Thursday, November 24 2011
Daniel 5
Verse of the Day: V27 “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
1. The Wine (V1-4)
V1 “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.”
Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, mocked the Almighty God when he used the golden and silver vessels brought from God’s temple in Jerusalem by his father Nebuchadnezzar for their wine drinking during the great feast held with his princes, wives, concubines and lords. In the eyes of Belshazzar, his great feast was more important than God’s vessels.
V2 “Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.”
2. The Writing (V5-24)
V5 “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”
King Belshazzar did not glorify or please the Lord of heaven when he blatantly used God’s golden and silver vessels for their wine drinking during the great feast. That same hour, the fingers of the Lord of heaven were seen writing on the wall of the king’s palace.
V23 “But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:”
3. The Weight (V25-31)
V27 “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
Prophet Daniel interpreted the writing as the Lord of heaven weighed King Belshazzar in His balance, and found him guilty, and thus numbered or would soon end his life and his kingdom. That same night, King Darius of the Median kingdom suddenly attacked and killed Belshazzar, and subsequently defeated the Babylonian or the Chaldean kingdom.
V30 “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.”
Prayer of the Day:
Dearest God, please help me to always glorify You and You alone.
