Reflect on all we’ve studied. What kind of things would Daniel and his friends have missed out on had they chosen instead to blend in?
“Rather than miraculously avoiding being killed in chapters three and six respectively, they would have been killed in chapter 2. (If they had somehow dodged that, Daniel wouldn’t have been able to interpret for and advise [Nebuchadnezzar] in [chapters] 2 and 4 or [Belshazzar] in [chapter] 5.”
A party gone awry lead to Daniel’s summons to interpret handwriting on the wall for a baffled Belshazzar: mene, mene, tekel, parsin. The basic message from God? ‘I’ve seen. And you’re done.’
Complete the following sentence based on Daniel 6:23: ‘When Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because “he had trusted in his God.”
Please read Psalm 137:1-6. What does this segment of scripture describe?
“It describes the longing for Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity.”
✫ Perhaps that’s why the exiles sat at the banks of Babylon’s river and wept. Escape seemed to elude them this time. Little did they know God would use a riverbed once again to lead to their escape by allowing an entryway for the Persians under the walls of Babylon. 
How can you keep singing the songs of God in your own Babylon? In other words, how can you draw a practical parallel from Psalm 137:1-6 for your own life?
“I have to keep trying to impress upon my parents the actuality and factuality of my beliefs and the urgency and imperativeness of them surrendering to the same Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives.”
Describe the relatively insignificant matter and consider why it may not be as insignificant to God.
“I have fallen out of touch with [a friend of mine], and in general, feel a sense of relief, but I keep getting reminders and twinges of guilt. I should call her, but every week there’s some blip in the schedule as an excuse. To be fair, though, I have reached her twice, and she has promised to call back later, so it does go both ways.”
Dearest Rachel –
Working my way backwards through your comments, I wonder what you would think about the friend who you were having trouble staying in touch with (and whom you found the process to be a bit of a chore at that point in time). I wonder what you would think about the fact that, outside of the family (and we seem to have come to terms with your absence, for the most part), she seems to miss you the most among the living. Every sight of purple reminds her of you – something that even I can’t say, although I may just be inured to its ubiquity around me. Did you see that happening from among your coterie of friends, honey?
Then again, getting her – and what’s left of your friend circle – together can be every bit of a chore as you found it to be back then, too, so I don’t know what that says, to be honest.
As for your personal Babylon, well, that captivity is over and done with. Your parents preceded you ‘home’ – wherever that turned out to be for them –before you did, and there was nothing to be done about it by the time you were likewise called home. You know now as to the efficacy of your witness, even as you presumably received absolution if one or both of them refused the call; the sins of the parents are not visited on the children, as explicitly laid out by our Father Himself. At least you can take comfort in not having kept silent.
And with that being said, I suppose that’s a message for me and those of us you’ve left behind. There’s no room in this world for us to perpetually be keeping our heads down, so as not to call attention to ourselves. We run the risk of being swept up in the purges, in any event, and expunging the stories we were meant to have. Even if we survive, we run the risk of not having the influence that we were supposed to, thereby not altering the course of history as we were meant to for His sake.
In which case, honey, keep an eye on us. Nudge us in the way we’re meant to go, and wish us luck along that path. I hardly need to tell you that we’re going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 