The Literature and Language of Babylon: What does Babylon want to teach us?

In this episode, we continue to take a deep dive into Daniel 1:4.  After all, what is the teaching and language of Babylon?  We explore this question and many more.  Like Daniel and his three friends, despite Babylon's pervasive efforts at indoctrination, will we, too, be able to resist being conformed to the image and thinking of this world.  And, if so, how do we resist?  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to the Bible Mind Podcast where we seek to have the mind of Christ and to see things from God's perspective.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hi everyone, Theophilus here. We're back again in Daniel chapter 1. I just want to remind everybody that last time I gave a message, I shared about the outward appearance versus the heart that God sees. If you ever want to hear an example of what I believe was a prophetic message, then I just encourage you to listen to the episode previous to this one. And I'm not saying that to toot my own horn, like, oh, I'm just, you know, this great prophetic teacher, but I did not expect to say the things that I did. They just started flowing out of my mouth. And of course, I'm praying to God that He would give me the right words to say, and I'm looking at this verse. It was verse 4 in Daniel chapter 1, and I started going in a certain direction that I didn't expect to go in. I know myself and I know how I operate, and that was very unusual. So I think God wanted to share a message with somebody out there, or maybe a number of you out there who were listening about how to value yourself, even though you may not be the person that Babylon would choose, that you can still value yourself because God sees you. God values you. I also slowed down and kind of shared aloud how I was thinking about the verse, because I recognize that I may make connections that people can't always follow because I tend to jump over steps, so to speak. I'm not always breaking it down step by step, but I want to start doing that because I want people to also be able to see those things in the word. Follow my line of thinking and see how I got there. So let's jump back into verse 4 of Daniel chapter 1. And I want to read that whole verse again. Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful 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. So I want to give the greater context of this. If you are following me from podcast episode to podcast episode, we are kind of going in order through the verses here for right now. Basically, they took captives out of Judah and Jerusalem, and when they brought them to Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar was like, I want you to pick the best that you see out of these captives. And then in verse 4, he's giving them a description of what he wants as far as people who will work in his government, work in his kingdom. In this particular chapter, he's describing some of what Babylon desires, what Babylon looks for as far as people who will represent Babylon. Of course, Daniel and his three friends are totally not a part of that kingdom. They remain loyal to God despite having to, you know, stand in the king's palace. And even though they fit the picture of what Babylon was looking for, God made it that way. So that Babylon would choose them as government officials because he knew from before the foundations of the world that this was going to happen at this time to Judah and Jerusalem, that Daniel and his three friends would be brought captive to Babylon. As you continue to read the book of Daniel, you see this incredible influence that they have over the different parts of the Kingdom of Babylon and even over Nebuchadnezzar. I also mentioned last time how this verse 4 has a lot in it. It's densely packed. And so now I'm gonna go to the very last part of the verse where it says, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. I'm using a Bible tool from the Blue Letter Bible app. When you do deeper Bible study, you tend to try to look at things from various angles. And one of the tools that I have used in the past is the translation comparison. So basically, I'm looking at other translations of this verse to see if I can see anything else. And a few of them, handful of them, basically say instead of learning and language of the Chaldeans, it's literature and language. So this literature is all the different accumulated books that they have on, you know, hit maybe the history of Babylon, their mythology, their scientific knowledge. It's a compilation of the books, and they were gonna use these books, this literature, to teach Daniel and his three friends what it is to be Babylonian, what the Babylonian culture stands for, how the Babylonian culture views reality, views where they came from, you know, the big questions of life. And when you think of mythology, you have different nations out there, they have a mythology of how their country came to be. Their literature is basically comprised of all the important books of their nation, of their culture. Now, let's reflect upon this. Do we have that literature in our nation? And it could be the US, it could be anywhere else in the world. We have our important books. We have our history books, we have our science books, we have books about our government, how it works, how we have books about the founding of our nation. I want to use a word that is more of a present-day word, and that is narrative. A lot of people use this word like in the phrase control the narrative, get ahead of the narrative, whatever way they would say that, but basically they're gonna frame the story the way that they want you to see it. And so Babylon is a place of conforming Daniel and his three friends, they want to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. So when we think of the world squeezing us into its mold, like in Romans 12, 1 through 2, okay, because I know that the world is doing that because of that verse. It's trying to squeeze us, press us into this mold, trying to conform us to think the way that it thinks, right? We know that Babylon is part of the world and really, in a sense, it symbolizes the world. And so I know that when I think about the correlation of these verses, because that's another Bible study tool, is I see the verse, I read it, I want to interpret it, right? I'm trying to think what does that mean? Then I reflect upon what I already know. Well, I know, like, hey, I know about the US, and we always talk about our