3:1
Dictators are almost always very fickle and vain characters, and Nebuchadnezzar was no exception. Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. This was sixty cubits high with a base of six cubits. That is about ninety feet high with a nine foot base, so more of an obelisk than a statue. It was made of gold. This does not mean the whole thing was solid gold, but that it was gold plated. It was possibly inspired by the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had had, where the top part of the statue was gold. Anyway, he built this thing and set it up in the plain of Dura.
3:2-5
Having set things up there followed a grand opening ceremony. If you want to imagine the mind of the man perhaps we should think of Donald Trump! He gathered all the dignitaries to this opening for the dedication of this image. So they all gathered and stood before the image. A loud proclamation was then made. This was addressed to “peoples, nations and languages”. Babylon was a cosmopolitan city, with many ethnicities there. They were commanded that when they heard the call (from various instruments, including bagpipes! (ESV)) they were to bow down and worship the image. There are parallels here with what we find in Revelation 13.
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