“Each looked
for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invoked
His aid against the other.... The prayers of both could not be answered.
That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes....
[If] God wills that [this war] continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be
paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years
ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether."
Given these words
from Lincoln—and their insight into the nature of the One, to
whom both Northerners and Southerners, to whom both industrialists and
slave owners prayed—I would now remind us that our focus for these
weeks is the third great end of the church, i.e. the maintenance of
divine worship. And so i) this morning, I would have us consider the
setting of our text from Daniel 3; then ii) to consider the contrast
between Nebuchadnezzar and the three Jews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
in order that iii) we might understand and experience worship as the
claim of God.
First, our setting: Our account is set within the
sixth century before Christ; the brightest and best from the tiny nation
of Israel must serve the power of Babylon; and as an expression of that
power, King Nebuchadnezzar, the sole potentate, built a monumental,
gold statue before whom all under his authority must fall in worship.
No doubt the grandeur and magnificence of this dedication—the
thousands in attendance, the regal pomp and circumstance—were
fully beyond the cultural imagination and experience of three Jewish,
but Babylonian officials, who refused to bow. Enraged by their refusal,
Nebuchadnezzar gave them a choice: Either bow or burn. In response,
the three in essence stated: If our God, whom we serve, will deliver
us from the blazing fire, so be it; if not, nonetheless we will not
bow to your god, O’ King. With their refusal, Nebuchadnezzar stoked
the flames of his furnace commensurate with his white-hot anger, only
to observe the power of the One, whom the three Jews served.
Now secondly this morning, the contrast between Nebuchadnezzar
and the three Jews: Whoever authored our account, artfully by degrees
revealed the king’s character as a person of great power, prestige
and ego. Although the text does not so state, it is possible that the
idol Nebuchadnezzar had built bore his image; but whether it did or
not, it is clear that Nebuchadnezzar viewed himself as god-like, that
he expected others to worship him, or if not him, those gods who were
an extension of his absolute ego. The gods, his identity and power were
nearly synonymous.
In contrast, the three Jews certainly did not have Nebuchadnezzar’s
life-or-death power; nor did they view their God as an extension of
themselves—in fact, quite the opposite. For them, neither God’s
existence nor His power was in doubt, for these were not the issue;
rather, He was the Creator, and they were the creature. They had no
power or control over Him—no means of manipulation, no leverage
With this contrast between the king and the three
Jews, now iii) let us consider the third great end of the church and
worship as the claim of God. To speak of worship in terms of “claim”
is in great measure to speak of “authority.” Nebuchadnezzar’s
power was god-like, and if he did not view himself as a god, certainly
he viewed his gods as aligning themselves with him. That is, his gods
were the right gods, and these gods confirmed the rightness of his thoughts,
his views, his decisions and his actions: to think and act counter to
the king was to think and act counter to his gods; and to think and
act counter to his gods was to think and act wrongly. Moreover, most
likely enmeshed within Nebuchadnezzar’s view of his gods was the
notion that their powers were to be at his disposal: if he had a problem,
then they were to grant him what he needed—oh, it’s true,
he might have to concede some payment, but he could give in order to
get.
Nebuchadnezzar’s view is a very typical “religious view:”
My god, as opposed to your god, is the right god; moreover, the existence
of my god is demonstrated by what my god does for me according to my
self-determined need. This view, however, is markedly other than that
presented by the three Jews and the tradition which asserts: Thus says
the Lord, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways;” thus says the Lord, “O house of Israel,
can I not do with you as [the] potter does?... Like clay in the hand
of the potter, so are you in my hand;” and, markedly other than
Jesus’ words, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
and do not do the things I say?’ or Jesus’ words, “Deny
yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”
As I stated last Sunday, weekly worship provides that
opportunity to recall who we are and whose we are—a recollection
we quickly forget, for we mostly live as though “it’s all
about me.” Christian worship claims: It’s not all about
you; you exist for God, God does not exist for you. You are His, He
is not yours, as though you possess Him. You were created for His praise;
He was not created to praise you. Weekly Christian worship seeks to
revolutionize the work of Adam and Eve, so that, rather than your asserting
to be god-like, God lays claim upon your life, authoritatively commanding
you to work the garden in which He has placed you; authoritatively commanding
you to love, to give, to forgive, to sacrifice … for you to be
like Him, not for Him to be like you. The wonder of worship, the wonder
of submitting to His authority, is that therein will you find your identity,
your freedom and your rest.
Given the hot-button issues of his day, i.e. industrialization
and slavery, Lincoln correctly observed that neither side was right,
for the Lord correctly judged both sides as wrong. Only by worship of
the Lord God of creation can such a view be gained. Christian worship
seeks to identify you as His—for you were bought at a price.