Daniel 3:2,3 – “The System”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather

 the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors,

the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates,

and the all of the officials of the provinces

to come to the dedication of the image

which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

 ³Then were gathered

 the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors,

the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates,

and the all of the officials of the provinces

to the dedication of the image

which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up

and ones standing before the image

 which Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

I have arranged the sentences as I have above just to compare the repetition of officials and terms used. There is obviously a lot of repetition. It would even seem unnecessary to us to repeat the titles of all the officials – he could have said “they” the second time and we’d certainly know what he meant; but then, that is coming from people who live in the 21^st century and speak English! It’s generally always true whenever you find a lot of repetition in ancient documents, they are up to something. Since few people were literate, sometimes it has to do with public reading – like cadence or the equivalent of our rhyming. Sometimes the order is emphasizing something. Even the “Nebuchadnezzar the king” gets repeated four times in the two verses (with the 4^th time deleting “the king.”) I don’t see the point of the order here, but I’m sure, if you could ask Daniel, he would say, “Well, of course, that’s because …”

Apparently the Lord doesn’t think we need to know.

As far as the exact meanings of all the titles, even those are largely lost to posterity. Obviously it is a catalog of all the important officials throughout the kingdom, but exactly what each title actually means is gone. Too many civilizations, too many terms exchanged among them, and too many years passed by. But again, obviously it is all of the officials of the kingdom.

Back to my previous theme of life in the world of the Gentiles – I have to note the similarity to life in our modern working world. The boss came up with this great idea to set up this gigantic image and plate it with gold. Now he’s decided that everyone in the entire corporation needs to travel to the site of his image for a grand royal convocation.

Just think of the expense that is being wasted here. One can only imagine the cost to build the image to start with – the design, the gathering of materials, and the construction of a 90 foot tall structure in something like 600 BC. Although much would no doubt be done with slaves, still they had to be fed and housed and certainly a large number of paid Babylonian foremen of all sorts would be required to direct the workers and to complete such a project. People argue whether the image was solid gold or just plated. Either way, that’s a LOT of gold. Then couriers had to be sent to the ends of a kingdom that stretched from India to Egypt. Then all those officials had to travel those great distances – accompanied of course by considerable entourages of other officials, military escorts, cooks, and an unimaginable troupe of servants.

All of that for what?

The boss has an idea.

In the real world, of course, if you need to spend some money on something, you are constantly reminded there are no funds available. Then the boss decides to have some huge wasteful convocation where everyone gets fed and given a hat to wear! Or he gets “an idea” and suddenly cost is no object.

Just think, there in Babylon, how much good could have been done, just with all that gold, for poor people, for housing, for useful infrastructure projects. If all those officials were really working for the good of the people, how much could they have gotten done during the time (for some it would have been months) when they were instead traveling to (and from) Babylon for this grand ceremony?

Such is life in the world of the Gentiles – the world where we all work and live. Like Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we have to do our jobs and live our lives surrounded by what we can see is obviously completely useless and massively wasteful – even while we see the real needs that go unaddressed. The inconsistency is sometimes almost unbearable.

But that is simply “the way it is.”

That is the world we live in.

I may sound like I’m being cynical, but I don’t think I am. I’m trying to be honest and face the facts. That is precisely what the Bible is doing here. It isn’t sugar-coating anyone’s world. It is quite accurately depicting the reality of the world you and I must live and work in. It hasn’t changed in 27 centuries.

Even in this world, the Lord still says, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God,” (Rom 13:1). To us as workers He says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving, (Col 3:23,24). The thing I would suggest we have to get figured out is this – it’s not our job to somehow change “the system.” The “system” will always be messed up. It’s our job to live and work in that system but be faithful, dependable, kind, appreciative, and everything else that adds up to “good workers.” We’re to “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky,” (Phil 2:14,15).

We mustn’t let “the system” so discourage us that we forget to love the people we work with, that we forget that all day every day, no matter what we do, we are servants of the Most High God and should conduct ourselves accordingly.

That is the world Daniel and his friends lived in and the same world you and I live in. May we truly work for the Lord.

Daniel 3:1 – “All is Well”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold. Its height [was] sixty cubits [and] its width [was] six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Durah in the province of Babel.

