Living In Babylon — Keith Malcomson

Beginning a Study of Daniel for the End Times

Here tonight, we're starting a new Bible study, a fresh tonight on the Book of Daniel. And I intend to work through each chapter consecutively. Looking at this, we won't cover every issue, but I believe Daniel, and you're gonna see this even tonight, the importance of the Book of Daniel for us in this hour, at this time, in our generation.

As we prepare to leave 2020 and go into 2021, I believe that this book actually has a remarkable message for us in this hour. And we have looked in part, even a few months ago, at how Daniel fits into Matthew and into the Book of Revelation.

But I wanna go back and start in Daniel chapter one, and we're gonna begin a study in this book. And I believe Daniel is a vital book if we're gonna understand all the prophecies of scripture, and if we're gonna understand the Book of Revelation, and if we're really gonna understand the hour that we live in right now, then the Book of Daniel is fundamental, it is foundational, and it is essential.

If you don't understand the prophecies in Daniel, you will not understand God's plan of the ages, and especially for this hour that we are living in. In this series on the Book of Daniel, I have called it the heaven's rule.

That is our theme through every single message that we are gonna deal with. And that text is taken from Daniel chapter four and verse 26, where it says, the heavens do rule. That is our entire theme of this series as we work through the entire Book of Daniel.

This is what we're gonna come back to, and I'm gonna emphasize in every testimony, every story, and every prophecy, that the heavens do rule. In other words, God's government in heaven does rule. And before we read Daniel chapter one here, let me just say that when you come to Daniel chapter two, five times we read the statement, the God of heaven.

In other words, when we begin going into this book, who is it who dominates? It's not the kingdoms of this world. It is the God of heaven. Five times in chapter two. Then when you go to chapter four, again, five times you read the word heaven.

And as you continue reading Daniel, you read the word heaven once in chapter five, once in chapter six, once, or sorry, twice in chapter seven. And beyond that, we see that the entire book shows to us that no matter what is going on in our generation, no matter what is happening with kings and kingdoms, world empires and world powers, that the heavens do rule.

Daniel 1:1-21 and the Sovereignty of Heaven

Please, let's read together Daniel chapter one, reading from verse one tonight. And it says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God.

And the king spake unto Ashenaphas, the master of the eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes, children and whom was no blemish, but were well-favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science and had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning of the tongue of the Chaldeans.

And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof, they might stand before the king. Now, among these were 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 Balthasar and unto Hananiah of Shadrach and to Mishael of Meshiach and to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now, God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord, the king, who has appointed your meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sirt?

Then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzor, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants. I beseech thee 10 days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.

Then let the countenances be looked upon before thee and the countenances of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat, that eat of the portion of the king's meat. And as thou seest, deal with thy servants.

So he consented to them in this matter and proved them 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, their countenances appeared fair and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.

Thus, Melzor took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams.

Now at the end of days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king communed with them. And among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Therefore stood they before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were on all his realm.

And notice this last verse, and Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus. Let's pray here together. Father, I do pray as we reach the very last of the last days as we are coming to the fulfillment of all a prophecy of what you spoke by the Old Testament prophets, I pray here tonight, Lord God, that you'd speak to us as a church, as a vessel, as an instrument of recovery.

Father, I pray that you prepare us as a church. We are so aware, oh God, that you've given us a voice and a message. Though we're small in number, though we're stuck at the ends of the earth, Lord God, yet we believe in the God of heaven.

We believe that the heavens rule tonight, that you rule in our personal lives and our nations and governments and all that's happening in this world, and that you have chosen us to live in this hour, at this time, that nothing is out of your hands.

Lord God, that you have a plan that you're gonna reveal, that you're gonna work out in the midst of this generation. As we see Babylon arise, we're asking you that you teach us how to prepare ourself and how to live in Babylon.

In the name of Jesus, speak to us from your written scriptures. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. God bless you tonight in this Bible study. Our series in Daniel is called The Heavens Rule. But here tonight, as we look at Daniel chapter one, this is my message.

