The Thin Place of the Fiery Furnace in Babylon
The Thin Place of the Fiery Furnace in Babylon.
“ The thin place is where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer that it is easy to step through.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way).
This term from an ancient Celtic tradition has stood the test of time. The idea of a thin place between heaven and earth has captured our imaginations, and yet is not just a metaphor. Thin places are literal as well.
The traditional thin place as the Irish understood it has been described in many ways: where the veil between heaven and earth is so thin as to be porous, permeable, practically transparent; where the space between the divine and the human has narrowed; where eternity and time intersect; where the boundary between heaven and earth has collapsed; where the wall between heaven and earth have made them indistinguishable; where the doors between heaven and earth have cracked open enough to walk through, if only temporarily; the place where eternity and time seem to join together.
Those descriptions of thin places have recently been expanded to include… wherever God has chosen to reveal Himself and make Himself known with unusual intimacy; wherever the sacred interaction with God’s presence is more pronounced and accessible; wherever the Holy Spirit is released in a particularly powerful way; a physical space where one can more directly and intensely experience God’s presence. A thin place is when the Spirit of God opens the skylight of the earth’s roof and provides easy access to and from heaven. A thin place allows traffic between heaven and earth.
“Great Babylon! Was it not built by me, by the power of my might and for the majesty of my glory?” (Daniel 4:30). Nebuchadnezzar’s downfall is probably attributed to our hubris, which can be defined this way:
HUBRIS: a Greek word that means excessive pride; exaggerated self-conceit; overwhelming self-confidence; sheer arrogance; in ancient Greece, hubris was a character flaw reflecting a defiance of the gods, when someone would foolishly or maliciously act against the divine order; someone with hubris always has a lack of self-awareness and won’t stop to examine his behavior or consider other actions; people with hubris are generally too full of themselves to question their motives or actions; people who are overcome with hubris eventually bring about their own downfall. As Rabbi Jonathon Sacks once wrote, “If Scripture is our guide, what makes God laugh is a person’s delusion of grandeur.”
King Nebuchadnezzar has had a notorious reputation down through history, largely because of the Book of Daniel. He was the supreme empire-builder, and he confidently conquered much of the known world when he ruled Babylon from 605-562 BC. He defeated Egypt, Assyria, and he destroyed Jerusalem in the southern kingdom of Judah in 597 BC. His army tore the Temple down to the ground and took the sacred vessels and materials like the menorah as plunder back to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was undoubtedly a great military leader and one of the most powerful rulers in all of Scripture, mentioned in the Bible over 90 times. He was ruthless, cruel, proud, and was known for having quite the violent streak when the mood strikes him. It is abundantly clear in the book of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar was a devoutly religious man. The problem is that he was a determined polytheist devoted to the worship of many gods, and that belief system is what he wanted to spread abroad his kingdom at all costs.
Around 600 BC, Nebuchadnezzar and his huge Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem. They surrounded the capital city of Judah and had a stranglehold on everything in Jerusalem… no food, no transportation, no military help. God’s punishment to His Chosen People for their unfaithfulness was to have the Babylonians defeat the people of Jerusalem. The enemy then quickly deported those young men who would serve the king’s court, marching them all 550 miles to their new home in Babylon. “Only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men, all versed in every branch of learning, gifted with knowledge and good judgment, suited to serve in the royal palace.” (Daniel 1:4). Among these exiled young men were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Upon arrival in Babylon, these faithful Hebrew young men were challenged to fit into the Babylonian culture. The king immediately changed their Jewish identities, their very names, to make them change their loyalties. Daniel (“God is my judge”) was changed to Belteshazzar (“Bel, protect my life”); Hananiah (“Yahweh shows grace”) became Shadrach (“Under the command of Aku”); Mishael ((“who is like God?”) was changed to Meshach (“who is like Aku?”); and Azariah (“Yahweh helps”) became Abednego (“servant of Nebo”). As Yahweh had prophesied in Isaiah 39:5-7, the king without conscience had these four young men sexually mutilated, making them eunuchs and thus totally devoted to none other than the king. The master of these young Hebrew men was Ashpenaz, who was in charge of all the eunuchs in the kings’ service (Daniel 1:3, 9, 18). The royal palace also tried to change their diets by forcing them to eat nonkosher foods and meats that had been offered to idols, which the faithful exiles refused to do. Then the king’s leaders proceeded to school the Hebrews in the Babylonian education with a three-year training program (1:5). None of these efforts were successful in turning them away from their Jewish upbringing in the Law of Moses… “You shall have no other gods but me, says the Lord” (Deut. 5:7). The four exiles remained steadfast and faithful to Yahweh. Nothing would make these young men compromise their faith in God. Despite their obvious and brave resistance to the king’s wishes, these four young men rose to prominent places of leadership in Babylon simply because of the excellence of their work (“ten times more competent” according to Daniel 1:20).