As I wander into chapter 3 of this book, I’m reminded of what I said at the onset of my study: “I want to say it is a particularly pleasant prospect for me to embark on a study of this book because I have always found it to be of profound practical implications. So much of the OT is set in the context of the nation of Israel where the Lord Himself is at least supposed to be King. In the book of Daniel, we find a godly man living in a world that feels no obligation to even acknowledge the God of Heaven, much less respect His will. Much like us Gentiles, Daniel had to live out his faith in a completely pagan world, and, in that, I find his example to hold what I believe are profound implications for your life and mine.”

Even as I consider this very first verse of Daniel chapter 3, I have the same thoughts. Here we get to observe Daniel’s three friends as they live and work in this very real world where God’s rule is given at most lip-service. As Nebuchadnezzar was shown in chapter 2, the plain simple fact is that God rules. God rules in the lives of men and nations. You and I know that, but the world around us does not. That means, for us believers, as we go out to work, as we interact in our neighborhoods and communities, as we come and go whatever we do, the plain, simple fact is that, sooner or later, our faith will clash with our world.

How should we then conduct ourselves in such a world? “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” We resort to our Bibles and learn all we can from the godly men and women (and even the ungodly) whose lives (and deaths) and the choices they made are recorded “for our admonition.” “He who walks with the wise shall be wise.” That is precisely my motivation as I would dig into the verses of this chapter. I want the Lord’s light. I want His truth. I want to be free. I want to “walk with the wise.”

I say all of that so anyone who stumbles across these scratchings of mine will understand why I have not the slightest hesitation about seeking in these verses practical truths to live by in my everyday life – and particularly at work, where most of us spend the majority of our waking hours and where very particularly we are called to live out our faith in a world and in a place that may or may not give a hoot what the true and living God thinks – but also a world full of the very people who so desperately need to see Him!

So … all that said – Nebuchadnezzar is the king. Nebuchadnezzar is in charge. He makes the rules. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego wake up on this particular morning living and working in this world where Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians make the rules.

Nebuchadnezzar has decided to build an image sixty feet tall and at least plated it with gold.

For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it is what it is. Once again, they get up in the morning and this is the world they live and work in. No one asked their opinion – but they still have to live and work here.

Sound familiar? Is it not the same world you and I live in? And if it is, then we should be able to learn a great deal from these three young fellows and how they conduct themselves in this world.

Looking at the text, people have debated endlessly how much time might have transpired since the events of chapter 2 – Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and his exclamation to Daniel that “Your God is the God of gods!” It is almost shocking to us as we read, to hear him say, “Your God is the God of gods,” then in the very next chapter he’s building an image of gold for people to worship. I guess I’ve always assumed the “head of gold” thing just went to his head and somehow the image was really all about worshipping him. But it doesn’t say that. And it doesn’t give us any indication at all of how much time transpired in between. We’re just told the events themselves.

Actually, if we let our minds wander back into their culture, I don’t think it would be so shocking, regardless of the time interval. Other than the Jews, the ancient peoples were total polytheists. The Jews of course believed, “The Lord your God is one God,” but everyone else assumed there were many – perhaps thousands – of gods. And, in their world, it was totally okay to pay homage to someone else’s god, or even to ascribe greatness to that god, without in any way detracting from your own worship of your own god. Each nation had their own god and it was always okay to acknowledge someone else’s god. You basically worshipped whatever god and however many gods it took to get whatever it is you wanted. That was their world.

So when we read Nebuchadnezzar saying, “Your God is the God of gods,” he’s not in any way turning from the worship of his own god(s). We’re only shocked because we read his words seeing the world through our eyes, not his.

People also debate endlessly about the image itself. What was it? Assuming it is a statue of a man, people object to the proportions of 60 high x 6 wide. That would too tall and thin for a good depiction of a man. Others respond, perhaps it was actually a statue up on a pedestal, with the total dimensions of 60x6. Others note that the Babylonians were apparently pretty lousy artists and it is quite possible their “man” is simply out of proportion. I personally think it very likely it was actually a giant phallic symbol. Once again, we’ve got to let our minds wander back to their culture, not ours. In their world, a phallic was one of their favorite religious symbols. In that case, I would suggest, the proportions would be perfect. Once again, that may be shocking or even offensive to us, but this is a culture from 2600 years ago and half way around the world.