Living in Babylon as a Message for the Last Days

This is the title, Living in Babylon. I wanna show you tonight how to live your life in Babylon. You see, I believe that Daniel is a book for this hour. It's a book for you and I. It's a book for us the church at the end of days.

I believe it has a message for us, not only about the raising up of kings and the dashing down of kings, not only about the fulfillment of prophecy, but it shows us how God's people are to live in the last days, how they can walk through this hour.

As we see Babylon begin to arise, begin to take form again, and to begin to manifest its power in our day, in our generation, I wanna tell you, there's gonna be a church. There's gonna be men of God again.

There's gonna be women of prayer who are going to realize again that the heavens rule and through them, God is gonna manifest his divine plan. You see, I believe the book of Daniel shows us that with Babylon arising, that there is always a remnant who God has preserved, who he trains and prepares to live in that hour when Babylon arises again.

And that through that people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that God is gonna prepare a vessel. Heaven is gonna open to bless them. But listen to me, hell is gonna open to blast them. The entire book of Daniel actually shows us that these handful of consecrated vessels were set apart by heaven, marked out by heaven, but they were also marked out by hell.

And we are gonna begin to look at this tonight. How do we live in Babylon? How are we to walk through this hour that we see rising all around us? No book has been attacked like Daniel in the Old Testament.

It is the most attacked book by higher criticism in the Old Testament, even more than Genesis 1 -10. Daniel is a book that higher critics, that unbelievers and that apostates hate. Why do they hate it?

It's because if it is true, then it is the most remarkable book in world history. It actually reveals prophecy and history covering at least 2 ,600 years. It is a remarkable book of prophecy. And if Daniel is who he said he was, and if this book is written when we believe it was written, then the God of the Bible only, the God of the heavens alone could have written it.

Here tonight, I've got several points for you as we begin to look at this book. And in chapter one, it's gonna set the historic stage. It's gonna reveal who Daniel is. It's gonna show you how all of this gets worked out.

And I want you to listen carefully because we're not just dealing with history. This is a message for you and I right at this time. We must understand this. You see, this book was sealed in Daniel's day, but I believe in our day, it's going to be unsealed and revealed.

Do you know why? The very last prophecies yet unfulfilled in this remarkable book are just about to begin to be fulfilled before our eyes. It is a remarkable prophecy book. And we're going to begin searching and studying these many remarkable prophecies.

But here tonight, as we begin to look living in Babylon, as we begin to look at a man and a group of young men who grew to old age up into their late 80s and 90s, how did they live and walk through Babylon?

How do you do that? How do you live in the society that we are seeing arise and now all around us, socially, governmentally, legally, politically, religiously, economically, as we see it beginning to rise.

And don't we see it in this hour? Look at the news, look at the past year, 2020. We are seeing something radical happen. How are you going to work through this? How are you going to walk in the midst of it?

That's my message here tonight, as we begin to look at the book of Daniel. And here's my first point tonight, the rise of Babylon. Underline that here tonight, the rise of Babylon. You see, in Daniel chapter one, we see the rise of Babylon in Daniel's day.

But I believe now we are beginning to see the rise of Babylon. I believe with all my heart that the Bible predicts that a city, a kingdom, a last civilization is about to rise up and be given birth out of our world.

And it's going to be called Babylon. It's spoken about in Revelation in chapter 18. It is an economic political system that's going to rain on the earth before Christ returns. But can I tell you, there is a similar rarity between Daniel's day and our day and how things were then is how they're returning to now.

So as we look at the rise of Babylon then, we're going to see a certain similarity here. Read with me in Daniel chapter one in verse one. It says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, on to Jerusalem and he besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. Now I want to show you that at the beginning of Daniel chapter one, although the entire book of Daniel is set in Babylon, in the Babylonian kingdom, under the rule and the throne of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Here in chapter one, where does it begin? It begins in Jerusalem, in Judea, in the third year of King Jehoiakim. He was the king of a descendant of King David, sitting on the throne of Israel, of the royal house.

That's where the book of Daniel begins. And do you know why it begins back there? Because there is a message here for us tonight about how does Babylon rise? Why does God allow Babylon to rise? Why does God allow his church, his people, his remnant to seem to come into captivity in Babylon in certain days and in certain generations?