Jesus With Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. About 18 years later, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to strengthen his power and centralize worship in Babylon (Daniel 3). So he built a huge gold statue, 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide, as tall as a nine-story building. The prohibitive cost of this statue being completely made of gold means that it was probably built of wood and then overlaid with gold. The King then demanded that everyone in Babylon bow down to worship the statue, which was either a statue of himself or of one of his Babylonian gods. The penalty for refusing to worship the statue was capital punishment, thrown into a blazing furnace. This furnace was a huge industrial kiln used to bake bricks and smelt metals. No one could hope to survive the consuming heat of the furnace.
At the inaugural dedication ceremony, the three exiles Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to the statue when the pagan worship music began in all its instrumental glory with harps, horns, pipes, lyres, flutes, drums, and anything else they could find. They remained standing when everyone else was on their knees, they defied the king and challenged his authority to command pagan worship. Because they wouldn’t compromise their faith in Yahweh, they were condemned to death in the furnace. Their reply to Nebuchadnezzar was profound: “We do not need to defend ourselves before you, O King. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if He doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up!” ((3:16-18).
So the three young stalwarts were bound with rope and thrown into the fires of the furnace. The king had even, in his fury, had the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. It was so hot that the men who threw them into the furnace were immediately burnt to a crisp. An interesting comment here from an early Church Father… “See how even the fire appears intelligent, as if it recognized and punished the guilty. For it did not touch the servants of God, but it consumed the unbelieving and impious Chaldeans!” (Hippolytus).
Suddenly the King stood up and shouted, “Wait a minute! We threw three men in there, didn’t we? I see a fourth man in there too, and they’re walking around in the fire unharmed! And this fourth man looks like a son of the gods!” (3:24-25). The king noted with shock that there was a divine quality to this fourth person in the fire. After the three young Hebrews walked out of the furnace like nothing had happened, it was discovered that not a hair was singed, not one piece of clothing was burned. They didn’t even smell like smoke. The three young men climbed out of the furnace and into Biblical history. The King exclaimed that “their God sent His Angel to rescue these servants who trusted in Him.” (3:28). The three young men were soon promoted to even higher positions, and Nebuchadnezzar formally added the name of Yahweh to their long list of gods.
One is reminded here of those wonderful words of promise found in Isaiah 43:1-2, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed and redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through the rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you go through the fire, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”
Most Christian theologians have agreed for centuries that this fourth Person in the furnace, this Angel, or “son of the gods,” was the Angel of Yahweh, the Angel of the Lord. Jesus made a personal appearance in the furnace with the three young men to support and deliver them in their defiance of the pagan king. Early Church theologians, and most Biblical scholars since, have believed that when God is in visible form, the truth is that Christ has made an appearance. There is a particular Character who flits in and out of the Hebrew Bible, the Angel of Yahweh also known as the Angel of God, the Angel of the LORD, the Messenger of Yahweh, the Messenger of the Covenant, or the Angel of His Presence. It is widely accepted in Biblical scholarship that this mysterious Angel is none other than the bodily appearance of the preincarnate Jesus Christ. When Biblical characters in the Hebrew Bible reported that they had seen God, they had been right… They had seen the face of Christ. The Deity of Jesus is clearly portrayed in His role of Angelic Messenger, God’s special representative that speaks God’s mind and performs His will. “The Angel of the Lord is the visible Lord God of the Old Testament, as Jesus Christ was of the New Testament.” (Amplified Bible notes).
