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

Reading the account about the writing on the wall, I was again struck by something which I had never thought about before.  It’s not that I never noticed, just that I never thought it noteworthy.  When the fingers appeared and began writing on the wall, the ruler of Babylon, Belshazzar, was terrified.  I had never really thought about it because fingers appearing and starting to write would be somewhat frightening in any case.  Today, it struck me, the writer thought it necessary to point out that Belshazzar was terrified.  That suggests that there was more going on than just the fingers appearing.  Which led me to think about the fact that the writers tell us that he was deliberately committing sacrilege against the God of the Israelites by using goblets taken from the temple in Jerusalem to drink from while praising other gods.  To me this suggests that Belshazzar understood that the writing represented judgement against him, despite the fact that he could not read it.  This is confirmed for me when he became even more frightened when his “wise men” could not read the writing.  Those “wise men” would have been well trained in the lore surrounding the gods whom Belshazzar acknowledged so that, if the writing was from one of those gods, they should have been able to read it.  So, Belshazzar knew the message even though he was unable to read what was written.  The message of Belshazzar’s fear is the same as what Paul writes in the first chapter of Romans, God’s qualities have been known such that people are without excuse.  Later in the passage, Daniel even tells Belshazzar that he knew about God, and still refused to be humble before Him.

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

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

The passage starts with the account about the writing on the wall which preceded the fall of Babylon.  This story is where we get the saying “I can see the writing on the wall.”  Of course, that saying has the problem in that by the time the writing was on the wall in this story it was too late for those to whom it was addressed.  When Daniel interpreted the writing for King Belshazzar, he reminded him that he, King Belshazzar, had known how King Nebuchadnezzar had been forced to acknowledge that he was not all powerful and that God is sovereign.  Yet King Belshazzar had nevertheless chosen to use vessels which had been dedicated to the worship of God to worship other gods.  Belshazzar honored numerous other gods, but did not honor the God who held his life in His hands.  Not only did Belshazzar not honor God, he held God up to ridicule.  Don’t wait until you see the writing on the wall to acknowledge God and His greatness, because then it will be too late.

Later in the passage we have the account of Daniel in the lions’ den.  I want to focus on how he ended up the lions’ den.  Some of his political enemies, after trying and failing to find any dirt on Daniel, convinced the king to issue an edict making it illegal to worship anyone but him, the king, for thirty days.  Daniel knew of this edict but nevertheless continued to pray three times a day.  I want to look at what Daniel did a little more closely.  He went home to his upstairs room to pray.  By doing so he did two things.  He isolated himself so that he would not be distracted from his worship of God while he prayed, but he also made it so that his prayer would not intrude on those who had chosen, for one reason or another, not to worship God.  However, in that upstairs room he opened the windows towards Jerusalem and prayed in front of them.  By doing this no one could claim that he was hiding what he was doing (that is not why he did it, but I am confident that he was aware of this aspect of it).  Daniel made no effort to hide that he was worshiping God, even when doing so could land him in trouble.  On the other hand, he did not force his beliefs on others.  I believe that there are times when we are called to be more confrontational than Daniel was here, but there are also times when we should just quietly worship God, allowing others to ignore us if they choose, but not hiding what we believe.

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

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

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

There are many things we can learn from the story about the writing on the wall.  First, by the time you see the writing on the wall, let alone read it, it is too late.  Which brings me to the message.  In some ways that message is for all of us, at least the first part.  God has numbered our days, and while He may not yet have done so, He will bring them to an end.  And God is weighing us on His scales, if we rely on ourselves we will be found wanting.  When God weighs us on His scales only if we put our trust in Jesus will we not be found wanting.  Only by putting our faith in Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us will God’s scales balance in our favor. But do not wait until you can read the writing on the wall, because then it will be too late.

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

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

In the story about the writing on the wall I noticed that when the hand wrote on the wall the king was terrified.  As I read the passage, he was not frightened just by the disembodied hand, but by the writing itself.  So, he knew the message was bad before he even knew what it said.   Which brings me to something I realized a few years ago.  We often say that someone left some place before things there went wrong because they “saw the writing on the wall”, referencing this story.  However, in this story, it was too late for King Belshazzar when he saw the writing on the wall.

Then we have the story of Daniel being thrown into the lion’s den.  Daniel’s political enemies could find nothing wrong in his actions.  So, they changed the rules to make his religious practices illegal.  They presented the change in a way which made it seem like it was innocuous and disguised the fact that it was aimed at Daniel.  When the new law was passed, Daniel made no effort to hide his now illegal worship of God, nor did he make any effort to make a scene.  He continued to worship God as he had always done. I want to note that Daniel had no need to “make a scene” about his worship of God because he had always done so publicly in a manner that anyone who knew him knew that he did so.  Let us strive to live such lives that when our enemies look for something to “get us” on, they must make faithfully serving God illegal.  I will say that I believe we see such things happening in the world today.  Perhaps not yet by passing laws, but more and more our society is declaring being faithful to God to be “beyond the pale”.

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

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 13 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

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

This passage is the origin of the phrase “read the writing on the wall.”  Every time I read this passage I am struck by the fact that by the time the writing is on the wall to read, it is too late to do anything; there is not even time to flee.  As I wrote the above it occurred to me that perhaps I should spend some time considering the message on the wall, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.”  The passage tells us that “Mene” means “numbered”, as in the days of the person to whom the message was sent are numbered.  No explanation is given for why “Mene” appears twice.  Technically, the word “Mene” is a specific weight, so perhaps it appearing twice is what makes it mean “numbered”.  Or perhaps, “Mene” appears twice to indicate that the number has been reached.  In any case, the first two parts of this message applies to all of us.  Our days are numbered, and our actions will be weighed and they do not measure up.  We need to recognize that we cannot measure up.  We also need to recognize that the point I made at the beginning is true: when the writing on the wall appears it is too late to turn to God.

The story of Daniel in the lions’ den is another one of those stories which I have always loved.  As a child I learned to story as a lesson on God’s ability to protect us in even the most dangerous situation.  Today I want to focus on what Daniel did in the face of a government edict forbidding him to worship God.  He ignored it.  When he learned of the edict forbidding prayer to anything or anyone other than the king, he did not change his routine in any way.  He did not stage a protest, but he also made no attempt to hide what he was doing.  He neither prayed in a way to draw attention to the fact that he was defying the edict, nor in a way which would make it difficult for anyone to discover what he was doing.  He was not ashamed, nor afraid, to do what he had always done.  He felt no need to make a statement opposing the law.