Thousands of Israeli captives were\nuprooted from their homeland and relocated to Babylon. In ancient times, POWs\nwere often imprisoned or enslaved. King Nebuchadnezzar took the cream of the\ncrop and groomed them to be leaders in his government. They were given a\n3-year, crash course on Chaldean culture\u2014the language, customs, education,\nreligion, and all the ways of Babylon (Dan. 1:1-5). The goal was to make them\nto forget their heritage and train them to think, act, talk, look, and live\nlike Babylonians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daniel was probably a descendant of King Hezekiah, a Prince\nof Judah (2 Kgs. 20:17-18), and a eunuch since he never mentioned a wife or\nchildren. He and his comrades were in Babylon, but they were not of it\u2014they were Israelites,\nchildren of the living God. They were in exile, \u201ca prolonged absence from one\u2019s\nown homeland.\u201d Babylon is symbolic of the world\u2019s system that is controlled by\nthe spirit of the Antichrist. We are also exiled in spiritual Babylon. This\nworld is not our home. We are just pilgrims passing through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can trace Babylon\u2019s rotten roots back\nto Nimrod who was a mighty hunter and king (Gen. 10:9-10). Unlike his righteous\ngreat grandfather, Noah, Nimrod was rebellious. His name means \u201clet us rebel or\nhe that rules.\u201d His kingdom was called Babel in the land of Shinar (where the\nTower of Babel and Babylon were later built). Some say he was the first to try\nto institute a one-world government. Babylon means \u201cconfusion\u201dand is a\ntype of this world\u2019s fallen, corrupt system that tries to rule without God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daniel and his companions lived clean in a corrupt culture. They honored God, refused to worship idols, or be brainwashed in Babylon. They faced a fiery furnace and a den of lions, but God delivered them and promoted them to positions of influence. His favor on their lives was unmistakable! They avoided Satan\u2019s secret, five-fold agenda for the king\u2019s seed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Reprogram your mind: <\/strong>Nebuchadnezzar tried to retrain their\nbrain so they would forget all about the God of Israel. Public education indoctrinates\nour kids with evolution, humanism, liberalism, and secularism. Students are taught\nthat abortion, pornography, and pre-marital sex are acceptable, and that homosexuality\nand transgenderism are normal and desirable. Remember, Babylon means \u201cconfusion.\u201d\nThere is confusion over what is right and wrong because biblical values are not\ntaught. With a tsunami of secular education and entertainment, is it any wonder\nwhy society is unraveling? When people reject God\u2019s truth, they are left with\nman\u2019s wisdom which is foolishness. C. S. Lewis noted, \u201cEducation without\nChristian values, as useful as it is, seems to make people more clever devils.\u201d\nThe Apostle Paul wrote,\n\u201cProfessing themselves to be wise, they\nbecame fools\u201d<\/em> (Rom.\n1:22) and \u201cEver learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the\ntruth\u201d<\/em> (2 Tim. 3:7). Satan tries to reprogram our minds with deceptive\nlies; God renews our minds with liberating truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Replace your diet: <\/strong>Every day the captives were served gourmet meals from the king\u2019s kitchen\u2014Chaldean chow and Babylonian bologna! \u201cBut Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king\u201d<\/em> (Dan. 1:8, NLT). The \u201cunclean\u201d food violated Daniel\u2019s convictions, so he requested a substitute diet of vegetables and water (the \u201cDaniel Fast\u201d). What was the big deal? The king\u2019s meat was unclean for one of three reasons: 1. The meat was either soaked in blood, raw, or cooked very rare, common among the Gentiles but forbidden to Jews (Lev. 17:11-12). 2. The meat was from an unclean species of animal banned by Mosaic Law and avoided by kosher Jews. 3. The meat was sacrificed to idols. In any event, the food was taboo. We also have a daily choice\u2014we can binge on secular grub (worldly entertainment) or we can feast on spiritual things (the bread and meat of God\u2019s Word and the water and wine of the Spirit). We are what we eat physically and spiritually. Why eat out of the devil\u2019s dumpster when God has spread a banqueting table before us? Daniel and his friends lived on veggies and water for three years and they were healthier, wiser, and \u201cten times better\u201d than everyone else (Dan. 1:15-20). What are we feeding our mind and our spirit? Carnal junk food or healthy soul food?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Remake your identity: <\/strong>Notice they were all renamed in Babylon.\nTheir Hebrew names associated them with the one, true God of Israel; their\nBabylonian names tied them to pagan gods (Dan. 1:6-7). Daniel means \u201cGod is my\nJudge.\u201d His Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, means \u201cPrince of Bel\u201d (the patron\ngod of war). Hananiah\u2019s name, meaning \u201cJehovah is gracious,\u201d was changed to\nShadrach which means \u201cCommander of Aku\u201d (a moon god). Mishael\u2019s name, \u201cWho is like\nGod,\u201d was changed to Meshach, \u201cWho is like Aku.\u201d Azariah\u2019s name, \u201cJehovah is my\nkeeper\/helper,\u201d became Abednego, \u201cServant of Nebo\u201d (a god of literature, wisdom,\nand arts). Despite this effort to remake their identity, the Hebrews never forgot\nwho they were. They were Israelites and princes of the most-high God. Likewise,\nwe must never forget our true identity. By faith in Jesus, we are the children\nof Abraham (Gal. 3:7, 29), sons and daughters of the living God, heirs of God\nand joint heirs with Christ! <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Reproach your testimony: <\/strong>What if they had compromised and caved in to temptation? There\nwould be no book of Daniel. If Satan can tarnish our character, he can\nundermine our credibility. When a witness testifies in court, the opposing lawyer\ntries to trash their credibility so no one will believe them. Daniel lived\nabove reproach. His enemies spied on him and tried to dig up dirt on him to stain\nhis reputation but couldn\u2019t find any (Dan. 6:3-4). Imagine a politician with no\nscandal. How refreshing! Daniel is one of a few Bible characters with no flaw\non his record. Perhaps he benefitted from writing his own book (autobiographies\nare kinder to the subject than biographies). Still, the only thing his enemies\ncould accuse him of was that He prayed too much. Wow! What an awesome\ntestimony! <\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Reclaim your worship: <\/strong>It\u2019s all a tug-of-war over worship\u2014God wants your worship and\nSatan wants your worship. Narcissistic Nebuchadnezzar built a golden image\n(perhaps of himself) over 100 feet tall. Then he coerced the masses to worship it\n(Dan. 3:1-5). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down and worship\nthis idol. Consequently, they were thrown into a fiery furnace, but God protected\nand promoted them. When King Darius was tricked into signing a bogus bill\noutlawing prayer, Daniel prayed anyway and was thrown into a lion\u2019s den, but an\nangel gave them lockjaw. They thrived in a corrupt culture, served in the\nhighest levels of government, and made a powerful impact for the kingdom of\nGod! Daniel and the three Hebrews never forgot who they were (Israelites not\nBabylonians), where they were from, and who they worshipped (Jehovah\/Yahweh). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul reminded us, \u201cDon\u2019t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think\u201d<\/em> (Rom. 12:2, NLT). Friend, don\u2019t allow yourself to be brainwashed in Babylon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thousands of Israeli captives were uprooted from their homeland and relocated to Babylon. In ancient times, POWs were often imprisoned or enslaved. King Nebuchadnezzar took the cream of the crop and groomed them to be leaders in his government. They were given a 3-year, crash course on Chaldean culture\u2014the language, customs, education, religion, and all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}