Daniel 1:1-7
When Jade was pregnant with Lennon, we didn’t really focus much on the meaning of her name as much as names that we just really liked. Brooklyn was on that list. Lennon was on that list. Paisley was on that list. No-smo was on that list…No SmoKing. But a lot of times the names of children are picked because of the meaning behind them. When we chose Everly’s name, we found it because we were looking at names that went well with Lennon, and we found Everly. Now, when we look behind those names at what they mean, here’s what we found:
Lennon: Irish name that can mean “Dear One,” “Sweetheart,” or “Blackbird.” And while she has that fiery red-headed temperament at times, I would say that deep down she has a sweet, quiet disposition about her.
Everly: English name that means a “wild boar in a meadow.” Now, if you know Everly, she is a wild, fun loving, adventurous, free-spirited human being.
So while we didn’t choose their names based on who we hoped or thought they would be, somehow, their personalities match their names. I know this isn’t the case for everyone’s names, but in biblical times, in the Hebrew culture especially, names carried massive significance.
Abram meant “exalted father,” but God changed his name to Abraham which meant “father of a multitude.” Jacob meant “deceiver,” which was fitting based on how he treated his brother Esau. God changed his name to Israel which meant “one who struggles with God,” which he was given after he wrestled with God. The name Simon meant “to hear,” but Jesus changed his name to Peter which meant “rock.” Peter being the foundational leader of the early church. Names had tremendous meaning culturally at that time.
What we see in our passage this morning is an attempt by the Babylonians to indoctrinate and confuse Daniel and his 3 friends. An attempt by a secular and god-forsaking culture to redefine beliefs about religious practices, societal norms and where to direct their worship.
As we talked about last week, there is great relevance from 600 BC to 2024 AD. The pressures that Daniel and his friends faced from a culture that wanted nothing to do with God, and in fact mocked God, are much like the pressures that we as Christians face today.
Big Idea: Our identity is not found in who the world tells us we should be, but in who God has already told us we are.
Read Daniel 1:1-7
Just to bring us all up to speed in case you missed last week, here’s where we are in Israel’s history. God made a covenant with Moses, and the basic terms were obey and receive blessing, disobey and receive punishment. Part of the punishment laid out in Deuteronomy was that other nations would come into Israel, conquer, and take people away into different nations. In around 605 BC, God had finally had enough of the disobedience of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came in and placed the kingdom under his rule, demanding a tax from the people. 3 years later, King Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, so he came back and as payment took thousands of people back to Babylon with him. In verse 2 in our passage we see that “the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God.”
Now this is an important line, and really lays out the entire theme of Daniel as we start our journey through it. The overarching theme of Daniel is the “sovereignty of God.” There are other sub-themes throughout, but this is the primary thread that we see. God is sovereign. God is in control. He has the authority and power to do whatever He wants with and in His creation. And we see this right away. The Lord gave Jehoiakim.
So all of this happens, and all of a sudden Daniel and his buddies find themselves in a foreign land. They don’t understand the language. They don’t understand the culture. They don’t understand their way of life. They don’t understand their religious practices. They are strangers. And right away we can begin to paint this picture between culture then, and culture now. In both cases, our first point can be said:
This World is Not Our Home
Hebrews 13:14 says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
Philippians 3:18-20 - “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Before we get any further into Daniel, I want us all to let this truth sink in. The foundational understanding that our identity is found in Jesus, that we belong to Christ, that our citizenship is found in heaven, that we are just passing through this world… will be paramount as we talk about how to stand in the face of a culture that pressures us to direct our allegiance elsewhere.
When culture tries to redefine truth. When it waves success and purpose in front of our faces, and tries to indoctrinate us with its moral relativism…when this world tries to claim us as its own, we remember that this world has NO claim over us because as Christians we belong to Jesus.
Daniel and his friends knew who they belonged to, so no matter what the Babylonians threw at them, they were able to stand firm against their attempts.
Re-read vs. 3-4a
Nebuchadnezzar had taken the best of the best of the young men from Judah. Some were from the royal family, some were nobility. All were physically strong, good looking, incredibly intelligent and discerning, and competent to handle themselves well in the house of the king. Daniel was one of these young men. It’s believed that he was around 15 or 16 at the time, which makes it even more incredible to see his initial response to the pressure to reject his beliefs.
