High School Students Abducted!

The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families.   Daniel 1:3

Daniel was taken from his home and remained in Babylon for a period of about seventy years. Given a normal life expectancy, Daniel was, in all probability, of high school age when he came to Babylon.

Try to get a picture of this high school student in your mind. Daniel was one of the brightest and the best. He came from a good home and was a straight-A student. He was “well versed in every branch of learning” (Daniel 1:4). He was also fit and very good-looking. The world was at his feet.

Then one day during his junior year, Daniel was sitting at his desk when there was a knock on the door. Three Babylonian soldiers burst in, and Daniel was dragged off and, along with some of his friends, marched seven hundred miles to Babylon. These prize pupils were abducted, and the parents could do nothing to stop it!

Daniel’s parents must have been distraught, and who knows what was going through Daniel’s mind? Maybe they’ll torture us until we die. He needn’t have worried, though, because when he arrived in Babylon, far from being abused and imprisoned, he was treated like royalty and enrolled in a top-flight boarding school.

Daniel had grown up under the care of his parents, but now he was taken out of that environment and placed in a new situation where he had to stand on his own two feet. Daniel was completely anonymous in Babylon. Those who travel know all about this temptation. At home, many people know you, but when you get on a plane or check into a hotel, it occurs to you that you can be whoever you want to be.

This is a great test for those who leave home and head off to college. The watchful eyes of parents cannot extend to a new location, and that’s when who you really are will be made known. When you can be whoever you want to be, then the person you really are will be revealed.

For further reading, see Daniel 1