As a kid growing up in the rural south, I grew up under the influences of the Baptist Church operation. Most Sundays were wrapped up by 9:30, about 90 minutes into the Japanese monster movie on the local TV station, and you ended off at the local church.
I'd say 51 Sundays a year were mostly dull, with the exception of those few Sundays when the minister would get all pumped-up on the book of Daniel and get onto some tirade about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
As the legend of the three went....it was a rather simple story.
King Nebuchadnezzar (the Joe Biden of the Dura region) was the local 'boss'. For geographic reference, Dura was about 4 miles west of what is today Hebon City and in the region of the West Bank (meaning Palestinian territory).
39,000 people occupy what is Dura today. In this Biblical period? I doubt if there were more than 2,000 locals, and this 'king-title' was probably worthless.
For some reason, this King Nebuchadnezzar had decided that he wanted a 'golden image' (never described in detail) at the entrance of the town. This might have been a 3 foot by 3 foot painting....it might have been a 20 foot by 20 foot painting. That part of the story is left for you to imagine.
So King Nebuchadnzzar had this 'rule'....you come to the gate....you bow. No one said it was a sign there or how this bow-rule was explained to new folks....so again, this part of the story is left for you to imagine.
I should inject here....anyone who was iron-clad Jewish and hard-core (in this era) never recognized a human face on some wall, coin or structure.
If you failed to bow? Well...he had orders to the guards...instead of forbidding entry....they were to escort you to some burning furnace.
This being desert-like....me as a kid...I could not imagine what idiot would be running a full-up furnace. This King Nebuchadnezzar guy seemed like an idiot.
So this day came to pass that three rough Jewish young guys...Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego...had arrived at the gate, and refused the bowing rule.
I always sat there pondering....what were three lads....Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego....doing for the day? Were they on some adventure? Were they looking for work? Were they lost and simply took the wrong road four miles back? Were they on some insurrection mission? This part of the story was left out.
The guards brought the three guys to Nebuchadnezzar. There's some talk back and forth, and finally....one of the three (you never know if it was that wise-ass Meshach).....spoke up and said they weren't afraid of some burning pit....God would protect them.
So the story goes here....this got Nebuchadnezzaar all riled-up. Normal hot was not good enough....he gave the order that the furnace had to be SEVEN times hotter.
At this part of the sermon, I usually pondered....without a measuring device...how'd they get to double, triple or seven times hotter than hot? Also, with regular firewood....I just didn't grasp how you'd achieve double-hot or triple-hot.
The story then goes....maybe like five minutes this heat business....King Nebuchadnezzar walked over to view the three guys, and saw a 4th guy in the group.
Nebuchadnezzar then brought youths out (only three of them), then readily admitted....sure enough, they weren't even burnt. No stinged hair even (not like you'd have with a fireplace situation).
So you'd think....glory be....he'd just free the three Jewish guys and let them be on their way (wherever they were going in the first place).
Well....NO.
Nebuchadnezzar then promotes them to some city government job, and makes up some new rule....if you spoke against God....instead of the furnace threat....you were supposed to be torn limb from limb.
Yeah, one of those Jewish things.....no matter how you end a story....has to be a painful threat involved.
So you have to ask....from the Book of Daniel....how much is true, and how much is made-up.
If you ask experts....no one is real sure about Daniel....he might be real. He might be a collection of characters from this region.
In my later years, I felt sorry for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego...they ended up as government employees and probably regretted their talk with the king for years and years. If only they'd done a fake bow, or just taken the back-gate to the town....things would gone a different way.
Do you ever hear anything later on the three? No. It doesn't even appear that they left town or did much worth talking about.
As for Nebuchadnezzar? Well....it's just odd, you never hear anything about the guy again. All the king-stuff, king-history, and basically....your legend is tied to three Jewish youths just visiting and not into the bowing business.
To sum it up...it's a 3-minute story that the preacher could drag on for 30 minutes....yet there's at least forty things left out of the story.....making you wish it was further developed or laid out.
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