Hinsdale Covenant Church
10.13.24 - "Daniel: You Never Have to Stand Alone" - Lars Stromberg
Amen. Let's pray as we begin this morning. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Well, good morning, friends. It is a gift for me to be back in the pulpit after a couple of weeks. Thankful for Pastor Joy and Pastor Greg in there, capable preaching and faithfulness to this text as we continue to walk through the book of Daniel. The more that I dive into the book of Daniel, the more I'm convinced of its timeliness for us as a community. The themes of work and politics are so important, especially in the last couple of weeks of this 2024 election cycle. So I have the privilege this morning of continuing our walk through Daniel and talking about Daniel chapter three. That is the well-known story by many of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So I'm going to invite you to stand as you're able for the reading of Scripture. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. It is lengthy. So let me just set up this story for you, and then we'll pick it up midway through. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon makes a huge golden statue, sets it up on the plain of Dura, and he summons a bunch of important representatives from all over the land, and he makes this decree. He says, "Whenever the music starts playing, you need to bow down and worship this statue. That is an order." And they did, except for three Hebrew men who were part of that king's government, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They are discovered, and they are brought before a very angry king. The text says that his face was distorted. He was so angry, and he asked them, "Is this true? Did you refuse to bow down to me?" And they said, "Yes." And he gives them one more chance to bow down to this statue when the music starts playing or else they're going to be thrown into a fiery furnace to die. So I'm going to pick up now at verse 16. This is their response, and the king's response to that. "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answer the king. Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up." Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted, and he ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. So they were bound, they were still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. Because the king's command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But the three men, they fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, "Wasn't not three men that were thrown that were bound and thrown into the fire?" And they answered, "True, O king." And he replied, "But I see four men unbound walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the fourth has the appearance of a God." Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, come here." So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire, and the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the king's counselors gathered together, and they saw that the fire had not any power over their bodies. The hairs of their heads were not singed, their tunics were not scorched, and not even the smell of fire came off from them. Nebuchadnezzar then said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed this king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God. Therefore I make a new decree. Any people, nation, or language that utters blaspheme against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses will be laid to ruin, for there is no other God who is able to deliver in this way than the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon." The word of the Lord thanks be to God. You can be seated. Okay, so as we get into this text, there are some common questions that people tend to ask about this narrative. I want to just quickly address five of those frequently asked questions so that we can better understand this text before we get to its application for us today. First question you might have is, "Hey, where's Daniel?" The book is called Daniel. Daniel does not appear in this chapter with his friends. We know there's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So are we to believe then that Daniel was in that crowd and he was bowing down to the idol that had been erected by the king? Is that what we're supposed to believe? If we read ahead to chapter 6, we'll get there in a few weeks, by the way. This would seem completely out of character for Daniel to do that. So it is much more likely that Daniel was not present at this event because of the duties of his office which the king had given to him. Remember this took place in the plains of Dura. That's thought to be near the city of Erach, which is about 95 miles southeast of the main city of Babylon. So since Daniel was ruler over the province of Babylon proper, it is more likely that he was tending to his affairs in his office in Babylon and was not at this particular event that he stayed back. Which leads me to the next question. Why did Nebuchadnezzar change his tune from chapter 2? When we end chapter 2, which Greg talked about last week, the Babylonian king is receiving Daniel's dream interpretation humbly. He is showing deference to Daniel. He is even praising and showing respect for Daniel's God. And he is promoting Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to positions of prominence. How is it then that the very next verse, he's building a statue in defiance of God and commanding people to worship that statue? Is this the most fickle king ever? Did he just forget all these things that Daniel had told him? Well, there is a possible explanation here that makes a lot of sense to me. Most scholars believe that at least three years have passed between chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Daniel. Daniel continues his ascent in the government at this time and the king backslides on his commitment to reverence for Daniel's God. As we know, in our political atmosphere, a several years is ample time for a politician or a world leader to flip-flop on their commitments, right? So third question, what did this statue actually look like? Any of you get hung up on this as you're hearing this passage going on? I want to know what that looks like. The text unfortunately does not tell us what the image actually was. We were told that it's a gold, but we don't know what the image actually was. There are a few options for those who study such things. First, many believe that this would have been a large statue of the god Marduk. That's the one that's on the left. There you can see that Marduk, he's a civic deity that represented the power and privilege of Babylon as