Two Kinds Of Oppression

The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar . . .   Daniel 1:7

Ashpenaz gave new names to his new students. He didn’t want to use their Jewish names, so he gave them Babylonian names instead. Daniel means “God is my judge”: Belteshazzar means “Bel [a Babylonian god] protects his life.” Ashpenaz’s plan was becoming clear. He was taking the brightest Jewish students and attempting to “Babylonize” them.

By moving Daniel and his friends to another location, filling their minds with another learning, and calling them by another name, Ashpenaz was attempting to erode their distinctive faith in God, so that at the end of three years in the royal college, they would emerge with a thoroughly Babylonian worldview. They would still be Jews, but they would think, act, behave, and respond like Babylonians.

There are two very different kinds of oppression. When Pharaoh persecuted God’s people, he was ruthless and put them through hard labor—but all that happened was they multiplied and became stronger. Satan uses the same tactic today in many places where Christians are persecuted for their faith. The outcome is usually the same—God’s people become stronger under persecution.

Nebuchadnezzar’s plan was more subtle. He knew his history. What Pharaoh had attempted didn’t work, so he decided to subdue these people not by persecuting them, but by blessing them. His strategy was to open doors of opportunity for them and place them on the fast track to success. They would find it so intoxicating, they would quickly forget all about their distinctive calling as the people of God. Before long, they would lose every trace of what made them different.

There are some places in the world where the enemy of our souls is using the crude tactics of Pharaoh. But he is increasingly using the tactics of Nebuchadnezzar, and they are proving very effective in his warfare against the church.

The strategy is simple: Intoxicate the people of God with the sheer splendor of this world. Gradually erode their distinctive practices and values, and it will not be long before they are assimilated into the culture. Some who would be heroes under the persecutions of Egypt are unable to resist the seductions of Babylon.

For further reading, see 1 Timothy 6