©Laura Haverkamp
Chapter 1:1-7 (ESV) - In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. 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. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these 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.
Question to consider: Who was Jehoiakim?
In our study of Jeremiah, we spent an extensive amount of time talking about the kings of Judah from Josiah to Zedekiah when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. According to 2 Kings 23:29, Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Neco. His son, Jehoahaz, succeeded him to the throne but only reigned three months before also being killed by Pharaoh Neco. Jehoiakim was the second son of Josiah and was appointed to the throne by Pharaoh Neco where he reigned for eleven years.
Interestingly enough, the Hebrew name, Jehoiakim, actually means “YHWH raises up” despite being appointed by the Pharaoh. Whether this name was given to him by Neco to get the people of Judah to rally around him, or he received this name from the people out of a hope that he would end the conflicts between Judah and Egypt and Babylon, there was a seven-year period of peace after Nebuchadnezzar defeated Neco at Carchemish and then subdued Judah in 605 BC. In 597 BC, Ashpenaz brought some of the young Hebrew nobles into Babylon to be educated in their culture and learning institutions. Jehoiakim’s successor, Zedekiah, would betray this peace with Nebuchadnezzar by making a treaty with Egypt. It was then that Nebuchadnezzar would destroy Jerusalem and the temple.
Defeating an enemy in battle is a temporary victory. In order to win peace with an enemy culture one needs to win the hearts and minds of the people. This is generally done through the youth as they seem to have short-term memories of the horrors of war and are more easily influenced. Think of how the United States went about rebuilding Japan after World War II and ushering in American influence and culture to turn them from one of our fiercest enemies to an ally within a generation.
Of course, the influence of Eastern Hindu and Buddhist culture on the US has been even more successful because it has been done subtly through art, music, film, and healthcare instead of war. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, the youth were taught the language and culture of the Chaldeans as they dined on the king’s food. They were given Chaldean names like: Belteshazzar (“Bel’s prince”) instead of Daniel (“God is my judge”), Shadrach (“command of Aku” which was a moon god) instead of Hannaniah (“Beloved by YHWH”), Meshach (“one who is like Aku”) instead of Mishael (“one who is like YHWH”), and Abednego (“servant of Nego”) instead of Azariah (“YHWH my help”). Many scholars believe “Nego” was an intentional corruption of the Chaldean god, “Nebo”, by the scribes. Regardless of its origin, the idea was to get these boys to forget about the God of Israel and adopt the gods of the Chaldeans.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your written word so that we may know You and not be influenced by the gods of this world. Amen.