Notes and Questions for March 8, 2009

Notes and Questions for March 8, 2009

Last week we saw how God can see the future and uses those in the bible to show us His sovereignty. He used even the non-believer Neb to reveal the future through his dream and Daniel to tell it.

This week we study how Neb forgot the greatness of Daniel’s God and obviously did not have a true conversion of faith to God. Don’t forget that last week Neb was prostrate in awe of God. Also remember that Daniel plainly told Neb that his interpretation did not come from him but from God.

This week, as we read through the bible in the new building, I am sure to be reminded of how clearly God speaks to us and yet we fall away on small and big things every day. We refocus ourselves on idols in our lives rather than persisting in our faith and refuge and the truth of His word. Because we all do this it is important to look to this week’s study as one where we need to be like Daniel and join arm in arm together in our fight against sin and separation from God through our spiritual disciplines. I am not talking about losing salvation if you are saved so please do not be confused. I am talking about losing out in the joy of our relationship with the one God we will be with for eternity. Remember John 10:10 as you think about what we must give up each day and week in our focus to fully and completely focus on Him.

Please read the section – Daniel 3:1-7

1. What are the main points of this passage and why?
2. So what is wrong with having a big image of gold erected and dedicated?

Despite Yahweh’s warning through the dream and interpretation that he would judge and destroy the idol-worshipping empires, Neb forgot his new religious insights and proceeded to force on all of his subjects – even the Yahweh-worshipping Jews – the worship of the patron god of the Chaldean government. This not only indicates the superficial nature of his earlier confession of Yahweh as “God of gods and Lord of kings” (2:47), but it also suggests an egotism tending toward megalomania. Yet we cannot be certain why he took this extraordinary step. He may have felt, like many pagans, that multiple loyalties were permissible in worshipping the gods. He may have seen nor more conflict between worshipping several different deities that between serving a local government and the central government. In any event, he laid down no requirement for his subjects to renounce or to cease private worship of their own personal gods; he simply demanded complete loyalty to the state, as represented by this public ceremony of prostration before his patron god (presumably Nabu). Failure to do this would not only amount to impiety and irreligion, it would also be treason.

Read verses 1 -3

3. What is being made?
4. What is happening in verse 2?
5. Who is coming to have the image dedicated?
6. Are these your favorite verses in the bible? Why or why not? J

Neb had the statue made of gold (i.e. covered with gold leaf). Actually, there was not enough gold in all of Babylonia to make a statue so large of solid gold. The erecting of the golden image undoubtedly reflected the symbolism of the dream-image in which the head of gold represented Babylonia. Perhaps Neb was motivated by a desire to fulfill the type. As to whom the status represented, it seems doubtful that it was the king himself (as some have suggested). We have no evidence that the statues of a Mesopotamian ruler were ever worshipped as divine during the ruler’s lifetime. Such practices may have been followed in the Egypt of Ramses II (though we have no decisive proof of this), but hardly in the Sumerian, Babylonian, or Assyrian empires. It is far more likely that the status represented Neb’s patron god, Nebo (or Nabu). Prostration before Nebo would amount to a pledge of allegiance to his viceroy, Nabu-kudurri-usur, i.e. Neb.

From the king’s standpoint, no reasonable man could refuse to give this token of loyalty to his sovereign and his government. The fairly recent date of the establishment of the Babylonian Empire as the successor to Assyria (at least in its southern half) made it appropriate for Neb to assemble all the local and provisional leaders from every part of his domain and, in essence, exact from them a solemn oath of loyalty, certified with a religious sanction by this ceremony of adoration of Babylon’s god. But if any officials refused to comply, they were to be immediately executed in the superheated furnace erected nearby.

The titles of the various ranks of government officials give and impression of a well-organized bureaucracy. 1) “the satraps” (from Old Persian - realm protectors) – who apparently were in charge of a fairly large realms; 2) “prefects” (from Akkadian – one who is appointed) – possibly military commanders but more likely lieut governors; 3) “goverors” from Akkadian – lord of administrative district) – indicating leaders of smaller territories like the province of Judea; 4) “advisers” (derived from Persian – counsel giver); 5) “treasurers” – treasure bearer; 6) “judges” (from old Persian – law bearer); 7) “magistrates” (from old Persian – over chief); and 8) “provincial officials” – to have dominion over, a general term for a governmental exectutive.

Five of these titles are apparently of Iranian origin, even though the scene for this episode is early in the reign of Neb (the median tongue might conceivably have contributed some loan words even back around 600 B.C.). We must conclude, therefore, that Daniel 3, in its final form at least, must have been composed after the rise of the Persian Empire (in 539); and the terms used must have replaced those that were actually employed in the Aramaic around the turn of the century. This agrees perfectly with the supposition that Daniel finished this book for publication around 532 B.C., when the new Persian title would have been current in the metropolis of Babylon.

At the same time it should be pointed out that by the second century B.C. (the Maccabean period), some of these Persian loan words had become obsolete and could not longer by correctly translated, at least by the Alexandrian Jews. This can only mean that the chapter 3 of Daniel must have been composed long enough before the second century for these words to have been forgotten – which might well have happened after a composition date in the 530s.

Read verse 4-7

7. what is significant about verse 4?
8. who is being commanded at this point?
9. In verse 5 what is the timing and what are they to do?
10. In verse 6 what is it that will happen if you don’t do what is commanded?
11. Who fell down and worshipped?
12. What do people fall down and worship besides the Lord these days?
13. What is a universal command for our society? Is there a universal response if you don’t follow that command. Take your time here and think about commands society has made…
14. What do you worship in your family? How would someone else know?
15. What would you do in this situation – be honest
16. If you would have fallen down what would be going through your mind? What would have been the witness if you didn’t?

In order to furnish a proper musical setting for the ceremony of worshipping the image, Neb enlisted the services of royal musicians, who played all the instruments then in use. The six instruments listed in verse 5 did not exhaust the list of different instruments, for “all kinds of music” implied that there may have been a good many others besides. It was this orchestra that was to give the signal for all the assembled throng to bow down and worship the golden statue, as a solemn declaration of their commitment to the Babylonian government and their willingness to incur diving wrath if they should ever break their oath of fealty. Nearby the furnace was roaring (verse 6) – a grim reminder of the dreadful alternative to compliance. The official leadership of every nation and district under Neb’s rule had to join in this act of worship on pain of death. Needless to say, there was a universal compliance when the music struck up (verse 7), and all the foreheads in the great multitude touched the ground at the same moment – except for three men.