"The Art of Brainwashing"

Before we get into our passage today, I want you to remember that God is punishing Israel for her harlotry, her rebellion and her refusal to properly respond to the principles and guidelines that He has given to her.

About 115 years before these events take place, the Prophet Isaiah said, in… .

“17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 18 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

Fast forward 115 years and here comes Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, to take away some of the boys from the land of Judah.

I realize that today is mother’s day… for many, today is a day of celebration and happiness. For others it is a day of sadness, either due to the loss of a mother, or a mother that has lost a child, or even one that has a desire to be a mother but for whatever reason they are unable.

On this particular day in Judah, many mothers were scared, angry, possibly even killed as King Nebuchadnezzar came in to take away the young men of their families.

Nebuchadnezzar was determined to maintain his rule over Jerusalem through many ways, with complete military action kinda being a last resort. So one of his methods was to take the best and the brightest from the conquered people, retrain their minds, get them to think like a Babylonian, then use them to help control their own people.

As we come to these opening verses of Daniel, there is no question that King Nebuchadnezzar is precisely fulfilling a prophesy that was spoken 115 years prior and his mission is to reprogram everything that is related to the nation of Israel.

Warren Wiersbe said, Nebuchadnezzar’s “goal was to transform and brainwash the Jews into becoming Babylonians”…

As we read our passage this morning, I want to consider…

“The Art of Brainwashing”

Please stand as we read Daniel 1:3-7…

Meat:

Nebuchadnezzar’s Brainwashing Tactics:

As we dig into these verses we are going to see that Nebuchadnezzar uses several different tactics to brainwash the children of Israel into conforming to the ways and belief systems of Babylon.

It is worth noting that the captivity in Babylon was much different than the captivity Israel faced in Egypt. In Egypt, the Israelites were lowly slaves… here in Babylon, the intention is to build up leaders, from the Israeli people, so that they can teach the future generations of Israel the Babylonian beliefs… The ultimate goal, was to reprogram Israel away from God…

Pastor Thompson says this in his notes “When God permits heathens to be in control of His people, they will attempt to sway God’s people into becoming heathenistic; However, God will always honor those who refuse to be swayed.”

This was true back then and it is still true today… “God will always honor those who refuse to be swayed.”

This morning we are going look at some of Nebuchadnezzar’s Brainwashing Tactics…

Whenever you are wanting to brainwash a nation, you need to choose…

1. The Targeted Group

vv. 3-4 tell us exactly who Nebuchadnezzar targeted.

Daniel 1:3-4 “3 Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, 4 young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.”

Obviously, the targeted group is the nation of Israel, but more specifically…

1.1 Higher Class Families

The young men Nebuchadnezzar selected were to be the brightest and the best… the phrases “children of Israel” “the king’s descendants” and “the nobles”, tells us that the sons of higher class families were selected… some from royal kingly lines, and some from other nobles or families that held a position of honor.

It is probable that Nebuchadnezzar may have thought that the son’s of these higher class families would have been the most talented, the smartest, and the most qualified to fill the positions of government that he was going to train them for.

Also, this would be a way to keep the high ranking, royal families in check… “I have your children, and it would be in their best interest and yours to abide by my rules”

v. 4 tells us that they were to be…

1.2 Young Men

We will talk about this more in a few minutes, but mind control begins with children. Nebuchadnezzar specifically wanted young “men” because he was going to train them for specific, higher ranking positions, that were held only by men in the ancient culture.

They needed to be…

1.3 Healthy

Physically and Mentally… Many eastern religions thought that beauty was a sign that you had found favor with the gods… so they would put major emphasis on external beauty.

These young men were not to have any physical defects… no handicaps, no scars… Nebuchadnezzar wanted only the best looking fellas… but they also had to be smart…

“gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand,”

They were to be good looking, wise, intelligent and able to understand how to deal with difficult situations… … Fella’s how many of us would’ve been chosen to go?? (good looking, wise, intelligent and able to understand how to deal with difficult situations)…

Daniel and his three buddies, made the cut… they met the criteria of the targeted group…

The next brainwashing tactic that Nebuchadnezzar used was…

2. Isolation

By all accounts these young men were probably about 14 - 17 years old. That’s when the Persians and Babylonians began their education or training programs for palace aids. N knew that if he could remove them from as many of the Judean influences as possible his plan would work better.

