Daniel pt 3

           Continuing through Daniel, we reach chapter 3. In chapter 3, we see these three men of Daniel’s companions stand in opposition to an entire faulted system. The system is that the king orders, and the king gets what he orders. He has the power, and he will exercise this power without humility. There is no need or reason to be humble. You listen to him because you are the peon in the pew, and he is the pastor. You are the peasant in the plain; he is the president in the palace. You are the plodder; he is the professional. Got the picture?

            This stems directly to how we’re taught to think about ourselves. We’re worth more than what we have. We’re taught that we deserve the best in life. We’re taught that we deserve the Hollywood lifestyle, even if we’re making a few percent (or in my case, not even that) of what Hollywood makes. We’re taught that it’s ours for the taking. This mindset of the king’s isn’t some peculiarity or an anomaly. It is what the principalities and powers preach. It is what every person feels, even if only slightly.

            In this chapter we have King Nebuchadnezzar make the law that when trumpets and flutes and all kinds of music start playing, you are to bow down to the statue. How else might I express this? This is the same kind of system that says if you will bow down and play by the rules, then you will be exulted. This is the system that says you just have to work hard, and if you continue to work and be faithful, then you will be promoted. Yet what actually happens? The guy who has the connections gets the promotion (not always, but you get my point).

            Nebuchadnezzar here is a representation of Satan himself. Satan lies and manipulates. You can have fame and stardom if you sell your soul to get on television. You can have money (all of it in the world) if you will only obey his rules and his authority. In fact, the music industry and hollywood is known to force people to sign their names in blood and promote Satanism. 

            This is a story about the end of the age. It's message might be the single most important teaching for our day and age. If you will submit your life to the powers that be, then you find yourself in a place of easement. But if you can see through the wisdom of the age, and that it is faulty through and through (for it has Satanic principles at its origin), then you will be fiercely opposed. If you decide to go against being the way of self promotion, self exultation, self relieving, self pity, self worth, self preservation (get the point with all the selfs?), and live as one who is dead to this world and alive in Jesus Christ, then you will be absolutely ridiculed in everything you do.

            This system cannot simply be something that you work for. You will either be vehemently opposed, or you will be tolerated. We live and work in the system that says, "Me first; if I don't take care of myself, then who will?" It can only happen one of two ways. Either we will reflect the system in our own lives, or we will be opposed in even our work environment because we reflect something greater. In this way, we show how the king is a symbol of every human being. This life is all we have, so we might as well live it up. We don't know whether we'll be around tomorrow, so lets get drunk, have sex, manipulate and steal our way to the top, care about no one and nothing else, and and "live life" big while we do it.

            The King has spoken, and you must listen. He has said that you shall worship this statue when the trumpets and horns and music start playing. And Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego continue to stand and neglect the worship of this statue. It is a stance against an entire governmental system that describes the last days and even these days here and now. These men defy something deeper than a government official. They defy the very spiritual powers behind that governmental figure.

            This is how you must read the Scriptures. When they are cast into the fiery furnace, it is because they have gone against the ways of the world. They have stood in opposition to something that everyone held to be “the way it is.” They stood against those dark powers that bind men to death and keep them bound, and offered the world resurrection by saying in their disobedience, “You don’t have to live like this.” They stand in the gap and tell the world all about the lie that society so preaches, and we in the Church have so believed. These three men came against a system that says, “If you’re ever going to have a house, you’ll need a loan.” Then I don’t need a house. I don’t need a car. I don’t need the supermarket. I’ll buy and sell in my own way. I find my own employment without having to support a system built by Satan. I’ll plant my own garden, and from it shall I eat.

            I believe that this is the answer to a question that I’ve heard quite a bit. If at the end of the times we cannot buy, sell, or trade, then how will we live? We will live by growing our own crop and taking care of each other. As it was at the first, where they sold everything and shared with one another, so it shall be at the end.

            That is why they were tossed into the furnace. The false humility of the king is also presented in that he offers them their lives if they will bow down to the statue of gold. Doesn’t this story just sound like all of the kid’s movies we’ve watched? The hero stands against all that is evil, and just when it looks like it might be the end, the evil doer gives one last chance to surrender to the dark side…

            They don’t. In fact, they insult the king. “Even if our God doesn’t deliver us, we’re still not bowing down to your stupid statue that doesn’t even talk, and that you built with your own hands. It is not a god, and it doesn’t deserve humanity to even acknowledge it.” It is no wonder why the king turned the heat up to the maximum.

