Daniel in Babylon: "Remember who you are"

We’ve seen in the opening verses of Daniel that the Lord allowed Jerusalem to be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  Daniel and his three friends – Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – were specifically mentioned as those chosen to be indoctrinated in the ways of Babylon.  Daniel 1:7 says the boys were given new names.  Daniel was called Belteshazzar; Hananiah was called Shadrach; Mishael was referred to as Meshach; Ahariah was named Abed-Nego.  Why is this important?  Why are we given the detail of a name change?

When I read this verse, my mind goes to a storyline from the TV show “Alias” starring Jennifer Garner as CIA agent Sydney Bristow.  It ran from 2001 to 2006.  I’ve seen every episode; I certainly don’t endorse all that was presented, but I still enjoyed this TV show. The conclusion of season 2 of “Alias” presented arguably the greatest cliffhanger I have ever witnessed.  Sydney has an epic fight; she wins, but she is so exhausted from the struggle that she is rendered unconscious.  When she awakens, things have changed.  The love of her life, Michael Vaughn, had married someone else.  It's Vaughn who drops the bombshell: since that fight, everyone thought she was dead; and also: two years have passed!  

In season 3, we finally learn the truth of what had happened: a dangerous organization known as The Covenant had apparently faked her death.  And then they subsequently attempted to brainwash her that she was actually an assassin named Julia Thorne.  Etched in my memory banks is the ominous declaration The Covenant operative delivers to Sydney: “The sooner you accept that you are no longer who you were, the easier this will be.  Sydney Bristow is gone.” 

While it was much more dramatic in “Alias”, this was essentially what was happening to Daniel and his friends.  Nebuchadnezzar was trying to get them to forget who they were, and the lives they were living.  You see, there is something in a name.  Names matter because they carry identity.  Just as Sydney Bristow’s name carries with it identification to the CIA, so Daniel and his companion’s names carries identification to God. 

By the way, just so I don’t leave you hanging, Sydney Bristow didn’t succumb to The Covenant’s insidious plot.  One memorable scene of this saga is when Sydney, while seeking answers for what happened to her during those two years, actually kills the man who had previously tried to brainwash her.  It was entirely out of self-defense, and when she realized he knew something, she tried to interrogate him.  But, in his last moments, all he sputtered out was, “You were my favorite; you never broke.”  For months, he had tried to condition her, but Sydney always held on to the truth.

Daniel and his friends held on to the truth as well.  We see this right here in Daniel chapter 1.  Where the boys won’t partake of the king’s delicatessens; a stand that makes Ashpenaz, the one they directly answered to, fear for his own life (verse 10).  But I actually want leave that part of the text until next time.  Many other examples can also be cited. 

For instance, in Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a golden statue and demands that everyone bow down and worship it.  But the boys courageously tell the king that they will not do so.  The furious king orders them to be thrown into a fiery furnace as punishment; in one of the great scenes of the entire Bible, God miraculously spares their lives from that fiery death.  In a public decree, Nebuchadnezzar ends up acknowledging God’s mighty power; “Because,” he concluded, “there is no other God who can deliver like this” (Daniel 3:29).  By Daniel 6, Daniel’s faith in the Lord is so recognized that another king, King Darius, refers to Daniel as the “servant of the living God…whom you serve continually” (verse 20). 

To conclude, I recently heard a sermon by Jonathan Evans, son of Tony Evans.  His words led me to modify what I was originally going to end with today.  He announced that one of his favorite movies is “The Lion King”; a film he called “powerful.”  You know the story: Simba – the main star – was told a damaging lie by Scar, the villain, regarding the death of Mufasa, Simba’s father.  It was so damaging that Simba left his homeland, and he lived without purpose and responsibility for decades.  “He started thinking this is the way of life,” Jonathan continued.  “But then his father came back to remind him… ‘You need to remember who you are.’  And then it reverberates, ‘remember, remember, remember,’ that’s when I got goose bumps.”

In the 1994 version of the movie, Mufasa’s words are potent: “You have forgotten who you are, and so forgotten me…you are more than what you have become.”  And then that line: “Remember who you are.”  Simba does remember who he is; as Jonathan Evans puts it, he remembers he is “a child of the king.”  This inspires Simba to face the pain of his past, and to confront (and ultimately defeat) Scar.  I took this as an encouraging challenge; I am to live in step with my name or identity – a child of God, or better stated: a child of the King.

Kevin