Six-Story Idols Is There Anything Worth Dying For
“But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
(Daniel 3: 18 ESV)
The great Jewish rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, once noted that the most important question in philosophy and life is about martyrdom, “Is there anything worth dying for?” Are there truths, virtues, and principles so significant, so central to life that they would warrant such momentous sacrifice? Answers to this significant question help us prioritize our values and clarify the truths central to our existence. Self-investigations prompted by such a question help us clarify the most important “whys” of our living and loving.
Thus, the emphasis on the story of three Jewish friends who lived over 2,500 years ago.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—and it is important to realize these names were pagan names bestowed upon them by their Babylonian conquerors—were being groomed as the “cream” of the Jewish crop to serve King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the vast Babylonian Empire.
These three had already shown the king and his palace filled with wise Babylonian counselors that eating kosher meals, not those prepared by the king’s royal kitchens, were a key to greater health and vitality (see Daniel, chapter 1). Their Jewish friend, Daniel, had already interpreted the king’s dream, a dream and interpretation that would uncannily unfold some important details of one thousand years (or more!) of future world history (see Daniel, chapter 2).
Then the further drama of Daniel, chapter 3. King Nebuchadnezzar had erected an image of gold, probably an image of himself, that stood ninety feet high and nine feet wide. This golden image would be about the height of a six-story building.
To demonstrate an ultimate allegiance to the majesty and sovereignty of King Nebuchadnezzar, every resident of the Babylonian empire was ordered to bow down before the towering image. Anyone who refused to bow would be burned alive in a massive furnace. This, of course, was a problem to the Jewish friends and, in fact, to all the Jewish captives of the Babylonian Empire.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew what they were ready to die for. Central to their deepest convictions, foremost in their understanding of what it meant to be truly alive, was their belief that the only one worthy of worshipping was the God of all people, the God who had taken their people out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and into a land of “milk and honey.” Only Yahweh was worthy of bowing down and worshipping. Only He was worthy of ultimate, ongoing worship and praise. Staying true to this conviction was for them a matter of life and death.
And the courageous willingness to stay true to their ultimate conviction of allegiance to God would serve as a powerful, life-giving model to Christian martyrs for many centuries of the Church’s early life in Rome and beyond.
Yet, it is important to note that in their courageous testimony to their earthly king, they informed Nebuchadnezzar of the power of their God, that He was able to deliver them from the consuming fire of the massive furnace. Then they told the king, “but even if God does not”—in other words, even if God in His sovereign wisdom and power chooses not to deliver them from the flames of the furnace—"they would still not worship” the ninety-foot idol.
In this commitment to the possibility of martyrdom for their beliefs, they still addressed Nebuchadnezzar as “king.” Their refusal to bow down did not mean that they were disregarding his earthly authority as leader of the empire.
And it is not hard to imagine that in their refusal to comply to an act of idolatry, their spirits, their vision, and their convictions regarding the wisdom and power of God were profoundly revived! Trials just have a way of clarifying what we ultimately value, even what we are willing to sacrifice and die for.
Paul D. Patton, Ph.D., is a professor of communication and theater at Spring Arbor University in Michigan. He has graduate degrees in Guidance and Counseling, Religious Education, and Script and Screenwriting, and a doctorate in Communication with an emphasis in theater arts. He has been married to his wife Beth for over forty years and has three daughters (all actresses)—Jessica, Emily, and Grace, three sons-in-law, David, Joe, and Eric, and four grandsons, Caleb Rock, Logan Justice, Micah Blaze, and Miles Dean.