40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Daniel 2:31-3:7 (Episode 511)

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Daniel successfully interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream. A stone will break apart the kingdoms of kings. And an image is set up with a threat of death by fiery furnace for those who will not worship it. Have a listen. Follow 1517:  Instagram X/Twitter More from 1517: Give to the June 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser! Learn more about the 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education New Books from 1517 Publishing: By Water and the Word by Brian Thomas Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Dr. Christopher Richmann The Essential Nestingen: Essays on Preaching, Catechism, and the Reformation More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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Chad, we are still in Daniel chapter 2. We did not make it through. It's a long chapter. And a lot going on. The story is moving along quickly. Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. It's bugging him. I mean, he can't shake this dream.

This dream is bothering him more than any dream you've ever had. You've never had a dream. like this where where you're like you're willing to kill people if you can't figure out what the interpretation of this dream is so he sends it you know for all the guys you know he's his typical guys they're going to come in and tell him stuff but he's got a little twist uh they come in confident yeah we'll tell you the interpretation he's like no no it's not gonna be that easy i need to know that you know that you know reputation so what i'm gonna need you to do is tell me the dream without me telling you the dream and its interpretation. That's how I'll know

that you really know what's going on. They say that's impossible. No one has asked such a thing from anyone ever. And he's like, well, how about I kill all of you then? And right before that happens, and Daniel's not one of the people that were there at that time, but he's considered a wise man, and so his head is on the chopping block, as it were, and he says, give me a little bit of time. Let me go ask someone. I happen to know a guy, and that guy is God. And so Daniel asks God. God gives him what it is. The author doesn't share it with us. We just hear that Daniel gets a word, and he's grateful for the word. He goes to the king, says, I got you. I've went and sought God, and God has told me,

And we're about to find out what exactly it is that God told Daniel about this dream. Yeah, that's a great setup. He's been teasing us, as it were, up until this point. So verse 31 of Daniel 2 is finally going to tell us the dream. And then he's going to tell us the interpretation. So first one, then the other. Verse 31, Daniel says, You saw, O King, and behold, a great image.

This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut, was cut out by no human hand and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff. So these aren't just like little, you know, pieces. These are tiny, tiny pieces. Became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors.

And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream. Well, I mean, that kind of dream, I can kind of understand why the king was, his spirit was troubled and he had to find out the meaning of this dream. I mean, just listening to myself read it, I'm thinking, man, if I had a dream like that, I'd probably be waking up, hitting Google, typing in my dream, see if I could find some interpretation of a dream like that. I mean, that is, that's some wild, that's some wild stuff. So, yeah, it's no wonder Nebuchadnezzar wants to find out what the world all this means. Well, also, Daniel gives a pretty good detail here, you know, is, I mean, shoot, I don't describe my own dreams this way.

I mean, if I do remember it, if I was telling my wife, I'd be like, I was like, I don't even know why. I was like in a place and there was like there was some other people there and and then like, yeah, Jeff was there and I don't know what he was doing, but he was like there for a minute. It's like all like this. Oh, yeah. This is a greater detail and and more straightforward than I think I have ever described one of my own dreams in my life. You and me both. Yeah. My dreams are like if I'm telling them in the morning.

It's like, say the dream was an hour long, just making up a number. I remember like 60 seconds of that at the most. So I like, yeah, just the way you were describing. I was somewhere. I have no idea how I got there. And I have no idea why Jeff or whoever it is, a person maybe I haven't even thought about in years, ends up in my dream. And I don't know what happens after that, too. It's just like a little slice of the dream is what I remember.

Yeah, this is – I mean this is amazing, amazing detail down to these particulars like the feet. They're part of iron and part of clay and the – I mean just the images are very, very graphic, very detailed. You know what I also like about this? I like that he doesn't wait to say, did I get it right? Yeah, right. Yeah, the confidence in that last phrase. Well, he already knows he got it, because the next line is going to be like, that's the dream. Here's the interpretation. And you're not going to stop and be like, how am I doing so far? Yeah, right, right. Yeah, so the way, I mean, this is Aramaic, I know, but typical Hebrew prose might, like if he would have been waiting for a response from the king, then right after it says this was the dream, then the Hebrew would have said, and then Daniel said.