a nation, typically depicted as a strong warrior with four wings. Other scholars actually say that they think it was like a gold-plated obelisk or a stealth, like on the right here, a large pillar that would have been carved with images and words, depicting the glory of Babylon, maybe spelling out some of their laws for people. But I think the evidence actually is most compelling for this being a statue of Nebuchadnezzar himself. That's what I think is going on here. Here's why. The text describes the statue as made of gold, which matches the statue that he dreamed about in chapter two in which his head was the head of the statue. That was the dream. It would have been rare for a Mesopotamian king to present himself as a god, but for me the connection here seems fairly obvious. It makes it all the more insidious that he would decree that all the people bow down and worship his likeness. Of course, no godfearing Jew could bow down to a king, an earthly king, in this way, which is why Daniel's friends are eventually thrown into that burning furnace, which leads me to, what did the furnace look like? And if you get hung up on what this furnace might look like, have a tough time visualizing this, thank you for your honesty there. There are a lot of questions about this and people do actually get really hung up on this one, this is what I found out. To me, there are a couple of viable options here. The text tells us that these men fell down into the furnace or were thrown down into a furnace, which has meant many to believe that this was some sort of pit in the ground that would have had brick or tar or plaster walls and they would go down in there to forge things like metals, but also to burn things like garbage. This makes some sense in that it would be easier for the king and the people to look down and see what's going on if it was in a pit furnace. The only problem is there's not really any archaeological evidence of pit furnaces in the ancient world that happens in other places in the world at other times, but not here. Much more likely, this was a kiln or a lime furnace. There are a couple different options. I want you to try and visualize mashing these two sort of together, if you would, in your mind. It was probably a cylindrical brick structure like the one on the left there with a ramp that led up to a door and then there's a chimney which is expelling all the heat that's coming from that kiln. The reason for that, I think it's this, is only an enclosed kiln like this could produce the kind of heat that is needed to fire clay pots or make bricks or melt metal for forging. High-fired clay actually needs to be at about a temperature of 2,500 degrees in order to do its work. Nebuchadnezzar, as the text tells us, says this needs to be increased sevenfold, which if you know anything about physics, which I really don't, that's not actually possible to get something that hot. But remember, the number seven in the Bible denotes completeness. So it's more likely what the king is saying by saying crank it up sevenfold, as he's just saying crank it up to the highest temperature possible. I want it hotter than it's ever meant before. Get it as hot as you can possibly get it. Some of you might be going, well, that enclosed kiln is a nice idea, but that's problematic for my visual of this because how could the king see inside to know what's going on? And that's where I want you to look at that one on the right. In these kinds of kilns, there was a hatch on ground level where workers could put in fresh fuel, fresh wood into the fire to heat things up. So it makes sense that the king could be peering inside and seeing not six pairs of legs, but like eight pairs of legs walking around in the furnace if he's looking through that hatch. And that begs our final question. Who's the fourth person in the furnace? Great question. There are only really two options here. First is that this is some sort of angelic being of protection, totally plausible. We see that in other places in scripture. But second, as you might guess, the early church fathers had a really interesting take, Irenaeus, papius, origin. They couldn't help but see Jesus himself in the fire with these men. In fact, they had a whole category which they called Christophanes, which is Christ appearances, Jesus appearances in the Old Testament. Think about at creation. Think about Melchizedek, the high priest who is the king of Jerusalem who serves bread and wine to Abraham. Sounds kind of Jesus-y to me, right? How about the figure that wrestles Jacob on the shore of the river Jabek? Or who's the one who comes and gives Joshua the flaming sword? And yes, even here in the fire was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It is impossible, of course, to prove that this was Jesus standing with them. But I'm really comfortable with the idea for what it's worth. And at very least, I know that this has to be a reflection of the incarnation, of Emmanuel, God with us, God in human form in some way. I can't help but see Jesus standing in the fire with these faithful men, preserving them, helping them, refining them through his very presence to escape the fires of their rightful death. Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing that Jesus does and continues to do for us? Sounds a lot like Jesus to me. Now, perhaps these questions address some of the, these answers address some of the questions you have. Maybe there are other questions you have as well. But at this point, I want to encourage us not to get bogged down with all the details, even if we're not sure exactly what the statue was representing or what the furnace looked like or who the fourth man in the fire was or how that's even possible. It doesn't change the truths of this text. The truths are meant to be broadly applied to our lives and lived out in our faith in the world that God has given to us. So, understanding this text as we do, I'd like to offer six primary truths that I see in this text. And I really want you to listen and ask if these are words that God is speaking to you as well today. The first is this. If you are seeking to honor God, there will be times where you must choose non-participation. We live in the kingdoms of this world. We really don't have an option to live elsewhere. We live in the kingdoms of this world, the western world, America, the state of Illinois, DuPage County. We are in them. And as we talked about a few weeks ago, the biblical call is not to fight against the kingdoms of this world as an antagonist, because these are the places where we live. We're not supposed to despise the kingdoms of this world, but we are also not called to