founding fathers and American history. We have other important books that we reference to kind of point to our beliefs, things like that. I already know that in my mind. So it's something that I now I can take that and like bring it back to the Word of God and go, okay, so what was it like in Babylon? Babylon also had a set of important books that help people to understand their culture, their worldview, things like that. And I use the corollary verse, and corollary means okay, and now I'm gonna go outside of the passage and I'm going to connect it to other verses, other passages that help me to better understand what's happening in this particular passage. Okay, and so I'm kind of making this connection between Babylon and the world, and then I'm making that connection to Romans 12, 1 through 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And I just love that verse, and I think that that's gonna be the key verse for the Bible Mind podcast, because that's what we're trying to do. And Daniel is a really great example of doing that because he was not conformed to Babylon, no matter how hard they tried to teach them so that they would learn, so that they would be conformed. Uh, Daniel and his three friends did not succumb to that, they were not conformed to the pattern of this world. In fact, they were completely surrendered to God, despite all the training and all the learning. So I want to just take that one part of the verse, because now I'm like, we took a bird's eye view of the verse, we read the whole thing, we kind of thought about different parts of it. Now I'm zeroing in on that last part of the verse, I'm meditating on it, I'm reflecting on it, so I can really think through what this means. And remember, too, that there's kind of that literal reading of the word, what happened actually in history, because there was a Daniel, his three friends, they were captives, they were brought to Babylon. So going back to that whole central idea of narrative, there are all kinds of narratives out there giving us different ways of looking at the events in this world. There's only one story that has the truth, there's only one narrative that we want to listen to. There was only one worldview that we can stand on, that we have to believe in in order to be set free from these other narratives. And that's the biblical narrative. It's the story of the Bible that God laid out for us when he wrote it. He showed us where we came from, who created us, what happened during the fall, why we need a savior. He laid it all out for us so that we can see our origins. How did we come to be? What's most important in life? How should I live my life? The Babylonian culture has very different answers to those questions. My American culture has very different answers to those questions. Instead of being created by God, we evolve from monkeys. That's one narrative that we've been told. And what's really sad about that is many people believe that. And that's a slap in God's face. That is so diminishing to the human being who is created in the image of God, not after monkeys. And Satan knows that. So he just so wants to destroy God's reputation, his glory. That's the narrative of Babylon. And where we came from, that's not the only narrative that Babylon tries to teach us. There are countless narratives about all different aspects of life. And if we accept the learning, the literature of Babylon, then we will be conformed to the way Babylon thinks. We will be conformed to the way the world thinks instead of what God says is true. Okay? I want to bring up too the second part of that. It's not only the literature, the learning of Babylon, but it's the language of Babylon. And just know that I've been meditating on this chapter for however many years, you know. I mean, it's not been a decade or anything, but I've always gone back to this chapter, thought about this, reflected on this. So if you're new to kind of going deeper into this passage, I mean, just know that I've done this for so many years. It's not new to me, and I, in a sense, I have a head start. But all that to say that if you picked a passage that you meditated upon, reflected upon, thought through, kept going back to it, dug a little deeper, went into the original languages, prayed to God, asking for revelation understanding, God would give that to you too. I truly believe that. So we know that the world wants to press us into its mold. It does this by offering all of this learning that's based on their quote-unquote narratives of the world, what's important in the world, how we came to be, who is God, what is the afterlife like. All of these questions are answered by those narratives. But now we're gonna go into language, and I want you to reflect with me again. Remember, there's the literal, and then there's the figurative. Because Jesus always speaks in parables. Okay, there's a story that he's trying to tell. And if I can use the word meta-story, okay, it's the story that's overlaying or even underlying the story that we see played out in Daniel chapter 1. It's kind of another story that's running parallel to it that God is communicating to us. So when I reflect on the word language, yes, I know it's um their native tongue, right? They're gonna speak in Chaldean, they're gonna speak Babylonian, they're gonna teach them how to learn their language. Okay, that's one interpretation of what we see here. But there's also a figurative aspect of language, it's the words that make up the language. You know, you can say, Well, you're speaking my language. So somebody says something that resonates with you, that's what we say, right? You're speaking my language. I understand what you're saying. The Babylonian culture, they want to teach Daniel and his three friends the language of Babylon. In other words, they want to teach them the words they want them to use. If we go back into the Garden of Eden, when Adam was there before Eve was even created, God basically gave him a job to do. And you can go back into that passage, very beginning of the book, right? Read about it. God told Adam, please, you take the responsibility of naming all the animals, and whatever you name them, that's what their name is going to be. Okay, Adam had dominion authority over those animals, so he named them, he called them certain things, and that's what they became. And so, in a sense, the enemy knows this, he knows this principle runs throughout life, and so he works through human beings to name, and I'm gonna put that in air quotes, okay? You don't see