            What does it say? How does the story end? These three men, our heroes, those who are within our cloud of witnesses walk in the furnace with a fourth man. And the fourth man looks like a son of the gods… There are obvious theological implications we can take from this. I’m sure you’ve either heard or thought about how Jesus walks with us through our fiery furnaces. What I want to glean is not the fourth person with them, but that they don’t smell like smoke, and they aren’t even singed. There is simply no evidence that they were even tossed into the flame.

            Where, oh grave, is your victory? And where, oh death, is your sting?

            Martyrdom isn’t something that is optional. It is a necessity. And because it is a necessity, it isn’t something that happens at the end of your life. Martyrdom is the style of living in opposition to these principalities and powers. You know persecution will come. You know death is an option. You live in opposition anyway. You bump against the grain anyway. Even when they threaten you with death, you say, “Our God will deliver us. But even if He doesn’t, we still won’t bow the knee.”

            That is martyrdom. We count it as blessing to walk through the fire of the furnace, whether it means life or death. Suffering isn’t something we fear. The displeasure of men (or our parents) isn’t something that we fear. We wrestle not with flesh and blood…

            All of this brings me to the story of Stephen. I have recently been convicted of having anger in my heart towards a fellow brother. I know it is true that God is offended at his behavior. Yet, I was not able to let it go and say, “Father, forgive him. He doesn’t know what he is doing.” What is it about Jesus’ character and Stephen’s character that caused them to say such things while they were at the verge of death?

            I believe, now, that it is an understanding of the powers behind such systems. When the religious system came against them, they were able to see that it wasn’t the people doing it. It was the powers that were ruling them. I had it wrong. This man is a brother. He is supposed to know better. He is supposed to know that this kind of action and unwillingness toward God is unacceptable. Yet, though he has no excuse, it wasn’t my place to judge him. I am to judge the angels.

            It is my place to stand in the gap for him, and to condemn the powers behind him that blind him. There was something in me of authenticity that stood against whatever was in him. Though it is true that it is evil in him, it doesn’t mean that he is evil. The opposition between the two of us was not noticed.

            He didn’t realize what was happening. And those people I gave that message to didn’t realize that when truth went forth, they didn’t have the capacity of truth in their own lives to receive it. So they rejected it by rejecting the messenger. It wasn’t that they are evil, it was that they are bound by Satan. And they need someone to be able to pray, “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.”

            There has to be a generation who is able to stand against the powers, and at the same time offer to even the rulers and the kings and priests and prophets and all of those who oppose us freedom. We are to in one sense stretch out a hand in opposition, and with the other hand stretch out relief and freedom. With one hand we hold back the powers of darkness and with the other we offer hope. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, and this is how we can be a Daniel generation.

            This kind of thing doesn’t come with prayer and fasting. These things help, but they must come with wrestling. We have to wrestle with the Scriptures and with theology and with our community and with God Himself. We must be willing to truly pray. This kind of prayer that wrestles until the blessing comes is the only thing that will suffice. That is why this is only the introduction. We need to examine the character of God in order to understand better what details we need to pay attention to.

            At the heart of everything we do and say and believe is our perception of who God is. God’s one strike against Israel in the Psalms is “You thought I was one like yourself.” It was in the wrong understanding of God that the people Israel did wickedness. The same is true for us. It is in our wrong understanding of the character of God that we wrestle with flesh and blood instead of the principalities and powers.

            I believe that this is why the prophecies of Daniel don't come until after the stories of Daniel. The point is being pressed: you cannot understand this unless you understand God. You cannot gain wisdom without being open to whatever that wisdom might direct you toward. God might completely challenge your entire theology and the way you view the Scriptures. Are you willing to drink from that cup?
            There are some really challenging stories presented in the book of Daniel. They are the preliminary. God does not grant this kind of knowledge and wisdom to anyone. We must be a Daniel people. We must be able to wrestle as Daniel and his friends wrestled. We must be able to believe in God as they believed. This is no longer an option.
            I am becoming more and more convinced that the closer we are brought to Christ's return, the clearer it will become as to who is apostate and who is apostolic. The gray space will disappear. As the day grows closer, we won't be able to be casual. I would rather be in a mode of living in God's glory now so that when that day comes I won't have to change my lifestyle and heart and attitude. That's what it is all about, right? "To God be glory forever..."