How long after Daniel revealed and interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a great imposing image, the king made an image of gold, the text doesn’t say.[1] Nevertheless, the king did make an image of gold, which, like the image in his dream, was of a great height, and, no doubt, represented the head of gold, which signified King Nebuchadnezzar. It isn’t difficult to believe Nebuchadnezzar erected this image close to the time that Daniel interpreted the king’s dream. However, there is much discussion among Biblical scholars about the timing of this image’s construction. Some wish to put it near to the overthrow and destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Thus, the Septuagint makes the event of Daniel 3:1 to occur in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. However, there really is no textual support in the Hebrew for this reading. It makes more sense to say Nebuchadnezzar erected this golden image in honor of himself, and essentially pointed to himself as the king of kings, as represented in the golden head of the image, which he saw in his dream (Daniel 2:37; cp. 2:32).
Kings were always erecting idols in honor of some event or person, more than likely in honor of themselves, and Nebuchadnezzar was no different. The question is, why should the Bible record the erection of this particular image? I believe it has something to do with the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which Daniel interpreted earlier (Daniel 2:31-45). There, the king fell on his face and worshiped (Daniel 2:46), probably Daniel’s God, because in Daniel 2:47 he claimed Daniel’s God was the God of gods and the Lord of kings. If this is true, why would Nebuchadnezzar erect an idol, which, obviously, pointed to himself as the king of kings (cp. Daniel 2:37)? Before its interpretation, the dream, itself, troubled the king so much that he was robbed of his sleep (Daniel 2:1). Such a dream and its interpretation, it seems to me, would continue to be important afterward.
If the above is logical and true, it seems to me that Nebuchadnezzar was troubled by the fact that God, Daniel’s God, was the God of gods. After all, hadn’t Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and brought Daniel captive? In ancient times, victors over other nations brought their gods (their idols) back to their homelands to parade them in their victory celebrations there, showing the victor’s gods where more powerful than the gods of the people they conquered. This was the context of Nebuchadnezzar’s admission in Daniel 2:47, which also happens to be an obvious contradiction of the king’s worldview, or how the king understood truth. Therefore, I believe this admission and the dream continued to trouble Nebuchadnezzar, and his construction of the image of gold, whose height was about 90 feet by 9 feet (60 cubits by 6 cubits), represented his determination to put his admission that Daniel’s God was the God of gods and the Lord of kings behind him. In other words, he rejected his former admission. He simply couldn’t believe Daniel’s God would allow his people to be conquered, if, indeed, he was the God of gods. Nebuchadnezzar’s gods had to have been more powerful than Daniel’s God, so the king erected an idol in honor of himself, and in honor of his victory over Daniel’s God!
Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar celebrated his newfound confidence in his own gods and his own power by erecting this obelisk (?) in honor of his status as king of kings, and he called all of his princes, governors etc. who ruled the provinces in his kingdom to celebrate the dedication of the great image of gold, which he erected (Daniel 3:3-5). At that time, it was decreed that, whenever certain music was heard, everyone would fall down and worship the image of gold that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Moreover, it was declared that anyone who disobeyed the decree and didn’t worship the image, which the king erected in honor of himself, that one would be thrown into the fiery furnace. Therefore, all the people were induced to obey the decree (Daniel 3:6-7).
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[1] Many scholars try to claim the image was erected in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, no doubt because this is what the Septuagint claims in Daniel 3:1. However, the Hebrew text doesn’t support this conclusion. So, the claim is questionable. Of course, no opinion can be objectively supported, but I believe it is more logical to say the image, probably an obelisk, was erected closer to Daniel’s revelation of the king’s dream, which occurred in Nebuchadnezzar’s second year of his reign as king of Babylon.
My Personal understanding is that Nebuchadnezzar began to have doubts about the God of Israel when Jehoiakim rebelled in his third year of servitude to Babylon, which would have been Nebuchadnezzar’s third year as king of Babylon (2Kings 24:1; cp. Jeremiah 25:1), and only one year after Daniel interpreted his dream (Daniel 2). It seems to me, when Jehoiakim rebelled or when Nebuchadnezzar defeated him three to four years later, the king’s worldview would have demanded that his gods were more powerful than Daniel’s God. Therefore, he built the golden image, and the end result of Daniel 3 was to return Nebuchadnezzar to his original understanding of Daniel’s God, namely that he was the God of gods and King of kings (cp. Daniel 2:47 and 3:28).
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