Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: I'm reading Daniel chapter 3, and we begin with verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the King, "Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, oh King. But if not, be it known unto thee, oh King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hadst set up."

Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury. And the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore, he spoke and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hose, and their hats, and their other garments, and they were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Therefore, because the King's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar, the King, was astonished, and he rose up in haste, and he spoke and he said unto his counselors, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" And they answered and said unto the King, "True, oh King."

He answered and he said, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt." "And the form of the four is like the Son of God." Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spoke and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servant of the Most High God, come forth and come hither." Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the King's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed. Neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has 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."

"Therefore, I make a decree that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, should be cut in pieces. And their houses should be made a dunghill because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort." Then the King promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

I want to remind you, as we continue to study in the book of Daniel, that by the time we get to chapter 3, we have already covered four periods of time in the great image that Nebuchadnezzar was dreaming, which has to do with the four periods in the history of the times of the Gentiles, whereby we have learned in chapter 2 that there will be four kingdoms who are going to go through this period where the scepter, the kingship, where the authority had been given by God to these four kingdoms, namely the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greeks and the Romans.

Four kingdoms that will take their course in the time of the Gentiles. They will take their course all the way from the time when the Jewish people have left Judea and been taken captive by the Babylonian, all the way up to the time when the Messiah will come in His second coming. So there was a great image. And the great image had been made out of four different metals: gold, silver, brass, and iron.

But now in chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar built an image. And by building this image, beloved, by way of refreshing our memory, he was really defying God who already gave instruction through Daniel that it will not be only Babylon who going to always be in the kingdom. It will be another kingdom and another kingdom and another kingdom. Babylon will have an end.

Nebuchadnezzar said, "No, I don't like what God said through Daniel. I'm not believing, I'm not accepting what God said through the image, through the dream that I have dreamed. I am going to build an image totally out of gold. Not silver, not bronze, not iron, not clay. It's going to be totally out of gold, which represent me and my kingdom, and I am intend to remain in authority as long as I live."

Also, he says, "The Babylonian kingdom will continue forever." Well, he had to learn a great lesson and he's going to learn it also somewhat in this chapter. As we said, you remember as we began, Nebuchadnezzar the King made an image of gold.

In pride, he built this great image. As it says here, 90 ft high, 9 ft wide, and he gathered all the nations around to come there, first of all, to dedicate it, but eventually to worship that image. And so we find out, verses 1-7, the decree to worship, he makes sounds of music, all kind of music, as we have seen it. The music is not the cornet, the flute, the sackbut, the psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kind of music.

The moment everybody will hear the sound of the music, everybody must bow their knees and worship that image. But oh, there were three Jewish boys who simply wouldn't bow. And because these three Jewish boys had been elevated already at the end of chapter 2, the leaders of the Babylonians sought an occasion to find fault in them. And oh, there was an opportunity right now.

Everybody listening to the music, you notice that? And when everybody listened to the music, everybody falling down to worship the image, there were three Jewish boys who did not bow down to the image. And they found an occasion, and you remember, as we have said this in verse 12, there was the accusation. And if you remember, threefold accusation, "There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men," threefold accusation, "number one, they have not regarded you, King Nebuchadnezzar. Number two, they serve not your gods, Nebuchadnezzar. Number three, they worship not the golden image."

It's amazing, they come and they began to accuse these Jewish boys, Jewish men. Well, you notice, if you remember, we have covered up till verse 15. In verse 13 to verse 18, there is the testimony of those Jewish boys. They were called in. They were called in to come to testify before the King. And verses 13-15, Nebuchadnezzar, he's challenging those three Jewish boys. And he's saying to them, in verse 14, he spoke unto them and he said, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that ye do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?"

And then he gives them an opportunity, in verse 15, he says, "Now, if you are ready at whatever time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kind of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made, well. But," he said to them in verse 15B, "if you do not worship, ye shall be cast in the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery furnace." And you remember, that's where we have stopped last time. "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?"

You know what one brother said? If God had ears like you and I, and we know that God does not have ears like you and I because God is a spirit. But if God had ears and he heard, and God does definitely hear, His ear would pick up when Nebuchadnezzar said, "Who is that God that's going to deliver you out of my hand?" In other words, he challenges and he, by the way, knew very well, to the amount of knowledge that he had had, "Who is that God?" because at the end of chapter 2, if you remember, what he said, and listen to this verse, he says in verse 47, "The King answered and said to Daniel, of a truth it is that your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings."

But you know what? Apparently, he just understood or just accepted very little. "Your God is God among many gods and He's Lord among many lords or many kings." But he did not want yet to acknowledge that this God of Daniel and his friends, the God of Israel, is the God of gods and Lord of kings. And so right now here, he's saying, "Who is that God?" If you remember, last week, in our Bible study, we went to Exodus chapter 3, and it was Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, who said, "Who is the Lord that I will let you go outside of the land of Egypt?" And he had to learn that lesson that the God of the Hebrews is the true and living God.

And you know what? Sometimes you and I also hear people say to us, "Who is Jesus? Don't give me this nonsense about Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ." We hear that oftentimes. And you know, beloved, the Bible says in Philippians chapter 2 that God had made Him both Lord and Christ and Messiah, Mashiach, and that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus, the Messiah is Lord to the glory of God the Father, Philippians chapter 2.

If people will not bow to Him today, they will bow to Him sooner or later. They will have to bow. Everyone will have to acknowledge who Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah truly is. It's better to do it today, in the day of grace where there's time than to have to do it after even one, people who have died without Christ, without the Messiah, will have, beloved, they will have to bow their knees even in hell or in the lake of fire to acknowledge who Jesus really is.

The point is this, the difference is, is that it will be too late. It'll be too late. They will never be able to, if you will, to be, to have an opportunity any longer to be restored and to have a relationship right with God. Once a person left this scene, that's it. That's it. It is appointed unto men once to die. Hebrews teaches that, and after this, the judgment.

So it's far safer and it's far better to acknowledge the person of the Messiah right now, while we are still alive and living in this world, rather than to wait and to bow our knees, or men's knees has to be bowed after, after he left his scene. But it will be too late because without knowing Him today, while we are still alive, there is no hope behind that life journey.

And so now, listen. Now we continue here in our Bible study, in our ministry, in verses 16 to verse 18. These young Jewish men, young Jewish boys, respond to him. How beautiful they respond. Notice that first of all, in verse 16, they respond in three ways. Notice verse 16. They say this, "We do not have any intention to worship your image."

Notice verse 16. They say, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the King, 'Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.'" In other words, this, you know, we have to to understand here, of course, this is was written in Aramaic. And what they are saying, they are not being obnoxious. They are not being hotty here and they're telling him, "Oh, we do not care about what you have to say." No, they're not saying it this way.

They're simply, simply says, "King Nebuchadnezzar, we are have, we have no intention to bow to this image. Simply we are not a people that are bowing to images." That's what they're simply saying. They were not being hotty and proud and arrogant. And they said, "Who doesn't, I'm not going to listen to you and so on." No, they're simply saying, "We are simply not intend to bow to an image. We are not going to do so." And of course, the reason, somebody might ask them, "Why don't you want to bow?" They're going to give them an answer. But they are simply saying in verse 16, "We, we are not careful or we are not intending to answer thee in this matter," another word to do what you expect from us to do in this matter, which means to bow to that particular image.

Now, I want you to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament for a minute. Matthew chapter 10. This expression careful, it's remind us of a verse that the Lord Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, said to His first Hebrew disciples. He says, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." Notice that, "Be wise as the serpents and harmless as the dove." In other words, "Don't be hotty, don't be proud. Just be wise, discern. Be also harmless." And then see in verse 17, "But beware of men, for they will deliver you up into council, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles."

And notice verse 19, what He said to them, "But when ye, when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak. For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak." That expression in verse 19, "take no thought or do not worry about or be not careful." It's the same thought that we have here from the book of Daniel in chapter 3 and verse 16. In other words, He said to them, "I am going to be with you to enable you to speak and to say what I have in mind for you to say at the time where the trial coming your way."

And so that's what we read in the answer of these three Jewish boys, "We do not have intention to worship that particular image." And so now notice in verse 17, I am back now in Daniel, Daniel chapter 3 and verse 17. Notice in verse 17 what he said, the second what they say, "Our God is able to deliver us and He will." Amazing to think about the faith that these Jewish boys have had. It says in verse 17, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand."

