King Nebby was so in love with himself, and he expected everyone in Babylon to share that same love. Probably inspired from the dream he had, he erected a 90 feet gold statue of himself, and commanded that everyone bow down to it…
This furnace was huge. It probably was used for smelting metals or baking bricks. The roaring flames could be seen from its opening! The Bible tells us, at the sound of the instruments everyone bowed down. Everyone except Shadrach, Meshach, an Abednego – the Jews. But some of the astrologers told King Nebby on them. Of course King Nebby was outraged, and ordered the three young Hebrews to be brought before him. He angrily told them he will give them one more chance to bow down and worship the statue at the sound of the musical instruments. He made sure to tell them again that if they don’t bow to the statue, they will be burned to ashes in the fiery furnace. Then Nebby so arrogantly said…
Nebby really flew off the handle this time. How dare they disobey his commands? He was power hungry, and expected nothing less than complete obedience. Nebby’s pride caused his head to swell. Let’s stop right here and address something. If you’re in control of something, or maybe you’re a manager or supervisor at your job… and you get upset or fly off the handle when someone doesn’t do something exactly your way, you might have an inflated ego. Ego stands for Edge God out! You just may have a pride problem on your hands. God hates pride, and we’ll soon see how He deals with prideful King Nebby.
We won’t actually worship this statue. The king has absolute power here, so God will understand. He will excuse us for following the customs of this foreign land. We’re not hurting anyone. The Hebrew boys could have used these excuses, but to fall down and worship an idol directly violates God’s command in Exodus 20:3, “You must not have any god but me.” OK, we need a reality check. We need to ask ourselves… Do I ever compromise God’s commands for the sake of fitting in with society? Could I be jeopardizing God’s reputation, especially to unbelievers? What kinds of excuses do I make for not standing up for Him?
Smoke must have been coming out of King Nebby’s ears! The Bible said he commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual. He had some of the strongest men in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and throw them into the blazing furnace. The king demanded such a hot fire, the flames killed some of the soldiers that threw them in.
King Nebby then called them out of the fire. The fire had not scorched even a single hair on their head. They didn’t even smell of smoke. The fourth person was supernatural… most probably it was Jesus! Now after being a witness to our God’s deliverance, you would think King Nebby would acknowledge the one true God. Think again…
I think I discovered why 2 or 3 posts come to your inbox, and I’ll hopefully fix it. Thanks 🙂