Could God be involved in all of this? And what happened in Daniel's day? Are we about to see it happen again in our day where this world power is going to arise? And yet a church that seems to be taken into captivity is going to be used in the hand of God one last time at the end of this age.

Let me begin to show you about the rise of Babylon and why God allowed Babylon to rise. King Jehoiakim was the son of King Josiah. Now, if you know your Bible, you know that King Josiah was a very different man than his son was gonna become.

King Josiah had a wicked father, an evil, evil father, but King Josiah took up the throne of Judah at the age of eight, and he ruled for 31 years. From eight years old, he was a godly young man. Somehow God had reached his heart, and this young boy king was godly to the backbone.

He was righteous, he was holy, and he sought after the way of God. We're told that he ruled for 31 years, and during the process of seeking after God, they rediscovered God's word in the temple. As he began to fix God's house and restore the things of God, God opened up his word, and there was a reformation in Judah.

There was a return to the word of God. There was preaching again on the streets of Jerusalem, and the spirit of God moved in the nation again, and young King Josiah was used in the hand of God to restore the word of God.

31 years he reigned on the throne of Israel. Now I'm setting the scene here of the rise of Babylon. You see, there was revival in Josiah's day, but let me take you down to the end of his lifetime. You see, Daniel was born in the days of Josiah.

Before Josiah died, Daniel was a young boy, probably growing up in the city of Jerusalem. Now let me give you the context of the rise of Babylon. In the year 609 BC, before Christ, there was a war. You see, Assyria had been the world power, but it was diminishing.

It was on the way down. Babylon had not yet come to be a world power, and Egypt was there on the scene of time with great power. Right in the midst of these three great empires, in their demise and their rise, was the little nation of Judah, with King Josiah upon the throne.

We read that Assyria and Egypt joined their forces, and they went out against Babylon to a place called Haran to fight against the rising Babylonian army. You see, God had a plan. He was gonna raise up the Babylonian kingdom, and he did have a plan.

He had predicted that this was gonna happen. Assyria and Egypt joined together, and they marched against the rising Babylonian kingdom. Well, we read in our history books that they were defeated, and that the Assyrian capital of Haran was taken by the Babylonians.

This began to show us the rise of a new world empire, since we are living right on the very edge of a radical change of society. And I wanna tell you, I want you to be prepared for this hour. We are living in this hour, just like Daniel was living in this hour.

Empires are gonna fall, and empires are gonna be remade again. Well, there was that battle, and we're told that as the Egyptian army returned back to their nation, they stopped at Jerusalem, and they actually had a battle there.

But listen, it was in the year 609 that Josiah went out with his army to fight the Egyptians, and he was killed by an archer at Megiddo, at the Battle of Megiddo. Now, you begin to see here that the rise of Babylon takes on a prophetic meaning, not only in Daniel's day, but in our day.

Josiah was killed, and his first son ruled for three months until the Egyptians came, removed him from his throne, and they put King Jehoiakim in place as a vassal of the Egyptian king. The Egyptian king put him there.

So listen to me. When Daniel was carried off into captivity, here was a king on the throne, on the throne of Israel, who was joined to the Egyptian system. He was a puppet of the Egyptian kingdom, but there was a new kingdom rising called Babylon.

Now, we're going somewhere, so just hold all of this in place. This new King Jehoiakim was put on the throne of Israel, and he continued there for another three years as an instrument of the Egyptian king.

Do you know what the history books tell us about this king on the throne of David? He was a wicked man. He was a vile man. Do you remember who was preaching in the city of Jerusalem? It was Jeremiah. Jeremiah was prophesying that Babylonians are gonna rise up.

They're coming with power, and they'll take this city if you do not repent. In other words, this king on the throne was breaking God's law. Do you know what he'd done with Jeremiah's prophecy? His written prophecies, he took them, cut them up with a knife, and he had them burnt.

He hated Jeremiah with a vengeance. He hated the word of God, and he even ripped up that prophecy about the 70 years' captivity. This is what King Jehoiakim was like, and there he is on the throne. Daniel is a young man growing up, part of the royal house, watching all of this happen.