I put all of these on one slide, as I will just mention them briefly…

2.1 From Family 2.2 From God’s People 2.3 Godly Education

Nebuchadnezzar isolated them from their families; isolated them from regular worship with God’s people who lived out biblical commitments; and he isolated them from daily Godly education.

Nebuchadnezzar took there young men and isolated them away from any form of godly influence, so that their sole influence would be that of the Babylonian culture.

This is a tactic that comes straight from Satan himself… Satan most easily preys on those among us that are young in physical age, or young spiritually. Satan knows that maturity brings forth discernment, and so those that are immature physically and spiritually are his easiest targets.

As soon as Nebuchadnezzar gets these young men isolated from family, God’s People and a Godly Education… he employ’s his tactic of…

3. Compromise

The first part of v. 5 says “And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank,...”

The very first thing that N wanted these boys to compromise on, was…

3.1 Food and Drink

I am sure that N thought he was providing the best food that money can buy. These boys were getting the best of the best food. But these foods would have also been offered to idols first, thus causing the partakers to indirectly sanction idol worship.

Also, these foods would not have all been prepared correctly or be listed in the clean foods for the Jews. Remember that Daniel was a Jew and was under the Mosaic Law. They had been told not to eat certain meats, certain fowl, and certain fish.

The wine would’ve been dedicated to idols as well, which would be reason #1 for these young Jewish men to not indulge in drinking it. And I’ll speculate a little here… but my guess is, even though they were given daily provisions or daily allotments, I am guessing that the allotment was more that they would normally drink at home.

But think about it. These young men were hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem, separated from family, the food is so good, and nobody would ever know…

Nebuchadnezzar wanted to lure these young men away from God, so he brought them to Babylon and saw to it that they were given the royal treatment.

Nebuchadnezzar knows that if he can get these men to compromise on the food and drink, he will be able to get them to compromise on other things as well.

Again, this is a tactic straight from Satan… If he can get you to compromise on a seemingly little thing, he can get you to compromise a little bit more next time, and a little more, and a little more… pretty soon you realize that you are entrapped in sinful activities and asking yourself… “how did I get here, or how did this happen??”… It all starts with little compromises…

A couple that is dating… “its late, we’re both tired, I have a spare bedroom, why don’t you just stay here tonight…” NO harm, no foul right… Then it happens again later that week, because it was convenient… Now its 5 out of 7 nights that we are spending together… Why don’t we just live together? It would be much more convenient…

This could be an engaged couple… well we are going to get married eventually any way… its much more convenient to live together now instead of waiting until after make a marriage commitment… God understands… …

Here is what God understands in that situation… He understands that you are compromising your fellowship with Him for “convenience”… you are choosing convenience over righteousness… you are choosing sin over honoring Him, you are choosing what Satan would want you to do over what God would want you to do.

I would say 99% of the time, someone that is caught in sin has made several compromises before getting to the place where they final realize… “I am not doing what I should be”…

No one takes a drug thinking “Oh I think I'll become a drug addict today.” No. They're thinking “I just want to get high and forget about _______ whatever their issue is.”

No one opens up a beer and says “Today is my first day as an alcoholic”…

No one wakes up in the morning and says “I think I will have an affair today”

No one turns on there computer and says “hey, I can’t wait to be addicted to pornographic sights”

It all starts with some sort of compromise…

The devil whispers to them Just this once won't hurt.... and You're stronger than other people, it won't get YOU ....

When these compromises are left unchecked and you don’t repent and turn away from them...

The reality is… “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

Someone said it this way… “If you dance with the devil, the devil don't change. The devil changes YOU.”

As Nebuchadnezzar was implementing his brainwashing tactics, he started by getting a majority of these young men to make little compromises.

He then employed the tactic of…

4. Indoctrination

We are still in v.5 says… “And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.”

Pastor Thompson makes this statement in his notes “There is no question that if you can indoctrinate young people with some counterculture belief system, that is contrary to truth, you can capture the culture.”