So often the way that the Hebrew narrative will work is, you know, if I'm expecting a response from someone I'm talking to and they don't give it, then it will repeat, and then Chad said. Well, there's no, and then Daniel said. He just goes right from this was the dream to saying, now we will tell the king its interpretation. I mean, just jumps right into it. Yeah, I mean, if this was me, I would give all that, and then I would say, is that right? And then he would be like, yeah. And I'd be like, all right. Wipe the sweat from the brow. Guess my head's going to stay on my shoulders. Thank you, Lord.

Maybe he can even just, you never know. Maybe Daniel can also just tell by his face that he's nailing it, you know? Oh, yeah. Unless this guy had mastered his emotions, then as soon as Daniel started out with the great image, exceeding brightness, the head of gold, the Nebuchadnezzar's eyes were as wide as saucers, and all his nonverbal was saying, oh, man, yeah, you got it, down to a T. i wonder too if like when daniel was describing it even some of these details that the king had maybe forgotten or a little bit murky in his mind obviously he's like oh yes exactly i right i'd forgotten that detail but yeah you got it you got it perfectly okay so i think it's interesting too that he uses the first person plural when he begins the interpretation because he says now we

will tell the king its interpretation. I don't really think this is a royal we, as it were. I think this is Daniel, as it were, including his three friends, saying, listen, this isn't just, yeah, this is just me. My buddies and I, we teamed up, we prayed for God to give us mercy, and he answered our prayer. So here is the interpretation. Maybe he's talking about him and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yeah. He's like the whole, he's like, there's everything. I know you think it's just me, but I've got, it's me, my three buddies, the other, these, this three-person God, there's like seven of us here.

Yeah. Yeah. We're all going to let you know what's going on here. Verse 37 begins the interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings. So typical, you know, phrase that they use for the superlative. You're the king of kings. To whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all.

You are the head of gold. I love the way he, that whole beginning is just awesome. well what's awesome what's awesome about it is he he said he does first he does the you oh king the king of kings so he's like sort of acknowledges like hey you're like the you know as far as kings go yeah you're you're you're number number one but then he lets him know that there's someone greater than him to who and this is what to whom the god of heaven has given all these things and then he says it again and has given in other words yeah you're like the most powerful guy around but that power has been granted to you yeah exactly yeah so uh he yeah he

gives him the honor he's like yeah but just just so you know i mean the only reason that you are the king of kings and the only reason you have all this authority dominion and whatnot is because God has given this to you. It's almost, you know, it's really, I was just this morning, I guess it hit me how it's almost a Genesis 1 and 2 kind of description, right? I mean, you've been given all this so that you have authority even over the beast of the field, the birds of the heavens, making them rule over them all. I mean, that's precisely the kind of language that God uses to describe the kind of authority

and rule that he gave to Adam. You can rule over the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea and whatnot, except here, of course, it's also the children of man. So it's humanity over which Nebuchadnezzar is going to be ruling. And then he says, okay, that head of gold on that image, that's you. And by you, it's certainly the king, but of course, the kingdom of which he is the representative or the personification. so that much is clear so far we know who the head of gold was nebuchadnezzar babylonian kingdom but of course we have more to go verse 39 says that another kingdom inferior to you that's got to make you feel good another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you and yet a third kingdom

of bronze which shall rule over all the earth and there shall be a fourth kingdom strong as iron because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things and like iron that crushes it shall break and crush all these and as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron it shall be a divided kingdom but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay and as the toes of the feet were partially iron and partly partly iron and partly clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle and as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay so they will mix one thing with another in marriage but they will not hold together just as iron does not mix with clay we'll uh stop there and kind of unpack unpack some

of this so obviously as we're told the head of gold that's nebuchadnezzar that's a that's a babylonian that's a babylonian kingdom so what comes next well we're not told too much right we're just told that another kingdom and a figure to you shall arise after you that's going to be that's going to be the silver and uh traditional interpretation no reason to doubt that whatsoever is that this is the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, who, of course, are going to come after the Babylonians. In fact, we know that Daniel will actually live to the coming of that, the fall of the Babylonian kingdom and the rise of the Persians,

