The Golden Superman Image
Labels:
Daniel
“some stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire!” Hebrews 11:33, 34
Chapter 3:1-12
1. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold,
whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the
plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
2. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to
gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the
treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the
provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had
set up.
3. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the
governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and
all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image
that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that
Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
4. And the herald proclaimed aloud,
"You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,
5. that when you hear the sound of the
horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to
fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set
up.
6. And whoever does not fall down and
worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace."
7. Therefore, as soon as all the
peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and
every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and
worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
I
have been trying to establish the importance of the oneness of the image, which
Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream… four kingdoms in one. I would name the image,
the Antichrist Kingdom. From start to
finish, it is united in opposition to God and in its purpose to exalt all of
mankind into a super race, led by a superman.
After
any person has received some revelation from the hand of God, he will not be
able to carry on with his life, as he has before. If that person does not
humble himself under the mighty hand of God, he will not be truly converted,
but certainly will make some adjustments. After the reality seen in his dream,
Nebuchadnezzar cannot continue as usual with his religion and because his heart
is not surrendered to the Lord, who gave him the dream, his mind turns the
purpose of God into a self-exalting perversion. The same occurrence takes place
in the lives of many individuals today.
To
remind you of what Daniel said about the king and his empire, I will quote
again his entire statement: “You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the
kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he
has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field,
and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of
gold.” Nebuchadnezzar perverts the word of God and creates an image,
which somewhat resembles the immense image that he has seen. This one, however,
is totally covered with gold. It exaggerates the golden head of the statue and gives
it total dominance, erasing the involvement of all others.
Nebuchadnezzar,
in a display of arrogance, exalts himself and now demands that all people
should worship him. This is the spirit of antichrist, already evident in the
first phase of its kingdom. In fact, it was the assertion of the pharaohs of
Egypt, in the first world civilization, and speaking of the king of the final
phase, Daniel prophesies, “The king
shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself
above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods” (Dan.11:36).
I
notice that the dimensions of the statue describe a breadth of six cubits and a
height of a multiple of six, which is 60 cubits. We learn, concerning the
antichrist in Revelation, that the reader with understanding should “calculate the number of the beast, for it
is the number of a man, and the number is 666” (Rv.13:18). The biblical
number of man is six, one short of God’s perfect seven. The antichrist
exaggerates his name to a three-digit multiple of six, but he cannot reach
seven. It was the intention of the devil, who gives the antichrist his power,
to exalt himself: “You said in your
heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God, I will set my throne
on high… I will make myself like the Most High’” (Is.14:12). He could not
attain his ambition and he was cast out of heaven.
Nebuchadnezzar
brings his entire government together to promote his agenda and dedicate the
image in the federal district of Babylon. They are in the Dura plain, where the
image stands. We have satraps (leaders over regions), prefects (military chiefs),
governors (administrators), counselors (advisors), treasurers (financial
experts), justices (legislators), magistrates (judges), and officials (other
state leaders). They are essentially the leaders of similar departments in
government today.
The
emperor brings in the herald, the news media of the day, in total compliance
with the king’s administration. They issue a command to proclaim throughout the
empire, to all peoples, nations and languages, that they are all required to
adopt the king’s religion. They are to conform to this ultimate manifestation
of humanism, the worship of man.
Musicians
are employed. The emperor uses the power of music to motivate the population’s
emotions and form the proper atmosphere, in which to practice their religious
rites with deeper devotion. It is a mighty orchestra and you can be sure that
it gave a performance with the most gifted musicians, playing the greatest compositions,
on the most elegant instruments of the day. Nebuchadnezzar has created an
extravagant scene for an open-air religious celebration.
Just
in case there is any resistance, he adds fear, even creating a man-made hell
for anyone, who might not comply with the wishes of the world government’s
leader… a furnace of fire. The non-conformist will be thrown into it alive,
immediately upon his act of rebellion. The spiritual power behind this mighty
earthly display, is the tempter, who tried to entice Jesus Himself to bow down
to him, after promising to give Him in return the glory of the kingdoms of the
earth (see Mt.4:8-9; Lk.4:6-7).
