Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast, equipping our leaders of this great weekly Bible study held at Dario, our wonderful, gracious host. all across North Carolina. This is to equip, encourage, and guide you as you prepare to teach the word and guide discussion at each location each week. And we continue our journey now through the the book of Daniel.
Here we are with today's special guest. Dr. Sam Horn. Many a book, many a drama, maybe a movie. all kinds of kids literature in story time.
Have been themed, have been based on what we're talking about, the great. fiery furnished. Dadrach, Meshach, and Abinigo, they did not bow. And Dr. Sam Horn, here we are, and on our I believe this is episode number.
five where we're in chapter three of Daniel and these verses are rich. And what a great story of courage. This is legendary. Dr. Horne, we talk about this story so much.
We sing about it. It's been heralded all throughout church history. And and even Before that, That some folks think, well, this is just like a fairy tale. This really didn't happen. But Dr.
Horne, as all of these things we're talking about in the Word of God in our journey through Daniel in this Wednesday in the Word podcast. This is real. These are real people, aren't they, sir? Talk about the historicity, the importance of that.
So that's exactly right, Stu. I mean, it's almost so fantastical in our day and age because we don't live in the kind of a world where one man has this kind of absolute power over the world, like Nebuchadnezzar did in his day. But as you read the book of Daniel, it is inspired. It is artfully arranged. We talked about the two languages and why God inspired it that way.
But the other thing to note is the kind of literature that it is. As you read the first seven chapters of Daniel, it's actually historical narrative, which means that Daniel is reporting to you real events that happened. The king really did have a dream. And this is what the dream really was. And this is how it was interpreted.
And this is how it all happened. There really was an Ariok who came to execute all the wise men.
So all the things we're reading about are historical realities. And for example, in chapter one, we read about King Jehoiakim.
Well, we know he was a historical character.
So there's no question as you read the book of Daniel, particularly in this early section, you are reading history that really happened. We get to this story. It just continues to build. You know, we've been through chapter one, we've been through chapter two, Dr. Horne.
Kind of by way of review, and then we'll jump into a preview of this coming lesson, this coming Wednesday in the Word. And our women in the word that go through the word together on Thursday, we'll do a preview of what to expect and what to look for. But as you look at these verses, Kind of tell us how we got here. I don't think we know exactly how long it's been between chapter two and chapter three, but this king had a dream, and you would think he learned about the only true God, the only God to bow to. But it's as though Being the head of gold in his dream in chapter two wasn't enough.
He had to have an entire image of gold. To be bowed down to. Bring us to where our heroes are and how far along and The timetable is this. Yeah, it's a great question because I think sometimes when we read a book like Daniel, where historical events are woven together so closely, we assume that last week, you know, Daniel was talking to King Nebuchadnezzar as a young, you know, 18 to 20 year old, newly arrived, trained to stand in the king's presence, nobleman. And then two weeks later, or maybe a month later, they're all on the plain of Dura, on the plain of Shinar, falling down before an image.
And that's really not what happened. What you have is Daniel in the early years, in the first three years of his time in Babylon, in that training time, Nebuchadnezzar, young king, at the top of the world, at the height of the military prowess that brought him there. It's an amazing story. And And he's impressed. I mean, Daniel has done something.
That has left this king open mouthed. He's impressed. His wise men, the best of the Chaldeans, could not do what Daniel was able to do. And instead of getting credit to himself, Daniel said, I can't do it either, but there is a God who can, and it's the God of heaven. And so, all of a sudden, Nebuchadnezzar has come face to face with the message God wants the nations to know, which is why I put this whole section in Aramaic.
He wants the nations to know that there is a God in heaven and he rules the kingdoms of men. And so, Nebuchadnezzar has been impressed enough to get off his throne, fall down on his knees in front of Daniel, and pay obeisance to Daniel's God. All right, that's chapter two, that's where we were last week. Fast forward to chapter three, and there are at least 20 years that have passed. Daniel is now somewhere close to 40 years of age.
We left Daniel at the end of chapter two, and he remained at the king's court. In other words, Because of what he was able to do, Nebuchadnezzar promoted him to the highest non-royal position in the land. The only person who had greater power than Daniel would have been Nebuchadnezzar's royal family.
So think about Pharaoh in Egypt promoting Joseph to the second highest position in the land. You are being introduced in the book of Daniel to a new Joseph. And he's going to be elevated by a new pharaoh. Nebuchadnezzar to the highest position in the land, which, by the way, explains 20 years later why he's not on the plane. You never took everybody everywhere.
