Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Bowing Down to Culture | The Writings | Daniel 3

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. You will service us. That's a quote from the Borg, which is a cyborg nation bent on assimilating all life in the galaxy into its hive mind in the classic TV show Star Trek. Specifically Star Trek, the next generation, whose captain, Jean-Luc Picard, is basically every nerd's favorite dude from the late 19.

Starting point is 00:00:36 80s. Now, under that threat of violence that the Borg wanted to assimilate the entire ship into its hive mind, the Enterprise's crew has to make a choice. They must either choose between assimilation or destruction. Re-watching it today, the whole bit is a little bit cheesy, and it's a clear nod to late Cold War fears about Soviet gulags, this fear that anyone who dissents with the reigning regime will pay terribly. But that seems like something of the past. We all have free speech. We can say, whatever we want. But is that really true? You see, this kind of thing is still happening today. People are still being assimilated. Maria Belova, the Russian Commissioner of Children's Rights, is responsible for assimilating Ukrainian children into Russian culture under force. This is what she

Starting point is 00:01:23 told the Moscow Times. She said, when we brought them, these are Ukrainian children, to the Moscow region, so that they could get their strength back. At first, they were negative about the president and said nasty things. They sang the Ukrainian anthem and that sort of thing. But later, that negative attitude turned into love for Russia. Reading about those children, I can't help but think about the prophet Daniel and his friends. That's because they were very similar. They were stolen from their homeland. They were forced eastward and matriculated into the empire's re-education programs. For years, the Judean exiles managed to do well in Babylon. But the hive mind was always forcing a choice. They needed to assimilate or be destroyed. That choice eventually came for Shadrach,

Starting point is 00:02:09 Meshach, and Abednego in the shape of a golden statue. We'll pick up the story in Daniel 3. King Nebuchadnezzar made a image of gold 60 cubits high and six cubits wide and set it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do. As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, heart, pipe, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will be immediately thrown into a blazing furnace. You get the message. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. You will service us. The strategy is as old as empire itself. Babylon,

Starting point is 00:03:01 the Borg and the Bolsheviks all deployed it. The furnace never stops burning even if it takes more subtle shapes. You can feel its intensifying heat today and the day will come when each of us will face a similar decision to bow down to the cultural gods or be consumed by flames. Empires apply all kinds of pressure to get you to bow, both hard and soft pressure. So it's valuable to look at both and understand them so we can resist. So first let's look at hard pressure. This is exactly what Shadrach Meshach and Abednego experienced. It's when the reigning regime uses coercion to make you bow down to the cultural gods. Cancel culture is a great example of this. Well, in reality, most Christians will never be canceled. The threat of cancellation scares just about everyone.

Starting point is 00:03:48 And maybe that explains why sometimes we quietly bow down to the cultural gods. We bow down to the cultural gods when we comply with HR's demands to write a pro-LGB statement for our department. We bowed We bow down to the cultural gods when we quietly seat our school board elections to activists. The point here isn't that we should be belligerent or make public statements. I mean, think about it for a second. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, they don't pick at the idol worship. They just refuse to show up when everybody worships. And they hope that no one notices.

Starting point is 00:04:20 Of course, someone does eventually notice, but they're hoping no one does. And so the same thing might apply to us. You might not outright refuse the DEI officer, the HR person. when they tell you to do something that's against your conscience, you might just do nothing and say nothing and hope no one notices and see what happens. The problem is that sometimes our acts of civil disobedience are discovered. That's the case for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their opponents may be driven by jealousy over their high appointment, that they're holding high office, but their motive doesn't matter. Their opponents come for them, and they are forced with a dire decision. They either have to bow down to

Starting point is 00:04:58 Nebuchadnezzar or they have to lose their lives. For them, they face the threat of losing their life. For you, it might be the threat of losing your job, losing your livelihood, a friendship, or your next promotion. But here's the key. You must begin to see any effort to make you break your conscience for what it really is. It's coercion. Someone is threatening to throw you into the furnace unless you bow, and we must not bow. So what about soft pressure? This is when a culture's unspoken norms make wrongdoing look attractive. Here's an example. What happens when all of your business competitors are ruthless? The kinds of people whose practices are barely legal. They're trying to eke out every last dollar because all they care about is the bottom line. They have no concern for

Starting point is 00:05:45 their employees, no concern for ecological impact, no concern for institutional longevity. Even worse, what if one of your colleagues has no ethical compunctions? And so they outperforming you consistently on the bottom line because they'll do anything for the sake of getting higher numbers. No one's twisting your arm in this situation to be ruthless. No one is saying bow down or be thrown into a furnace. No, the pressure here is not hard. It's not coercive. It's soft. But the pressure is immense. This is why so many people are followers of Jesus in private, but exactly like everybody else in public. We easily deceive ourselves into thinking we haven't bowed down to the cultural gods because we're singing to Jesus every Sunday, but in truth, the gods that reign Monday

Starting point is 00:06:33 through Saturday have already assimilated our hearts. The trouble with soft pressure is that it's less obvious than hard pressure, and so in some ways it's much more enticing. But soft pressure is also a furnace. The threat is implicit. If I don't act like everyone else, then I will lose something important. Here's the bottom line. We are all called to resist the temptation to bow down to cultural gods, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The question is, how do we do it? The sad truth is that most people who are willing to stand for the resistance do so with a kind of hardened, smug, embattled defiance. These kinds of people revel in skewering the empire and skewering anyone who's skewering them. They ape their tormentors. They take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Starting point is 00:07:21 And this kind of angry, frustrated, violent response is understandable. But compare it to Shadrard Meshach and Abednego. They are shockingly non-anxious, non-reactive, and incredibly respectful. In Daniel 3, verses 16 to 18, they respond to King Nebuchadnezzar when he commands them to bow down in his presence. They say, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up. I want you to notice that they show an evil king tremendous respect. They call him Your Majesty multiple

Starting point is 00:08:10 times. But they also don't mince their words. They are very direct and very firm. He is not their ultimate authority and they will not comply. I think they're able to remain non-anxious because they know that their God really is able to deliver them from the furnace if he wants to. You see, that's the key to being non-anxious. That's the key to resisting the pressure. You also must trust God. You also must remember that he has rescued from sin and death and that he has secured your future. And because he has done those things for you, apart from your works, you are able to be faithful to him and know that there's nothing the powers can do to take away from you what is most important, which is him, his love, and life everlasting in his presence.

Starting point is 00:08:54 That's worth saying. At first, things don't go well for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar throws them into the furnace. But while they're in there, an angelic figure appears. He appears with them in the flames, and they survived the furnace miraculously. And when Nebuchadnezzar sees it, he repents. Of course, we're not promised a happy ending in every story. Instead, we are simply commanded to trust and know that Jesus is with us in every flame. Don't bow down to the cultural gods. resistance is not futile assimilation is death don't service the empire step into the furnace willingly do so without anxiety and without fear and without disdain for those who throw you in because you know that your god reigns when the flames crackle when the heat burns turn and you will see jesus with you

Starting point is 00:09:43 in the flames beside you

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Bowing Down to Culture | The Writings | Daniel 3

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