So whatever the elapsed time since chapter 2 ended and whatever the image actually looked like, it is what it is. This is the guys’ world.

I’m headed out this morning into my world. In a purely secular sense, it is no different. This is the Times of the Gentiles. Believers don’t necessarily run my world. For me, though, and like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we go knowing that ultimately the One really running the world is, in fact, our good God. Although the Gentiles may not acknowledge it, God rules. Nebuchadnezzar is about to find out it’s true. Like the guys, I need to head out into my day believing it.

As George Washington said with a smile as he passed away, “All is well.”

Psalm 31:23,24 – “Triumphant!”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³Love the LORD, the all of His loved ones. The LORD guards faithful ones and repays abundantly one doing pride. ²⁴Be strong and He will strengthen your heart, all of ones hoping to the LORD.

In the last post, I tried to ponder what I see as the exegetical issues particularly in verse 24. I think I’ll wrap up my study of this Psalm with just a few random thoughts.

What do I do with the idea, “Be strong and He will strengthen your heart?” First of all, I am not strong. At 61 years old, I believe I have finally begun to understand that Jesus meant it when He said, “Without Me, you can do nothing.” He didn’t say, “You can’t do much.” He said, “You can do nothing.” As David said back in v.4, “You are my Strength.” I am not strong – but He is.

So how can I “be strong,” as David is encouraging us to be? As Paul said in Eph 6:10, “Be strong in the Lord.” Back in I Sam 30:6, when David’s men were threatening to stone him, we’re told he “strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” I have found it is not so much trying to be strong as I face the issues of life, but rather of finding strength in the Lord. Finding our strength in Him is what makes us “strong.”

Many times as I have been faced with something very difficult, I would simply open my Bible to Psalms and start reading. So, so, so, so often, He very quickly shows me something that just gives me strength. I would even say it is something I can’t really explain, you just have to experience it your self. His words just do something in the very depth of my soul so that suddenly “I can do this.”

I’ve also often found strength in prayer. As I face those difficult times, I go to the Lord and tell Him all about it. I tell Him I know that, whatever it is I should do, I will totally fail unless He helps me. I ask Him to give me the wisdom to know what to do and I ask Him to give me grace at those very moments in the challenge when I will be weak. I think this is what Jesus meant when He said, “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Somehow, some way I always find myself strengthened and I actually end up doing a few things right, when I have very deliberately prayed these things to Him. Once again, they’re always “unexplainable” when they happen, but having prayed I know it’s Him.

I would also say I find strength just in reading and studying Psalms like this one specifically as I am reminded again of who God is. So many of the Psalms let us look the Lord directly in the face, as it were, and, as I remember His love, His grace, His kindness to me and as I remember His wisdom and strength, His promises to help me, I find myself “strengthened.”

In all of these ways, I guess I’m saying that is what I think He means when He tells us, “Be strong and He will strengthen your heart.” We are “strong” when we take refuge in the Lord, and in so doing, we find ourselves “strengthened.”

One more thing I should add – sometimes He “strengthens” me by helping me to do right as I actually work through that hard situation. Sometimes it is by helping me figure out something like “how can I make this process work?” “What is the matter with this thing?” or “What is the best way to handle this?” Right now I’m working on a project in a community where every time it rains, their sewers flood and backup in people’s basements. We have been chasing down the problem for over a year and finally have it cornered in what we think is a single city block – but we still can’t figure out where it’s coming from. So I am praying somehow the Lord will show us – and I am confident He will. Somehow. He will “strengthen us” with the knowledge of how to solve this terrible problem.

We just have to be strong “in Him.”

Last of all, I’d like to note this appellation to us, “all you who hope in the Lord.” The fact is we do. We do hope in the Lord. He is our hope. Without Him we have no hope. He gives us hope and, in spite of all our weakness and bungling, we actually do live as people with hope. I want to close with a quote on these very words from Albert Barnes:

“He does hope in God – in reference to all that is needful for himself as an individual; all that will be for the good of his family; all that will tend to bless the world; all that he desires in heaven. Hope in God cheers him, sustains him, comforts him; makes life happy and prosperous; and makes death calm, serene, triumphant.”

