CODED MESSAGE IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL

4 Hebrew princes closely related to a king of Judah were among the first deportees of Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon.

King JEHOIAKIM had just switched allegiance from Egypt to Babylon after Pharaoh Necho was defeated at the battle of Carchemish by the Babylonian Army.

And in order to ensure his loyalty, many of the princes and children of the top noblemen of Judah were taken to Babylon as per the custom of the day where they would be trained and well-treated as long as they remained a tribute-paying vassal state.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were among the top princes exiled at the time they were between 10 and 13. Josephus confirmed they were all princes and nephews to the king!

Daniel and Mishael have the ‘EL’ name of God, while Hananiah and Azariah have the ‘JAH/YAH’ name of God.

Daniel, "God is my judge."
Hananiah, "Yahweh has been gracious."
Mishael, "Who is what God is/Who is like God?"
Azariah, "Yahweh has helped."

All four youths were given foreign deities’ names:
Daniel - Belteshazzar
Hananiah- Shadrach
Mishael - Meshach
Azariah - Abednego.

BELTESHAZZAR - BEL WILL PROTECT.
SHADRACK - COMMAND/INSPIRED OF AKU
MESHACH - BELONGING TO AKU
ABEDNEGO - SERVANT OF NEBO.

When the writings/book of Daniel was added to the Jewish library of scriptures, they ensured that the Hebrew name of Daniel stood in place of his foreign name.

They couldn’t stand the idea that a name alluded to a foreign lesser deity will headline a scroll in their scriptures.

They made Daniel stand, but did not bother much about changing the names of the other 3 princes.

In fact, they loved the idea of the name of Daniel coming first ahead of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego even though Daniel was the youngest of the four who also outlived them all.

When you look at the order of their Hebrew names, this is what the scribes probably see:

God is Judge(Daniel)
Grace(Hananiah).
Who is like God(Meshach)
God has helped(Azariah)

Now, let us pretend to be the ancient scribes and imagine the pun in the names of these young men by merging them together: DanielHananiahMishaelAzariah!

“God will Judge (by His) Grace, Who is like God (Who) has Helped.”

So, if these ancient scribes can probably imagine that...I bet they probably decided to leave the names for us as:

DanielShadrachMeshachAbednego.

“God will judge the command of Aku, (those) belonging to Aku, (and all) servants of Nebo.

Aku is a short variant of Marduk! Marduk was the son of Nimrod who was killed in a battle and had his name deified and worshipped as god.

Nebo is the god of wisdom...known as the shinning one or light who illuminates knowledge. No wonder Nebuchadnezzar which means something like (Nebo protect my eldest son) was always in tango with the wisest men of his kingdom. It is on record that he gave the wisest of his empire the most difficult tasks to carry out.

Therefore, to the scribes, they were probably sending a coded message that the divine righteous judgment of God will surely come on Aku, Nebo and all!

So Bros, if you will never bear the name Nebuchadnezzar but would rather go for Shadrach thinking it is a biblically approved name...you can think of it again.

And to let you know, Nebuchadnezzar wrote a chapter in the book of Daniel! So he didn’t end badly in my opinion.

I won’t be surprised if we get to heaven to see bro Nebuchadnezzar there! Daniel did a good job on him!

Anyways, join us at Hope Connections on Sunday 8th of September for the sermon titled THE FOURTH MAN!