LEARNING DAILY

Daniel 1:3-4, 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 skillful 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.

In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar has conquered Jerusalem and has come up with a plan to bring the brightest young Jewish minds to Babylon in order to reeducate them into Babylonian ways and culture, and eventually send them back to Israel to rule there on behalf of Babylon. He wanted to have attractive and competent advisors, those who he would have molded into the Babylonian culture. He probably thought those trained would then help to control the captive brought from Israel. Today these would have been those who had the highest SAT scores and the social graces and were willing to do whatever the political hierarchy desired them to do. All Nebuchadnezzar needed to do was brainwash Daniel and the other three Hebrews into following the Babylonian way.

He was successful in changing their language away from the Hebrew they had spoken. He also tried to fill their minds with Babylonian literature, philosophy, science, astrology and religion. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to remove the Hebrew belief system and all its traditional values. Read Daniel 1:4. [Some of you who have been around the educational system for long might remember the attempt to instill “values clarification” into the minds of students!] Not only did Nebuchadnezzar desire to change their language and literature, he attempted to change their lifestyle so they would become used to eating from his table; he was not successful with this. Not even changing their Hebrew names to Babylonian names could get them to change their obedience and desire to follow the God of Israel.

What Nebuchadnezzar did may seem sneaky in the sense that he wanted to completely change Daniel and other Hebrews so they would fit into what he wanted from them. I want you to consider what has been going on in the public school system and in the “halls of higher learning” for decades now. Do you see any similarities?  When I taught World History in the public school system (many years ago), I always worked in a unit on what was called the Humanist Manifesto which was written in 1933, which was revised in 1973 (Humanist Manifest II), and again in 2003 (Humanism and its Aspirations: Humanist Manifest III). Each of these documents reflects the evolving perspectives of humanism and its response to societal issues (taken from the internet definition). Few have paid any attention to these documents. Their stated goal is to “bring young people to deny the deity of God and the biblical account of creation, to reeducate young people to the fact that moral values should be determined and situational [in other words there is no absolute truth] and stated the intent to remove distinctions between the role of male and female in society”. The Humanist Manifesto stated abortion and euthanasia should be legalized and there should be a redistribution of wealth. Does any of this sound familiar, like what is being promoted in 2025?

Do you see any relevance for the book of Daniel right now? Do you see and understand the danger for Believers to not pass on the word of God to their children and grandchildren? Do you remember when it was said, “It takes a village to raise a child!”? No, a “village” will pass on the Humanist Manifesto and pull our kids down! By the way, it takes a strong Christian mom and dad to raise a child, so he/she knows the direction to go in this life.

Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portions of the king’s delicacies” (1:8). He may have learned a new language and learned Babylonian literature, but when it came to eating the king’s food and compromising his faith in God and the commands in His Word, Daniel said no. He did not separate himself from the culture he was held in; instead, he chose to be the salt and light to those around him (Matthew 5:13-16). We can learn from this!