The third chapter of Daniel follows the same pattern as the first two: Nebuchadnezzar begins by making threats against those who do not bow to his every whim, and ends with his humbly admitting the Lord's power.

The similarities between the dramatic vision of the statue in chapter two and actually building an image in chapter three are not, however, mere repetition. Close attention to the detail in this chapter will show how in its pursuit of domination the selfish side of human nature continues to try to dominate, even though we might consciously submit to the Lord.

This third chapter opens with a huge image created by Nebuchadnezzar. The actual dimensions are important, not because of their physical impact, but because of the spiritual concepts they contain. Similarly, the impossibility of it being made from gold should not interfere with the spiritual exposition of the verse. The literal sense of the story is important only as a means of bringing out the spiritual sense.

This entire image was made of gold. But like the head of the statue in the previous chapter, this is not the gold representing love to the Lord, but self love. Every good correspondence also has an opposite sense.

The statue is described as sixty cubits tall, and six cubits wide. The recurring number "six" takes meaning from its contrast to the number immediately following. "Seven" is a state of fullness and completeness—the Lord rested on the seventh day of creation, clean animals entered the ark in sevens, we should forgive others "up to seventy times seven." As seven contains this sense of completeness, six represents a state of incompleteness.

"Six" is often used to describe the process of regeneration, especially in the creation series, and in the Ten Commandments. In the six days of creation, people are tempted and in a state of conflict, which must be overcome for the person to regenerate (AC 8494, 8539:2, 8888). The conflict illustrated in this chapter is between our sense of selfishness and our emerging conscience.

The number sixty is the fullness of this conflict, as sixty is a six multiplied by ten. If six represents the conflicts of temptation, ten represents completeness (AC 3107, 4638, 8468, 9416), or fullness of that conflict.

Ideally, the states of goodness, truth and their mutual expression should be equal. The shape representing a regenerate person would be a perfect cube, as described by "the Holy City coming down from God out of heaven" (Revelation 21:2).

But Nebuchadnezzar's image vastly different from this ideal: it was tall and narrow — ten times taller than it was wide, and no depth is described. It comes across as one dimensional, disproportionate, its most compelling feature the gold from which it is made.

As in the second chapter, Nebuchadnezzar calls together his advisers: before, it was astrologers and wise men. In this chapter he calls together the governors of his kingdom: the satraps, administrators and so on. When the Word speaks of governors, it speaks of our loves, because we are ruled and governed by loves. The list here gives a hierarchy of loves from the top, or ruling loves, down to the lesser affections we have.

We are shown our state when that ruling love is Nebuchadnezzar: he dominates the scene, his word is law. He controls a vast empire and has absolute control over life and death. Thus Nebuchadnezzar can summon his governors and order them around with the same ease with which he called together the wise men and demanded the impossible from them.

At the sound of music, his whole empire was to fall down and worship the gold image erected by the king. Music is used as a means of summoning the rulers of the land because if those men represent our various loves and affections, so music speaks to our loves.

If Nebuchadnezzar represents our selfishness and love of control, the Chaldeans come into the picture as a confirmation of this selfishness. The essence of profanation—evil pretending to be good—is the misuse of goodness and truth for one's own ends. Any state of genuine good or truth resisting this misuse would come into conflict with it.

Thus the Chaldeans with great enthusiasm name Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego who do not serve the king nor worship his golden image. By using their Babylonian names, they are refusing to recognize truth as coming from the Word. This is the very heart of profanation: to know something is from the Word, even to acknowledge it as such, and yet to deny it—just as those Chaldeans must have known that the three men were Jews, and that their Babylonian names were not truly their own. It is the ultimate denial of their identity, just as profanation is the ultimate denial of the Lord.

Nebuchadnezzar's life is first of military conquest and the expansion of his empire. This conquest comes with the dominion of religious things. Thus it was not out of character for him to command worship. As the love of self progresses, it demands greater and greater things, until it demands to be treated as the Lord Himself (AR 717).

"The evil of the love of self is not, as is generally thought, that external elation which is called pride, but it is hatred against the neighbor, and thence a burning desire for revenge, and delight in cruelty. These are the interiors of the love of self. Its exteriors are contempt for others in comparison with self, and an aversion to those who are in spiritual good, and this sometimes with manifest elation or pride, and sometimes without it. For one who holds the neighbor in such hatred, inwardly loves no one but himself and those whom he regards as making one with himself, thus he loves them in himself, and himself in them for the sole end of self" (AC 4750:5).