assimilate to them either, where our character is indistinguishable from them. Though we are residents of this world, we are called to live with our primary citizenship in the kingdom of God. A kingdom not made by physical borders, but a kingdom that is wherever Jesus is recognized as king. If you are someone here today who is seeking to live faithfully into your citizenship in the kingdom of God, I want you to know that there will be tensions between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. I think most of you already know this. There will be times when you will not be able to participate in the culture and dictates of the kingdoms of this world. You will be asked to bow down to something other than the one true God. To prove your allegiance to something other than the one true God, and in that moment, your call is to non-participation. If I can illustrate perhaps some of you have seen this picture before. This picture is taken in 1936 in Hamburg, Germany. This is often lifted up as an example of resistance. In a sea of Nazi salutes, one man stands solitary and conspicuous in his non-participation refusing to comply. This man's name, we believe, is August Land Messer. You can see him there. In 1931, let me tell you about what we know about him. In 1931, at the age of 21, he actually joined the Nazi party, not out of any great loyalty to the Nazi party, but because of practicality, he needed to work, and party affiliation made that possible. So he began working at Blom and Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, and in 1934, while on the job, he met a woman named Erma Echler and fell in love with her. However, their relationship was deemed illegal by the Nazi regime and the Nuremberg laws because she was Jewish, which prohibited marriage between Jews and non-Jews. But they continued their relationship in defiance of this illegality, and two years into this relationship, this photo was taken. As a civic warship carrying Adolf Hitler himself was brought into the port of Hamburg. As the story goes, due to his loyalties, to his then secret wife, August could not raise his hand in salute anymore. And as Joy preached a couple of weeks ago, there is a point of no return where we can no longer participate in the ways of this world. When I say that, I'm not talking about interpersonal differences, I'm not talking about stances on particular issues where reasonable people of God can have disagreement, but I'm talking about times when we are called to surrender our biblical principles, to do something unethical, to appease someone other than the one true God. That's when non-participation is necessary, which leads me to truth number two. Our non-participation should only come from a deep abiding confidence in God. Let me complicate that photograph a little further, because I thought this was going to be easy as I started digging into this this week, but there is another family that claims that that's not August Land Messer, but rather a man named Gustav Vegaert. Land Messer's on the left there, Vegaert's on the right, and there's the actual photo in the middle. You can decide who you think it looks like. What do we know about Vegaert? We know from documents that he had worked at the shipyard at this exact time, and while Land Messer didn't seem to prescribe to any particular faith, Vegaert certainly did. There were family documents, in fact, where Vegaert openly says that he never saluted to Hitler or the Third Reich one time in his whole life, and it was all because of his faith. He never missed a Sunday at his Lutheran Church. His wife was constantly afraid of threats of imprisonment because of his actions, but he was such a nice and kind and good person that nobody ever arrested him. Family documents tell us that he was known to live by a motto that said, "You should obey God always more than men." I don't know if this is Land Messer. I don't know if it's Vegaert, but we do know that neither man was an activist or protester or antagonist in the culture that they were in. There may well be a place for activism in our lives, but this is not what I'm talking about when I'm talking about non-participation. Whoever this man is, their actions are quiet and principled. They don't draw attention to themselves. That's the model of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They don't draw attention to themselves. They just choose to not participate out of their principles, and when confronted, they speak these remarkably faithful words. They are worth hearing again. Imagine being able to say this as well. O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve will deliver us from the furnace of the blazing fire and out of your hand, O King, then let him deliver us. But even if he doesn't, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden statue that you set up. I don't read these words as angry words, as some sort of emotional protestation. I see it as steady, principled words from these men. This is what we're doing, and God will deliver us, or he won't deliver us. We don't know, but still, this is what we're doing. This is what we need to do. We often think of this as a resistance movement, as a protestation, but that's not what's modeled by these three men, or I think whoever that man is in the photograph. Third truth from this text. If it is time to stand for you, you have to trust that that is exactly where God has you. I want to remind you that if Daniel was with these men on the plains of Dura, he would have been in that fire with them. I'm confident of that. But he wasn't. That's not where God had him. But these three men, that is where God had them, and I believe that God gives us a moment where non-participation is the only viable option, and when he does that, that has to mean that that is exactly where he wants us. I can't tell you that times, the number of times that I've had to, to stand for Jesus in small and big ways, and never once did I really want to do it, okay? Because there's a cost. But when we recognize that's where God has us, it's easier for us to take a stand, which brings me to number four. There will be a cost for standing for Jesus just as there is one for not standing. When we stand for Jesus, when we stand on those principles that God teaches us, there will be social cost, relational cost, personal cost, and God forbid the cost of life, which has been true for many faithful brothers and sisters throughout Christian history. Every time that I've had to take a stand, I have felt that cost acutely. It's almost always too much to handle, but that's why it's so important for us to weigh that cost. Yes, to stand will cost you a great deal. But