“Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? … be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Daniel 3
(Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar the “destroyer of nations” (Jeremiah 4:7) and gives an account of the second siege of Jerusalem (587 BC) and the looting and destruction of the Solomon’s Temple. Nebuchadnezzar was a king of Ancient Babylon; Babylon appears in the Bible as a symbol for rejection of God and was know for the worship of many gods such as Baal.)
Heathen: A pagan; a gentile; one who worships idols, or is unacquainted with the true God.
This week I found myself asking, “What heathen thought am I allowing to dictate my life?” This could come in form of fearful thoughts, people pleasing behavior, negative messages, others opinions, compromise, dominating person, etc. I see why pressure is something to be alert to. Sometimes is comes under the guise of love. We are taught here ask, “Where is this thought taking me?”
The three Hebrew captives did not allow Nebuchadnezzar (a bully or animal magnetism) and his pagan ideas to take them away from their relationship to the one true God and they did not compromise under pressure.
The blessing for following the First Commandment and putting God first and standing for the right:
“Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” Daniel 6