which will then lead to the bronze. And the bronze will be the kingdom of Greece, which, of course, begins with Alexander the Great and his conquest of, you know, beginning in Asia Minor and then working his way to Israel, and then, of course, working his way to conquer the Persians all the way down into Egypt. So the spread of the Empire of Alexandria, the Empire of Greece. Then the iron is going to be Rome. So we go from Babylon to the Medes and the Persians to Greece and then to Rome. So not much is said about the bronze, not much is said about the silver,

but man, there's a lot that is said about the iron. We have several different verses here, and we learn that it's strong as iron. Why? Because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And if you know much about the Roman Empire, I can't think of a summary of exactly what rome did that really is better than that yeah talk about a machine of iron that just everywhere they went they were breaking things in pieces shattering conquering and spreading their empire everywhere everywhere that they went yeah and i mean even some stuff mixed with it where it says i mean what is the what was rome's downfalls not enough iron to to go around maybe you had to supplement this with some other things that weren't iron, right?

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing about the Roman Empire. Of course, you can read a whole library full of books about the, to take the Gibbon's title, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I listened to a course on the Roman Empire, and one of the lectures was about all the theories behind why Rome fell. And I think he listed somewhere between 15 and 20 scholarly theories as to why you had the Roman Empire fall. Everything from moral decline to some, you know, ecological kinds of reasons, health reasons. So there's a lot of reasons that are given. But the point, at least of Daniel's vision, is that this iron kingdom of Rome isn't as strong as people think that it is because it's iron mixed with clay so this is i mean what we're looking

at here is a prophecy of the next few centuries i mean you think about it so this is daniel was taken into captivity in 597 uh or 60605 and then we've got 597 is another exile of some of the judeans and they get 586 you have the fall of jerusalem so all this is coming up all this of course, is the Babylonian Empire. But then he's looking ahead to the fall of the Babylonian Empire and the rise of the Persian Empire. And then, of course, the fall of the Persian Empire. It's conquered by Alexander the Great. And then Alexander dies young. His kingdom is divided between his four generals. And that goes on for a while. And then finally, the Romans, as they begin to expand from their little bitty area in Italy to conquer Italy and then Asia Minor

and then spreading from there, the rise of that. I mean, it's centuries that we're looking at here. That's going to take us, of course, all the way to the first century, whereas we'll hear in just a second, you're going to have the rise of this other kingdom, which is described as a stone that is cut by no human hand that is going to strike those feet that are partly of clay and partly of iron. Yeah, this last kingdom is a little bit different, right? It's almost like it's a heavenly kingdom, Chad.

It's almost like that. Almost. You couldn't overthrow this kingdom if you wanted to. There's really nothing you can do. Yeah, this is the way it starts out. It says, verse 44, that in the days of those kings, being described, of course, the kings of the Roman emperors, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever just as now he gets to the the image from the dream just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand and it broke in pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver

and the gold a great god has made known to the king what shall be after this and then talk about confidence the dream is certain and its interpretation sure that's how daniel ends yeah the so this is uh this is very similar to the way that jesus tells parables you know it's the it's the mustard seed, right? Uh, it, this little, little object here, you have a little object, you have a stone that is cut by no human hand. I'll talk about the human hand part in just a second. Cause that's important. So the stone that, uh, strikes, you know, we're talking, we still use the image of, uh, feet of clay, right? Yeah. That's where it comes from. Yeah. so uh of course this that's the irony here is that you have this great image right and yet the image

is the weakest part is the feet well you you take out the feet and the whole thing crumbles right so that's what's going to happen here you you have these feet which are weak because you can't iron and clay don't mix uh and the and the the stone that is cut from a mountain by no human hand so god cuts this stone this small object strikes the feet and down down it comes now the reason cut by no human hand is important is because things so when we talk about handmade objects i mean that's with us that means it's kind of a cut above the rest right it's superior This is not factory made. This is handmade. It's handcrafted. So that's a very positive image for us, but not biblically speaking, because handmade things typically in the scriptures are, that idiom is in reference to idols, gods made with human hands. This goes over into the New Testament as well, where you have hands or handmade things also having this connotation of being connected with idolatry.