When you bring every nation, every tribe, every tongue and representatives from all of the parts of your kingdom and all of the nations under your rule, and you bring them to a plane, you're going to leave somebody trusted back at the palace to make sure there isn't a coup. And that little hint is given to us in Daniel chapter two. And 20 years later, Daniel has moved into that role. He is a very, very high-ranking, powerful voice in Nebuchadnezzar's ear. And so that's kind of setting us up.
What has happened in those 20 years is that. Things have not remained calm and quiet in Jerusalem. Jehoiakim and the boys back in Jerusalem have started to feel emboldened and they've decided, you know what? I think it's time for us to challenge Nebuchadnezzar. And this has been ongoing.
They wouldn't listen to Jeremiah. They wouldn't listen to the warnings that Nebuchadnezzar's envoy sent. And so finally, Nebuchadnezzar comes for a third time. And this time he destroys everything. He burns the temple down that Solomon had built so that not one stone remains among the others.
He doesn't just burn the temple down. He destroys the entire city. He burns the city. And then, beyond that, he doesn't just burn the city, he takes all of the remaining people captive, except for the ones that fled away down to Egypt with Jeremiah.
So, in Nebuchadnezzar's mind, whatever happened 20 years ago in that vision where God said, Hey, you're going to have the head of gold, and then your kingdom's going to be torn down, and eventually the kingdom of Persia, and then the kingdom of Greece, and then the kingdom of Rome, and then my kingdom's going to come and tear all of yours down. Nebuchadnezzar, 20 years later, is actually saying, Well, you know, actually, I took care of that problem. Because I just went and destroyed Yahweh's temple, his house, his land.
So actually, we're going to change the dream. And so he sets up On the plain of Durah, on the plain of Shinar, he sets up. a golden image. He's going to take the image of the of the kingdoms in chapter two. or and then he's going to make him one kingdom his and he's going to make it all gold and he uh is going to set it up seven times in the first five verses we read nebuchadnezzar set up he set up he set up the king set up So we are being focused in on a king named Nebuchadnezzar.
And a kingdom that Is represented by this golden statue that he set up, and seven times we're reminded of that. In chapter two, we were told God is going to set up a kingdom, and Nebuchadnezzar says, That's off, that plan is done. I was so impressed, I'm no longer impressed, I'm impressed with my ability to set up a kingdom. And so, that's where we are when everybody from all the corners of the world, every nation, tongue, and tribe. And by the way, in Daniel 7, every nation, tongue, and tribe is going to come and bow down to the sun.
Well, here, every nation, tongue, and tribe is being brought to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. Wow, so that's that's what we're looking at. That's how we got here. Tremendous preview.
Now, we're gonna, or review, now we're gonna look at some preview. We look at this. Thirty verses are in chapter three. Of Daniel's book, Book of Prophecy, a book of wisdom, as we've discussed. I broke it down this way.
You know, I love the alliteration stuff.
So I came up with this. You have a deadly decree. In verses one through seven. You have decided defiance in verses 8 through 15. You have deep devotion.
In verses 16 through 18, and then you have divine deliverance in verses 19 through 30.
So, Dr. Horn, you took that kind of the elephant or the Daniel out of the room. Where's Daniel? You helped answer that, and you know, to help clarify that, and I'm grateful because that's a question a lot of people ask. Of course, he wouldn't have bowed because we knew that he had made up his mind and he was a resolute follower of God, of the true God, in Daniel 1:8.
And he was attending to the affairs, maybe away on a trip, but you know, someone had to hang home when all these folks were out on the plains of Dura, and they brought everybody in. To bow down because Nebuchadnezzar needed to know who was loyal to him, he needed to know who truly. Was in allegiance with Nebuchadnezzar.
So, Dr. Horn, as we go through each of these things, let me just, can you just give us a sentence? On each of these points, starting with. A deadly decree goes throughout the land. For everyone to come and to bow down to this image, or it's bow or burn, Dr.
Horn. Quickly speak to that, and then we'll go to the decided defiance.
Well, truth is opposed, right? I mean, here you have three men, and they are just like Daniel. They have the same heart Daniel has. They have the same mind Daniel has. They have the same commitments Daniel has.
And they are now being asked to do something that God expressly forbids. Truth is opposed. And you talk about deadly. I mean, they were in a catch-22. If they bowed down to that idol.
Moses said, anybody that bows down to a graven image will be stoned.
So they knew that the God of heaven who they served had pronounced a death sentence on anybody who bowed to an idol. Here they have the most powerful king on earth, and he's saying, if you don't bow to my idol, you're going to burn. I'm going to execute you in a horrific way. And so they've got to decide which king at that moment they're going to have to obey. And think about that.