Do you know the history books actually tell us that King Jehoiakim even started to get tattoos on his arm? He was someone who claimed to know the true God. He hated the word of God. He ripped the word of God up.

He did not respect the word of God, and he even tattooed his body. Do you know who Jehoiakim is? He is a picture of the Laodicean church of our day and generation. I believe so much of the church of our day.

They say they love Jesus Christ, and yet they have no love for the word of God, no respect for the word of God, and they even tattoo their own body. I assure you, Daniel was born in such an hour, but God had a divine purpose.

You want to know why God would send the nation of Judah into captivity to Nebuchadnezzar? You want to know why God would raise up a great empire and carry his people into captivity, especially Daniel?

You want to know that. You say, where is God in Daniel chapter one? You say, where is God? I want to tell you, God disciplines his people. And when his church rebel against him and lose a love for God's word and take their eyes off Jesus Christ, I assure you, we're going to find ourselves in a Babylonian age.

God will raise up a political system to chastise his church, that they might again turn back onto him. And I believe that. You ask, why is all this happening around us? Why are we losing our liberties?

Why are we losing our freedoms? It's because of the church of Jesus Christ. I don't care how small she is. I want to tell you tonight, I believe that God is working. You may say, Daniel didn't do anything.

That's right. He was righteous. He was perfect. He was holy. He walked with God, and he's going to get carried into Babylon, into captivity. He's not being punished for his sins, but God's people are.

But God has a plan in the midst of that. He is going to raise up a remnant in the midst of this. We're actually told in the year 605 BC, that there was another battle. When the armies of Babylon invaded further, and they advanced on the little city of Jerusalem, and under the generalship of a man called Nebuchadnezzar, they took the city of Jerusalem.

This was going to be the beginning of 20 years of God's people being sent into captivity. There was going to be three different captivities. It was going to start small, and then get to the point where the temple's destroyed, the walls, the city, and the entire people get carried off into Babylon as prisoners under Nebuchadnezzar.

We are looking at a remarkable hour on this, but this first attack when Nebuchadnezzar come, and he besieged the city and took the city of Jerusalem. Do you know what we're told? That he took certain vessels from the house of God in Jerusalem, and he carried them back to his own nation.

It was at this very time that Daniel got taken from his homeland, his city, his family, his people, and he was carried into the land of Babylon, to the city of Babylon. Since I am telling you what I believe we're on the verge of again, what Satan means to destroy the church is going to raise up a testimony in this last hour.

It may seem small, but through Daniel, we're gonna see that the heavens do rule. A man of God is gonna be forged in the fire, and I believe that's what's just about to happen. We're gonna see a real church arise in this hour.

Stand straight, be men and women of the word of God. What God's people have lost, this remnant is going to return to. We're gonna be a people of faith, a people of courage, a people uncompromising, a people who pray, a people who know their God, a people who understand prophecy and who have a message for this hour.

I assure you, we have come right down to this hour. At the beginning of Daniel 1, we're told that Daniel and all of these instruments from the house of God are carried back to the land of Shinar. What is the land of Shinar?

We read about it first in Genesis chapter 10. Shinar was the land of Nimrod. That's where the Tower of Babel was actually built. And do you know what? That land of Shinar is ancient Babylonia, or present-day Iraq.

And the Bible actually says that, again, in the last days, we're going to see the economy. In Zechariah chapter 4, it says that the world's economy is going to return to the land of Shinar. It's not going to be Wall Street, New York.

It's not going to be London. It's not going to be Berlin. I tell you, the Bible says that the world economic system one day is going to return to the ancient land of Shinar, to Iraq, and I believe specifically to the city of Babylon.

You see, I believe we're beginning, only beginning to see the first step to the rising up of Babylon again in this last hour, just like Daniel. That's why it's so important for us to deal with tonight, because as Daniel began to see the rise of Babylon, so we, in this hour, are beginning to watch it form.

It only seems small at the minute, but we are going to see a Babylonian system come to bear on world politics, education, society, custom, everything you can imagine, including the economy. All of it is going to have the mark of Babylon on it.

