No. 3.
Chapter 3. What particularly marks this chapter is the abuse by the Gentile power of the authority given to it by God: refusing to respect the conscience, disallowing His rights, pride of power, idolatry in religion, and making a law of unity in worship―religious oneness―thereby hoping to strengthen the kingdom. Nothing divides so much as a variety of creeds; and man, with his short-sighted wisdom, never rising higher than the things of this world, thus endeavoring to do away with this manifest cause of weakness, by disallowing all the rights of conscience of God in fact―laying His claim entirely on one side, and having set up a religion of its own, would insist on having it acknowledged by all men. We have, too, a perfect picture of what man will end in doing, ―the various principles of blasphemy which characterize the different heads of the Gentile monarchies in the book of Daniel, ―all reappear in the last day. In Rev. 13. we see the very thing done by the head of the revived Roman empire (the last of the four monarchies, as we have seen in chap. 2). An image is made of the beast, or political head, which the false prophet, or ecclesiastical head, (the one who develops himself more especially among Israel in the land as the Antichrist,) causes all to worship, as in this chapter, under penalty of death should they refuse. (Rev. 13:1515And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Revelation 13:15).) It is a solemn thought, for it shows us what we are by nature; that the first use of the power given by God is to deny Him, to establish idolatry, thereby exalting man, who sets up a religion connected with politics for earthly purposes; and every system of man established on this ground of expediency, and connected with the nation, must bear, more or less, some connection with what we have here. It may not outwardly be so manifest, nevertheless the principles are the same, and, as we have already seen in Rev. 13, their end is identical. May God lead us to have more “understanding of the times,” so that when He comes, none of us may be found mixed up with any of those systems whose end we find so solemnly portrayed in a figure here, and literally in the chapter of Revelation we have referred to; but be found faithfully taking our place with Jesus “outside the camp;” the place of reproach it may be, but, if so, that of honor and blessing. There were however certain, we read, who would not worship this image, who feared God rather than man, — “Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego.” The will of God was peremptory to them, as it ever should be to the Christian. They were like Mordecai, who would not so much as nod the head to a man who was the enemy of God, one of those of whom it had been said by Him, (Deut. 23:33An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever: (Deuteronomy 23:3),) “that they should not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever,” but whose remembrance even was to be blotted out from under heaven. (Deut. 25:1919Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it. (Deuteronomy 25:19).)
The course of these three men was clearly marked out. Where the heart’s allegiance to God is touched, or the rights of conscience interfered with, there can be only one path for the child of God, to stand by Him at all cost. And how blessed their answer to the king in reply to his impious statement, “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?” “We are not careful to answer thee in this matter.” Like Peter and John in Acts 4, “Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” It was not a question with these faithful ones what the king either said or did to them. God’s will was supreme; He had their first claims, and like Paul, in Phil. 3, they were prepared to count “all things but loss.”
Faith in God, and obedience to Him, were just as absolute to them as was the king’s will to others. This gives us a third feature in the character of the faithful remnant. It is that which should characterize the faithful few at all times. In chapter 1 They do not defile themselves with the king’s meat (separation from the world). In chapter 2, they have the mind of God. (“Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.”) And here, in chapter 3, they are faithful in refusing to acknowledge any but Him.