Sermon – Daniel 3 – Faith in a Faithless Land: Worshiping False Gods

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Daniel 3 – Faith in a Faithless Land: Worshiping False Gods

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

September 25, 2011

This is the third in series of sermons on the topic of Faith in a Faithless land. We have been looking at the book of Daniel for examples of how we should be faithful as our land loses its faith. Is America today a faithless land? I would argue that it is not yet faithless, but it is trending that way. More and more examples of unfaithfulness can be found every day. Consider this story. http://www.pacificjustice.org/news/city-religious-roots-fines-home-bible-study

There is a city in Southern California called San Juan Capistrano. A mission was built there by the Roman Catholic Church to evangelize Native Americans in the 16^th century, a hundred years before our founding here in Pocomoke. The buildings remain and there is an annual festival celebrating the return of the swallows. I took Grace to the festival for one of our first dates. San Juan Capistrano is a very beautiful place just north of San Diego.

Chuck and Stephanie Fromm live there. They are faithful believers and like to host Bible studies in their home. Stephanie has a group of about 20 people over every Wednesday evening, and Chuck hosts a Sunday service that gets about 50. They use their large backyard for parking so their neighbors won't be inconvenienced. And there is no loud music because these groups are quiet and meditative. These Bible studies are expressions of the faithful that bother no one.

The City of San Juan Capistrano has passed a law which prohibits “religious, fraternal, or non-profit” organization in residential neighborhoods. The law imposes a $300 fine for a first offense and a $500 fine for subsequent offenses. Stephanie and Chuck have been cited, owe $300 and will be fined $500 each time they host another unauthorized Bible Study. San Juan Capistrano is not in North Korea or Iran. It is in the United States of America where our Constitution reflects our God given right to worship as we choose. Our worship must not be regulated by the state. And yet the City of San Juan Capistrano is trying to do just that. Whats in California will in a few years move east and we will find ourselves living in a faithless land where the government tries to regulate what we do.

In the Book of Daniel three young men, the best and brightest of Judah, are living in exile in Babylon. They are being groomed to serve in the growing imperial bureaucracy. They are living in a faithless land ruled by a tyrant. Yet they have held onto their faith by privately using their Hebrew names and not eating the food prepared for Babylonian gods. God has blessed them with great wisdom, demonstrated in the interpretation of dreams, and these three have become leaders in the government. King Nebuchadnezzar wants to make certain that everyone in government will follow his direction. So he has erected a great golden statue and has ordered his officials to worship it.

But those the tribe of the Chaldeans, the king's own tribe are jealous of the promotions given to the Judeans. So when they see the four young Jews not worshiping the statue they report to the King. And this leads to one of the most dramatic stories in the entire Bible. Before we get to it let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Daniel 3:16 - 4:1 ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

(Please notice that the three Judeans do not know for sure that God will save them. They probably expect to die when thrown in the fire. They know that God could save them if chose to. They trust God so much that they will sacrifice their own lives if this be God's will. What they will not do is to betray their God to obey Nebuchadnezzar's will.)

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual ²⁰ and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. ²¹ So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. ²² The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ²³ and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly, O king." ²⁵ He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." ²⁶ Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, ²⁷ and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

²⁸ 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. ²⁹ 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." ³⁰ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

So what happened? It doesn't appear that God saved these three young men from the fire. They were thrown into a fire as hot as the furnace could bear. They were wearing highly flammable clothing. The fire was so hot it killed the soldiers who threw them in the furnace. God didn't save them from the fire, he saved them in the midst of the fire.

As we live in an increasingly faithless land our faith will be tested. We will be asked to worship things other than our God. We will be told to worship money, or hard work, or youth and beauty, or the environment, or big government, or whatever else the powerful want us to worship. As faithful people we must be ready to resist these efforts and refuse to worship anything but our God revealed in Jesus Christ.

In ancient times to worship meant to bow down, lay prostrate in front of something. This demonstrated your total obedience to that thing. So you would worship the king by putting your face to the ground as you lay before him. Or you would bow down before an image made of wood or metal representing one of the pagan gods.

Today we do not bow down with our face to the ground for anything. So we might think that we are not worshiping idols. But today we worship something by making it the most important thing in our lives. Maybe money is the most important thing in your life. If so you are worshiping wealth. Maybe controlling other people is the most important thing to you. If so you are worshiping power. Maybe clothes, makeup, and hair style are the most important things you think about. If so you are worshiping beauty. Some worship alcohol and drugs, others worship books and academic degrees, still other worship athletic teams. This list could go on and on. John Calvin once said that the human mind is a “factory of idols.”

As our land moves from faith to faithlessness our post modern thinking will begin to create objects of worship. Each person will worship whatever he or she wants to worship. Worshiping God, which at one time united all of us, will be reserved for the faithful few who remain. And that faith will be tested over and over again.

We can hope and pray that God will deliver us from these trials. God is certainly able to do that. But according to the Book of Daniel we can never be certain that God will save us from the threats of an unfaithful land. The only thing that is certain is that if we remain faithful to God and worship only Him, then God will be with us in the midst of whatever happens to us. We do not have a naive trust that God will save us from death. Rather we believe that God will be with us in life and in death and will bring us to new life.

So go ahead and host Bible studies in your home. And if the government says that you have to have a permit, or tries to regulate what you say and do, do not bow down to the will of the powerful for that is idolatry. Worship only God. And if you are thrown in a firey furnace for your faith remember that God will be there with you in the midst of the fire. Amen.