A Higher Power

Daniel 3: The Hebrews in Nebuchadnezzar’s Furnace

Ancient Hebrew culture was contemplative. You were supposed to read or hear something and think about it, extrapolating and expanding on it. You were training the mind to obey something much higher than intellect. There were boundaries to the expansions, but you learned those by spending time listening to someone who had lived longer and much more wisely than others. You went looking for sages whose very lives called out to you, and you spent the time necessary to discern if their reputation matched your own drive for moral truth.

Yeah, it looks like a crapshoot, but your confidence in God meant trusting Him to lead you out of something that might be deceptive at first. God has time to wait for you to grow up and human experience necessitated making mistakes along the way. Death was just a circumstance in the bigger picture.

So when Daniel’s buddies in Nebuchadnezzar’s imperial court got into trouble, they walked in faith. Daniel takes the time to explain the background, but Westerners invariably get it wrong. In a polytheistic culture, the idea was to raise revenue, though not in the raw materialism it would be in our culture. It was so obvious that no one bothered to mention that you don’t pray to any god without making an offering. Neb’s other advisers told him it would be a good idea, probably based on alleged astrological reckoning, to briefly restrict such activity to some arbitrarily chosen deity, represented by the statue. That particular deity’s treasury would then increase due to the monopoly. The idea of a permanent monopoly would have shocked their consciences, not to mention causing a religion-inspired revolt that would have likely succeeded. But a temporary demand of this sort was generally tolerable to the people of that time and place.

The Hebrews lacked the sort of leverage to represent much of a threat. At this point the Chaldeans didn’t quite get the Hebrew religion on this one essential point: Just because Jehovah permitted their conquest and enslavement does not mean He’ll share their religious loyalties, too. Those who did understand it didn’t explain their motives to the Emperor. These Hebrews were a threat to their power within the imperial court. This lesson had to be repeated again later and with other imperial governments, but we notice the Romans had caught on by the time it was their turn. In Daniel 3, it was a lesson yet to be learned.

So when they were called in for violating the edict, their answer does not translate well into English. In essence, it was the equivalent of nolo contendere. “We have no defense because we aren’t disputing the facts.” What mattered was that they weren’t worried about the consequences, either. As far as they were concerned, Neb had no leverage in this matter. If it meant dying, then they’d die, but these young fellows had no doubt their God could handle it with them alive or dead. Most emphatically they were sure He was able to keep them alive, contrary to Neb’s stated assumptions.

Thus it happened. Neb realized that, in at least this point of imperial law, it was out of his jurisdiction.

His anger at their attitude is so common today that we often mistake all the opportunities to provide the same lesson to far lesser humans. It first requires you walk through the Valley of Death; you have to make utterly certain for yourself that the consequences for walking in truth are of no significance compared to the value of the truth. Strive for a clear conscience and enslave your mind to the truth. Take your lumps for missteps, but learn to recognize when God actually approves. The psychology of that is covered in other posts; just do it.

The point is recognizing when people try to make you bow down to their gods.

A crazed feminist bitch demanding you apologize for making her feel bad? The facts are more important than your feelings or mine. (This assumes you didn’t speak with the intent to provoke.)

Someone accusing you of racism? I’m content with your failure to understand my motives. (You can’t fix stupid.)

Threats to make you uncomfortable for daring to suggest social orthodoxy might be in error are hardly in the same league as Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, but is made of the same substance. The issue is not who is right, but Whom you serve.