“God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day.” – Psalm 7:11 (NLT)
In our day, the world has gotten very small, and information travels very quickly. Suddenly, through a call, text, email, or social media notification, we’re constantly bombarded with information. A lot of it, especially on social media, is troubling to us, frustrates us, discourages us, and makes us anxious, fearful, or even angry. In large part, the more we know, the worse we feel.
For God, He knows everything that everyone has done for all of human history, and He can’t just throw away His phone or cancel His internet subscription. You could say God has a right to be angry about what He sees, and in Daniel 5, He’s finally reached His boiling point with Babylon.
At the beginning of Daniel 5, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, King Belshazzar, has thrown a huge party. He’s there with his concubines, and they’re drinking wine out of the golden vessels that were taken from the house of God in Jerusalem. This is a counterfeit of the feasts, festivals, and holidays, or “holy days,” that God has. Commentators suggest there were upwards of 15,000 people at this party in a palace the size of the main part of the White House, so it’s a big deal – there’s a red carpet, everyone’s taking selfies, and underwear is now outerwear.
Suddenly, God is done with them. This isn’t like with Nebuchadnezzar, where he gave him another year to repent before making him go crazy. Immediately, God is done with their debauchery and drunkenness, and the fingers of a human hand show up and write on the wall. They’re probably wondering how much they’d had to drink before realizing everyone is seeing the same thing. The arrogant king is, all of a sudden, terrified.
Just like his grandpa and probably his dad before him, Belshazzar calls in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers, or as I call them, Larry, Curly, and Moe. He tells them that if anyone can interpret this he will give them gold treasures and chariots. Of course, none of them could figure out what it meant. Again, they had a God-sized problem that only a man of God could decipher.
His grandma, the queen mother, comes in and reminds him of Daniel, who, at this point, is in his 80s. He’s been in Babylon for nearly 70 years and is basically retired from working for the government. Even though it’s been many years, his character counts, and she remembers this man with character who will do and say the right thing, even if you don’t want to hear it. He brings in Daniel and asks him to interpret the handwriting on the wall and tells him everything he’ll give him, but Daniel says he doesn’t work for money; he works for God. He’s not for hire because he’s not a hireling; he’ll tell you the truth, whether it’s popular or not.
Daniel reminds him of all God has done for his family, starting with his grandpa Nebuchadnezzar, and that Nebuchadnezzar was prideful and hard-hearted, and he is acting in the same exact ways. It’s about pride versus humility. Pride is what happens when we look down on other people. Humility is what happens when we look up to God. God wants you to look up to Him; otherwise, He’s going to come down and deal with you.
Come back tomorrow as we discuss the famous writing on the wall.
Have you ever had someone tell you something you didn’t want to hear? How did you respond? And how can you respond in the future to be more like Christ?
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