Each person in this world is capable of giving freedom to these feelings, and if we do, soon we find ourselves doing what Nebuchadnezzar did: demanding that people see the world through our own personal spectacles, and roundly damning them to hell if they do not.

As we saw earlier, Daniel represents the conscience developing in opposition to our selfish states. Conscience is the activity of truth leading and guiding our minds towards a life in harmony with the Lord's. The conscience, however, must be made up of individual truths, truths applicable to different parts of our lives. We have a set of truths to govern marriage, work ethic, social interaction, and so on.

These individual truths are Daniel's Hebrew companions. Each time we have seen them, they have stood on their belief in God, but each time at Daniel's leadership. This time they stand alone, willing to confront the imperial wrath and face death for their belief.

The consequences were, of course, dire. Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage, demanding that the young men be cast into a fiery furnace, heated to seven times its normal heat. The young men were prepared to accept this punishment rather than retract their belief in the Lord.

Nebuchadnezzar tried to scare the three men by heating the furnace to hotter than normal, which well describes the actions of evil spirits in temptation who,

"act against the affections of truth that make the conscience: as soon as they perceive anything of conscience, of whatever kind, then from the falsities and failings in the man they form to themselves an affection; and by means of this they cast a shade over the light of truth, and so pervert it; or they induce anxiety and torture him" (AC 1820:4).

The time the young men spend in the furnace represents a state of temptation, which occurs for the sake of regeneration (AE 439). Most simply defined, temptation is a battle between two sides within us, where the natural, or selfish side is subdued. Up until then, selfishness is seen as simply being a part of us, the way we are (AC 1820). In temptation, this self-image is changed, and we learn to see ourselves in the light of heaven (AE 439).

The power of the evil spirits is greatly illusory. Just as Nebuchadnezzar fell back after resistance, so the spirits also withdraw when we resist them. The greatest temptation we face is believing the Lord is unable to help us in our times of great need. If we cling to the believe that He can and does give help, then facing our inner selfishness becomes less difficult. The image the men were commanded to worship was, after all, an immobile object of gold, disproportionate and one-dimensional. Our selfishness is like that: seemingly monolithic, and yet devoid of any real life. Its attractions fade when seen in the light of heaven. Spiritual resistance is not so difficult, and the results give strength:

"Victories are attended with the result that the malignant genii and spirits afterward dare not do anything; for their life consists in their being able to destroy, and when they perceive that a man is of such a character that he can resist then at the first onset they flee away, as they are wont to do when they draw near to the first entrance to heaven, for they are at once seized with horror and terror, and hurl themselves backward" AC 1820.

Nebuchadnezzar is brought to awareness and appreciation of the power of the Lord, this time, with his own senses. There is a power in his acquiescence after witnessing the four men in the fiery furnace that is far more dramatic than his incredulity after Daniel foretold the dream in chapter two. This time he actually saw the power of the furnace, so strong that those who cast the three men in were killed by its heat, yet he saw the three men walk out unscathed. This proved the power of God to him more than anything before.

We see something of this process in the final verses of Chapter three, where Nebuchadnezzar praises the Lord, showing a new humility impossible for him before. As a result, the affection of truth begins to rule in place of the former selfish loves. Thus we see Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego promoted in the province of Babylon, presumably in place of the Babylonian satraps, administrators, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the officials of the province who responded to Nebuchadnezzar's call to worship the gold image.

716. 'Sevens of each' means that they are holy. This is clear from what has been stated already in 84-87 about the seventh day or sabbath. That is to say, the Lord is the Seventh Day and from Him derives every celestial Church or man, and indeed, the celestial itself which, because it is the Lord's alone, is most holy. Consequently seven in the Word means holy; indeed in the internal sense, as here, absolutely nothing is obtained from the number itself. For people who possess the internal sense, as angels and angelic spirits do, have no concept at all of what a number is, and so do not know what seven is. Therefore the idea that they were to take seven pairs of all the clean beasts, or that the ratio of the good to the evil was to be seven to two, is not at all the meaning here. Rather it is this: Things of the will with which this member of the Church was supplied were the goods which are holy, through which, as stated already, he was capable of being regenerated.

[2] That 'seven' means that which is holy, or things that are holy, becomes clear from the rituals in the representative Church, where the number seven occurs time and again, for example, being sprinkled seven times with blood and oil, as in Leviticus,

Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Tabernacle and everything that was in it and made them holy. And he sprinkled some of it over the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels to make them holy. Leviticus 8:10-11.

