Last week we looked at some of the common themes in Jewish humor – especially the theme of irony and outwitting the oppressors. There is a German phrase for what we sometimes feel when we read the stories of what happens to those who made life difficult and even life-threatening for Daniel and his friends. It is “schadenfreude” or rejoicing over the misfortunes of others – especially those we despise. “They got what was coming to them” is how we put it because most of us believe or hope that is how the world works. People eventually get what is coming to them and there is always a certain amount of satisfaction when we live long enough to see it. “They got too big for their britches” or “He got taken down a notch” are words we use to describe our righteous glee.
This morning we are going to look at another theme in the book of Daniel but it is the responses of Nebuchadnezzar to the miraculous feats and God’s protection. How does he react? It’s actually a process that changes over time.
Let’s look first at Nebuchadnezzar’s response in Chapter 2:46-49 to Daniel’s interpreting his dream.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.
To understand how important his response is we need to look at the official religion of the kingdom of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. It was the worship of the god Marduk.
Originally, Marduk seems to have been a god of thunderstorms but was also the god who had conquered Tiamat, the god of chaos. Out of the death of chaos Marduk became the Lord of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. He was the Creator of heaven and earth. All nature, including humanity, owed its existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects was in his hands. He had many names – as many as fifty – and each of them described a divine attribute. But, above all the attributes he was worshiped as the god of order and destiny. Without Marduk there would be no order and everything would revert back to chaos and uncertainty.
Marduk regulates the workings of the world and humans are his co-workers against the forces of chaos. Marduk assigns each person’s work and place in society and then leaves them to carry it out but now and then Marduk breaks into the world in a miraculous way.
Marduk the protector of order was so important to Babylon’s sense of security and personal identity that when the city revolted against Persian rule, the Persian king Xerxes I had the statue destroyed when he sacked the city. In time, Babylon became a ruin and three hundred years later the once supreme city was in ruins and the god Marduk had been long forgotten. We sometimes call it the dust bin of history. We’ve talked about this before. When you successfully attack the “center of gravity” of a nation you have conquered it. It’s another lesson but I believe “trust” is our center of gravity and that is what is being attacked by outsiders and insiders alike.
But at the time of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, Marduk was at his most powerful and that is why it is so remarkable that the king would make this statement about Daniel’s god. Of course, the king likely had very little real understanding of Daniel’s god being the real Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Creator of the Universe and all that is in it. For the king, Daniel’s god was likely one of many and Daniel himself was a man who possessed the spirit of the holy gods as the king says in 4:9. The king was a practical man and even though Marduk was the only god of the Empire there was something about Daniel’s god that made an impression on the king. After all, there were so many similarities between their gods. Daniel’s God could have been just another name for Marduk.
But later the king takes a step further when Daniel’s friends are delivered from the fiery furnace.
Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.
What has impressed the king? These men trusted in their god and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own. There must be a god other than Marduk. It is not just the miracle of the deliverance from the fire, is it? It is not the same as Daniel’s ability to interpret the dream and God’s ability to reveal mysteries. It is far more than that this time. It is their willingness to risk their lives for this god. We all love understanding mysteries. We love finding people who can explain complex topics to us in ways that we can understand. We admire that quality and want to have people like that around us. We read their newspaper columns, blogs and books. We listen to their sermons and take notes. Like the king, when we cannot explain things that bother and disturb us, we want to have people like Daniel around to make sense of them and to assure us there is order and certainty.
But that is far different from being with people who are willing to risk their lives and not just their reputations and careers. The impression those people of great faith make on us is one of both inspiration and conviction. There is something in us that rises up and makes us want to have faith that is willing to go into the furnace.
If you go back to what the god Marduk most personified for the Babylonians it would not be risk and faith. Marduk was the god of order and certainty. It would not make sense for one who worshipped order and good sense to do such a thing. The satraps and administrators, the leaders of the nation would certainly not have done that. They were very accomplished at censuring and condemning the three friends and convincing the king that they should be put to death but I doubt they would willingly have died for anything at all.
