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.

9937. 'And Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things' means a consequent removal or shifting away of falsities and evils with those who are governed by good derived from the Lord. This is clear from the representation of 'Aaron' as the Lord in respect of the good of love, dealt with in 9806, and from the representation of 'the priestly office' in which Aaron served as all the service performed by the Lord as the Saviour, dealt with in 9809; from the meaning of 'bearing the iniquity' as a removal of falsities and evils with those who are governed by good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the holy things' as the gifts which they offered to Jehovah or the Lord to expiate them from sins, those gifts being burnt offerings, sacrifices, and minchahs. It is plain that these should be understood by 'the holy things', for it says, Which the children of Israel shall sanctify, even in all their gifts of holy things. The reason why 'bearing the iniquity' means a removal or shifting away of falsities and evils, or sins, with those who are governed by good is that what is said refers to the Lord; for the Lord is represented by Aaron, and all the work of salvation by his service or priestly office. It is well known in the Church that the Lord is said to have borne sins on behalf of the human race, yet there is no knowledge of what to understand by bearing iniquities and sins. Some think it means that He took the sins of the human race onto Himself and allowed Himself to be condemned even to death on a cross, and that since, because of this, the condemnation for sins was cast onto Him, people in the world have been made free from condemnation. It is also thought that condemnation was taken away by the Lord through His fulfilling the law, for the law would have condemned everyone who did not fulfill it.

[2] But no such ideas should be understood by 'bearing iniquity', for every individual person's deeds await him after death, when he is judged according to the essential nature of those deeds either to life or to death. The essential nature of them depends on his love and faith, for love and faith constitute the life of a deed. No one's deeds therefore can be taken away by transference onto another who will bear them. From these considerations it is evident that something other than those ideas should be understood by 'bearing iniquities'; but what should be understood may be recognized from the actual bearing of iniquities or sins by the Lord. The Lord bears them when He fights on behalf of a person against the hells; for no one is able by himself to fight against them. Rather the Lord alone does so, indeed constantly for every individual person, yet differently with each one according to their reception of Divine Good and Divine Truth.

[3] When He was in the world the Lord fought against all the hells and completely subdued them, as a result of which also He became Righteousness. By doing that He has rescued from damnation those who receive Divine Good and Truth from Him. If the Lord had not done so no person could have been saved, for the hells are unceasingly present with a person, exercising control over him to the extent that the Lord does not shift them away. And He shifts them away to the extent that the person refrains from evils. He who is victorious once over the hells is victorious forever over them; and to achieve this the Lord made Divine His Human. The One therefore who alone fights for a person against the hells - or what amounts to the same thing, against evils and falsities, since they arise from the hells - is said to bear sins; for He bears that burden, alone. The reason why 'bearing sins' also means moving evils and falsities away from those who are governed by good is that this is the consequence. For the more remote the hells are from a person, the more remote evils and falsities are, since falsities and evils come, as has been stated, from the hells - evils and falsities being sins and iniquities. For the implications of all this, see what has been shown above in 9715, 9809, where the Lord's merit and righteousness, and also the subjugation of the hells by Him, are dealt with.

[4] The reason for its being said that Aaron would bear iniquities was that He represented the Lord, while his priestly office represented the Lord's entire work of salvation, see 9806, 9809; and the work of salvation consists primarily in rescuing and delivering a person from hell, and so in shifting evils and falsities away. The expression 'a shifting of evils and falsities away' is used because deliverance from sins or forgiveness of them is nothing other than a shifting away of them; for they still remain with the person. But to the extent that the good of love and the truth of faith are implanted evil and falsity are shifted away. The situation in this is like that with heaven and hell. Heaven does not annihilate hell or those who are there, but moves it away from itself; for the good and truth received from the Lord are what compose heaven, and they are what move hell back. The situation is similar with a person. In himself a person is an embodiment of hell, but when he is being regenerated he becomes an embodiment of heaven; and to the extent that he becomes an embodiment of heaven, hell is moved away from him. It is commonly supposed that evils, that is, sins, are not shifted away in that manner, but that they are completely separated from a person. But those who think this do not know that in himself the whole of a person is nothing but evil, and that to the extent that the person is maintained by the Lord in good, the evils that are his appear as though they have been obliterated. For when a person is maintained in good he is withheld from evil. Yet nobody can be withheld from evil and maintained in good except one in whom the good of faith and charity received from the Lord is present, that is, one who allows himself to be regenerated by the Lord. For through regeneration heaven is implanted with a person, and through this the hell residing with him is moved away, as stated above.

