Time is fleeting and its continuously changing. As time changes so does the people and culture around us. We name these changes as development but is it actually a development? If we observe carefully, the times are becoming more and more difficult. The reason being this generation is turning their backs to God. We are all turning our backs to God. Though the world is physically and technologically progressing, we are not progressing in the real sense. We are losing out on sincere relationships and genuine trust on people around us.
If we turn ourselves to the Word of God, we can see that in the Biblical times too Apostle Paul was warning Timothy about the changing cultures and how we can withstand the change around us.
We read in 2 Timothy 4:3,4 from the Bible, it is written “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
Paul is saying that a time is coming when people will only follow teachers whom they like. He is also telling that we constantly only looking for things that please us. If we find something discomforting, we reject it immediately. It is just like a child rejecting to take vaccination as soon as he sees the injection. If we replace the injection with Biblical words then we can see that we too reject the teachings doesn’t please our ears. Its very easy to fall for the peer pressure and do what the world is doing but at the same time its very difficult to stand out of the crowd.
Let’s see through the life of Daniel to learn how we can withstand the cultural changes in our lives.
Nations war against each other. Kings capture other nations and makes them slaves. Whenever a king captures a nation, the main motive is to make them slaves. Here in the book of Daniel we see that King Nebuchadnezzar was different. Instead of making them work hard, he wanted his captives to be brain washed, adopt their culture and become one among them.
As we read in Daniel 1:1, 3,4 “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skilful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.”
The king picks up men with good ability and people who have good knowledge by conducting some qualifying tests. He’s looking for people who are qualified to serve in the king’s palace. Once the young men qualify, they have to go through a special training to get the knowledge that is needed to make themselves eligible for the post. The King is trying to teach the captured people new language, new culture by making everything that these people learnt all the days of their life till now useless. King Nebuchadnezzar was not a man who believed in God. So, all his royal food offered to these young men was first offered to the idols. King Nebuchadnezzar was slowly following a pattern that would eventually make sure that the people of God would turn their backs away from God.
Among these qualified men were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. (Daniel 1:6-7)
The King first tried to change their identity by changing their names from
Daniel (God is my Judge) to Belteshazzar (Bel protects the king),
Hananiah (God is gracious) to Shadrach (commander of Aku)
Mishael (who is like God/there is no one like God) to Shadrach Who is like Aku
Azariah (God helps) to Abed Nego(Servant of Nego)
The King changed their identities from the most High God to false gods.
Where is our identity? We need to analyse ourselves and see what identity we are taking for ourselves. Is our identity in line with God? Is our identity making us stand against God or stand with the God?
Daniel 1:8
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
Daniel and his friends chose to stand out from the crowd because their conviction about the most High God was more powerful than their desire for approval from the king or even for their own lives. It wasn’t easy for them to take a stand but they strongly purposed in their hearts not to defile themselves with the world but stand against the world for the God of this Universe.
Are you ready to be different? Come back from the world and turn towards God because there is absolutely no one like our God who gave His one and only Son to die for our sins and open the gates of heaven for us.
