Daniel 1:1 “In the third year of the reign of Jehoaikim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it”
Daniel 1:3, 6-7 “And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes … Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshanch; and to Azariah, of Abednego.”
This begins a series of posts that I have entitled Impacting Babylon. The ancient city of Babylon is a few dozen miles south of modern day Baghdad, Iraq. Though most of us do not live in a physical location like Babylon (though some of us undoubtedly do), we certainly live in a figurative location like Babylon in a world characterized by a love of the secular instead of a love of the Supreme. We are surrounded by a foreign land as aliens in a world that alienates the holy, the righteous, and the just. How are we to impact such a locale that seems so far from our heavenly home?
Fortunately, God is not surprised by our situation nor is our environment unprecedented. Indeed, throughout human history God’s people have faced such challenges while living on foreign soil. Specifically, four young men of God who lived six hundred years before Christ gave us a template of success to impact such a foreign land as they were removed from their homes and brought to Babylon against their will. They lived as aliens among an ungodly citizenry.
PLEASE PRAY FOR A HEAVENLY POWER TO IMPACT THE FOREIGN LAND THAT SURROUNDS US. God desires for us to make an impact where we are … for such a time as this. Like these four righteous examples, we are besieged by the challenges we face in a hostile society today. May we impact our Babylon as effectively as they did theirs.