me right now, but I'm putting in air, we're gonna name things the way that we want them to be. Okay, those are the words that we're using to call things a certain way. Now we know that a lot of that is happening in our culture, and I just want to give you kind of a historical perspective, and these are not political words, really, they're just words that I think are interesting because they are right in our face, and they're anti-biblical, and they're against what God has already said. Okay, so I just want you to see the way the enemy works in our culture by naming things a certain way, by calling them certain words, and then he tries to teach us all how to use those words, and he presses that again and again and again. Way back when Michael Jackson, I don't know if you, depending on your age, so Michael Jackson was like this incredible singer, and he sang a song called Bad. And if you are familiar with the song, basically I'm bad means I'm good, I'm amazing. Just by common sense and knowing what the Bible says, we know that bad is the opposite of good, and there is that verse in the Bible that says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Which is somewhat related to that concept. Now, I've broken it down for you, but I didn't really need to because you understand this. But back in that day, that was the slang of the day. That's what people said when they wanted to describe something that was really amazing or great, you know. You're bad. I think that's an example of the Babylonian tongue. Okay, let's go on with some other examples. Because that's graduated into something else now. Now the kids of today, or maybe it was a little bit ago, they say, Oh, that's sick. Sick is now a good thing too. And I want to share the antithesis of the culture's naming of things, right? Because Jesus and Matthew 9, and I'll start with verse 10, and I'm gonna go all the way to 12. And it came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans, tax collectors, and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why, and I'm gonna change the wording a little bit because this is King James, why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Jesus in his truth is calling the sinners, the tax collectors, the people who take more money than they should, he's calling them sick, that there's something wrong with their heart. Something wrong with who they are before God. And then they need a physician, they need help. But the world is saying the opposite. They're saying that somebody who is sick is pretty amazing, that they have done something that is outstanding. Oh, that's sick. I'm gonna escalate this further. Okay, and notice that it's influencing the young people of these different generations because the recruiting starts very young, as we mentioned in the previous episode. You know, they're trying to recruit children, that's the word that the Bible uses in that one translation that we went over last time. They use the word children. So my next word that I want to give an illustration for is goat. Okay, do you realize that one of the satanic symbols is a goat? So why is goat so positive in our culture? That's why I don't use these words. And just by saying this, I think you understand what I'm talking about. GOAT is really an acronym, it's not we're not using the word goat, but the acronym spells out goat. Greatest of all time. And people use that, and it's such the positive word, right? Oh, oh my gosh, you are the goat in football. You are the goat in soccer, you're the greatest of all time. And I'm not saying goats are inherently bad, but in actual Yes, a goat is represented as a satanic symbol. See how the devil comes in through the Babylonian culture and he seeks to name things a certain way in order to influence our mindset. Another word that I want to use, yes, and these are many examples, but in a sense, I want to use these many examples because I want to show you that this is happening, this is a reality. The next word is beast. So in our modern day culture, when somebody says, Oh, you are such a beast at that, basically they're saying you dominate. This is a positive thing. You are amazing in that field. You are such a beast. And if we're in our culture and we hear all the celebrities and the influencers and the high-profile people calling other people beasts, and they are saying it in a positive way, and then we're kind of taking that in, and then we start using the word beast as a Christian, we start using the word goat. What are we doing? We're adopting the language and the customs of the Babylonians. I'm gonna read this uh passage in the New King James Version, and it's Revelation 13, and I'm gonna start with verse one. Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast, which I saw, was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. So I read verses one and two of Revelation 13. Again, I'm not trying to say that you don't know what this is. Because you may know, you may not know. I don't know where people are at with how much they've read it of the Bible, their familiarity with the Bible, but this is a premier passage about the Antichrist, the one who's gonna come and try to oppose Jesus Christ, take his place, and receive the worship of the world. And he is going to be the supreme dictator of the world, and he is sheer evil. And you can see that because the dragon, who is Satan, gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. Now, God is calling this evil man a beast, and yet in our modern day culture, we use beast in a positive light. So why is the enemy doing this? Because he is sewing in these thoughts, ideas, concepts, using these words, so that when the beast does come on the scene, we're warning people and we're saying, Oh, it this this Antichrist is the beast, and and everyone's like, Oh, wow, he's great. He must be like really good at what he does, because that's how our culture has learned that word, because the teaching of the Babylonians. It's also important to understand how the Babylonians teach the people. And I'm gonna go into the Hebrew word for teach because I think it brings out a lot of meaning, and you'll see that type of teaching, quote unquote, reflected in our society. The way the world pressures us to accept its value system, the way it views different things, the names that they want us to call things, there's a lot of pressure behind that education. And I'm gonna go into the original Hebrew of the word teach. Okay, part of that definition means goad, or if you want to call it cattle prod. Back