But Nebuchadnezzar goes one step further:
Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”
This is more than simple admiration. It is more than making the worship of this new God acceptable. It is making it fatal to say anything against this God or those who worship him. It is what we might call terminal pluralism. The satraps and their families are the first to realize that.
For years, I believed that the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century made Christianity official or compulsory in the Empire but he didn’t. The story is not dissimilar to that of Nebuchadnezzar.
The historian Eusebius wrote of the vision of Constantine before the battle of Milvian Bridge which was a turning point for him:
“About the time of the midday sun, when the day was just turning, he said he saw with his own eyes up in the sky and resting over the sun, a cross-shaped trophy formed from light, and a text attached to it which said, “By this, conquer.” Amazement at the spectacle seized both him and the whole company of soldiers which was then accompanying him on a campaign..”
That night Constantine had a dream in which Christ told him he should use the sign of the cross against the enemies. He was so impressed that he had the Christian symbol marked on his soldiers’ shields and when the Milvian Bridge battle gave him an overwhelming victory he attributed it to the god of the Christians.
The following year, Constantine’s Edict of Milan proclaimed that “no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion. He appointed Christians to high office and gave Christian priests the same privileges as pagan ones. This edict made the empire officially neutral with regard to religious worship; it neither made the traditional religions illegal nor made Christianity the state religion. It raised the stock of the Christian religion within the Empire and it reaffirmed the importance of religious welfare to the state. Most influential people in the empire, especially high military officials, had not been converted to Christianity and still participated in the traditional religions of Rome; Constantine’s rule exhibited at least a willingness to appease these factions.
Historians disagree on whether or not Constantine ever became a Christian but some believe it was, if at all, on his death bed. One source says he waited until he was certain he was dying to ensure he would not sin and risk his entry to heaven. But it was not until many years later by the Edict of Thessaloniki under the Emperor Theodosius that a particular brand of Christianity and the Nicene Creed was made the official religion and doctrine of the Roman Empire:
“According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We order the followers of this law to embrace the name of Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since, in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give to their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation and in the second the punishment of our authority which in accordance with the will of Heaven we shall decide to inflict.”
You can see the similarities in the ways kings and emperors do things! They like practical religions and when they find one that impresses or inspires them they adopt it and make it legitimate. Sometimes they make it mandatory and official. Nebuchadnezzar did not go as far as Theodosius but he certainly did make the worship of Daniel’s God legitimate. He could have done just the opposite and persecuted the Hebrews but he allowed them to thrive and hold high offices under his protection.
The final scenes of Nebuchadnezzar’s encounters with God are in Chapter 4.
“To the peoples, nations and men of every language, who live in all the world.
May you prosper greatly!
It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.
How great are his signs,
How mighty his wonders
His kingdom is an eternal kingdom;
His dominion endures from generation to generation.”
What follows is what we would call a personal testimony of how God has saved him from insanity and loss. He has moved from being impressed by the God who can reveal mysteries and then the God who can inspire such faithfulnesss in the face of certain death to his own personal encounter with God.
We can read this in Chapter 4:28 where Nebuchadnezzar is so impressed with himself and his famous building projects. “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
“Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.”
Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.”
For seven years he had a particular form of insanity that only ended when he raised his eyes toward heaven and his sanity was restored.
“Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: “What have you done?”
At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
Those are words which would once have been reserved for Marduk. Of course, it never says that Nebuchadnezzar became a believer but he clearly had a personal encounter with God that changed his life. He had to go through a seven year experience that took away everything he possessed to bring him to the point of realizing that God is not just the explainer of mysteries or the reason for followers to give up their lives but He is the one who is able to humble those – like Nebuchadnezzar – who walk in pride. He can reduce an arrogant man to one who lives not like a king but an animal.
Marduk, the god of order and certainty – is long forgotten. Babylon is in ruins. The exiles survived and returned. But the God of Gods became a man and still desires to draw to himself proud pagans thinking of themselves as mighty and glorious. He is not willing that any, even the most arrogant and vain, be lost. There is no scadenfreude with God – no joy at misfortune. There is only rejoicing over one sinner who repents and one who was lost but now is found.