now listen this is from mark 14 58 and this is some of the accusations leveled against jesus we heard him say i will destroy this temple that is made with hands and in three days i will build another not made with hands even though it's an accusation leveled against jesus it's it's true right he does john 2 tells us this you know destroy this temple and in three days i will rebuild it. But that language of made with hands, made without hands is echoing this same sentiment here. So God takes a stone that he himself has cut and hurls it. It hits the feet, breaks it apart. Everything falls, becomes as just chaff before the wind, which is then blown away. And this part is significant. It becomes a great mountain and then fills the

whole earth. Well, there's your image of God starting small in order to do great things. And of course, it's the image of his kingdom, which begins to spread until it fills the entire earth. And of course, the kingdom of God is often pictured in Old Testament terms as a mountain to which all the nations will stream. Yeah, but there's two things that come into my mind. One, this sounds very much like maybe a stone that people would reject, right? So, I mean, this is very common language in the New Testament pulled from the Old Testament. But yeah, Jesus being referred to as a stone, maybe an unsightly stone,

maybe a stone that no one wants, becoming the cornerstone, that everything is built upon. So I think you're getting some of that, right? So what is this stone that God has selected? I mean, it's Christ himself. Like, this is what the kingdom is built on. And then this is, like, a totally different thing. But when you hear about, like,

you have this giant statue, and then there's, like, this little stone. To me, anyway, I think back to, you know, to David and Goliath, and David takes a stone and sinks that thing into the head of this big thing. But this isn't the end of, like, false gods or kingdoms or idolatry or, you know, kings conquering each other.

So when God does His work with the stone, He doesn't go for the head. He goes for the feet and just takes the feet out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And down it goes. And this is also, we've talked about this many times, but this is also one more example of how when you have a prophecy of what is to come, this prophecy is delivered by way of dreams. Oftentimes you have the entire, what we would call the entire New Testament period collapsed into one event. We saw this multiple times in Isaiah. Same thing's happening here.

so this kingdom comes and it destroys all the kingdoms of the world and becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth well you can read that and be like oh man this is going to happen just lickety split right no time at all down and go the kingdoms the kingdom of god reign supreme all the other kingdoms are are gone well yeah that does happen but it doesn't happen overnight it doesn't happen even in a century right we are living through the growth of this kingdom which is eventually going to be revealed on the last day and that's why you have and that's when the new jerusalem will come down from heaven and that will be the great mountain so you have different images you have the new creation you have the new jerusalem you have this mountain that fills the

the whole earth all these are just different ways of describing the same the same reality Yeah, you do have this little stone in Christ. And, I mean, you have seen over the last 2,000 plus years that kingdom expand all over the world. I mean, there's Christians everywhere. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you think about how, especially related to the image itself, how this kingdom began to spread. So Jesus, of course, is born to the Roman Empire, just like you have the vision described. He's the stone cut by no human hand who shows up when this fourth kingdom is in play.

And it's, you know, it's a strong, it's an iron strong kingdom, but it's also partly brittle because of all the issues that the Roman Empire had. So he shows up during that time period. And think about it. I mean, up until right before Constantine legalized Christianity in 312. So right before that, you have the biggest empire-wide persecution under Diocletian that happened. It's just right before you have Constantine. So this is the Roman Empire. This is the Roman Empire persecuting those who are citizens of this kingdom. And then the very next king, Constantine, comes along and legalizes Christianity. And that eventually becomes then not just the licit religion, but also the religion of the Roman Empire. And so you see the Roman Empire beginning to fall apart, replaced by this kingdom, which is spreading from there, of course, as you said, to the uttermost ends of the earth. Yeah. Cool stuff. All right.

So I've got a few more verses. We'll finish out this chapter and then we'll get to chapter three. How did Nebuchadnezzar respond to all this? Well, he fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering, an incense be offered up to him. This is the kind of reaction that you would expect from a Babylonian worshiper of all the gods, whether it's Baal or any of the other part of the Babylonian pantheon. It's quite striking because this is the all-powerful, this is the head of gold, right? And yet he falls on his face, pays homage to Daniel, and wants an offering, an incense to be offered up to Daniel. And then he says to Daniel, truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.

