Through the Fire

What is conviction?

Conviction is to feel strongly about a belief you have.

Do you have any convictions?

So why does Nebuchadnezzar build this gold statue?

-It does not seem like a god, but it is intended to bring people “of every nation and language” to worship it.

-Does that phrase seem familiar? Where do you think you have heard that before?

-Revelation 7:9-10 “After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

-So he is trying to make one united kingdom, one religion in which all the people follow. It may even be representative of himself. Considering Daniel had told him he is the head of gold, he may be starting to relish this fact.

-This statue was huge.

What this statue represents, especially for the young men in our story, is the clash between worshipping the one true God, and to power and influence that comes with worshipping the gods of our culture.

-In the recent history of Ghana the President allowed a slightly more than life-size statue of himself to be erected in front of Parliament House, Accra. He ‘could tolerate no disunity in Ghana, which he shaped into a monolithic republic under the complete control of his party and dominated by his own personality as President (1960)’. An inscription on the side bore the words, ‘Seek ye first the political kingdom and all other things shall be added unto you.’ The statue was religiously controversial from the beginning and was destroyed after the bloodless coup of 1966.

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