I mean. You know, in chapter one, Dan could have said, look, I'm far away from home. I'm far away from my family. God has not protected us. We were captured.
You know, we'll just eat the king's meat and stay alive. But they chose to obey God. And the same thing is going on here. They could have said, look, for 20 years we've been serving God and here we are and God hasn't delivered us. He hasn't rescued us from Babylon.
And now we've got the king who just destroyed our whole temple, our whole religious system. And now we're standing on this plane. We don't know what's going on with the God of heaven, but we do know what's going on with the king we serve and we're going to obey him. But they made the opposite choice. And that is what is at stake every time we show up in our own modern-day Babylon.
Which king are we going to obey? Which kingdom are we going to represent? Wow.
So we have this decree. We have this defiance. Warren Rearsby said this. Dr. Horn, you may have heard this quote.
It's from his commentary, Be Resolute. The three men Could have compromised with the king and defended their disobedience by arguing everybody's doing it, or our office demands that we obey, or we'll bow to our knees so we won't bow our, but we won't bow our hearts, we won't bow on the inside. Or they might have said, We can do our people more good by being officers in the king's service than by being ashes in the king's furnace.
So, true faith doesn't look for loopholes, it simply obeys God and knows that he will do what is best. Faith rests. And those are real, those are real everyday choices, right? I mean, think about when you're young and you don't have anything, it's almost easier to take a stand for God than when you've been in a company for 25 years and you're now the vice president in the corner office. And all of a sudden, you've got to make a choice about which God you're going to serve, right?
Or which kingdom you're going to live for. And it is super easy, like you just said, to say, you know what? If I just cut. This corner, or if I just bow the knee a little bit, man, I could do so much greater work for the kingdom from this position than if I lost my job. And believers are having to make those kinds of choices.
The men and women who sit in that Bible study and hear this chapter live in that world every single day. Wow.
Yeah, you've got great benefits. You've got a great job. You're in a massive crowd of thousands of people. Who's going to even know? And I don't want to, hey, I've been given this opportunity to be a witness for the true God.
So, you know, where's the harm in this?
So a great point, but they believed in God's promises. And then this next few verses, Nebuchadnezzar doubles down and says, hey, let's give this, let's run this back. And the Hebrews say, we're not going to run this back. Respectfully, they said, hey, and there's these famous words, Dr. Horn.
And this is what I call their devotion, their deep devotion, where they say, but if not, they say, if that is the case, Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, but if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. What does this tell us quickly, Dr. Horn? This resolution, this devotion to God.
But if not, they're like whether we die. Whether we live, we're not going to bow. Yeah, so you asked me for a phrase. In this section, I would say this is courageous. confession in the face of faithfulness challenged because you've got a group of people who have been watching and waiting for an opportunity to tear these three men down.
And they've been biting their time for 20 long years.
Now, these are the people that Shadrach, Meshiach, And Abednego and Daniel prayed for and appealed for mercy. and spared The death sentence that they would have faced in chapter two. 20 years later, in spite of all of that grace and all of that mercy, they're still looking to tear these men down. And so, I just as a point of reference, the text says they came maliciously and accused them to the king. The idea there in the Hebrew or in the Aramaic rather is they devoured them, they came seeking to devour them.
And here's the point. God's servants Who are merciful and gracious and kind in the world in which they live will never be fully understood because there is an evil one who is behind evil men trying to tear them down.
So, what these men faced on that plane is what you and I are gonna face every day of our life. We may not be asked to bow down to a physical gold statue. But when we take our stand in the business room or in the in the corporate office or or at the meeting or wherever it is, there's going to be opposition. And that's. That's the framework here.
And so obviously they come before the king and basically these men say, look, these guys have disrespected you. They have disobeyed you and they have disregarded you. And of course, Nebuchadnezzar. is livid. All of the favor that was upon these men.
goes away. And you can see that in verse 19. His face changes toward these men. In other words, they fell from his grace. Immediately.
And he has the furnace heated seven times. to its normal heating. And he warns them. I'm going to give you a chance.
Now, we don't know what motivated it. Maybe it was the appreciation he had for their loyal service for 20 years, but he gives them a second opportunity. And he says: if you bow, all will be well. But if you don't, you're going to burn. And these men make an important comment.
Uh, at that point, they literally say to the king, uh, what you said earlier, uh, and I'm coming to that text here: uh, there is no need to answer you on this matter. Right? Here's what the king said, you'll be cast into a fiery furnace, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? You remember when Pharaoh asked Moses that question. Who is this God that I should deliver his people?
