Daily Lesson for April 12, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Daniel chapter 1 verses 3 through 7:

3 Then the king commanded his palace master Ashpenaz to bring some of the Israelites of the royal family and of the nobility, 4young men without physical defect and handsome, versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight, and competent to serve in the king’s palace; they were to be taught the literature and language of the Chaldeans. 5The king assigned them a daily portion of the royal rations of food and wine. They were to be educated for three years, so that at the end of that time they could be stationed in the king’s court. 6Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, from the tribe of Judah. 7The palace master gave them other names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I've known these servants names since I was a boy, and I've always liked how they rolled off my tongue.

But it wasn't until seminary that I learned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not these men's names. They were the names given them as servants by the king who took them, their parents, and/or grandparents into captivity. But they were not their true, given names. Nor were they the names of their own choosing. They were the names imposed upon them.

And why did we not learn their real names in Sunday School? Maybe because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego sounded so cool. But probably more likely because we were raised in a culture with a long history of renaming slaves, and servants, and students, and players, and drivers, and anybody else whose names didn't quite please the people in power. They just changed them -- on a whim. They took their names, and in doing so they were participating in a very long and systemic process of trying to take their dignity as well.

Telling someone what their name is a way of parenting them. It's a way of owning them. And yes, that's true even when "their names are just so hard to pronounce". A name is something sacred and personal and a sign of someone's dignity and worth. We can't take that from somebody, even if it means we have to teach our own tongues to do new things.

So, it's no longer Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. That's their names.

Say them.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.