Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Daniel 3:2
Four times in Daniel 3:1-7 the Bible uses the word for “set up” (vv1-3, 7). This “setting up” of the statue in the plain of Dura (v1) was the establishment of Nebuchadnezzar’s idolotry over the nation, and hence the world.
For a moment, let us consider what events led about to Nebuchadnezzar’s position.
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron.’ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given him the beasts of the field.'”
Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion against the LORD.'”
So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month.
Jeremiah 28:12-17
Nebuchadnezzar had already been placed as a wooden yoke upon the nations, in particular Israel. However, due specifically to the sin of Hannaniah in counselling the people to trust in a lie, that that wooden yoke would be broken, God told Jeremiah to tell Hannaniah, and hence the nation, that that wooden yoke would be replaced with an iron one.
In this act, not only was all of the world subjected to Nebuchadnezzar, but the beasts of the Earth as well came under his dominion.
This was the Nebuchadnezzar that “set up” a kingdom that not only had bearing in the natural realm, but also in the spiritual dimension, as all thrones do. Everything mankind does is uniquely spiritual, whether for good or for evil, hence judgment and salvation, salvation and condemnation.
The physical kingdom, his earthly nation, and the spiritual one, the wickedness of idolotry, must be viewed as the same, for they have the same root. The one did not produce the other, the seed of the wicked one produced them both (Genesis 3:15, John 8:44).
When Nebuchadnezzar set up his statue, it cast a veil over the people of the Earth. Similar to when the children of Israel in the Exodus made a golden calf, called it by the name of the Lord, and worshipped it instead, man, when given a visual symbol, often relates to the creation, rather than the creator, and so believes a lie.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24).
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:15
Jesus is the image of the invisible God. When God “set up” His Kingdom on the Earth, He too set up an image. In the establishment of this image, God was setting forth His perfect dominion, and spiritual reality. Thus, when anyone turns to Jesus, the veil is taken away (2 Corinthians 3:16).
The parallel of these two Kingdoms cannot be overlooked. In the one Kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar set up an earthly image, thus blinding the inhabitants of the Earth from the true light of God. As eyes fell prostrate towards the statue at the sound of the music, any true faith in the Eternal, invisible God vanished, and men became subject to demons.
When God “set up” His Kingdom, He, too set up His image. He established it, and demonstrated its superiority through Jesus’ life, and set Him up on high, higher than all other rule and authority (Ephesians 1:19-20).
When Nebuchadnezzar was used by God as a slave master to His people, God specifically made Him aware, through the interpretation given to the man Daniel in his court, that his reign was over all the Earth. The King caught a glimpse of what God fore-told would be, that this kingdom would be replaced, yet stand, through four successive kingdoms, and that yet, another kingdom, greater than all, would come and overthrow them all.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Daniel 2:44
It is no wonder, in Daniel 3, that king Nebuchadnezzar built his statue and commanded all to bow down to it. It reflects the heart of a man without faith attempting to build what he had seen. This man had seen some glimpse of the coming Christ and His Kingdom, and, whether fully grasping what he saw, recreated that revelation.
In issuing his decree that all who would not bow down and worship the image he had set up, or else be thrown into a great fire, he merely recreated, albeit wrongly, what he had perceived in his own mind, of Christ. In both of these instances, where one was set up to bow down to an idol or burn in fire, and the other, where all men must bow down to the man Christ Jesus or face the same, but Eternal, Nebuchadnezzar merely reveals how vain, and impotent the powers of man are compared to the cross.
The enraged king heated his furnace to seven times the heat of the normal fire, killing even the guards administering the punishment. Yet, because he had stepped into a pattern of God, and yet without faith, the fire of man was unable to harm the children of the covenant. Those who walk uprightly God is able to deliver.
The key word Daniel 2:44 is “set up”. This is the same word used of the statue in Daniel 3. When God the Father set Jesus up higher than all, the true prophetic fulfillment of what Nebuchadnezzar attempted to reenact was complete. The Spiritual Kingdom had been set up, and at the sound of the music, all must fall down prostrate, and give Him reverence, or face an eternal lake of fire.
Those Hebrew boys did not cease in that fire, but their bondage did. Likewise, those who are thrown into eternal fire cease not either, but are tormented day and night forever.
What began with Nebuchadnezzar ended with Rome, “in the time of those Kings”, the kings of Rome. The four successive one world governments ended, and the Kingdom has been established. Where the powers of darkness had prevailed for centuries, now, while as Daniel 7 points out that the first three beasts were allowed to continue to exists, but stripped of their authority, we in the church have the power to deliver and set people free, and bring them to Christ, who translates us from the dominion of darkness, no longer able to hold them, into the Kingdom of God’s dear son.