalty was plain... It was, as noted before, the intrusion of man's will into God's domain. Obedience to the powers that be is a sacred duty. But we can give that obedience only within the circle of their own lawful authority. If they step outside this circle, they must be told what Peter and John answered: "We must obey God rather than men." The rulers in Jerusalem stepped outside it when they commanded the apostles not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch, yet he stepped outside his own domain. When he issued his decree, he claimed for himself what was due to God alone.
The threat of the furnace frightened almost nobody, because almost nobody wanted to refuse. That is the quiet horror of the scene:
From man's point of view, this was a very simple religion. All it required was a simple act of bowing down before an image, and then the matter was finished. Such a religion suited man's fallen nature perfectly. There was a magnificent image to appeal to the eye, and beautiful music to charm the ear. There was one single act of bowing that was over in a moment, that cost nothing, and that raised no question of sins to make the conscience uncomfortable. The severe penalties for refusing would hardly trouble the natural man. He would be quite ready to obey an order that asked so little.
The furnace belonged to the ordinary industry of the city. The story itself shows how big it was:
People used furnaces for many things: smelting raw metal, refining metal in crucibles, making lime and bricks, and baking as an oven... The fiery furnace in Babylon must have been very large for four people to walk about inside it. It may have been the furnace they used for their bricks.
Seen from God's side, the decree was something the world had never seen before:
Seen in the light of the true God, the king's command was an outburst of gross and furious idolatry. Never before had man set up such an imposing idol. Never before had all the nations of the earth been commanded to bow down to one idol under threat of a terrible death. It was the utter denial and setting aside of the rights of God. Sadly, such is man. God put him into the place of universal power over the world, and he uses that power at once to deny God.
This threat was not the last of its kind:
It is remarkable that at the beginning of Gentile supremacy men were forced, under threat of death, to worship an image. That image stood for the greatness and majesty of the first empire (Dan. 3). Now at the close of Gentile rule it is repeated. How incorrigible human nature is!
Another writer warns that freedom of conscience will not last:
Again and again the civil power has claimed to be the religious power too, wherever it could. Liberty of conscience is a precious gift. But in our days it is the sign that absolute authority is decaying. It will not last. In the end it will give way to the worst form of spiritual tyranny the world has ever seen.
- Motive: the image was a tool of empire. The state used religion to bind many peoples together, and left the true God out.
- Overstep: obey rulers inside their lawful sphere. Nebuchadnezzar claimed what belongs to God alone, so the answer is "We must obey God rather than men."
- Cheapness: one bow, no money, no conscience troubled. The demand cost nothing, so the death penalty alarmed almost no one.
- Outrage: easy as it was, the command set aside the rights of God. Man used world-wide power to deny the One who gave it.
- Repeat: what opened Gentile rule returns at its close. Our freedom of conscience is a pause in that pattern, not the end of it.