And you know what? You better know how to live in Babylon. That's my first point, the rise of Babylon, the rise of Babylon. We're seeing it right now. Second of all, this is my second point, the residence of Daniel, the residence of Daniel.

Daniel's Residence and Reeducation in Babylon

It says in verse three, and the king, that is Nebuchadnezzar, speak unto Ashpenaz, the master of Ischionix, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes.

Now notice here what is happening. The king, Nebuchadnezzar, is commanding the master of the Unix to choose out from the children of Israel of the king's seed and of the princes. Do you realize Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these four young men, and most Bible teachers believe they were about 16 years old and that Daniel chapter one covers a period of three years in their life, from 16 to 19 years old, and the rise of Babylon and their captivity in it, the first three years of their experience of this system, and we see what actually happens.

We get Nebuchadnezzar telling this master of the Unix to bring or to choose out certain. Do you know what that means? Daniel and his friends were of the royal seed. They had the blood of David, of King David flowing in their veins.

They were of royal aristocratic stock. They were of the princes of Israel, and here they are chosen by this master of ceremonies called Eshpenaz. Well, all the critics say, we don't believe the book of Daniel's historically correct.

Do you know you can go to the British Museum, you can go there and look at a stone tablet. Listen to what it says there in the British Museum on in cuneiform, Eshpenaz, chief of the Unix in the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Do you realize in the British Museum, this man who was given the task by Nebuchadnezzar to choose Daniel to go to Babylon, his name is written there. There is historical archeological evidence for that.

Now it goes on here to say in verse four, children on whom was no blemish. Look at the sort of people they're looking for. No blemish physically, but well-favored. In other words, when you look upon them, your heart is drawn towards them.

When you're with them, your heart rises up. Who are skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such as had the ability in them to stand in the king's palace. And listen to this last point, on whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

This master under Nebuchadnezzar was given the task to choose out in Jerusalem, young men of the royal house who fitted all of these qualifications. Daniel and the other three Hebrew children were chosen and they were taken 700 miles back to the city of Babylon.

Daniel will never return, never see his family again, never see Jerusalem again. And over the next 20 years, while they're in captivity, they're gonna hear of the situation amongst God's people get worse and worse.

Daniel is gonna watch three captivities and he'll see people carried into Babylon. He's gonna hear the reports about the walls getting broken down and burnt down, the gates being burnt with fire, the temple being destroyed, all the vessels being carried back to Babylon.

He's gonna see it, he's gonna hear about it for 20 years, he's going to walk through this. But notice he is a chosen vessel, God's hand is in this, working with a wicked king and a wicked master of ceremony.

God is here in the rise of Babylon. We're gonna see the residence of Daniel in the city of Babylon. This is gonna be his new home, the place that he's gonna live, the place of his new education. You see, these Babylonians chose Daniel and his three friends, wanting to separate them from family, from religion, from culture, from all the old influences.

And do you know what they wanted to do? They not only wanted to separate them, they wanted to brainwash them, re-educate them. They wanted them to forget their old people, their old land, their own God.

They wanted to obliterate any Hebrew influence upon them. And they wanted to immerse their minds and their speech and their entire life in Babylonian culture. Do you see now why Daniel 1 is exactly where we are now?

Since we are seeing our world radically change before our eyes, things are not gonna stay the same. Everything is changing. Our schools are changing. Our politics is changing. Our economy is changing.

And there is a new Babylonian system rising that wants to immerse every nation from Australia to Ireland, from Japan to America. There is a new world system beginning to arise that wants to immerse every culture in its own influence, its own thinking, its own science, its own language, in its mathematics, in the learning of astronomy.

Do you see how we've got to look at Daniel? We see second of all, Daniel's residence in Babylon. I'm telling you how to live. If you study Daniel, you're gonna understand how do we live in the hour? You see, some of you are scared of this hour.

You say, how are we gonna buy? How are we gonna sell? How are we gonna function in a job? How are we gonna have a house? How do we live in this society? I believe we have the key here in this chapter.

I believe God has given us this. As Babylon arose in that day and Daniel lived in it and he dwelt in the midst of Babylon and he served God in Babylon, we have a short period of time until things reach a climax where we are going to live in Babylon.

