GOD OF SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABED-NEGO

Daniel and his three friends had all been renamed after they were taken to Babylon. ‘To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-nego’, Dan. 1. 7 NKJV Belteshazzar signifies ‘the keeper of the hidden treasures of Bel’; Shadrach, ‘the inspiration of the sun’, which the Chaldeans worshipped; Meshach, ‘of the goddess Shach’, under which name Venus was worshipped; Abed-nego, ‘the servant of the shining fire’, whom they also worshipped.

Their Hebrew names were intended as constant reminders of the God to whom they belonged: Hananiah, ‘kindness of Jah’; Mishael, ‘who is what God is’; and Azariah, ‘helped by Jah’. Their Hebrew names all had something of God, or Jah, in them. The prince of the eunuchs may have changed the names of the young men to show his authority over them, or to naturalize and make them Chaldeans. Whatever the motivation for changing their names, one intention may have been to distance them from the God of their fathers, to make them forget the God, who guided them in their youth. Notice the savour of idolatry in their names. It may appear a relatively insignificant thing to change a name but there is great subtlety in the ploy, particularly when it affects some of the most prominent captives. Though the chief of the eunuchs would not force them from the religion of their fathers to the idolatry of their conquerors, yet he did what he could to wean them from their former allegiance.

The events of Daniel chapter 3 show how God takes up the challenge of idolatry. When they came out of the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar did not say, ‘Blessed be the moon god, and Ram, and Nego, gods of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who sent an angel to deliver them’. God’s revelation of Himself in that furnace made all gods of the Chaldeans appear as nothing.

The world attempted to misname and misrepresent Shad- rach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. But God Himself took up their cause. He showed His own superiority over the gods of Chaldea in the furnace of fire where all those misrepresentations were burned to ashes.