[5] From all this it may again be recognized that 'bearing iniquities', when the Lord is the subject, means fighting constantly for a person against the hells, thus constantly moving them away, for that removal of them goes on unceasingly not only while a person is in the world but also forever in the next life. No mere human being is able to move evils away in that manner, for by himself no one is able to move even the smallest amount of evil away, less still to move the hells, and least of all to do so forever. But see what has been shown previously about these matters -

Evils with a person are not completely separated from him, but they are moved away to the extent that he is governed by good received from the Lord, 8393, 9014, 9333-9336, 9444-9454.

While in the world the Lord overcame the hells by means of conflicts brought about by temptations, and thereby set all things in order; He was stirred by Divine Love to do this, in order that the human race might be saved; and He also thereby made Divine His Human, see the places referred to in 9528 (end).

The Lord fights for a person in temptations, which are spiritual conflicts against evils that come from hell, 1692, 6574, 8159, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273, 8969.

In what way the Lord bore the iniquities of the human race when He was in the world, that is, fought with the hells and subdued them, and in so doing acquired Divine power to Himself to remove them with all who are governed by good, and that He thereby became merit and righteousness, is described in Isaiah 59:16-20, and also 63:1-9, for explanations of which, see 9715, 9809.

[6] From all this, once it is understood, people may then know what all those things mean that are stated regarding the Lord in Chapter 53 of the same prophet, a chapter dealing from beginning to end with the state of temptations He underwent, thus with the state He was passing through when He was engaged in conflict with the hells. For temptations are nothing other than conflicts with them. This state is described in [verses Isaiah 53:4-6, 9-12, of] that chapter in the following way,

He bore our griefs ¹ and carried our sorrows.

He was pierced because of our transgressions and bruised because of our iniquities.

Jehovah has laid on ² Him the iniquity of us all.

So He consigned the wicked to [their] grave.

The will of Jehovah will prosper by means of His hand.

Out of the distress ³ of His soul He will see and be satisfied, and through His wisdom He will justify many, because He has carried their iniquities.

So He has borne the sin of many.

The Lord is also called there [in Isaiah 53:1] the arm of Jehovah, by which Divine Power is meant, 4932, 7205. 'Carrying griefs, sorrows, and iniquities', and 'being pierced and bruised because of them' self-evidently means the state of temptations; for at that time there are experiences involving distress of mind, anguish, and despair, which cause the pain described in those verses. The hells bring such feelings about; for in temptations they assault the actual love of the one against whom they fight. Everyone's love is the inmost core of his life. The Lord's love was that of saving the human race; and this love was the Essential Being (Esse) of His life, since the Divine within Him was that love. This too is so described in Isaiah, where the Lord's conflicts are the subject, in the following words,

He said, Surely they are My people. Therefore He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He suffered affliction; because of His love and His compassion He redeemed them, and took them and carried them all the days of eternity. Isaiah 63:8-9.

[7] The description of the Lord's suffering of such temptations when He was in the world is brief in the Gospels, but in the Prophets, and especially in the Psalms of David, it is extensive. The Gospels merely state that He was led into the wilderness, where He was then tempted by the devil, and that He was there forty days, and was with the beasts, Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1. But the fact that He had been undergoing temptations from earliest childhood through to the end of His life in the world, that is, had been engaged in conflicts with the hells, was not revealed by Him, as accords with the following words in Isaiah,

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He is led like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is dumb, He did not open His mouth. Isaiah 53:7.

His final temptation was in Gethsemane, Matthew 26; Mark 14, followed by the passion of the Cross. Through this temptation He completely subdued the hells, as He Himself teaches in John,

Father, rescue Me from this hour. But on account of this I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. [Then] a voice came from heaven, [saying,] I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Then Jesus said, Now is the judgement of this world, now will the prince of this world be cast outdoors. John 12:27-28, 31.

