2023_10_09 Insight Post- Kim Feld

  -   October 9, 2023

This week’s reading-  Daniel 1-2, Daniel 9

I remember when I was an expectant mother, and my husband, Jon, and I were thinking of names for our baby. At that point, we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl, but we talked at length about what name to choose. Should it be a family name or something entirely unique for the child? The name our child would bear mattered deeply to us. As soon as we saw our son’s face, we knew in our hearts that the name we chose was the right one. It just indescribably fit him.

Daniel Chapter 1 begins with the story of the captivity of Judah by Babylon. The king ordered his chief of staff to select young male captives from royal or noble families to train in the “language and literature of Babylon.” This very purposeful assimilation process also involved a very crucial aspect of the identity of these young men – their names. Let’s take a look at Daniel 1:6-7, NLT:

⁶ Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. ⁷ The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names:

Daniel was called Belteshazzar.
Hananiah was called Shadrach.
Mishael was called Meshach.
Azariah was called Abednego.

These four young men bore Hebrew names that attested to God’s involvement in their lives. Daniel means “God is my judge” or “God has judged.” Hananiah means “Yahweh has been gracious.” Mishael means “Who is what God is?” and Azariah means “Yahweh has helped.” Although the exact meaning of the Babylonian names is unclear, they seem to point to the Babylonian deities and suggest the following: Belteshazzar means “Bel guard his life” or “Belet protect the king” (Bel was another name for Marduk and Belet was his companion); Abednego means “Servant of Nabu” (Walton, 2009). Shadrach means “The command of Aku,” and Meshach means “Who is like Aku?” (ESV Story of Redemption Bible, 2018).

The purpose of the name change was to give these men new identities, but they remained faithful to God, and He used them in tremendous ways. As I’ve thought about this, I was reminded of this verse in the book of Revelation (2:17, NLT):

¹⁷ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.

You and I will also receive a new name one day. It will be the name that God has known us by all along, free from the distorted thoughts and negative self-talk that we can so quickly identify ourselves by. Our name is a powerful piece of our identity, and one day, that identity will be shaped only and forever by the One who created us. I can’t wait.