Nougat 7

You know siblings

There are times when we take the Biblical texts and add our own spin to it. Or, worse yet, we take a horrible practice and adopt it as though it was legit. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat for example

“Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. 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. But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.” ‭‭

Undefiled

When we think of these for young Hebrew men, we remember them as: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Read or remembered that way, we conflate Hebrew and Babylonian names together. For we are told the original names, viz: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Sounds almost as ‘exotic’ as some African names we hear today. And I’m reminded that names of enslaved Africans were systematically switched, taking aspects of their identities and heritage away from them.

As I read, I couldn’t help but wonder, was this Babylonian tactic adopted by the colonizers when they came to the ‘New World’? For surely, it seems they adopted the line of thinking directly from the Bible and possibly justified their actions as ‘Biblical’. It’s in the Bible, that’s for sure … but Biblical, not quite. Not if Biblical refers to that which ought to be emulated.

But let’s not get to deeply into this bit as yet; for, as you can imagine, I’d love to examine the names. From the Hebrew perspective, all for young men had names that reflected the faith in which they were born:

– Daniel – God is my judge; became ‘Baal, protect the king’ i.e., Beltshazzar

– Hananiah – YHWH is gracious; renamed ‘command of Aku (the moon god), ‘royal’, or ‘great scribe’;

– Mishael – who is what God is; renamed ‘Most like god (i.e., Aku), or ‘guest of a king’; and

– Azariah – YHWH has helped; renamed ‘servant of Nebo’.

The fact that except for Daniel, we often had to jog our memories to recall their original names speaks to the extent to which the ‘ethnic cleaning’ was successful. And had we entertained doubts, the men’s decision – more so, Daniel’s decision – to remain undefiled speaks volumes. For it suggests that others had not. Psalm 137 reminds us of the traumatic impact of the Babylonian captivity on the Hebrew peoples. They stated that it was hard to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.

When I think of the limited knowledge of our original heritage, I realize that this was extremely difficult. For while I suspect the Babylonians didn’t brand their conscripted workers, the very act of name reassignment, using references to Babylonian divinities must have felt like contamination. Eating the food was perhaps the last straw.

In one sense, they might not have had control of what they were called; but what they could they did – their diets. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah resolved to eat simply. They stuck to food approved by YHWH, and not the rich wines of Babylon which was unacceptable.

Let’s consider their decision in our own reality. When we are caught in such spaces and situations, what do we resolve to do? Do we take a survival approach – ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’, or do we opt to live our faith boldly? I suspect it depends on the context. What we seek after however, is the freedom to remain true to Christ in all circumstances – even unto Death (although I’m sure we’d rather it not come to that).

We can start by asking the Lord to hide God’s Word in our hearts, so that we are less prone to sin. By God’s grace, I pray we remain undefiled.

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May all we seek be found in Christ