Living in Babylon

After the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, he tried to change four young Hebrew captives Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from being servants of the true God as reflected in their Hebrew names into being servants of the Babylonian’s false gods – by renaming them with Babylonian names and trying to make them conform to a Babylonian lifestyle and diet. But Daniel and the other three young Hebrew captives remained true to the God of Israel. Similarly, the sinful worldly system symbolized by Babylon in God’s Word tries to make us leave the service of God into which He has called us and return to a worldly life apart from God. From this story of the four young Hebrew captives, we can take encouragement and strength in our daily lives to remain true to our godly calling and resist the temptations and call of the world.