Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, November 6, Daniel 5, part 2

Chapter 5: "The FIVE-fingered "HAND" writing on the Wall: Babylon HANDED over."

We left Belshazzar and his drunken friends "blissfully ignorant". This is how the world copes with difficulty very often: by the bottle.

It's amazing how every show we watch on TV shows the heroes coming home, grabbing a bottle of wine before they even take their shoes off. The happy endings are with them surrounded together in a bar, raising glasses.

I've gone through that stage, many years ago, and know the fakeness of it. The "spirits" giving one a false impression of elation, and a wobbly camaraderie. Then don't forget all of the stupid things one does and says and regrets, as we will see with the drunken king in this chapter. The final result is usually a hangover in the morning, and reality brings you even lower than before.

When one is depressed, they resort to stimulants to manufacture this false "spirit" to give them at least a brief release. There is something deep within them, troubling them. Many cannot put their finger on it, but it is that subconscious feeling that they are on the verge of a cliff—that there is more to life than what they are living.

They sense that brevity, that the next moment could be their last, and then—eternity. Paul described it well when he said "having no hope, and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12b). This is a sobering moment, and the choice is either acknowledging their wretchedness before God and falling upon His mercy, or washing the conscience away again with an idol, like alcohol, drugs, work, entertainment, men, women—anything that will block their minds from that nagging, eerie feeling that all is not well, and a great darkness hovers over them like dark talons.

Here we rely on the great strength of America. We have seen the great victories in the past, and the bravery of those who went before us. But now, we live in a world of entertainment and debauchery. We are slowly being deceived by wickedness, calling good evil, and evil good. We do this because we desire that evil over the good. We cast away the "bothersome" morality of God, for it hinders our own lustful desires, and live in a fantasy world, as the darkness engulfs us.

We ignore what we see in other nations that have rejected the Most High God. They are obviously surrounding us as siege works, right before our eyes, yet we "party them away". We have allowed them to divert the "River of Life" from our nation, and evil is crawling under what once was life-giving sustenance and destroying us from within.

And one day, we will, like Belshazzar, stand with our knees knocking, and our blissful ignorance will be suddenly interrupted. We have "brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem." (3) And we "drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone." (4)

The handwriting is on the wall, "opposite the lampstand". (5) What was light given us from Christ, the Light of the world, is being written off in judgment as we have worshiped the "spirit of the age".

"Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together The king called loudly to bring the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation." (6-9)

We would say, "Trust the science". And of course, the "science" is whatever those in charge wish it to be, for they have bitten into the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", and trusted their knowledge of what is good and evil over the wisdom of God, written down since the time man left the Garden and walked in the dark wilderness of this world.

The foolish king's "blissful ignorance" has now faced the "handwriting on the wall", He "believed the lie", and now will receive judgment instead of mercy. He will get what he desired: darkness rather than light.

You have the warning now. If you choose darkness, that is what you will receive. And God is not there: "This then is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil." (John 3:19)

How about you? Babylon had Daniel. We have Jesus, right before our eyes, and yet still choose evil! Make your choice before the handwriting is on the wall of your heart, etched forever.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

*ESV used unless noted*

Memory Helps:

Chapter 5: The FIVE-fingered "HAND" writing on the Wall: Babylon HANDED over.

We can add a few subtitles: