That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. Daniel 5:30 LSB
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been reading the book by Dr. David Jeremiah and C. C. Carlson, The Handwriting on the Wall. The title came from chapter 5.
King Belshazzar was having a huge feast. There were all kinds of debauchery going on there. There were one thousand people in attendance. Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, the king whom God had delivered the Israelites over to after their repeated disobedience and refusal to repent. When Nebuchadnezzar took the Israelites captive, he also went into the temple and took the gold and silver vessels from there. Nebuchadnezzar brought these vessels from God’s temple in Jerusalem and placed them into the house of his false god (Daniel 1:1-2).
His grandson was so proud and arrogant that he saw nothing wrong with taking these gold and silver vessels and serving wine in them at his big party. They were drinking from these vessels and praising their false gods. When you are in a hole just keep digging, I guess. Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand came out and began writing on the wall of the king’s palace. Unfortunately, neither the king nor his wise men could interpret the handwriting.
The queen who would have been Belshazzar’s grandmother came into the hall and suggested he call Daniel. Daniel first gave Belshazzar a little sermon on all his grandfather had gone through before acknowledging God as the one true God. Sadly, Belshazzar learned nothing from his grandfather’s experience. He told Belshazzar that his pride was his problem.
He went on to say that his pride caused him to raise himself up against the Lord of heaven. Instead of worshiping God, he had worshiped false gods made of silver, gold, bronze, iron and wood. He had failed to worship the God who held his life in His hands.
Daniel then interpreted the words written which were MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. Daniel explained that MENE meant God has numbered Belshazzar’s days and put an end to his kingdom. TEKEL meant Belshazzar had been weighed on the scales and found to be lacking. He did not meet God’s standards in other words. PERES (singular form of Parsin) means your kingdom has been given over to the Medes and Persians. In other words, God had had enough, and Belshazzar’s time was up.
Have you ever been doing something and thought what if God called me home now? Belshazzar was having a drunken time of debauchery when God called him to face his final judgment. I can’t imagine that went well.
Normally, when we are sinning and think we are having a good time, we don’t think about the fact that we could be called to face judgment at that exact moment. We usually think we will have time to repent and get right with the Lord. We especially think this when we are younger.
God knows everything we do. I’ve often wondered what it would have been like to have been called before Him while I was in the midst of sinning against Him. I have committed sins that I knew were wrong, but I did them anyway.
Since I have rededicated myself to the Lord, I try to be more conscious of what I say and do, but there are times when I still don’t get it right. Praise God, He is willing to forgive us when we confess our sins and repent. And, praise God, He cleanses us from our unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
I wonder if Belshazzar knew God would take his life that very night if he would have done things differently?
How about you, knowing that God could take your life at any moment, would you change the way you do things?
I had to make some changes to get right with God. I am still a work in progress. We will not be perfected until we are in heaven with Him. We have to do what’s necessary here to get there. Start by loving the Lord.
Love Him with all your heart, soul and mind and love others as you love yourself. In doing so, you will be keeping His commands and being obedient to Him (Matthew 22:37-39).
Have a great day!