Can I Be Delivered?

The terrified shrieks woke me abruptly. I looked around the room, the other attendants were gone already. I put on my dress and quickly slipped out of the room. “What’s going on?” I asked one of the male servants running down the hallway. The screaming had changed from a scared shriek to the angry growling of a lion.

“The King has had a dream. We have to find interpreters.” He replied and continued down the hallway.

No one went back to sleep that early morning. We were made to enter the throne room before the sun had risen. The King angrily refused his breakfast. He continued to ask his officer, Ashpenaz, when the magicians and sorcerers would be there to interpret his dream.

Finally, a group of men walked in, clearly rattled by their rough awakening.

“I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.” The King explained as they bowed before him.

“May the King live forever!” They said together.

Then one man spoked up, “Tell your servants the dream and we will interpret it.”

The King did not smile, nor did he tell his dream, instead he replied, “This is what I have decided. You will tell me what I saw in my dream and tell me what it means, or I’ll have you all torn limb from limb- decapitated- and cut into pieces.” He snarled like a hungry wolf.

The men looked frightened, but the brave speaker calmly responded, “O King, live forever. Just tell us the dream and we will tell you what it meant.”

“You are stalling. If you do not tell me what I dreamt you will most certainly not live forever.”

“King there is no one on earth who can do that. There has never been a king, however great and mighty (as you), who has ever asked such a difficult thing for magicians. It is too difficult. No one can reveal it to you except the gods themselves and they will not tell you.”

“I see you choose DEATH!” The King yelled furiously. In a flurry, the soldiers escorted the men out to await their deaths.

After we were dismissed from the throne room I went to fulfill my role of helping with the washings.

“Will the men really be killed?” My friend asked an older woman.

“Yes they will and not only the sorcerers who stood before him, honey, but all of the magicians, all men who are wise in that way; they are all condemned.” I held a blanket in my wet hands.

“Even the Israelite ones?” I asked curiously.

When our great King, Nebuchadnezzar, had defeated his enemies the Israelites, he had taken many men captive. He had chosen the most wise, attractive, and understanding men and he had put them into his own service. They had learned our language, studied our history, and were well trained for years before being approved into the service. I had even heard rumors that some of them kept their Israelite ways and even kept to their diets instead of eating what the King would have provided and they were even stronger than those who ate anything the King had offered them. Perhaps those were just rumors, but it made me curious about these men. I did not want them to be killed before I had even met them for myself. The Israelites had seemed so strong and powerful, it was almost as if they had been given over to Nebuchadnezzar, not that he defeated them. They had been such a mighty nation that it felt as if they had been delivered into his hands by their god, I couldn’t understand it. What kind of God gives people over to their enemies?

“Are you going to hang that to dry or are you just going to wring it to death?” The older woman was speaking to me. The other women were all giggling at me as I had gotten lost in my thoughts and forgotten about the blanket.

As I went about putting laundry away, I overheard the captain of the guard, Arioch, speaking with a soldier in the hall way, “He asked for time to interpret it.”

“The Israelite did?”

“Yes, that man Daniel, or Belteshazzar I should say. I’m going to ask that the King allow it. It’s a risk, but I think it will go better for everyone if the King is given an answer to his dream, even if it takes time.” The soldier nodded to show he understood. The King needed an answer, many lives depended on it.

The next day Arioch told the King that Daniel would interpret the dream if Nebuchadnezzar would not kill him or his friends. The attendants were again gathered into the throne room. There were whispers that Daniel had been praying to his god and the crowd of attendants were debating about whether he would really know the dream or not. As the Israelite entered the room, we fell silent as though we were dead.

“Well,” the King growled. “Can you tell me what I saw in my dream?”

“No person on this earth can explain such a mystery.” He answer the King.

I gasped, how could he be so bold?

“But,” He continued, “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” King Nebuchadnezzar leaned forward to listen to the man. Daniel went on, “My God has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen. Your dream was this...”

I listened intently as Daniel explained to the King and to the crowd all that the King had seen in his dream. Apparently, there had been a huge statue, awesome in appearance. With a head of gold, a chest of silver, stomach of bronze, and with legs of iron and of clay. What happened in the dream was that a rock came hurdling from the heavens and destroyed the statue and then the rock took over the whole earth.

“Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed people and all creatures. You are like the head of gold. However, another kingdom will come to power after yours, and it will not be so magnificent as yours. Then another after that, and another kingdom following that one and it will be a divided kingdom.”

I looked at Daniel’s handsome face as he spoke and then back at the King’s iron brow, his face was like the stone he had dreamed of, I thought.

Daniel kept speaking, “After these rulers and failing kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. His kingdom will endure forever. The dream is a true vision of what is going to happen. God has shown you what will take place.”

