Breaking the Hold of the Tyrant (Bible Study #12)

Dear DJAN Friends,

You know the story. The Babylonian ruler, Nebuchadnezzar, builds a huge, golden statue and orders all the people of the kingdom, including Jews (people of Judah) exiled there after the destruction of Jerusalem, to worship it. Three Jews, who had actually risen to positions of authority in Babylon, refuse. Here is a key passage.

Nebuchadnezzar said to them . . . "if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up" (Daniel 3:14-18).

At one level, this is a straightforward tale of God's miraculous power, a power that preserves SMA from a furnace so hot that it kills the men who threw them in–just as Israel went through the fire of Exile, but was not consumed (see Isaiah 43:2). The Jews are faithful to God, and so God saves them and, in the process, converts the king who finally declares, "Blessed be the God of SMA.”

At a deeper level, this is a story of resistance to tyrants and idols. Babylon was the superpower of its day (a reminder that superpowers come and go), imposing its will on others through military might. And the golden statue is an obvious symbol of the false gods humans so often worship. Read in this way, our text is a paradigm for every group of resisters whose faith leads them to stand before imperial power. Saying Yes! to the living God means saying No! to the pretensions of those who think they are in control.

The problem with this interpretation is that SMA are not active resisters. Look again at the reading: If our God can save us, let him save us; but if not, we still won't worship your gods. This isn't only a story of divine rescue or heroic resistance, it is a story of identity. Even if God doesn't act when and how we want–to end the pandemic, to bring peace in the Middle East, to rescue us from whatever threatening furnace–still we will be God's people. Daniel 3 never suggests that God acts to save SMA because of their trust. People of faith don't put constraints on God's will. Rather, they trust because that is who they are–in life and death, in triumph and setback, in joy and sorrow, in sickness and health. They (we) are God's, not Nebuchadnezzar's; and, in this way, the hold of the tyrant is broken.

May God grant us understanding and commitment.

—Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon