As promised, I will conclude this blog series by looking at the progression found on the table in regards to the image of God: Physical–>Social–>Ethical (or Spiritual).
| Neb’s Story | God | Who | What | Where | Image of God | Chapter |
| Part 1 | Father | Daniel | Dream | Belief in the God of Heaven | Physical | Daniel 2 |
| Part 2 | Son | Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego | Golden Image | Belief in the Angel of God | Social | Daniel 3 |
| Part 3 | Holy Spirit | Nebuchadnezzar & Daniel | Self | Belief in the Most High | Ethical | Daniel 4 |
This is one of my very favorite trinitarian patterns. I learned it from Michael Bull who, when explaining it, always references Genesis 1-3. Genesis 1 is about the creation of everything, the physical creation, including making man in the image of God. Genesis 2 zooms in on this image of God, on the creation of man and woman and their relationship with each other, the social image of God. Finally, in Genesis 3, the image of God—man and woman together—are given an ethical choice. Of course, they made the wrong choice, and ever since the image of God, apart from Christ, has been one patty short of a triple cheeseburger.
I like this order of things because it has many practical purposes, and the more you become familiar with it, the more you will start seeing it everywhere. For example, one time I was talking with a friend about girls and he told me his “three-legged stool” criteria for finding a mate. First, she needs to be pretty. Second, she needs to have a fun personality. Third, she has to have faith in God. As he was telling me this I could see the pattern immediately. That’s physical, social, and ethical!
You can also see it in most stories you read or watch. The beginning of the story, the “A Story”, usually has to do with a problem “out there”. The sky is falling or the Nazis are coming or the disease has broken out. This is the physical problem. So the hero sets out on a journey to fight or fly from the problem. On his quest he meets a new group of friends, or, quite often, a girl. This is the “B” story, and it is the social part of the story. It’s the part having to do with relationships. Then, in the third act, the B and A stories converge in a beautiful mix where the girl or the friends help the hero defeat the original enemy. The social helps the hero deal with the physical. But this only happens after a choice has been made, usually the hero’s ego being checked so that he can freely receive the help from his friends to overcome the challenge. This choice, this intentional going back and its playing out in the third act, is the ethical part of the story.
What I want to attempt now is to trace this pattern onto the three-part story of Nebuchadnezzar, particularly in regards to the images. Is there an arc here, and does it follow the physical–>social–>ethical pattern?
Image 1: The Metal Man
The statue in the dream is about what it is at the base level, the physical level, or in this case, because it is in a dream, the metaphysical level. What is this statue? What is it? The whole dilemma of Daniel 2 is figuring what this thing is. That is what Daniel must discover if he wants to live. And God tells him what it is: a picture of four empires.
For Nebuchadnezzar, the statue poses a very real threat. Uninterpreted, the dream is just scary. But even once it is interpreted, there is still the fact that his empire’s part of the statue, the golden head, not only must share space with the other empires on the statue, but then it is ultimately destroyed by the stone. Babylon is not everlasting, and Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. This is disconcerting to him. Like the A story in a movie, this original crisis is the primary challenge to our hero, Nebuchadnezzar. Interpreting the dream is helpful, but it doesn’t ultimately solve the problem. It is like destroying the Death Star at the end of A New Hope. It is a victory, but the Empire remains. The empire of course being Nebuchadnezzar’s autonomy.
Ultimately the king sees an image like he’s never seen before and doesn’t know if it is friend or foe. When it is interpreted, the mystery is taken away, but let me suggest the overall impact on the king is not. The metal man still looms large in his mind. To return to my friend’s three-legged stool criteria, the girl is pretty, but is she nice? This movie is not over yet.
Image 2: The Golden God
What is Nebuchadnezzar to do about this prophecy, this looming threat? His response is to build his own statue, but not just with a golden Babylonian head. No, it will be all gold. But I wonder if the key element here isn’t the statue itself. Rather, it is having everyone worship the statue together. That is what the main aim is. By having a united religion, maybe Babylon won’t have to share its glory like the statue in the dream. Like the B story in a movie, Nebuchadnezzar is surrounding himself with friends. In this case “the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces” (Daniel 3:2). As you can see, we are in the social part of the story.
Everyone is called to worship the image together at a certain time. The point was to have everyone on the same page. Therefore, perhaps Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were not punished primarily because Nebuchadnezzar was offended that his statue didn’t get all the adoration it deserved, but instead because the three trouble-makers were not being team players. The worship of the idol was to bring unification, to have a common focal point in the empire. These noncompliant Jews were a wrinkle in the social fabric of what the king was attempting and therefore had to be eliminated. Part of the proof of this is how quickly everyone else tattled on them. “Look at what they’re doing! They’re not doing what we’re doing!” It’s all social. The golden statue was real enough, but the true idol in this chapter was the religious unity among the people.
The deliverance was also social. The three Jews were scapegoated for being “outsiders.” But then Yahweh makes a personal visit to them in the furnace. Now they are the only insiders, walking in the flames with God. Nebuchadnezzar’s confession afterwards is not about who God is, but about what he does for us (again, social). He delivers!
So the proverbial girl (the Angel of God in the furnace who has replaced the golden statue as the true divine image) is pretty and she’s the kind of sassy that epic hero’s love, along with being brave and well connected. She is social in all the right ways. But…does she have any faith? That is, will she stick around through tough times? Perhaps the question that cuts to the very heart of it: will she be merciful?
Image 3: The Manimal
Like the Jews after returning from Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar seems to be cured of all of his idolatry except for idolizing himself. He’s no longer at odds with the idea of God, nor with God’s people. The only thing left is his own pride, his own sin, which is oppressive on his subjects. Daniel calls him to start making ethical choices, to put away his sin and be merciful to the poor (Daniel 4:27).
The way the A and B stories converge here like in the third act of a good movie are that Nebuchadnezzar can use the courage he saw demonstrated by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to stand up against his own sin, which is trying to dodge the implications of the first dream by ruling with an iron fist. With the help of knowing that God delivers (Act 2) he can stand up to his sin which is in contradiction to God’s declared future (Act 1). He can finally be at peace with the statue in the dream when he chooses to give up himself, who is the idol at the center of it all, through courageously going through the fire of discipline. He must give up himself like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in order to be at peace with the dream.
Nebuchadnezzar chooses wrong, at first, not heeding Daniel’s warning. But after seven years of eating grass, he changes his mind and begins to rule justly in accordance to God’s will.
Perhaps the whole thing could be called the journey of a king who had a bad dream and ended up helping the poor. After all, the same thing happened to Pharaoh who wisely hired Joseph to guide his people through a famine. The purpose of a golden empire is for it to be a place where everyone can shine.
The “girl” (God) is [meta]physical (beautiful dream), social (walking in the fire), and ethical (sticking by Nebuchadnezzar through the tough time and showing mercy). It’s a perfect fit, and Nebuchadnezzar overcomes his original fear of the dream when he declares that God has “an everlasting dominion” and his “kingdom is from generation to generation.” Rather than kicking against God’s sovereignty over the history of the nations, Nebuchadnezzar is now in alignment with his maker. For Nebuchadnezzar the dream was finally defeated when the king, like his new friends, walked through the fire of sanctification and became subject to the Most High God.
Double-Bonus Round!
When viewing the book covers of this trilogy (which if you haven’t read I highly recommend!) notice how one looks dream-like (Daniel 2), one looks like a raging fiery furnace (Daniel 3), and one looks birdish (Daniel 4)!
Forgiving Gollum 