JULY 23, 2024
“Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him…” (Daniel 5:6)
With some people, thinking seems to be an unnatural occupation. I recall a very fitting caption under a classmate’s picture in our high school yearbook: “He had a thought, but it got away.” Like Belshazzar, he was not given to musing (serious thinking); but preferred that the prefix “a” be added to the word, which negates the meaning. Amuse means “not to think.” King Belshazzar was here engaged in vile amusements, which by definition is thoughtless playful entertainment. His evil mind was even further besotted by the liquor that he was consuming as he profaned the sacred vessels that his father had taken from the temple at Jerusalem. It certainly did not appear that Belshazzar was capable of rational thoughts, but that changed when his wild party was suddenly interrupted when “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand and wrote… upon the plaister of the wall…” God caused this wicked king to think, and what’s more, “his thoughts troubled him.”
We ordinarily do not expect those people who live so recklessly and irresponsibly to have troubling thoughts. This king was of a fierce nation, and like his father, was haughty and ruthless. God before demonstrated His Sovereign power over the proud spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, and now, even though Belshazzar had hardened his heart with pride and was rioting in pleasure-mad company, such as usually chase away thoughts, God forced him to think and to think with fear. No man is out of reach of the arrows of God, as no man’s conscience is so dead that He cannot arouse it.
Well might his thoughts trouble him, for what he saw was appalling: “Fingers of a man’s hand over against the candlestick.” The Lord sometimes gives men warnings that they must notice. What the king could see stirred him. Where was the hand to which these fingers belonged? Where was the writer? What had he written? God gives men hints of something which is yet to appear. Considering what this man was doing when the fingers came forth, he knew that the message was nothing good, and the writer was to be feared. He had just been mocking Almighty God by toasting his false gods using the sacred vessels of the holy temple. You can imagine how quickly the jollity and the ruckus laughter were silenced. Sometimes we wonder how it will be when the Lord returns. No doubt the blast of the trumpet will turn many a wild party to silence and panic. “Lord, when the trumpet sounds let us be watching and waiting, our lamps trimmed and burning bright; and let us not be involved in anything that would not glorify You.” If the Lord Jesus should come in our lifetime, we will, in fact, be doing something at that moment when He appears. God forbid it that it be some worldly activity the likes of which many professing Christians delight to engage themselves.
The “writing” in the plaster was against the king, and as his knees smote one against the other, he knew it. His father’s history might have instructed him, or at least troubled him, but it took the sacred writing. For all who mix with the impure, will you not also perish with them? If you trifle with holy things, will you not provoke the Lord to avenge His honor? Read the Sacred Writing; read the Scriptures and see for yourself. Is this not the message here? God will avenge His honor!
Take heed that you do not fall into Belshazzar’s condition. Daniel gave him no counsel, but simply interpreted the writing which sealed his doom. The writing: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” The interpretation: “God hath numbered the kingdom and finished it; thou are weighed in the balances, and found wanting; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
As yet, we preach the Gospel to you. Belshazzar’s doom was sealed, thus the Lord’s message to him (which message Daniel interpreted) contained no entreaty. Our message warns the sinner in God’s name to repent and receive mercy. “Thus, saith the Lord, Turn ye, turn ye, why will you die?”
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