Now, sometimes when I read a passage like that, sometimes I'm wondering. I'll tell you why I'm wondering is because God at times allow people to go through problems and He doesn't always take us out of our problems. It is amazing to see that sometimes God, that's the way it is. It was always historically with our people, the Jewish people, with the nation of Israel and it's also as well in the history of the church of Jesus the Messiah, that God, He allow His people to go sometimes through fiery trials.

And the deliverance does not mean that He delivered us from, but sometimes He delivered us through the experience. This is important to understand because sometimes we can get discouraged when we are going through trial. Then we pray and we say, "Lord, take this situation away from me because I cannot bear it anymore." And yet the Lord says, "I will be with you. I'll never leave you, nor forsake you." And He says, "Commit thy ways unto the Lord, casting your cares upon the Lord, for He cares for you."

So we cast our cares upon the Lord, and yet He allows us to go through this trial. And we ask ourselves the question, "Lord, why?" And yet we have to understand, and I think and I believe that here in chapter 3 and verses 16-18 and all that we are studying, we will see that God deliver them, but He didn't deliver them from the trial. He delivered them through the trial.

Another example that is very interesting is the example of Noah and his family. You know Noah and his family went or came to the other side of the new world through the flood. Through the trials, if you will. And the flood that happened in the, in the past, in the past history of this world, is a picture of the tribulation period. And the tribulation period, the nation of Israel will go through the tribulation period, but they are going to come on the other side of the tribulation period victorious, as God is going to regather them and save them. Finally, will save the nation of Israel. National Israel will be regenerated, but not before they're going to go through the tribulation period.

You see the church of Jesus the Messiah going to be raptured before the tribulation, while the nation of Israel going to be going through the tribulation, but coming on the other side of the tribulation a redeemed nation. Of course, with sufferings and trials like never before, like never before. And so what we learn here from these verses, and it's good for us to get a hold of it, is that they had such a faith, such faith in God, that they said to Nebuchadnezzar, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hands, oh King."

And so in verse 18, notice the third thing that they say, notice. Then it says in verse 18, "But if not." You see, they understood. They understood that God may allow them to go through this experience through the burning fiery furnace. "If not, be it known unto thee, oh King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hadst set up." You know somebody called it a little bit chutzpah. You know what chutzpah in Hebrew means? A nerve. What a nerve they had to say such a thing to the King. What a trust they had in God, that they simply committed themselves unto the Lord.

You know the Apostle Paul said in the book of Timothy, how much faith he must have had, he said, "I know whom I believed, and I am and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." He knew the Lord. He knew whom he had trusted and believed. And you know, we also know Him, but sometimes we do not know Him in a real experiential way, day by day, as we trust Him for all situation in our lives.

Sometimes, unfortunately, because we haven't trusted Him and laid down everything before Him, sometimes we cannot say such a thing like the Apostle Paul had said, or these Jewish boys had said to Nebuchadnezzar. What a word they say, "If He will not, if He will not deliver us, be it known unto thee, oh King, that we will not serve your God." In verse 17, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us. But if not, if not, we'll still going to trust Him. We'll still going to trust Him."

I remember reading something about the, the Jewish people, some Jewish people in the Holocaust. Who they found, they found on a wall in a basement, on a farm, in a farm in Europe, somebody had written something, inscribed something on a wall. And that particular person must have gone through a lot of experiences at the Holocaust time when the Jewish people have been hiding from what had happened to them. 6 million of our people have died in the Holocaust.

But someone had found, they found in Europe, and I'm not sure exactly where, and they found inscription, something somebody had written down on a wall at this statement. "I believe in the sun even when it doesn't shine. I believe in the wind even when the wind do not blow. And I believe in God even if I cannot see Him."

Can you imagine? We believe in the sun even when the sun do not shine. We believe in the wind and we do not see the wind. We only see the effects of this wind when we see the tree moves. We believe that the wind was there. And sometimes we also have to say, we have to believe in God even when sometime He doesn't act, it seem to be. He doesn't speak. That's faith. That's faith.

And that's why when people sometimes tell us, you know, "Gideon, unless I see, I do not believe." Unless I see, you remember that man, the Thomas said, "Unless I see, I will not believe." You read the book of John at the end. And when Jesus came, Yeshua came to the upper room. He says, "Thomas, here is My hands and My feet. Thrust your hand against My side." And you know what he says? He says, "My Lord and my God."

Gideon Levytam: You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0, or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM, and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, Shalom.