in that culture, they had a lot of animal husbandry, right? They raised animals, then they moved their herd from one place to another, and they would use a goad, like a stick with the with the end that was either pointy or whatever, to move the cattle along. And I'm not saying it's cattle, maybe goats, to move the animals along, they would use a cattle rod or a goad, and they would just keep sticking them, keep annoying them so that they keep on moving forward, they keep on doing what they wanted them to do. And I find that very illustrative. I'm gonna use that, I'd never use that word, sorry. It sounds so cool though, right? Illustrative. I find that that's such a good picture for what Babylon does to us. We're pressed into saying certain words, we're goaded into calling things a certain way, right? According to the Babylonian culture, and if we don't do that, then we're gonna be punished until we give in. Now, that word teach in Hebrew tends to be used in a lot of passages, okay, because you know it could be more benevolent, but what I'm saying is when I see that word, when I see that Hebrew word underneath everything, and I see the way the Babylonian culture is, I see the language and the learning of the Babylonian culture, I recognize also the way that we as Christians have been treated when you oppose the Babylonian culture and you don't use the names that they want you to use, you don't use the words that they want you to use, how they treat you, what they try to do, they try to force it upon us, right? So, in a sense, that is a parallel to being goaded, to being cattle prodded in a certain direction, forced, annoyed, constantly harassed in a certain direction. I'm kind of amplifying it in the negative way, but it's the context by which this word is held in this picture, okay? And when we can take that word and we can kind of put it in the context and reflect upon it and oh, that's how Babylon quote unquote teaches people to be part of its culture. Does that seem familiar to you? I hope so. Because we've lived it, we've been living it. But I'm trying to make a point here though. The literature, the learning, and the language of the Chaldeans is being taught to us every day that we live in this society. Their narratives, their worldviews, their ways of looking at things, their language, their words that they want us to use, the way they name things. They want us to name those same things the same way. Why? Because they are conforming our mind, pressing our mind into their mold. They want us to think the way that they think. Okay, it's this systematic process that they put us through. And God is trying to expose that process through Daniel chapter 1. Now, what is an application that we can use here? I would just say kind of take some time to meditate upon what I've shared in this um message. Maybe listen to it a couple times. That's what I do with certain podcasts. If something strikes me as important, or I want to remember that, or I want to get that concept into my mind, I am an audio learner, so this is really helpful for me. I just like listen to the same thing sometimes again and again. And after a while, it just kind of like, oh, I'm thinking about it, I'm reflecting upon it. I mean, that is an action step right now, is to, if this is something that speaks to you, if you want to really have your eyes open to see this culture for what it is, one action step, I would listen to this podcast episode again, maybe a few times. I would start reflecting upon it and make those connections in my mind and recognize that this is what's really happening in our culture. And the sooner that we fully recognize it, the more we can resist it, the more we can say, Babylon might want to teach me these things, but I'm not going to absorb their pressure, their teaching, their narratives that they want to push on me. I am not going to give in to those things. I am going to have the mind of Christ. I'm going to press myself in to God's story, God's narrative, the way he says it is, because he is the only one who knows all of the truth, and it's impossible for God to lie. So he would only speak 100% purest truth. I want his narrative. I want his story. I want to believe in his truth. And the more we believe in God's truth, the more that we are familiar with it, we're studying God's word, we are meditating upon it, we live by it, we're learning from it, the less we are going to be conformed to the Babylonian way of thinking. So that is another action step, also, is what are you going to do to resist that learning process that the Babylon culture wants to put you through? And conversely, what are you going to do to dive deeper into God's word? Reading it, studying it, reflecting on it, meditating on it. Because the more we do that, the more we will have a Bible mind. How this teaching came to be is because I took the time to go deeper, to look into the original language, to study from different angles, to use different Bible resources. The more I put my effort and time and heart into those things, the more God revealed to me some of these spiritual principles, these truths. And the same can happen for you too. But the thing is, you need to put steps to this. You need to start moving in that direction. And so I would hope that that would be an action step for you. So I just want to pray for us before we finish. Thank you so much. If you listened to the very end of this and you hung in there with me, I so appreciate it. And I so appreciate you. After truth, because again, you would not have listened this long, listened to a podcast with this title, me sharing about these things if you were not curious, if you were not searching for the truth. I'd like to just say a prayer for us right now. Thank you that you are so sovereign, so wise, so over all things that basically you superintended the writing of your word, meaning that you were a part of every aspect of writing your word, even though it was through human authors. You inspired them to write what they did. And you are a God that cannot lie. We can rely upon your word. We can know that that is the true story that we are to believe, and if we embrace it and we cling to it, then we will not be conformed to the lies and the deception around us. So please help us to draw closer to you and to dive deeper into your word, to study it, to meditate upon it, to live by it, to own it, to believe in it, to walk by faith and not by sight. We just give you all of these things, Lord. Thank you so much. In Jesus' name.

unknown 34:41

Amen.