Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We are examining the dynamics of this Unity Celebration, a call to unity, a command to kingdom loyalty and allegiance that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up in order to unify all the various nationalities around one god and one nation.

We saw last time this was not an uncommon practice.

He had conquered many nations and he wanted to solidify his kingdom hold on them by having them swear allegiance, worship this image he had set up.

We saw last time in the first seven verses of this chapter that the masses complied with his command.

They saw it as not a problem.

They were pantheists in their theology.

Adding one more was not a big deal to them.

Getting along and toleration was the name of the game for most people.

As it is today.

We all know the pressure to conform to this world’s way of thinking and doing things.

Now we turn to the uncommon and the unliked.

I say unliked, because those who want everyone to comply and conform, anyone who stands out as different or non-compliant is going to be unfriended.

The ones who claim to be most tolerant will all of a sudden become intolerant.

Most people don’t like others to rock the boat.

I know I was taught early in life that you are not to stand up in the boat while fishing lest you overturn it and we all go in the water.

There is a danger in standing up in the little fishing boat.

What we have here are three Jews who have chosen to stand up in the boat.

They will stick out like a sore thumb.

People will notice them not bowing.

You can imagine how they would be thinking how dumb they were.

Didn’t they hear the warning?

Don’t they know it is a serious thing to stand up against the king?

They will be killed if they stand up.

And after all, most people want to live, they don’t want to die.

But we have here three men who are more concerned about honoring God than they are about staying alive.

So we come to this next section:

II.

Three Jews Defy, 8-23

And we are going to look at this in the following manner so that it is easy to follow:

A. The Accusation, 8-12

B. The Inquisition, 13-15

C. The Refutation, 16-18

D. The Execution, 19-23

A. The Accusation, 8-11

Now we have a problem.

ON the one hand, the king was probably very happy that all who gathered bowed down just as he commanded.

He must not have seen them all or maybe wasn’t present to see there were ‘certain Jews’ who would not bow down to the image.

Nevertheless, there were those who would make that known to him.

What is astounding to me in this is that out of all the people in the kingdom, only three refuse to bow.

Or that is all we need to know about.

Daniel, mysteriously is not mentioned.

We don’t know where he is at.

And it is purely conjecture to posit reasons.

The fact is he is not one of these.

There are always going to be those who want to attack or be malicious toward those who are God’s people.

We ought not think it strange to come against such people in our lives.

The Bible is full of examples of God’s people being maligned by the ungodly, The prophets were, David was, Moses was, the apostles were, most importantly Jesus was.

So it should not surprise us in the least.

In fact, we should almost expect it if we are living godly lives in the public eye.

However, we can trust God will vindicate the wrongdoing.

We come face to face with ‘certain Chaldeans’ who maliciously accused the Jews

These malicious Chaldeans come to the king with “long live the king” which was a typical court greeting.

But considering the situation it has a smell of irony, hypocrisy toward the king who will kill any who do not bow to him.

So there is a bit of disingenuous wording here.

These men were accusing the Jews of disloyalty really.

But the wording here is such that the Jews were not trying to be disloyal, they were not seeking ill-will for the king at all.

But the word translated ‘accused’ is a word that means to devour, to eat up, thus to slander, in Aramaic it is used with another term that means ‘pieces’ thus to eat in pieces, A picture of devouring them piece by piece.

That along with what they say in v.12 gives us a clear picture that these accusers were the one’s who were disingenuous.

“long live the king” typical court greeting but considering the situation it has a smell of irony, hypocrisy toward teh one who will kill any who do not bow to him.

The word translated ‘accused’ is a word that means to devour, to eat up, thus to slander, in Hebrew it is used with another term that means ‘pieces’ thus to eat in pieces, A picture of devouring them piece by piece.

These Chaldeans were clearly jealous of being passed over by these Jews or they would not have mentioned their appointment in v.12.

They remind the king of his decree.

So in a sense holding him accountable with his own words.

In short, he has to act upon them or he will be embarrassed, They begin, “thou, O King.”

They place this all on his shoulders.

Notice additionally how they put this “There are certain Jews whom thou has set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. . .

.”v, 12

They have placed the onus on the King.

He has to act in order to save face.

Their accusation was two-fold:

1.they do not pay attention to you -”have not regarded thee”LXX “do not fear your commandment” the aramaic is a play on words in v.12 with v.10 “you have made a decree” same Aramaic words for both phrases.

In other words, they said, “King, you made a decree.”

and “thy have not obeyed your decree.”

It is like these men were challenging the king to compel these Jews to obey.

He gave the command but if they don’t obey what good is the command.

You put your foot down and they don’t care.

They ignore you.

That is an affront to the king.

What king can stand for that kind of obstinacy?

2.they do not serve your gods/worship the image

The first was probably not true, the second was true.

I don’t think the Jews were trying to be rebellious to the king.

I think the text of Daniel shows they were never against the king.

I am certain they were not obstinate with the king.

They would have been doing what Jeremiah told them to do.

Jeremiah 27:

Listen to this letter Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon,

:4-

So clearly these three would have been praying for the king, not antagonizing him.

However, they could not and would not bow to other gods.

The Law of God forbade them from that.

Here is the accusation, partly true partly false.

This is often the tactics of those who would attack one who is standing for what is right.

They use half truths and they inflame the emotions of others.

When believers who stand for truth and do not go along with the rest then the group becomes intolerant of the believer.

That is what happens here.

We have the accusation, now we move to the

B. The Inquisition, v.13-15

Now The king is furious so he commands the three be brought to him.

His emotions are running high.