'The prince of [this] world' is the devil, thus all hell. 'Glorifying' means making Divine the Human. The reason why only the temptation after the forty days in the wilderness is mentioned is that 'forty days' means and implies temptations to completeness, thus over a number of years, see 8098, 9437. 'The wilderness' means hell, 'the beasts' He fought with there being the devil's crew.

[8] The removal of sins with those who are governed by good or who have repented was represented in the Jewish Church by the he-goat called Azazel. Aaron was to lay his hands on its head and to confess the iniquities of the children of Israel and all transgressions in respect of all their sins, after which he was to send it into the wilderness; thus the he-goat was to bear on itself all their iniquities into a land of separation, Leviticus 16:21-22. 'Aaron' here represents the Lord, 'the he-goat' means faith, 'the wilderness' and 'a land of separation' hell, and 'bearing the iniquities of the children of Israel to that place' removing and casting them into hell. Nobody can know that such things were represented except from the internal sense. For anyone can see that the iniquities of the entire assembly could not have been carried off into the wilderness by any he-goat; for what did a he-goat have in common with iniquities? But since everything representative at that time was a sign of such things as belong to the Lord, heaven, and the Church, so were these things that were done with the he-goat. The internal sense therefore teaches what those things imply, namely that the truth of faith is the means by which a person is regenerated, consequently by which sins are removed. And since faith or belief in what is true is derived from the Lord, the Lord Himself is the One who accomplishes that removal of them, as accords with what has been stated and shown in the Preface to Genesis 22, and also in 2046, 3332, 3876, 3877, 4738. Aaron represents the Lord, see 9806, 9808; and 'a he-goat of the she-goats' is the truth of faith, 4169 (end), 4769. The reason why 'the wilderness' is hell, is that the camp where the children of Israel were meant heaven, 4236; and for the same reason also the wilderness is called 'a land of separation' or a land that is cut off. 'Bearing iniquities into that land' or into the wilderness accordingly means casting evils and falsities into hell from where they come; and they are cast into that place when they become so remote that they cannot be seen, which is what happens when a person is withheld from them because he is maintained in good by the Lord, as accords with what has been stated above.

[9] The same thing as is meant by casting out sins into the wilderness is also meant by casting them into the depths of the sea, as in Micah,

He will be merciful to us, He will sink our iniquities, and He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19.

'Depth of the sea' too means hell.

[10] From all this it is now evident that the words saying that Aaron was to bear the iniquity of the holy things means a removal or shifting away of sins from those who are governed by good derived from the Lord, and that this removal of them is done constantly by the Lord. This is what 'bearing iniquities' means, as also in another place in Moses,

Jehovah said to Aaron, You and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. Also you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. The children of Israel shall no longer come near the tent of meeting, or else they will bear sin and die. ⁴ But Levites shall perform the work of the tent, and these shall bear their iniquity. Numbers 18:1, 22-23.

'Bearing' or 'carrying' is used with a similar meaning in Isaiah,

Hearken to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been carried from the womb. Even to [your] old age I am the Same, and even to grey hair I will carry [you]; I have made, and I will carry, and I will bear, and I will deliver. Isaiah 46:3-4.

[11] 'Bearing iniquity' means making expiation, thus removing sins, in Moses,

Moses was annoyed with Eleazar and Ithamar, because the he-goat of the sin-sacrifice had been burnt, saying, Why have you not eaten it in a holy place, since Jehovah has given it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make expiation for them before Jehovah? Leviticus 10:16-17.

For the meaning of 'expiation' as cleansing from evils, thus removal from sins, see 9506. Also Aaron was commanded to make expiation for the people, and to pardon their sins, Leviticus 4:26, 31, 35; 5:6, 10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7; 9:7; 15:15, 30. But bearing sins, when the phrase is not used in reference to the priesthood, means being damned, and so means dying, Leviticus 5:1, 17; 7:18; 17:16; 19:8; 20:17, 19-20; 22:9; 24:15; Numbers 9:13; 18:22; Ezekiel 18:19-20; 23:49.

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