And here is the new Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and he is saying to God's servants. Who's the God who's going to be able to deliver you out of that furnace? And. They say back to him, we don't have to take time to think about this, O King. Uh the God we serve, the God we worship.
Is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.
So that's the first thing. There's no question about God's ability. This is exactly what Daniel said. Remember when Nebuchadnezzar said, Can you interpret the dream? And Daniel said, No, there's no human that can, but there is a God who is able.
Here we are again, 20 years later. And Nebuchadnezzar needs to be reminded that the God he met in chapter two is still able. And that's what they say to him. Our God is able.
Now He will deliver us one way or another. We're either going to be delivered. in death or we're going to be delivered in life. But but we're going to go through that fire. He will deliver us.
From your hand. He never doesn't say he'll deliver us from the furnace, but he will deliver us out of your hand. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, you can put us in that furnace, but you can't compel Our disobedience to God. Only God is big enough to compel obedience. Right.
Only God. It's true. It's tremendous.
So that's what happens. He was filled with fury. The idea there, if he was mad before, he is white hot with anger. He's filled with fury. You might say that Nebuchadnezzar's.
Fiery temper was almost stronger and hotter than the fiery furnace that he had heated, right? He's so furious. These men are saying to him, There's something more important than our position. There's something more important than our honor. There's something more important than our life, and it's not you.
And if you were the most powerful king on the earth at the time, you wanted people who were willing to give their life for you. And these men were not. They were literally willing to die before they would obey him. He'd never, ever. Come across this out of these men.
Think about how much service these men had rendered to him for 20 years. And now, here in this moment, in front of the entire watching world, these three Hebrew men are looking at him and saying, If you have to throw us in the furnace, throw us in the furnace. But God is going to deliver us from your command. Wow.
And that brings us to our final D, a divine deliverance. And of course, these young men, they proved not just in word, but in deed, that their allegiance was to a greater king, the king of kings. to whom Nebuchadnezzar and every monarch will one day bow. Dr. Horn, this deliverance is remarkable, punctuated and really accentuated by this verse 24 where Nebuchadnezzar says, wait, I see a fourth man in the fire who looks like the son of man.
Talk about that. Many say this is a Christophany. I lean that way. I'm not sure you lean that way, but it's still a remarkable deliverance, however you end up. Absolutely.
That these men, there's someone in there that God is an ever-present help in a time of need. You know, Psalm 46, 1. Hebrews 13, 5, speak to this, and this divine deliverance, not a hair on their head was singed. Listen to this text out of Isaiah almost 100 years earlier. But now, thus saith the Lord, He who created you, He who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel.
I am your Savior. I gave Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Sheba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, I love you. I give men in return for you and nations in exchange for your life. And right here, 100 years later.
Three men. by themselves in a sea of nations. Are cast into a burning fiery furnace. I mean, Nebuchadnezzar is so furious, he takes his best. And biggest men and grabs these guys and binds them with ropes, doesn't even take off their outer garments and hurls them.
The idea there is that they are hurled into this furnace. And the furnace is so hot that the men, when they open up the top of the furnace to hurl these men down, the flame leaps up and consumes them.
So everybody knows. This fire has actually already killed people. There's no human way those men who went in there. are going to make it. And Nebuchadnezzar looks over there and he says, wait a minute.
I there's something wrong here. I thought we put three men in there. Did one of you guys throw an extra guy in there? And they're all like, no, no, no, we threw three in, and he sees. Four men walking about unbound.
And the fourth man has the appearance of the Son of God.
Now, whether you think it's a Christophane or an angel, it is a divine messenger either way, right? It's either Christ or it's his angel. I tend to lean to the angel because all through the book, you have angelic beings interacting with God's people. And I think it's setting us up for what happens in chapter eight and nine. But I certainly wouldn't quibble over whether it's a Christophany.
If it's a Christophany, it's even better, right? Um because God shows up. Either way, he shows up personally or he shows up in the form of one of his angelic messengers and he delivers his people. And they come out of that fire and they are untouched. Not even the smell of smoke on them.
The only thing that got burned up was what Nebuchadnezzar bound them with. I mean, this has got to be one of the most stunning displays of God's power. And Nebuchadnezzar does an amazing thing at this point. He actually. Um, marvels, right?
And he actually humbles himself a second time. And he says, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar says, I want the whole world to know that I'm blessing the God of these men who were willing to disobey me so they could obey their God. That's a stunning, stunning statement for the king of the world to make. And then he goes on and he says, I make a decree in light of this.
any people, nation, or language. That speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshiach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other God, including the image I just set up, including the gods I serve. In Babylon, there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. And the king promoted Shadrach, Meshiach, and Abigail in the province of Babylon. And here's what I take away from that.
In chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar was deeply impressed. In chapter 3, He's deeply impacted. I mean, he is impacted, but. He's not yet converted. And you can be a person who is so impressed.
By what you see God do in the lives of other people. And you might even get to a place where God does something so powerful in your own life that it impacts you and still not be saved. Wow.
You don't get saved because you're impressed or you're impacted. You get saved because you repent. And we're going to see that repentance in chapter four. And you see the whole transition from his intense, fiery anger at the beginning of chapter two. To promoting Daniel and his three Hebrew friends at the end of chapter two.
And then you see his intense anger there in chapter three. And then at the end, he's promoting these three Hebrews.
So you see an interesting comparison. And a lot of other questions, Dr. Horne, I'll include in the leader notes, but some great testimony opportunities in this study, in this chapter, like when have you lost something, maybe material or tangible by standing up for God in a tough situation? When have you felt pain because you stood up for God? When have you seen God honor?
Your courage and give you strength. When have you blown it and learned from that? And you know, by the way, we're talking in cushy, comfortable, westernized Christianity America, where we aren't going to go to jail for recording this broadcast podcast, but many in the third world today. Will be burned to death. Literally, churches have been razed in the Middle East because they are a Christian church by radicals who hate them.
In India, there's suffering in all over Asia. And so this chapter is very precious to so many saints. Who are under fire. And Peter, who we studied before getting into Daniel, talked about those. Fiery trials in Peter chapter 1, verse 1 Peter 1:7.
No doubt these Hebrew, young Hebrews. Could have really inspired that. Take us home with the final thoughts. I love that song, by the way. There's another man in the fire who's waiting with you.
And who knows what kind of conversation that was, just to you know, that beautiful picture. You know, if it was a Christophany, just the fact the Lord's there ministering, or even his angels ministering to these young men, hey, you're not alone, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth, which is part of the great commission. But Dr. Horn, take us home with a final word of comfort, encouragement, challenge on the takeaway from this, this great, these great 30 verses of Daniel. Chapter three, and Nebuchadnezzar is going to be humbled really big time.
and turn into a beast in chapter four, which we'll get to next time. But it takes away with a final challenge and a prayer, if you would. Yeah, I will actually, I've thought about this chapter many, many times and I wondered even as I was getting ready for today, how in the world did God produce this kind of faithfulness? Under fire, how did it happen? And I actually believe it happened because these men delighted in the law of the Lord more than anything else.
In Psalm 119, verse 89, the psalmist, and they would have known this psalm. The psalmist said, Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You've established the earth and it stands fast. By your appointment, it stands this day, for all things are your servants.
If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. You know, I believe that. I think these men understood that there was a law higher than the king of Babylon. There was a ruler that was higher than the king of Babylon. And their loyalty came out of a delight.
I don't think. It was produced by fear. I think it was produced by a great delight in this law. And if you and I are going to stand in our own Time where we're called to bow or burn, we aren't going to make it if we don't delight in the law of the Lord. And that's why these Bible studies are so important and so critical, because this is how you learn to fall in love with God's word.
When you see a story like this and it's impactful, you don't, it goes from being this kid story that you tell your kids at night, you sing to your grandkids as you put them to bed. To this story is for me. This is stunning. This is what I need in cancer. This is what I need when my wife walked out on me.
This is what I need when my kids turned away from the Lord. This is what's going to get me through. I'm going to delight in the law of the Lord. And no matter what happens, I'm going to follow. I'm going to follow the God of heaven.
And bow or burn, I'm going to be delivered from the hand of the enemy. And that's really what we ought to pray for.
So let's pray and we'll end our time together. Lord, thank you for being the God of Shadrach. And Meshiach and Abednego, and for being the God of Daniel, and for being the God of Sam and Stu, and for being the God of every one of our leaders and the listeners who are participating in these podcasts and in the study. Lord, you are our God, and you continue to remain faithful. Lord, may your law be our delight, and may it deliver us.
From the evils that come upon us and from the one who would desire to destroy us. And Lord, may we be the humble servants like these three men so that those around us wouldn't just be impressed. But they would be impacted by who you are and what you do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Thank you, Dr. Horn, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast. Learn more at wedintheword.com. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and all social media, including in Stu Graham. And be encouraged, stay in the Word.
Read it. Share it, study it, memorize it. Meditate on God's Word. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.
Proverbs 30, verse 5.
