The Writing is On the Wall...
Pray: God help us respond to your magnitude with humble reverence. Thank you that you are a loving father who knows each of us intimately and desires a relationship with us. Thank you for sending Christ to make that possible. Teach me as I read Daniel 5.
Read: Daniel 5
It never feels good knowing that you’re going to lose. Nobody wants that. The scoreboard reads 38-7 with two minutes to go and you start giving up. You start making excuses. You say, “Well at least we scored one touchdown,” to try to feel better. Your mind leaves the game. It’s basically hopeless. Imagine how King Belshazzar must have felt when Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall to say,
“God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Belshazzar spent his years building on his father’s kingdom (King Nebuchadnezzar). He made it even greater and he filled his courts with concubines and feasts. But his days were numbered, and the ultimate outcome of his life wasn’t in his own hands. Belshazzar fell into the hands of the living God.
The author of Hebrews tells us that this is a fearful thing. You have spent your life on yourself and you have built everything around you, consuming resources and pleasure. Then you meet God in the balances and he is not impressed. I can just imagine God thinking to himself, “You think your tiny kingdom is impressive that it’s measured in miles? My eternal kingdom is measured in light-years.” (It’s probably even bigger than light-years, but I don’t know what is larger than that!). Then God gives the king into the hands of the enemy, and he is killed.
Judgment is a real thing and it won’t be only the kings and the rulers of the earth who will be judged. Every one of us will be judged. Will you stand in the balances before God and show him what you have accomplished in this life like these foolish kings? Or will you plead Christ?
Romans 5:8 teaches us that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. The blood of Christ is the only thing in life that will please God because Jesus was the only righteous person capable of paying for sin. He died for us on that cross, taking on our sin, so that we can experience the love of God as Father, rather than the wrath of God…as judge.
Reflection Questions:
- How seriously do you take God as the Creator-Judge of the universe?
- Are you willing to give up the sin of thinking your accomplishments will please him? I tell you that his grace abounds for you!
- What other sins do you need to confess? (1 John 1:9)
Memorize: Daniel 5:27