“That the Angel of Yahweh is an uncreated angel, distinguished from other angels, and in many places identified with the Lord God is undeniable. On the other hand there are passages in which He seems to be distinguished from God the Father. The simplest way of reconciling these two classes is to adopt the old view that this Angel is Christ, the second Person of the Godhead, even at that early period appearing as the revealer of the Father.” (Lange’s Commentary).
Here is a list of the exciting appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament, or Christophanies as they are called. Note the qualities of Jesus that are displayed in the various contexts. Jesus has many roles in the Hebrew Bible: Deliverer, Judge, Sustainer, Redeemer, Revealer. This incomparable Messenger from heaven, this Angel of Yahweh, is God in the form of God’s Son before His incarnation.
(1.) With Hagar, in Genesis 16, as she was abandoned and on the run from an obstinate Sarai;
(2.) With Abraham, in Genesis 18, when the Lord appeared in bodily form to him by the Oaks of Mamre;
(3.) With Isaac, in Genesis 22, when he was tied to the altar and about to be sacrificed by Abraham;
(4.) With Jacob, in Genesis 32, when wrestling with the Angel and he saw the face of God;
(5.) With Moses, on a number of occasions: in Exodus 3 when he talked with Him at the burning bush; in Exodus 14 when the Israelites were saved at the Red Sea; in Exodus 23 at Mount Sinai;
(6.) With Balaam, in Numbers 22, when his donkey started engaging in conversation with him;
(7.) With Joshua, in Joshua 5, when he was confronted by the Captain and he was on holy ground;
(8.) With Gideon, in Judges 6, when he was given his special calling and assignment;
(9.) With Samson’s parents, in Judges 13, when they received a heavenly birth announcement;
(10.) With Elijah, in 1 Kings 19, when he was fed and rested on the run from Jezebel in the wilderness;
(11.) With Isaiah, in Isaiah 63:9, when he referred to someone known to him, “the Angel of His Presence.”
(12.) With Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in Daniel 3, as they were surviving in the fiery furnace;
(13.) With Daniel, in Daniel 10, when he was visited by God after fasting for three weeks;
(14.) With David, in Psalm 34, when he referred to “the Angel of Yahweh encamping all around those who fear Him” (Ps. 34:7); and also in 1 Chronicles 21:16, when on the threshing floor after sinfully taking a census;
Jesus in the fiery furnace, once again the Deliverer sent by Yahweh Himself. God doesn’t always save us from suffering, but He has consistently promised His presence, He has promised to be with us in our suffering. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4).
King Nebuchadnezzar responded to this miracle of God by issuing this decree throughout his kingdom: “I am pleased to recount the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. No god I have ever heard of is able to rescue as this God has rescued His servants today! How great are his signs! How powerful his wonders! His kingdom lasts forever, and he rules all generations.” (Daniel 3:29). The king’s religious beliefs were quite mysterious and highly suspect, to say the least. He later seems to have returned to his delusions of grandeur, and then was humbled by the Lord with seven years of insanity, and then he seemed to become a believer in Yahweh. We are never sure, though, if Nebuchadnezzar truly submitted to Yahweh as his one true God. We would like to believe that he in the end accepted the Lord in a more personal way and not merely considered the one true God to be one of his many gods. I’d like to believe some fine day we can have a friendly chat with him about his story, on the other side of the pearly gates.