We began this Psalm saying, “In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge. Let me never be ashamed.” It’s nice to end my study with the word, “Triumphant!” That is exactly what Jesus makes me – triumphant!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name!”

Thank you, Jesus, for this wonderful Psalm. Thank you for Your encouragement. Thank You for being our Strength. Thank you for always giving us hope.

Thank you that in You we can actually be triumphant!

Psalm 31:23,24–“Exegetical Matters”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³Love the LORD, the all of His loved ones. The LORD guards faithful ones and repays abundantly one doing pride. ²⁴Be strong and He will strengthen your heart, all of ones hoping to the LORD.

I’ve posted several times regarding v23. Now I want to move on to v24, however, I think the two need to be kept together as they together form the conclusion to the whole Psalm.

First the exegetical matters: This is another verse (24) where translations will vary. Some will say “Be strong and take heart…” Others will say something like, “Be strong and He will strengthen your heart…” In the first, essentially we do it all. In the second, we make an effort and are assured He’ll complete it.

This is a case where I don’t see the basis for the “Be strong and take heart” translation. With all due respect to the translators who are far greater Hebrew scholars than I’ll ever be, I just don’t see whatever it is they’re seeing. The first verb “Be strong” is, as all agree, a masculine plural imperative. “Be strong” is a very good translation.

But the second is a 3^rd person verb, which would naturally be translated “He will strengthen” or “It will strengthen.” The 3^rd person verb begs the question, “Who?” “Who or what will strengthen?” Then the next thing I note is that the word translated “Your heart” is preceded by a direct object marker. In other words, whatever we do with the 3^rd person verb, its object is the heart. To then translate it, “He will strengthen your heart” is so natural, I would think it would be first choice on all accounts.

It seems to me that, in order to render it, “Be strong and take heart” requires some form of grammatical torture of the 3^rd person verb and its object. Once again, I acknowledge that the people coming up with this other translation are way more capable than me; however, until someone explains whatever it is I’m not seeing, I’ll stick with what I perceive to be the most natural translation, which in this case is, “Be strong and He will strengthen your heart.”

One interesting twist is that the words “your heart” are actually “your (pl.) heart (sing.). That is odd to me. Obviously, from the first word, “Be strong” being a masculine plural, you would think everything that follows would be plural. You’d think it would read, “[All of you] Be strong and He will strengthen your hearts.” Why would it be a 2^nd person plural possessive pronoun with a singular noun? That doesn’t really make sense to me.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that what we’re reading is poetry. Even in English, we’ll sometimes sacrifice perfect grammar to keep up a cadence or rhyme.

Or we could consider, it’s almost like he’s saying to the Israelite believers as a group, “Be strong, and He will strengthen your [collective] heart” – the heart of your nation. Certainly, with his radio broadcasts, Winston Churchill strengthened the collective national heart of England’s people; and no doubt it is true that FDR did the same for America with his “Fireside Chats” through the Depression. So, it can be done. I’m just not sure that is what is going on here. I suppose in the end it doesn’t really make any difference. I just want to be sure I’ve pondered irregularities like this and not just rushed by. Sometimes they can be significant. Maybe David, being a king, is, in his own heart, writing to the Israelites as a people. Hmmmmm?

Finally, I would like to record an observation from the last half of the verse, the words variously translated, “You who hope in the Lord,” “You who wait for the Lord,” or perhaps, “You who trust in the Lord.” Is it “hope” or “wait” or “trust?” The answer is “Yes.” The Hebrew word is a masculine plural participle of a root that would transliterate as something like “yaqal.” Yaqal is a word that paints a picture of a person who is confidently expecting something to happen, confidently waiting, basing his current behavior on the assured hope that it will in fact come to pass, like a child looking forward to Christmas morning.

In English, since we are obsessed with technical precision, we would insist that “waiting,” “hoping, “ and “trusting” are three different things, and I suppose they are; but in a Hebrew picture-painting language they really aren’t. As usual, the Hebrew words don’t mean anything different than their English translations – just so much more. I suppose, in order to be the most accurate, we’d have to translate it, “Ones waiting and hoping and trusting” in the Lord. Of course to do that in every case would turn our English Bibles into a five-volume set, so we just have to pick one of these English words and understand the others go with it.

In the end, we get a verse that follows “Love the Lord,” with something like, “Be strong and He will strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”