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Monday 3 November 2014

Daniel 3:7-15 - Incitement against the Jews

So everyone bowed down and worshipped the idol when the horns and other instruments were sounded.
The promotion of Daniel and his friends to high positions in the kingdom had produced jealousy among the Babylonian astrologers, and they used the king's decree as an opportunity to fight against the Jews. This is a pattern that sadly has been repeated many times in history. Jews have raised to prominent positions in many sectors of society in many countries, and there are some who feel resentment at this. These people then use any excuse to seek to stir up resentment against the Jews. Today we see people using the Gaza situation to stir up hatred of the Jews. Moreover, the people doing this are often so-called liberals.
Their final charge "they neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up" was of course completely true. People may make many false charges against Christians, but at some point they will have to make the correct "charge", we worship the Lord and no-one else.
The king flew into a rage. He obviously had no understanding. Note that it is just the three friends who are implicated in this, it is not clear why Daniel was not called as well, as no doubt he too would have refused to bow down to the idol. Maybe it is that Daniel had been promoted to a higher level than the astrologers, and so it was only the three friends who the astrologers were familiar with.
The king gave the three one last chance, the final phrase in v15 demonstrates that he did not know who their God was.

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