From
this spirit of antichrist manifestation in Babylon, I want you to turn with me
to chapter 13 of the book of Revelation. There we will observe the similar
actions in the final stage of this prophesy, the part represented by the feet
of the image. In John’s vision, the dragon is the devil, the beast is the
antichrist, and another best, with horns of a lamb and a voice like the dragon,
gives religious power to the politics of the antichrist.
The
entire earth’s population “worshiped the
dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the
beast” (verse 4). The second beast “performs
great signs… and by the signs that it is allowed to work… it deceives those who
dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast” (v.13,14). The
second beast also “was allowed to give
breath to the image of the beast, so that (it) might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image
of the beast to be slain" (v.15)
It
is clear in Nebuchadnezzar time and in the last days that religion stands
behind politics and gives it power. Both of these show us a government and
religion of terror, punishing those, who refuse to conform, with fire. The
Roman Catholic Church, in its glory days five centuries ago, was just such a
combination of politics and religion, which burned its victims at the stake.
Those, who feared God, and were convinced of the reality of an eternal Lake of
Fire, chose rather the fires of men. Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather
fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt.10:28).
The
powers of this day, by education, press, TV, and internet propaganda, and by theater
and film productions are doing a mighty work of transforming the mentality of
the general public in favor of the antichrist spirit. Heading its program is
the overwhelming propagation of the theory of evolution. In this way, they hope
to do away with any natural fear of a Creator, to whom they will give an
account. By them, family values are destroyed and divorce becomes common. On
its heels, follows the acceptance of abortion and homosexuality, perverting the
purposes of God to the highest level. They demand total and diabolical submission,
to which society conforms.
8. Therefore
at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the
Jews.
9. They
declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, "O king, live forever!
10. You, O king, have made a decree,
that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp,
bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden
image.
11. And whoever does not fall down and
worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace.
12. There are certain Jews whom you have
appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your
gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."
I am
modernizing Nebuchadnezzar’s government to a certain degree, so that we can see
how easily his tactics can be implemented in the western world. I want this
drama to unfold in our minds, making it as real as possible, to stir us to
prayer that God would equip us for what lies ahead.
I am
not one, who believes that the church will face the final antichrist, but he
will have many predecessors. Even today, thousands of Christians are being
persecuted. Let us not overestimate our spiritual condition and tell ourselves
that we are ready to put on Daniel’s shoes and stand in a similarly evil day. Let
us not be indifferent to that fact, but fall before God in a desperate call for
a revival of spiritual power upon the church, His people.
Jesus
said, “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has,
more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he
has will be taken away” (Lk.8:18). I have high concern for the spiritually
arrogant, who “thinks he is something,
when he is nothing” (Gal.6:3). Paul states that he deceives himself.
Please
allow me to quote from my commentary on the last chapter of Galatians: Pride
is ugly enough, when someone has something to brag about, but the one, who is
self-deceived, overrates his wisdom, knowledge and spirituality, in general. He
thinks himself well capable of handling any situation, when in truth, he is
deficient. Spiritual pride not only occurs in individuals, but to bodies of
Christians, as well, such as the Laodicean church: “I have need of nothing” (Rev.3:17). They thought outside help was
not necessary for them, when in truth, they were the weakest, neediest, and
most miserable in the eyes of Christ. God hates this attitude.
Nebuchadnezzar
had his intelligence and investigative department, as well. Their experts had
been spying and they took their places throughout the kingdom to be sure that
the king’s unjust demands were being met. They found three men, who stood, when
everyone else fell down and brought an accusation before the king. They quote
verbatim from the law and state the consequences for disobedience.
They
have a three-fold accusation: 1) These three pay no attention to the king. 2)
They do not serve your gods. 3) They do not worship the golden image. Although
the first accusation is largely false, for they were attentive to the authority
of the king. However, when there was a choice to be made because of a conflict
between their king and their God, they choose the higher authority. They turned
away from the idols of the king and served the true and living God. In His
commandments, their God made no allowance for bowing before any image and that
law was written in their hearts. They would fulfill it, whether before the
rabbis among their own people in Jerusalem, or in Babylon, where there was no
copy and no representative of the law.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Recommended Books
Post a Comment