That's pretty good. I mean, you had Daniel refer to him as king of kings, and this guy seems like he gets what Daniel was throwing down. He's like, okay. I mean, you've got like the God of gods and the Lord of kings going on here. Yeah, he's a—I wouldn't say that he gets an A-plus in his theology yet, but he's on his way to understanding that Daniel's God is not just one more in the pantheon of gods, but he's able to reveal these mysteries in a way that no one else could. So he gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, just like he said that he was going to, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And then Daniel put in a good word for his buddies.

He said that then Daniel made a request to the king and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court. so it's a it's a great ending to uh everything that i've been leading up to the revealing of the dream and and it's its interpretation and you know you might you might think the very next chapter is going to kind of build upon how nebuchadnezzar learned these value valuable theological lessons and incorporated those into into his theology into his theology but as we'll see it. It didn't work that way quite yet. Yeah, it's almost like he heard Daniel say, you are the gold, and he said, all right, let me make a gigantic gold image of myself then.

Yeah, so that's what's going to occupy us in chapter three. King Nebuchadnezzar, that's the very first phrase, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth was was 60 cubits was six cubits which is uh it depends on you know it depends on how the how big a cube it was but most people you know say this would be around 90 feet high and uh nine feet wide which actually is very narrow you think of something 90 feet and it's only nine feet wide i mean that is that is set up to fall down uh so it's just it's it's a strange The height is not unusual whatsoever. I mean, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the Colossus at Rhodes, and that was over 100 feet high. So this kind of height of an image was not unheard of. But yeah, its base is certainly narrow. So there's differences of opinion as to what this image was supposed to represent.

I think I'm with you. I mean, I think it's undeniable that it has to be related to the dream and its interpretation. I mean, we go right from him being the head of gold to hearing that Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. So the debate is over. Is this an image that represents Nebuchadnezzar, which is one possibility? Is it an image of one of the gods? you know, maybe Marduk, Bel, or was it something else? Whatever it was, I think it's inescapable that it's Nebuchadnezzar doing something based upon the dream and its interpretation that Daniel

just gave. It's like, hey, I'm the head of gold. I'm the head of gold. And so I want this image to redound to my glory he's not gonna he's not going to exclude glory given to the gods of babylon but he certainly wants himself to be included here yeah so oh and by the way kind of interesting things happening here in uh in the the aramaic so when when daniel was interpreting things he said that this stone cut by no human hand shall break in pieces all those kingdoms bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Well, the same verb that's translated there as stand is the same verb that is used down here for him setting up this image of gold on the plain. So it's a nice contrast. God is going to establish a kingdom that will stand. He's going to set up

this kingdom and it shall stand forever. But multiple times in chapter 3, we have Nebuchadnezzar setting this up. In fact, it's one, two, three, four, five, at least five, if not six times, we have this same verb used for him setting up this statue. And of course, the statue is reflective of himself, of his ego, of idolatry. And therefore, it's a nice contrast with the kingdom that is going to actually be set up by God and stand. But he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. And then King Nebuchadnezzar sent together all these guys, the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar

had set up. Then, well, that's what they did. Satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers justices magistrates and all the officials of the province gathered for the dedication of the image that king nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before the image that nebuchadnezzar had set up so you got all these guys gathered together from all over the empire of course this is not going to be just a moment of them bowing down but this is the way they pledge their their loyalty to nebuchadnezzar right this is their political loyalty is going to be signaled by them bowing down to this particular image well and the author here is being super redundant um on purpose he really wants you to know that uh nebuchadnezzar set this

image up like yeah you know i mean this is over and over like hey if you're wondering where it came from um like that's where it came from he set it up all right because he's gonna find himself in a in a bind uh with an image that he set up it's almost as if uh as if the author wants you to know that whatever happens next is his fault i mean you chose this wasn't like an image that your father had set up and man you know we've worshipped this thing for a long time we bowed down and no like you you invented this whole thing yeah and it's going to set him up for uh For a major failure, as we shall see. And also the fact that you have all these people also repeated, you know, the satraps, prefects, so on and so forth.

