Daniel 3:1-7--Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image

Daniel 3:1-7
English Standard Version

Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image
3 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 3 Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” 7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

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The king quickly forgets what the LORD tried to teach him in his dream from chapter 2, or, more likely, tries to rebel against it.  We don't know that this happened immediately, but it would seem as if the vision of the large statue with the gold head might have inspired the king to make a large statue that was 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide made of solid gold that was made in his image to say in a way that he intended his kingdom to be eternal.  He placed his statue on a plain where there were no rolling boulders anywhere around to destroy the statue and he gathered all the government officials from all the provinces together in Babylon to have a dedication ceremony.

Certainly it was common for kings to have big projects like this to cause the people to remember them years later and it would be typical to have a celebration at the completion of such a project, and it would also be typical to invite everybody who was somebody and to have all kinds of musicians there.  What is not normal is what came next--a decree from the king that when the music played, everyone, no matter who they were or where they were from or even what language they spoke--must bow down and worship the golden image.  The king has it in his head somehow that he is a god.  While emperor worship is also not too strange at that time, I think you can see from this passage the inversion of the blessings and curses that the LORD gave his people.  The king promises that worshiping the golden image will bring life and blessing for all those gathered there.  The LORD says that idolatry brings the curses of the Law, death, and separation from God both now and in the life to come.  The king promises the closest thing he cam promise to hellfire for those who disobey now, but the LORD promises eternal judgment and hellfire for those who would rebel against Him and choose idolatry.  The Jews knew better--they had just been cast out of the Land and put into exile for practicing idolatry and everything associate with it.  Would they bow down when the music played?

The passage seems to indicate that everyone bowed down when the music played, but that must not have been true given what comes next in the story (which we will talk about next time).  There are rabble-rousers among the Chaldeans that whisper to the king that the Jewish exiles will not bow down to the statue--that they say that it is somehow against their religion.  The king will seek to make an example of Daniel's three friends, but instead it will be time for the king to learn another lesson from the LORD.  We'll talk about that next time.