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| Dan. 3:1 |
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Lesson # Dan. 3:1 Study Material - Dan. 3:1 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Dan. 3:1 1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. No sooner had Nebuchadnezzar had his dream, had praised the God of Daniel, and even praised Daniel and promoted him for his description of and interpretation of the kings dream, then most likely he received tons of criticism from others in the government for being pro or at least friendly to Daniel and the Israelites in general. But there is more to this image he constructed than meets the eye. The entire image was built from gold. The dream he had saw an image with the head only made of gold, which he was told represented himself. The rest of the dreams body was of lessor materials and represented future empires. But here Nebuchadnezzar seems to be in rejection of the dream and of Gods interpretation. Note that Daniel made the interpretation, but the future in under the control of God, not man. The king is here rejecting Gods plan and wishes to superimpose his own eternal kingdom onto history. After all, if God recognizes that he is great now, then he must really be great, therefore there is no reason to stop being great. Right? We all have our successes during the course of our life. We can certainly look around ourselves and think, 'Hummm. Did God provide all of this or did I do it myself?' Well we hen rationalize that it was we who got up every morning and went off to work. It was we who thought up all those ideas for our life, or hustled, or were in the right place at the right time, or wheeled and dealed or negotiated successfully. Therefore it must be we who earned the credit for our own success! Right. Lets continue with the analysis of the kings image. Where did he place it? In a valley, but not just any valley, a flat valley, a plain between two mountains. The place was named Dura, 'Duwra', a circle or dwelling, from ' Duwr', which means to move in a circle, not just living in a circular tent of building, but in a place where one moves in circles, never advancing, not getting anywhere in life, but living in that rut that goes nowhere. The plain is 'biq a', which stands for a wide valley between mountains, the mountains are far in the distance. It is from the feminine of 'biq ah', to rip apart. So Nebuchadnezzar was torn apart between two viewpoints. Those views of his people, those views of idol filled Babylon, and those views of Daniel which are the views of God of course. No offense to women, but what does a woman do when she gets extremely angry? She rips apart things, she makes drastic decisions, she becomes irrational and there is hell to pay if you get in her way. This is the state of Nebuchadnezzar's thinking. Does Babylon need another idol? It was filled with idols of all sorts, but not as impressive as this one of course. Nebuchadnezzar did not need another idol, but he did need to make a statement and that was that He was here forever, that he was the greatest. Everyone should know it, and not forget it. So either bow down or die is going to be the command. Wickedness seeks to control people through fear and force. If you do not agree with our views than we will crush you, is the attitude of wicked people. Remember that wicked people come in all flavors. Some are tyrants for sure, but some are righteous crusaders who will turn to violence if you do not comply with their views. The image was bigger than life. Some 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. That is a lot of gold. But the verse does not say that it was solid gold, but made of gold (overlaid). So the image was false in its appearance to begin with. Probably gold over wood. It may appear to be gold through and through, but it is not. Images can neither see nor hear. They cannot think, not do they have any power of any kind. Yet man in his arrogance, which produces fear, which produces cowardice, will yield to peer pressures even when the pressures are obviously ridiculous. If I baked mud pies and mixed up mud juice and said eat and drink and be merry or die, then would you comply? Well in the safety of you own homes right now, you would say no, of course. But in another situation, like in some parts of Africa, where the terror is far greater, with a gun pointed at our head, then what would your decision be? Hummm. If we make our decisions based on the circumstances of our environment, then we are a weak person and slaves to things around us, but if we have advanced in our life of Bible study to the point of spiritual maturity, and have strong faith, knowing that regardless of the outcome, that God will do and allow what is right and best for us, then you have arrived. To test you faith, then God allows a little rain to fall into your life. And actually you can be proud if these tests do come into your life, because this is really a compliment, a test of faith. That is if your are spiritually advanced. Otherwise the tests are discipline designed to get you back on track. Either way, you can win by sticking with your Bible study. Nebuchadnezzar could not make up his mind. He had political pressure on the one hand. He had his ego to contend with, and he had Bible doctrine on the other hand. He gave in to his ego and temper tantrum of sorts. And like a she bear on the war path - get out of the way or pay the price. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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