I'm talking about us residing in Babylon, living in a Babylonian culture. It goes on here to talk about them being brought in in verse five, and it says, the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and the wine which he drank, so nourishing them for three years.

For three years, they're gonna be fed of the king's meat from his table, the same food as the Babylonian king. What you eat is what you become. Do you hear me tonight? This is not a small thing. Do you know what this king is saying?

I want you immersed in what I am immersed in. I want you to think like me, speak like me, believe like me, look like me, eat like me, drink like me. He was immersing them. And for three years, they're gonna be soaked in this way of thinking.

And he thinks at the end of that three years, they'll come out acting, speaking, thinking like a Babylonian because they're immersed in Babylonian society. And that's what he's looking for. It says in verse six, now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuch gave names.

Now notice this very carefully. They had their Jewish names, but they're gonna be given you Babylonian names. We never see Daniel argue. We never see these Hebrew children argue. You see their Jewish Hebrew names had the name of God in each of their names.

Their new Babylonian names were gonna have the names of Babylonian gods put within them. Do you see what's happening here to these three Hebrew children? When you begin to realize they had Jewish names, do you know what that means?

They had Jewish parents, devout parents, or they came from godly Bible-believing homes. That's where they originated. And when you give a child a name with God's name in it, you're trying to relate God's character and nature and blessing to that child.

In other words, you want this child dedicated to God. That's what you want. So they were born into homes, godly homes, in the days of Josiah, in days of revival. And yet suddenly in a few short years, because God's people have turned away from the word of God, we now see a young generation carried into a Babylonian society to be re-educated, to be trained, to be prepared for a whole different lifestyle.

And you know what? Their names are changed. Let me show you what their names are here for a moment. He gave on to Daniel. Now notice Daniel's name finishes with E-L. One of the names of the God of the Bible is El.

Beth-El, the house of God. Daniel actually means God who is my judge. That's what Daniel means. Daniel, it is the God who is the judge, my judge and the judge of all the earth. In other words, right in Daniel's name, he had the name of his God.

What did the Babylonians do? They changed it to Balthazar. What does that mean? Bel is the name of the Babylonian God. Bel or Bal. Do you know what his name was changed to? Bel, protect your life. He was changed from God is my judge to Bel shall protect your life.

Do you see how all of this was going about? Yes, we're very religious in Babylon. We'll allow you to be religious, but they're trying to change everything. With Hananiah, Ahiah is actually from Jehovah or Yahweh.

Yahweh. So Hananiah's name meant Yahweh is gracious. His name was changed to Shadrach, meaning by the command of Aku. Aku was the moon God. Can you imagine being carried off 16 years old and your name is changed to the moon God is going to be gracious onto you.

Do you see the attack on these young men? If they don't believe in God now, they'll never stand in these days ahead. Since there's something about faith in the real God, they can change our clothes, they can change our names, they can change our schools, but we're still gonna raise up children in this city of Babylon.

I mean, Limerick, we're still gonna raise up not only children in this city, but we're gonna raise up new converts in this city. And as Babylonianism soaks our entire city, I mean, every area, educationally, politically, socially, you know what we're gonna do?

We're gonna raise up young Hebrew children. It's not a name that saves you. It's not your clothes that saves you. It's a faith in the real and the living God. Michiel, meaning who is like God, is gonna have his name changed to Meshach, which means who is like a coup.

Can you imagine that? No longer are we like the Lord. Now we're gonna be like a coup, the moon God. And Azariah, whose name meant Yahweh is my helper, his name is changed to Abednego, Nebo, Abednego. Nebo is the name of a Babylonian God.

Nebuchadnezzar, Neb, was named after this God. Now Azariah has his name changed from Yahweh is my helper to Nebo, I am a servant of Nebo. Could you imagine in that hour to have your name changed by Nebuchadnezzar and to be actually told you are a servant of a Babylonian God?

That's your name. Every time we're gonna call you servant, servant of Nebo, and you're gonna say, yes, sir. Yes, sir, what can I do for you? You see, they changed their education, their tongue, their names, their dress, the houses they lived in, the city they lived in.