Here 'seven times' would be utterly devoid of meaning if that which is holy was not being represented in this way. 'Oil' there means the holiness of love. And elsewhere in Leviticus, when Aaron entered the Holy Place,

He shall take some of the blood of the young bull, and shall sprinkle it with his finger over the face ¹ of the mercy-seat towards the east, and he shall sprinkle the face ¹ of the mercy-seat seven times with some of the blood with his finger.

Similarly with the altar,

He shall sprinkle over it some of the blood with his finger seven times, and shall cleanse it, and make it holy. Leviticus 16:14, 19.

Here every single detail means the Lord Himself, and therefore the holiness of love - that is to say, 'the blood' and also 'the mercy-seat', 'the altar' too, 'the east in which direction the blood was to be sprinkled', and so 'seven' as well, all mean the Lord.

[3] In sacrifices it is similar, about which the following is said in Leviticus,

If a soul has sinned inadvertently, and if the anointed priest has sinned, thus making the people guilty, he shall slaughter the young bull in Jehovah's presence. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times in Jehovah's presence towards the veil of the Holy Place. Leviticus 4:2-4, 6.

Here similarly 'seven' means that which is holy, for the subject is atonement, and therefore the Lord, since atonement is the Lord's alone. Similar instructions were also given concerning the cleansing of leprosy, about which the following is said in Leviticus,

[Taking some] of the bird's blood, the cedar-wood, the double-dyed scarlet, and the hyssop, the priest shall sprinkle over the one who is to be cleansed from leprosy seven times, and shall cleanse him. In a similar way some of the oil which is in his left palm, seven times in Jehovah's presence. In a similar way in a house where there is leprosy, [he shall take some] of the cedar-wood, and the hyssop, and the double-dyed scarlet, and shall sprinkle some of the bird's blood seven times. Leviticus 14:6-7, 27, 51.

Anyone may see that here cedar-wood, double-dyed scarlet, hyssop, oil, and blood of a bird, and so the number seven, would be utterly meaningless if things that are holy were not being represented by them. If you take away from them holy things, what is left is something dead, or something unholy and idolatrous. When however they do mean holy things the worship they contain in that case is a Divine worship which is internal and simply represented by things that are external. The Jews however were incapable of knowing what these meant; and neither does anyone today know what cedar-wood, hyssop, double-dyed scarlet, and the bird all mean. Yet if only they had been willing to think that these did embody holy things which they did not actually know, and so had worshipped the Lord - who was the Messiah to come who would heal them from their leprosy, that is, from profaning what is holy - they could have been saved. For people who do think and believe in this manner straightaway receive instruction in the next life, if they desire it, as to what every single detail represented.

[4] Similarly where 'the red heifer' is the subject it is said that the priest was to take some of its blood on his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood towards the face ¹ of the tent of meeting seven times, Numbers 19:4. Because 'the seventh day' or sabbath meant the Lord, and from Him meant the celestial man and the celestial itself, the seventh day in the Jewish Church was the holiest of all its religious observances. For this reason there was a sabbath year ² every seventh year, Leviticus 25:4. Also a jubilee was to be proclaimed after seven sabbaths of years, that is, after seven times seven years, Leviticus 25:8-9. In the highest sense the number seven means the Lord, and from this the holiness of love. This becomes clear also from the golden lampstand with its seven lamps, mentioned in Exodus 25:31-33, 37; 37:17-19, 23; Numbers 8:2-3; Zechariah 4:2. And in John it is spoken of as follows,

Seven golden lampstands; in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man. Revelation 1:12-13.

Here it is absolutely clear that 'a lampstand with seven lamps' means the Lord, and that 'the lamps' are the holy things of love, which comprise celestial things, which also is why there were seven of them.

[5] In the same author,

From the throne there were coming forth seven fiery torches burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Revelation 4:5.

Here 'the seven torches which came forth from the Lord's throne' are seven lamps. The same applies to the number seven when it occurs in the Prophets, as in Isaiah,

The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, on the day when Jehovah will bind up the hurt of His people. Isaiah 30:26.

Here 'sevenfold light as the light of seven days' does not at all mean sevenfold but the holiness of love meant by the sun. See also what has been stated and shown already at Genesis 4:15 concerning the number seven. From these quotations it is also quite clear that all numbers used in the Word never have a numerical value [in the internal sense], as has also been shown already at Genesis 6:3.

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