Faithful In A World That Reidentifies Men

When masculinity is under attack, do you find refuge in your identity in God?

Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. — Daniel 1:6-7

The four young men in this text, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were forcibly taken from their homeland and thrust into a culture that stripped away their identity and redefined them according to its standards. The initial assault on their identity came in the form of new names. Their original names, each filled with Godly meaning, were replaced with names honoring the gods of the Babylonian culture.

So, let me quickly list their original names and meanings and then compare them with their new names and meanings.

• Daniel means — God is my judge. He is renamed Belteshazzar, which means — Bel protects his life.
• Hananiah means — God has acted graciously. He is renamed Shadrach, which means — Aku commands.
• Mishael means — There is no god like God. He is renamed Meshach, which means — Aku is who god is.
• Azariah means — God has helped. He is renamed Abednego, which means — Nebo is god.

Hopefully, you see what the Babylonian administrator is doing. He is not just giving them new names. He is intentionally removing God's name from each man. This is always the first move of secular indoctrination — the complete removal of the name of God. God must be deleted from history.

Even so, Daniel and his three friends remained faithful to God. They refused to compromise their convictions or abandon their allegiance to God. They understood that changing their name did not change their convictions. Their identity was not founded on given names or newly imposed labels, but it was intricately woven into their hearts, minds, and souls by the only true God.

We face the same challenges in our own time. Our culture constantly seeks to redefine identity, promoting ideologies that contradict the Scripture. We are told that we can determine our own identity, that gender is fluid, and that morality is relative. But like Daniel and his companions, we must resist these attempts to conform to the patterns of this world.

Our identity as believers is created and established only by God. We were made by his hands and crafted in his image. He is the Creator, and we are his clay. Therefore, only he determines our identity, and when we are lost in the ideologies of this world, it can only be found in him.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah understood this. They knew that altering their names did not alter their identity. They understood this was a useless secular attempt to reidentify them. And notice, they didn’t throw a fit about it, either. They simply held fast to the truth, knowing deep within that their identity was formed and found only in God.

In our time, we should do what these men did. When the world hurls insults at us for our allegiance to God, calling our convictions old-fashioned and toxic, it is vital to anchor our identity in God. We should stand firm in our beliefs yet avoid useless debates. Anchor yourself in what God has declared about you. The only truth about you is told in God’s Word. Every other ideology is merely a secular attempt to remove God’s name and reidentify his creation.

God, in a world that attempts to attack and assault our identity as men. Help us find all our meaning, purpose, and identity in you. In Jesus’s name, amen.