what is the cost of not standing? If that man was August Landmesser, he well knew then that to resist a salute in that way could cost him a great deal. But he also was weighing the cost that to salute in that way would show allegiance to a kingdom that devalued the life of the woman that he loved. It was a compromise of what was right and true for him to do that. Because of his relationship, Landmesser was arrested and sent to prison camp work in 1938 for not ending that relationship. Also in 1941, his wife Irma Echler was euthanized at Ravensbrook camp along with 14,000 other Jewish women. Landmesser was eventually sent to fight in Croatia where he was placed on the front lines and was killed. So his non-participation did cost him his life. But what would the cost of participation have been? Similarly, with Shadrach, Meshach and Abedne to go kneeling would have given them safety. It would have preserved their lives, but it also would have cost them their witness, their conscience, and their integrity. And I'm pretty confident we would have no idea who they are. So we too have to weigh that and go, which one is more costly for us? Fifth truth, standing for Jesus is never a solitary action. I think when we think about taking a stand for something, we think of an image like that photo, we think of a lonely solitary action, but that's actually not what's modeled by these men in Scripture. The Old Testament scholar Chad Bird makes the really smart observation that there's so much in common with this story and the story of the Exodus from Egypt. They are both exile stories with stubborn self-aggrandizing kings. They both deal with idols that demand allegiance and that mock the one true God. And Bird makes the case that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedne to go would have been emboldened by these similarities. They would have been like, "Hey, Moses and Aaron have done this and God has been faithful to them, so why wouldn't he be the same to us?" When we stand, we stand with the saints who have risked it all. We're not alone. And this is exemplified by God himself pre-incarnate showing up not to pull them out of the furnace and deliver them from it, but to stand in the fire with them. So friends, when it's time to stand, don't you ever believe that you are standing alone? Right beside you are the saints in glory, the faithful ones who have risked it all for Jesus. Right beside you is God himself, word-made flesh, to protect you and sustain you and encourage you and to deliver you. When you stand for Jesus, you never stand alone. So say it purposefully and clearly to the world. Throw me in the furnace if you must. God will deliver me or he won't, but I can't bow down to that. That's too costly for me. And I know I don't stand alone. Last truth, standing is hard, but it leads to results that would be impossible otherwise. Let me remind you of Nebuchadnezzar's response here. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except for their own God. Therefore, I make a decree any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other God who is able to deliver in this way." And then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. What was the fruit of their actions? The very king of Babylon blesses God, and he protects these men, and he promotes them to trusted positions because of their faithfulness. Friends, when we stand with Jesus, we are not in charge of the results, and we are not promised deliverance in this life, but God will do something remarkable through that faithful action. So friends, if you are seeking to live faithfully in the kingdom of God, there will come times where you will need to stand, where you cannot participate in the bowing down, in the idolatry, in the compromise that is demanded of you. Some of you feel that acutely this morning, some of you are maybe thinking about that for the first time, but I would encourage you, do not fear this, because this is where God has you, and you never ever have to stand alone. So I'd like to just close by praying for you mindful that there may be some of you here today who are currently in a place where you are standing, and there's cost to you for doing so. Or maybe some of you hearing this word this morning saying, I've been compromising, and it's time for me to stand for Jesus, no matter the cost. I'd like to pray for you, and I would just invite, as I pray, if any of you today are feeling that acutely, and you would like to specifically be prayed for, I'm not going to make you tell us exactly what it is that is going on, or what you're standing for, God knows, but maybe there's something in your work, or something in your school, something relationally, something ethically, where you need courage to stand. I'd like to pray for you, and if that's particularly you today, I'm going to just invite you to stand as I begin to pray, so that we can pray for you. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the way in which it speaks to us. Lord, we thank you for the faithfulness of Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, for their courage to stand for you before the king, and to say we don't have any defense, God will deliver us, or he won't, but either way we will not bow down. I pray for those here who are feeling a call from you to stand, to stand for you when they are being forced to compromise your truth, or their character. I pray that they might rely on your goodness, that they might be reminded that you are a God who has stood with those who stand for you, you have been faithful, and you will continue to be faithful. Would you give them courage? Would you remind them that you stand with them, that you, O God, through your Son, Jesus Christ, and the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit sustain us, that no matter what furnace we find ourselves in, that you turn that from a place of death to a refining work and a place for witness? I pray the same for my friends who are feeling that call this morning. And for those of us who maybe can't think of something right now where we're being asked to bow down or need to stand, would you build up our courage for when that moment comes, so that we might be reminded of the call to non-participation in those matters. And that we might be reminded that you are the Lord of the furnace. You are the one who's with us, that you are the one who delivers, so we trust in you. Amen? Amen. Let's respond with our closing hymn, a wonderful one for us to be encouraged to stand and to be bold in the ways in which we stand for Jesus, hymn number 608, "God of Grace and God of Glory," would you stand and sing with us? [MUSIC PLAYING]
Daniel 3