For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Those who work hard will have enough to eat. Those who are trustworthy will be rewarded. However, those who are constantly seeking to get rich quick, especially by taking advantage of others, or who think there are ways to wealth that do not involve hard work will end up in poverty.
God has promised that He will sustain those who love and follow His decrees. Our only hope is in God’s regulations and promises. It is only by studying His instructions and following them that we will gain wisdom. Let us study the word of God because that is the source of wisdom and discernment. It is by studying God’s will that we learn to do what is right. When we do what is right we find joy.
Just as there were false prophets in Israel in the days of Jeremiah and Isaiah there will be false teachers among the believers today. They will make up stories and false teachings in order to get money from people. These teachers, who preach a false gospel, will cause unbelievers to slander Christ’s teachings and those of His Church. The righteous will be rescued out from among them, but those who see through their lies will be few in number, as were Job, Noah and their families in their day.
This passage gives a good starting point for recognizing false teachers. They exhibit greed and are constantly seeking money. All the time dressing in fancy clothes and driving expensive cars that those they are asking money from could not themselves afford. They are arrogant, scoffing at supernatural beings and claiming power over them that not even angels would claim. Rather than seeking greater knowledge and understanding, they scoff at and belittle those who believe things they do not understand. They brag about themselves and lure others into sins, using warped sexual desires and greed to do so. They claim that sexual “liberation” is the path to freedom, when in fact it is just a path to being enslaved by sin. If we allow our sexual desires to control us and define who we are, we are not free. Anyone who claims that indulging our sexual desires is freedom is a false teacher.
Today’s passage describes the fall of Babylon. We know from other historical sources that Babylon was already under siege by the Medes and Persians when this takes place. With their city under siege, the rich and politically connected chose to feast and drink. At a time when they should have been preparing to do whatever they could to defend their city and been rationing their food and drink in order to withstand a siege, instead they indulged in drunken debauchery. The decision to use the goblets from the Jerusalem Temple as common drinking vessels is not so much an additional affront as it is illustrative of their disregard of propriety and responsibility.
It is from this passage that we derive the phrases, “I can see the writing on the wall” and “I can read the writing on the wall.” We use these phrases interchangeably, but in actuality they express two different thoughts. Everybody at this party could SEE the writing on the wall. They all knew instinctively that it was a frightening portent. But only Daniel could READ it. Even those who know the difference often use these two phrases in ways that do not fit the story. By the time the writing on the wall appears, it is too late to do anything but flee, and it may already be too late for that.
When Daniel interprets the writing on the wall he tells the people present that they knew what had happened in the past. They knew how Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled because he had become too arrogant and proud. Even with the example of Nebuchadnezzar, they set themselves up as above the gods and above God. They arrogantly assumed that they were too mighty and powerful to ever suffer. Even though they knew that Nebuchadnezzar, who had been a greater and more powerful man than they could ever hope to be, had been brought low and forced to recognize a power greater than himself, they refused to do the same. Whenever anyone makes that mistake, it is only a matter of time until they are brought low. Usually that time will not be very long, just as it was not in this passage.