I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Daniel 5-6.

    We know from history that when the walls of Babylon were first breached by the Persian army those in the citadel at the center of the city were unaware that this had happened until it was too late to even defend the citadel (somewhat oversimplified oversimplification). That is the background to the story told here. The Persian army had laid siege to the city of Babylon. While the city was under siege the elites of the city threw a party, convinced of their power and security. As part of their celebration of their power they used the gold and silver cups taken from the Temple to drink libations to their own gods, gods which in their minds were manifestations of themselves. In the middle of all this, a hand appeared and wrote something on the wall. In their drunken stupor they were shocked sober (OK, probably not really). The king’s scholarly advisers were summoned, but none could read the writing. Finally Daniel was summoned and he told them what it meant.

    I have spent more time describing the scene which you can read for yourself than I intended. My first thought about this is that we use the expression, “Read the writing on the wall.” One thing about that expression which we overlook is that by the time the writing is on the wall, it is too late. Daniel told the king, and his cronies, that they knew what God had done in the past. They had no excuse for not honoring Him, but they chose to mock Him by using His holy articles to worship gods they knew had no power. The lesson here for us is that we too know of God’s power, if we choose not to heed Him because we think there will be time later to do as He commands we will wake up one day and see the writing on the wall. Then it will be too late.