The reason it's being repeated is to make sure you don't miss the fact that everybody was there. This wasn't just like a select few. All of these people who were supposed to be behind the king, supportive of the king, they are there. And verse 4 tells us that, you know, lest there was any confusion, the herald said this, he proclaimed this aloud, you are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of all these instruments, the horn, the pipe, the lyre, you say that trigon, I think that's a right pronunciation, trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, It's going to be this huge band, right? When you hear this band playing, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And you got to have the threat here. Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.

therefore as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn pipe lyre trigon harp bagpipe and every kind of music all the peoples nations and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that king nebuchadnezzar had set up and they really want you to know that he set this up this is what i'm telling you did you get the impression that maybe king nebuchadnezzar had himself had set this up i think i think he's the one um that uh that is responsible for the setting up of this image yeah i'm getting i'm getting that loud and clear that is one of the ways that uh that the bible makes sure that you don't miss the point i mean that's one of the oddities actually about about the bible there's times when i mean they are extremely conservative in the language that

they use. And other times, however, there will be this massive repetition. And that's one of the rhetorical ways that Hebrew will make sure you don't miss something. It will just keep telling you. Maybe not. I mean, this is even over the top by biblical standards because one, two, three, yeah, six different times we have that verb. But yeah, without a doubt, this is what he himself is done. He made it, we're told in verse one. He set it up, we're told, six different times. Everybody's there. You have all these instruments. I mean, the whole, that's first seven verses. These first seven verses are almost humorously over the top in making sure that you know what this image is all about. You know all the people who are there. You know all the musical instruments.

And you know also, lest we forget, the threat of what's going to happen to someone who doesn't actually fall down and worship this image. Yeah, and part of what is on you know too is that there's no way that anyone doesn't know about this either, right? So there's no ignorance. I mean, everybody's there. So it's like, oh, I wasn't aware. No, no, everyone knows Shadram, Meshach, and Abednego know. Everybody knows. and uh yeah the bible's like that there's so many times where you'd be like can i get a little more

details on this and the bible's like no and then there's other times you're like man you're saying the same thing over and over again a lot here uh you could have saved some of that ink and give me some more details on some of these parts that i would like more details and uh that's that's how god is he's like now i'll drive home the parts that i want to drive home and i won't tell you things that i don't think you need to know yeah someone was asking me recently about the opening chapters of numbers where it just keeps going over all the same kind of offerings and sacrifices that this tribe offered and this next tribe they offer the same sacrifices and this tribe offered it's like oh it's like okay you could have just like done this in two verses it didn't take a

whole chapter but uh that's the way oh that's the way the scriptures work it doesn't seem to So this fiery furnace thing, this seems like kind of like a threat that you believe you'll never have to use, right? So you have this like extreme punishment and it's there to sort of – I don't know. Like it makes it – it bolsters the importance of this thing. It's like, hey, this is—you're trying to put forward to the people that this is a really big deal, and it's of the utmost importance. And so the punishment is going to be, you know, not just death, but we're going to—we have a fiery furnace. We're going to throw you into it or whatever. But you kind of assume that this is going to be completely unnecessary because who's not going to do this?

Like, under threat of being thrown into a fiery furnace, who doesn't, like, oh, the music's playing. Let me bow down real quick, right? And so this is part of the reason where Nebuchadnezzar is going to find himself in a situation where he's going to have to employ the fiery furnace because now the threat has been made. Yeah, this is probably, by the way, so, you know, they would bake bricks in these big kilns. And this was probably like some sort of industrial size brick kiln where you had an opening on top where you could put in materials. And then you had opening on the side where you could, you know, look in and see how things were going. And some of these that they found are massive, you know, big enough for several people to be inside. So that's probably what this is.

And yeah, it was, it would have been one of those threats. Like, listen, we've had this, you know, this punishment threatened against people for a long time and we've never had to use it because I mean, who's not going to bow down to this image or who's not going to follow the order of the king? Well, as we'll talk about in the next episode, there are three guys who in fact will not follow what the king has stipulated. Yeah, and it does seem like that maybe some of the previous interpreters have not forgotten that they got, you know, instead of being grateful to Daniel for them not being dead, it seems that they may be a little jealous that he was able to rise to prominence the way he did. Yeah, no good deed goes unpunished here for sure. Yeah. All right, well, we're going to have to wait and get into that next episode. Chad, I'll see you then. All right, see you then.

We'll see you next time.