Nebuchadnezzar knew that if he could reprogram and brainwash these, royal and noble, young men, he could reprogram the world with a belief system that does not include the God of Israel.

Well, it would take quite a while to reprogram these young men… they’ve spent the first 14-17 years of their lives being taught the Israeli doctrines…

v.5 tells us … This was a…

4.1 Three Year Program

“three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.”

That doesn’t seem like a very long time does it? Three years of intense training and they were ready to be put into service for the King.

The latter part of v.4 tells us what type of training they were to receive… “whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.”

It goes much deeper than that…

(Next Slide)

4.2 Goal = Poison & Pollution

The goal, of this “education” was to poison and pollute their minds with a thorough Babylonian brainwashing. One commentary says “The Babylonians likely followed the Persian practice of training exiles in their mid- to late teens “for three years,” to assimilate them into a pagan culture, where their Judean heritage would become unimportant. (Teach the Text Commentary)”

Nebuchadnezzar's goal was to poison and pollute these young men so severely that they would change their thinking, pull them away from the truth and away from God.

This same thing happens today… and it starts in Kindergarten and in some cases even before that… The public school system, colleges, universities, t.v., radio, movies, news media, social media… it is all designed to pull people away from God and His truth.

This is why it is so important to be very careful what we put into our minds or what we allow to be put into the minds of our Children. The Apostle Paul knew the importance of this when he said in…

Philippians 4:8 “8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Fill your minds with these things…

Our society today wants to fill our minds with just the opposite…

A few weeks ago, I saw a sign that was outside of a local elementary school. The sign read “Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader”… Now, this doesn’t sound bad at all… in fact it sounds pretty good…

however, when you remove all of the books that are biblically based or considered as conservative thinking, and you replace them with books that are filled with sin accepting, liberal ideologies, then guess what kind of “leaders” you will end up with....

The final tactic that I want to mention today is …

5. Confusion

Look at vv. 6-7…

Daniel 1:6-7 “6 Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 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.”

Nebuchadnezzar has his official do some…

5.1 Changing of Names

We talked about the changing of names before… It was a fairly common practice in the ancient world to give names to captured people that reflected the culture of the captors rather than their home country.

Nebuchadnezzar is trying to strip these young men of their faith and religion in order to get to their hearts. He is aiming at the deepest level of their being. He wants them to be reminded every time someone addresses them that they are servants of other gods now in the eyes of their captors. Previously all of their names reflected the true God of Israel and now their new names represent the false gods of Babylon.

Very quickly… these are listed on your outline… (read bold names)

Daniel - God is Judge Belteshazzar - Bel’s Prince

Hananiah - Jehovah is Gracious Shadrach & Meshach - Reference to the false god, Aku

Mishael - Who is like God

Azariah - Jehovah Helps Abed-Nego - Reference to the false god, Nego

Daniel is given the name Belteshazzar, which means - Bel’s Prince. Bel was the principal divinity worshipped at Babylon, and this name would, therefore, be likely to impress the youthful Daniel with the idea that he was a favourite of this divinity, and to attract him to his service.

Hananiah is changed to Shadrach and Mishael is changed to Meshach the last three letters of their new names are a reference to the Babylonian false god, Aku.

And Azariah is changed to Abed-nego - which is a reference to the false god, Nego.

It was a way of saying that these who had been servants of the Jewish God were now servants and worshipers of the pagan, false gods of Babylon.

However, as we are going to see, Lord willing, next week… the change accomplished nothing. Nebuchadnezzar changed the men’s names, but he could not change their hearts.

They remained faithful to the true God of Israel, even though they were targeted, isolated, offered some appealing compromises, indoctrinated and confused.

Closing:

As we close, remember “When God permits heathens to be in control of His people, they will attempt to sway God’s people into becoming heathenistic; However, God will always honor those who refuse to be swayed.”

Is it possible to live a God honoring life in a godless world? Is it possible to living, studying, and/or working in a extremely secular environment and still be mightily used by God?… The answer is yes… No matter how corrupt or evil this world gets… if we live out what we say we believe every day… whether we are sitting in church, or far away from home… we can make a tremendous impact for God.

No matter what culture you live in or work in, you can influence it for God, IF you stay faithful to Him.