People who play card games like poker know that four of a kind beats a full house. When playing a card game, it is rare to draw four cards of the same kind. However, when you do, it can win the game. I want to look at how four of a certain kind responded when the proverbial deck was stacked against them.
In Daniel 1, we read about Daniel and three other young men named Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were living at a time when the Jewish people were in Babylonian captivity. However, they chose to live contrary to the Babylonian way, and the Lord blessed them for it.
In approximately 597 BC, the Jewish people were captured and taken into Babylon. This is described in chapters 24 and 25 of 2 Kings. It was also prophesied to happen in Isaiah 39:6-7: “‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were taken away from their families and friends, no longer taught to observe the ways of God, and rendered unfruitful and unproductive. The Babylonian system of indoctrination was a big deal, and it specifically targeted the youth, just as the pagan, woke world system does today. First, the Babylonians removed items from the house of God and put them in the house of a false god. Then, King Nebuchadnezzar took the best and the brightest of Jerusalem's youth to Babylon for training and indoctrination (see Daniel 1:1-5).
The youth were approximately 13 to 17 years old and, by the king’s instructions, were good-looking and without blemish. They were taken to the king’s palace, given new names, and taught to live a new lifestyle. The training and indoctrination catered to the youth so they would become compliant. Their trainers basically said, “We'll give you the same food and drink the king has and make you feel special so you'll listen to us.” Daniel and his friends questioned that and chose to live differently.
“Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8). He asked the eunuch in charge of the training to let the four young men eat vegetables and drink water instead of the king’s dishes, and after ten days to compare their appearance to those who ate the king’s food and drank his wine. “And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams” (Daniel 1:15-17).
Babylon, the system of the world, is not just a civilization from history; it represents today’s worldly values. In Revelation 17, we read that the showdown of the ages will be between Babylon, which is referred to as the Great Harlot, and the kingdom of God. Just like in the days of Daniel, Babylon still targets the youth. We need to resist Babylon’s indoctrination today.
The enemy, Satan, wants to target our youth and children so he can frustrate the purposes of God in their lives. We are seeing this targeting in American politics and in our schools. Millions of Americans were shocked to discover what their children were being taught in public schools during the pandemic, when their kids had school online. In some cases, educators rewrote history, and there was a lot of confusion over gender and pronouns, and library story readings for kindergartners covered the pagan gamut from the bizarre to adult sexual themes.
It is a challenge being a parent. I know this because I have six children from ages 5 to 19. Parenting is not always easy, but parents must stay vigilant. We shouldn’t hate anybody, but we cannot look at such worldly ideology and label it as normal or OK. We have to be voices crying in the wilderness, and we have to ensure our children are being taught there are only two genders—male and female.
The inability to define what a woman is and having to question a person’s pronouns are signs of Babylonian confusion. We see this confusion in the eunuchs—trusted male servants who had been castrated—who controlled and taught Daniel and the other youth. People who are under such confusion should not be teaching the people of God. We need to make sure the people teaching and influencing our kids are not depicting something that is against the ways of God.
The book of Daniel tells us that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given new Babylonian names—Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. They went from their identities being only about God to being renamed after pagan gods and goddesses. However, they did not let the identities being forced on them change their resolve to live for God, whose four of a kind beat the king’s full house.
In Daniel 2, none of the king’s astrologers, magicians, or soothsayers could tell Nebuchadnezzar what he’d dreamt. Daniel not only told him about his dream, but he interpreted it for him. You may want to have Daniel’s prophetic gift or to have the fourth man in the fire with you like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego did in Daniel 3. However, you first have to pass the test of Daniel 1: holding fast to your convictions, refusing to sacrifice your youth to the Babylonian system, and standing for what is right in a culture that doesn't value what you value.
