May 8, 2025
Public statues can represent many things: history, identity, belief-systems. But at their heart, they are about power. State House, public square, important crossroads: statues in these locations, and others, invariably send a message of power. They are conveying a message about who has power and, equally importantly, who does not.
One of the ways they manifest power is in the way they forbid conversation. No one can reason with a statue. No one can have a debate with a statue. Faced with a statue, the powerless can only stew silently and marvel at the forces holding them down.
In Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar understands the power of statues very well. He has erected a 90ft tall golden statue of himself. He literally towers over all he sees and is visible from practically anywhere. Even worse, he has combined despotic political power with mandated faith. Whenever the populace hears the sounds of certain musical instruments, they must all turn and worship the golden statue. Failure to do so will lead the unpatriotic and unreligious directly to death in a fiery furnace.
This is too much for three young Jews living in Babylon. They are part of the enforced exile of Jews from their homeland. After sacking and looting Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar marched most of the populace to Babylon. And that is where we find the central characters of our story: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Faced with a choice of not only submitting to the oppressive political regime but also abandoning their God, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stand firm. They decide that under no circumstances will they bow to this kind of double pressure.
Of course, because they are important members of the king’s bureaucracy, they are soon discovered and brought before the king. Of course, Nebuchadnezzar is furious. ‘Is this true Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?’ ‘Yes, O King! It is true. We may have to suffer your political oppression, but we will not bow to your religious oppression. If you must throw us into the fiery furnace, so be it. Our God can save us. But even if our God does not save us, we will not worship your statue.’
The three men know that faith in God is not conditional. You either trust God or not and show loyalty to God regardless of the outcome. And because they do so, they are promptly thrown into the furnace, which has been heated seven times hotter than normal.
But then, something amazing happens. Looking in, the king sees not three but four men standing up, talking, walking around. And the fourth “Looks like a son of the gods.”
Immediately, the king calls for the men to come out. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego promptly walk out of the furnace. They are not harmed. They are not burned or even singed. They do not smell like smoke.
The episode of the three men in the fiery furnace is not just a call to resistance. It is also a call to political atheism. It is a call to refuse to bow down to any political violence wrapping itself in faith and patriotism. We must not only tune out the melodious serenades of patriotic faith but also to resist them by all means active and passive.
May our faith be as strong as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s.
God’s strong peace to us all,
Pastor Ken.