The Book of Daniel begins with King Nebuchadnezzar ordering his chief servant to bring him certain Israelite “children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.”

“What Nebby wants is the cream of the crop; the best guys there—he says to bring him ‘of the king’s seed, and of the princes,’ ” explains Jordan. “In Isaiah 39:6-7, Isaiah prophesied about this very exact thing taking place and this passage is a fulfillment of that.”

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What’s meant by the word children is “young people,” and is referring to teenagers.

Jordan says, “There’s an indication that Daniel was probably about 14 years old, and the way you get that is you see in verse 5 that they were to be ‘nourished’ for three years.

“Commentaries inform that Greek philosopher Plato said the Persian education system ran from 14 to 17 years old. They put a kid into the program at 14 and he graduated when he was 17. Well, that three-year period would match verse 5.

“So Daniel, he’s really just a kid, in essence. Now, you notice the way it’s described ‘children in whom there was no blemish, skilful in wisdom, cunning in knowledge. . .’?

“I like to point out to young people that the Bible heroes—they aren’t ninnies. Bible heroes aren’t sissies; they aren’t klutzes. Bible heroes are never men who wear lace around the bottom of their britches and walk on their tippy-toes. You meet that kind of jerk out there in the world. You meet them down at the tennis courts on State Street; you don’t meet them in the Bible.

“Bible heroes—men whom the Bible puts out in front—are men and they’re men with talent, ability and skill. The world wants you to think that the only kind of people who serve God are old women and men that can’t make it in the world.

“Now, I got nothing against ladies serving the Lord. I thank God for them because the work of the ministry wouldn’t go without them! But I tell you something, I never met women who served God who wouldn’t be just as happy, if not happier, to have a good man standing up there doing it too. Isn’t that right? And you know what the Lord does—He calls men!

“And Daniel’s a man. This idea the world wants to give you that everybody who believes the Bible has got a snaggletooth and hair lip and is blind in one eye and can’t see out the other and all that kind of business—that’s nuts. But see the world has this idea that you’ve got to be physically perfect, beautiful and poised with grace and all that in order to please anybody.

“Paul says in I Corinthians 1, ‘For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’

“As I’ve told you all many times before, that’s what I observe—I observe that God takes the nothings; the people the world says are nobodies. And you know what He does? He makes choice saints out of them. He makes people of whom the world isn’t worthy.

“We’ve all got our physical problems, and our deficiencies and shortcomings and you know what God does? The world says, ‘Reject! Throw him out!’ and God says, ‘Come here, I’ll take you; let me show you what I can do with that.’

“Because then, as Paul says, ‘we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’ ”

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Jordan continues, “Daniel and his three friends—they’re talented guys. It says they’re to be able to stand in the king’s palace. That’s talking about social qualities. They’re people of grace and social ability; they can think, they can learn.

“Evidently what they do is give these guys an IQ test and they’ve taken the cream of the crop. They’re going to train them to serve in the king’s palace. Now, the motive Nebuchadnezzar has in this thing is he’s going to take these kids and he’s going to teach them ‘the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans.’

“In other words, he’s going to try to integrate them so completely in the Babylonian society they lose their distinctions of who they were and they become like Babylon.

“And the whole purpose in the training and the serving of the king and so forth—the purpose in the training is to fully and completely blend these people and integrate them into Babylon.

“What Nebby wants them to do is forget about God and His truth and yet you know the story of how it goes down. There’s just some people, folks, that you can’t corrupt.

“Acts 7:22 says Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and yet it didn’t corrupt him. But there’s an attempt, you see, to make him like everybody else and socialize him and put him in the system and get rid of any distinctions.

“What you need to remember about Bible heroes like Daniel is they stood apart; they stood separate and they stuck out in the crowd.”

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In Nebby’s full-scale attempt to change the identity of these four Israelite teens and make them forget where they came from, he gives them new names. As Daniel 1:7 reports, “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 Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-nego.”

Jordan says, “It’s a common thing for captives to be given new names. In Genesis 41:45, Joseph was given a new name down in Egypt when he went to serve Pharaoh. We know Esther’s real name was Hadassah.

“You remember when Jesus took Peter and changed his name? There’s something involved in a name change in the Bible where you’re trying to affect a character change. They change the character and the drift and the flow and purpose; the direction of the person whose name you’re changing.

“Obviously tremendous pressure is being brought on these young men in a strange land to be like the system and go along with it. Every opportunity’s being given them to do just that. These guys are up against it.

“Notice these name changes were the names of Nebuchadnezzar’s god (Daniel 4:8). Not only were they up against the education system of the Chaldeans, they were up against the religious system of Babylon, too, and their amalgamated into it; it says they’re offered the king’s food, the wealth and the ease and the delicacies and all of that business.

“And you know that’s just the way the world tries to get a person—a little wisdom, material things and religion.

“Notice the names given them in verse 6. The name Daniel means ‘God is my judge,’ and it’s changed to Belteshazzar, which means ‘the prince of Bel.’ Hananiah means ‘the beloved of the Lord,’ or someone who God delights in and has special favor toward, and his name is changed to Shadrach. That word means ‘commanded by Rach,’ and that’s a name for the sun god of the Babylonians and Egyptians.

“Mishael means ‘who is like God,’ or somebody who’s godlike and, well, they change that to Meshach, taking God’s name out and putting Shach in, which makes it ‘who’s like Shach.’ Shach is the name the Egyptians used to describe the Queen of Heaven. They make Mishael the servant of the Queen of Heaven.

“Azariah means ‘the Lord is my help,’ but Abed-nego means, ‘I’m the servant of Nego. Nego’s the fire god of the Babylonians

“Evidently these guys had a very good beginning because their true names indicate a godly influence and godly input from their parents, and they’re going to face the attempt from the Babylonians to blot all that out.

“And what you’re going to see in Daniel 1-6 is God Almighty wondrously maintaining the individual identity and character of his people in the midst of tremendous idolatry. Because these four young men represent that ‘believing remnant’ in the nation Israel and they remain distinct and separated in the face of all adversity.”