Daniel 5

Hope in a hostile world

Part 5

It's been years since the day of Nebuchadnezzar, and the current king Belshazzar was hosting a party, during a siege on his city. Using the cups from the temple was a specific insult, pointing neck to the humiliation of Judah in exile. It seems the salvation of Nebuchadnezzar had not been passed down to his successors.

The writing on the wall

With the arrival of the writing in an unknown language, comes the same fear that Nebuchadnezzar felt upon receiving his dreams. He found out the hard way that his wooden gods could not help him here. Yet he still tries to buy his way out with gifts.

Daniel's first step in dealing with this was to point to Nebuchadnezzar and his faith in God. He showed Belshazzar the insecurities that Nebuchadnezzar and his collapse, and the similarity between the two with their pride.

But like Nebuchadnezzar, remember that God's voice can speak through our pain. In our humbling God can reveal Himself to us. This was a lesson the Belshazzar was yet to learn. He chose to disregard God's warning in the form of Nebuchadnezzar. And so he had run out of time and would face judgement.

God's Judgement

The words on the wall were not unreadable - they were common words yet their meaning together on the wall spelt judgement for the king. Yet it seems they fell on deaf ears. The king was slain in his sleep and the kingdom was divided.

What's the message for us?

The meaning of this for us is simple - we are accountable for our actions. It may seem that today accountability is often not seen, but our collective accountability is to a God who sees all and judges all.

The clock is ticking. Time will run out on our influence in the world. Those, like Nebuchadnezzar, who see this must carry ourselves with humility and be ready to let go. All of us have influence in our lives - there will be someone who we can shape and control. We are accountable to God for how we manage that influence and leverage our whole life. What we say and do matters and there will come a day where that is all layed out and measured. Just like Belshazzar's life was weighed ours will be too. The writing will be on the wall for us. We are accountable to God and no-one else.

History is going somewhere

Originally reading the book of Daniel would be encouraged by this. They would see that God is in control of the leaders who come and go. God uses morally corrupt and evil people to accomplish His purposes for His people. All circumstances that come our way are part of God's eternal story who rules over the ages. The Biblical God is a God who is involved in history. God is not socially distant from us. And so that is why He sent Jesus down to our world to take our place - to remove the writin on the wall and make it His punishment not ours. The season of Advent is a cry that "Help is on the way!". Only Jesus can bring us the help we need to be saved from eternal judgement. So we need not fear the fall into God's hands, as they become the hands of a loving father who carries us to His home.