I watched in shock as our mighty King warrior fell on his hands and knees before Daniel. “Surely your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings, if you were able to reveal this mystery.” Those of us who heard him did not know what to do. Daniel’s God did seem greater than all of our gods combined: the god of the sun, the one of the moon, the god of the harvest, and the god of babies. If Daniel’s god could reveal dreams, tell him of the future, and build a kingdom with no end, indeed his God was greater.

The King spoke and Daniel was placed in a high position; placed in charge of all the wise men in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. Daniel was given such a powerful position that even his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were also brought into places of authority.

There was peace in the palace for some time after that. The King, who had always seemed to me like an angry lion, seemed like a humbled man. That was until the statue was built…

The King’s Whisperers, or so I called them since they were the ones who always were whispering bad ideas into the King’s ear had convinced him that he needed a statue to honor himself before the people. It took little convincing from the Whisperers for the King to approve the idea. The statue was built quickly and everyone within the palace was commanded to attend its dedication ceremony. As we stood in the morning sun, a herald began to shout and announce a new command to all people: “When you hear any instrument being played you must fall down and worship the image of gold that the king has put in place, if you fail to do so: you will be thrown into the great fire.”

Another fake god to worship, I wondered, what about Daniel’s God, the greatest of all? Shouldn’t we worship him and not our king?

This I wondered only to myself and did not say aloud. And as I heard the music play, I bowed with the rest of my people.

Many days later I was still rubbing my aching knees since they had been bruised by falling to bow to the statue everyday. I stood up straight, I saw the Whisperers approaching the throne room. I knew that soon I would be called in to bring them drinks and I readied myself for the task as I heard my name called and my command given. As I brought their wine I could hear them speaking to the King.

“Didn’t you say that everyone had to bow to the statue or be killed?”

“Of course,” Nebuchadnezzar replied shortly. “You said that would be the only wise thing to do if I wanted the people to worship me.”

“And we do King, but it seems that some of your own appointed men have failed to obey you.” The King sputtered and spat out his wine. It looked like blood pouring out of his mouth. The great warrior King Nebuchadnezzar. Strong, intelligent, and great, but when I looked at him and saw his pride I knew he was no god.
“WHO?!” He demanded with a growl.

“The Israelites: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego sir. They pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

“Bring them to me!” Again the King roared. He sounded like a wounded lion thrashing out in pain.

As the men were brought in, I tried to blend into the column where I was always supposed to stand and attend.

“Is it true that you do not worship my gods? Is it true that you have not bowed down to the statue I have dedicated?”

The men did not answer.

The King continued. “I’ll give you another chance, we will play the music and you will bow down. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown into the blazing furnace.” With venom in his voice the King finished, “Then, what god will rescue you from my hand?”

One of the three stepped forward and spoke for the men, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we need not defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the fire, the God who we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.”

My eyes were about to pop out of my head and my ears were about to explode. I could not understand the confidence with which this man spoke. I wondered then, what kind of God can rescue His people from the pride of this King?

“But even if he does not deliver us from the fire,” the man still spoke, “we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold.”

As expected, the King’s pride was injured and he was furious.

“BURN THEM! In the hottest fire you can create!” He screamed.

The procession to the furnace began. The soldiers marching Daniel’s three friends who were tied up, the King in the front surrounded by his Whisperers, and the other attendants and me at the end. Standing in the back, I couldn’t even see the horrendous thing that occurred, I could only feel the heat from the fire and hear the screams as the soldiers who led the men to the fire were burned alive. The three men fell into the fire and we heard the door slam behind them. I saw the King sit down and watch the flames, uncaring for his lost soldiers.

Then I saw the King leap to his feet and heard him scream, “Weren’t there 3 men in the fire?” The Whisperers all affirmed this.

“I see four men walking around in the fire, unharmed. The fourth one looks like a son of the gods!” The King approached the door and yelled at the men, “Servants of the Most High God, come out!”

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire miraculously unharmed. The men all crowded around them as we women looked on. There was no sign on them that they had been inside the furnace. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The men all remarked that they did not even smell of the fire. It was incredible. It was unbelievable. Even the King was shocked.

The King proclaimed, “Praise be to your God, who has sent his angel and rescued you! You trusted in him and defied me. You were willing to give up your life rather than worship or serve any god expect your own.” The King explained that anyone who was to speak against this great God would feel the King’s wrath. The last thing he said that day before we left the great furnace room was burned into my mind, “No other God can save in this way.”

As I went to bed that night I wondered again to myself, Who is the God that can deliver His people from the pride of a king? Who is this God who can save his people out of fire and death? Who is the God of the Israelites that he loves them. I want to know this God. Their God listened to and loved them. Their God delivered them from evil and death. Their God was greater than my king. Their God was with them in the fire and listened their prayers. I never heard of a God like their’s before. The men hadn’t even seemed scared. Could their God deliver me from my fears too? I spent the rest of the night awake thinking, wondering, Can I be delivered too?