Gold Statues in the Bible

[Bootstrap]

What examples can you think of gold statues in the Bible? What do we learn from them?

Request: keep current events and politics out of this thread.

[JohnH]

What examples can you think of gold statues in the Bible? What do we learn from them?

Request: keep current events and politics out of this thread.

The Bible teaches us in the OT to tear down their "pictures", their idols, and to destroy the "high places".

I have been thinking over the past day or two what a present-day Christian's duty is to such statues. I'm not sure we should run around trying to destroy them, but we should definitely ignore them.

Of course, I say this in a broader Anabaptist context where all kinds of graven images, idolatry, pictures, and so on are rejected.

I believe that starting to accept such things eventually leads to grave sins.

[ohio jones]

The first examples that come to mind are from the book of Daniel.

In chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar the ruler of Babylon has a dream which Daniel recounts to him: "You, O king, were watching and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary radiance, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its chest and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." Daniel explains the dream: "You are the head of gold" and weaker kingdoms will follow him. But the statue is destroyed by a stone that represents the kingdom of God that "will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever."

In chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar constructs that statue, but the entire thing was made of gold, not just the head. He commands it to be worshiped, and the three Jews who refused to do so were cast into the fiery furnace, surviving untouched.

Revelation 18 prophesies the final fall of Babylon with these instructions to those who worship God: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive any of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her offenses."

[barnhart]

I suppose if any king had divine sanction for honoring themselves with golden statues it would have been Nebuchadnezzar since God told through the prophet "you are the head of gold".

[MattY]

Anyone see the recent video on Anabaptist Perspectives where Stephen Russell gives an alternative perspective on that idol in Daniel 3?



The Daniel part starts at 1:27:27

[Soloist]

I suppose if any king had divine sanction for honoring themselves with golden statues it would have been Nebuchadnezzar since God told through the prophet "you are the head of gold".

Wife: that’s what he thought, too… turns out he was wrong.

[barnhart]

I need to re-read the Daniel text but I like Steven's thesis of God using human language, culture and habits to communicate. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to discover a sacred relic for housing a god in king Tut's tomb the looked extremely similar to the description of the ark of the covenant. It seems to me God asked them to make a sacred space using the architectural and craft language they were already familiar with. One glaring difference is the space occupied by the Egyptian god is empty in the Mosaic version to reflect the universal nature of Yahweh which cannot be captured by an image.

I see other examples of this in the scripture like Abraham's covenant cutting animals in two that mirrors the Canannite custom but again God alters the form by not requiring Abraham to walk through and pledge his own blood or the request to offer Isaac on an altar which was an established custom in that culture but with the twist at the end where God hints at a future substitutionary atonement.

Some scholars have pointed out large sections of Deuteronomy and Joshua follow a very similar pattern to Canaanite and Hittite land title treaties in that era. I suppose God just communicates with former already understand.

[Soloist]

Wife: some people think the image of the beast (Rev 13) is some sort of statue. I don’t think the modern day one everybody’s complaining about would qualify under that, and no one is required to do homage, but I have a feeling people would flip if the 44th president had a golden statue given all the Antichrist talk I was hearing about from family, especially nearing the end of his presidency.

Otherwise, was it Maccabees or one of the other ones that talked about some sort of image being put up in the temple by the Greeks? I don’t know the composition, though.

[Soloist]

I need to re-read the Daniel text but I like Steven's thesis of God using human language, culture and habits to communicate. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to discover a sacred relic for housing a god in king Tut's tomb the looked extremely similar to the description of the ark of the covenant. It seems to me God asked them to make a sacred space using the architectural and craft language they were already familiar with. One glaring difference is the space occupied by the Egyptian god is empty in the Mosaic version to reflect the universal nature of Yahweh which cannot be captured by an image.

I see other examples of this in the scripture like Abraham's covenant cutting animals in two that mirrors the Canannite custom but again God alters the form by not requiring Abraham to walk through and pledge his own blood or the request to offer Isaac on an altar which was an established custom in that culture but with the twist at the end where God hints at a future substitutionary atonement.

Some scholars have pointed out large sections of Deuteronomy and Joshua follow a very similar pattern to Canaanite and Hittite land title treaties in that era. I suppose God just communicates with former already understand.

Wife: what I was referring to was that Nebuchadnezzar‘s dream was Daniel 2 and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was Daniel 3. I’ve heard talk before that he got a little bit big headed after getting that dream interpreted.

As for who is copying who, i’ve sort of wondered if maybe Jewish oral tradition preceded some of the other cultures. It’s not a big thing either way to me.

[ohio jones]

The other prominent gold statue found in the Bible is not of a person, but of a calf. Moses received instruction in Ex. 25-31 on how to use the gold the Israelites had plundered from the Egyptians in the furnishings of the tabernacle. Then he comes down from Sinai to find it had been made into an idol: "I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out." What was intended for the worship of God became the object of worship of a false god.

Jeroboam doubled down on the bovine substitution with idols in Dan and Bethel, repeating the same words Aaron used: "Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!"

And then there are the golden tumors and golden rats from 1 Samuel 6. But they did not become objects of worship.