When these young men first arrive, Ashphenaz brings them into the palace grounds with the intent of completely changing who they are and where they place their allegiance. It’s a way to weaken the nation of Judah, by taking their best and converting them to think, act and worship like Babylonians. They do this in a few ways, and I borrowed these terms from the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary:
1. Indoctrination (4)
To teach them the language and literature of the Chaldeans, which biblically is interchangeable with Babylonians. They were going to be enrolled in a 3 year Babylonian University, and during that time they would learn “literature, philosophy, language, science, history, astrology, and religion,” all from the worldview of the Babylonians. One commentator believes that as a part of that they would also learn how to interpret dreams and read omens, common religious practices of their polytheism.
Essentially what they were doing was brainwashing them. They wanted to disconnect them from everything they had been taught, and cause them to look at the world through a different lens. Not through the lens of the faith that they had been brought up in, but through a lens of a world that was lost to idolatry and opposition to the Lord.
This is where it starts for many people today. If we aren’t careful we immerse ourselves in a culture that wants to change the way we think about God. Secular entertainment that makes a mockery of God, but yet we allow into our minds. Public universities that countless Christians attend every year and sit in classes where the professors teach them that we live in a world that happened by chance, and that God doesn’t exist. Social media influencers that scroll across the screens of millions of teenagers preaching a message of relative truth, universal acceptance and a dangerously false picture of what success looks like.
Satan is sometimes subtle and sometimes bold. In either case, we live in a world that is constantly trying to influence the way that we think and shape our morality.
2. Assimilation (5)
Indoctrination revolves around the mind while assimilation has to do with our actions. Not only would they be trained to think like a Babylonian, but they would be trained to act like a Babylonian. What do they eat? What do they drink? This was a huge issue for these young Jewish men. There were strict Jewish laws that forbade the eating and drinking of certain things. By asking them to eat and drink these things, they were asking them to turn their backs on God. They would be rejecting the religious practices that the Lord laid out for them.
In the same way that our culture is trying to shape our minds, it is also telling us how to live. It is telling us that we only have one life to live so don’t waste it. Do what makes you feel good, even if it goes in direct opposition to how the Lord has instructed us to live. We’ll talk more about this next week, since this is what produces the main objection in Daniel in the rest of the chapter, so we’ll move on for now.
3. Confusion (6-7)
We move now from an attempt to influence thoughts, to an attempt to influence actions, to finally an attempt to change their identities. Once our minds are shaped by a godless culture, and our actions reflect those thoughts, it’s easy to be confused regarding who we are and where we find purpose. The changing of names with these 4 men was exactly that, an attempt to change their identities and confuse purpose.
Daniel = “God is my judge”
Hananiah = “Jehovah is Gracious”
Mishael = “Who is like God?”
Azariah = “Jehovah is my Helper”
Daniel > Belteshazzar = “Bel Protect the King.”
Hananiah > Shadrach = “Command of Aku (Babylonian idolatrous god)."
Mishael > Meshach = “Who is what Aku (Babylonian idolatrous god) Is?”
Azariah > Abed-nego = “Servant of Nego (Babylonian idolatrous god)” also called Nebo, a god of vegetation
The Babylonians were completely disconnecting these men from their past. They were intentionally disconnecting them from their God. It was an attempt by the Babylonians to show them that they believed their gods were more powerful than their Jewish God. We are going to change your identity. You no longer belong to your God, you belong to ours.
And while our names don’t carry as much weight as names did back then, we have been named by God, giving us an unshakable identity that goes beyond this world. So what is our identity?
Psalm 100:3 - “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”
Romans 14:8 - “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 - “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
1 John 3:1 - “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
When we, at the core of our being, grasp the power of our belonging. That the God of the universe holds us in His hands. That the Almighty calls us His children. Then, whatever the world throws at us won’t even come close to the security that we have as His. The world will try. It will try to shape the way we think. It will try to guide the way we live. And it will try to confuse our identity and misplace our purpose. As we’ll see with Daniel next week, we hold fast to the Lord, and believe that He is better than anything this world has to offer.
