Lesson 2
Daniel 1:6-7

(6) Among these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. (7) The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

  It is amazing that the first act of the master of the eunuchs, who was in charge of the development of the four children of Judah named in Daniel, was to change their names from their God-given names issued from their Hebrew heritage to names that specified allegence to Babylon. This may have been done in an effort to sever unity between them and their life of faith, but it evidenced to little more than make their names easier for the Babylonians to relate to. Embedded deep within the being of Balthazar (Daniel), Shadrach (Hananiah), Meshach (Mishael), and Abednego (Azariah) was the seed of their Father, whose work magnified in their innermost. The reflection of these young men was exactly a mirror image of who God called them to be, not what the master of the eunuchs named them. They found their identity in God, not in those who had authority and control over them. They were not going to be moved from where God had supernaturally placed them by any mere or significant move of man. They would only be moved by the hand of God. They were who God had sealed them to be; that identity was not going to be changed through some idolatrous names assigned to them by those who could not even begin to fathom the power and majesty of the God of the Hebrews.

  There was nothing simple in the depth that God had emplanted Himself in the identity of these young men. It is no small thing that by the time that they had been placed under the authority of their oppressor, they were already so confident in who God was in them, through them, and to them, that no minute matter or man that held them captive physically, could penetrate their inner-spirit that was solidified by a brazen wall of faith that could never be demolished by a loss of name or the threat of loss of life. They were who God called them to be and they answered with a distinct tone of absolute faith so concentrated that all that they would face could only serve to reinforce it. They were certainly not moved like a tumble weed through every issue of life. In fact, they were so rooted that that which dominated everything else about their lives was proven weak and ill-equipped. They flourished in turmoil, trial, and tribulation and no matter what (literally), they would press on.

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