Writing On The Wall
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever had a party get crashed?
This is Corey Washington and Corey lives in Belborne Australia.
But Corey became famous years ago when he was 16, when his parents were out of town.
And so he logged onto Myspace (you can tell this was a bit ago) and Facebook and he made an open invite for a party at his house that every single person was invited too.
And what happened is he had over 500 people show up to this party.
And as you can imagine not to long after this party got started things got out of control very quickly.
Things were broken, people were leaving the party and vandalizing the neighborhood.
Cars were getting destroyed
And eventually the party got so crazy that a riot broke out.
And as police came to break up the riot, the crowd pushed back.
And it finally took over 30 officers, a dog squad, and a police helicopter descending on the party to shut it down.
And I do not know about you but I think as Corey looked up and saw a police helecopter and tons of police closing down the party he saw the writing on the wall that this party was over.
And all together he was charged 20,000 dollars which was the estimated cost of damage that the people caused throughout the neighborhood.
But you know today we are looking at a story of a party that was crashed and the king litterly sees the writing on the wall.
And so we will be in Daniel 5 but before I get to far we have seen these 4 men Daniel, Shadrack Meshack and Abenago taken from there city and brought to Babyloin.
And in the middle of all the pressure they remained faithful to God.
And last week we saw the king, King Nebechenezer come to worship the true God,
But between last week and this week Nebechanzer has passed away and his successor, Beltshazzar is now the king.
And this is the first thing we are told about Beltshazzar. sarrting in Daniel 5;1-6. It says:
Daniel 5:1–6 (NIV)
The Writing on the Wall
5 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
So you might remember this but when Jeruselum was captured they took items from the temple, and Beltshazzar throws this big party
And and while he was drinking it says he gives orders to get these items so that all these high up people in the kingdom could drink from them
And not just that but while they are drinking from them they praise the false gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.
I imagine its not to hard to see why this is a bad idea right?
Because they are using these holy, sacred things and are using them to do somthing that is not very Holy.
I mean you read that and go, something sounds off.
It would be like if you had a beautiful Ferrari, and maybe at first you said yes lets drive this thing around town or on the highway.
And then all of the sudden you got this idea, I bet this would be fun off road.
And you start driving it and it gets scratched up, and dents, aand all these other issues.
And its because you are taking something amazing, and you are using it for somthing that it was not created to do.
And really in our lives we have these beautiful and sacred areas that to often are way off of how they were created.
Our social life is designed where we live relationally with others, but it becomes a place for clicks
Marriage is designed to push us closer to God, but to often it becomes either controlling or abusive
Singleness, this amazing gift from God, but we twist it into I am alone
Our churches become gossip and judgement centers
Our accomplishments become sources of pride
Our parenting models toxicity.
All of these things are designed to be these beautiful God honoring things, but we twist them into something really harmful.
And really in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 a guy named Paul says this to show us how sacred our lives are. It says:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
You know in the Old Testemant, they believed God dwelled in the temple, but their is this beautiful shift that takes place, where it changes from God dwelling in the temple to dwelling in you.
So now you are sacred.
If I gave you a can of spray paint to paint to graphity the wall over there you would probably say, “no, I am not doing that”
Why? because this is a sacred space, but can I just say your life is more sacred then this building, and to often we let things graphite our lives, the very dwelling place of God.
Your life is sacred, use it for a sacred purpose
And we see King Belshazzar doing this this and somthing happens, because it says human fingers appear and they begin writing somthing on the wall.
I think my mind always goes to the Adams family with the hand thing right?
But it says the kings face turns pale and the his legs go weak.
I think mine would as well.
And look at verses 10-11 because they are going what in the world do we do about this and in verses 10-11 it says this:
Daniel 5:10–11 (NIV)
10 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! 11 There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners.
You know you can picture them all running around what do we do about this hand, what is it writing, and while this is happening the queen steps up and goes there is a man of God who will know what to do.
And really she is remembering how God moved in the past.
And even if she is remember how it was through Daniel, I think there is a principle here for us, that we say a lot, because it is so important for us to remember how God has moved in the past.
Because you will notice it gives them not just direction, but a peace.
And even in this next part (that we are not going to cover today, but Daniel basically tells the king:
“Did you watch your father rule? Did you see how God humbled him and worked on his heart? Why did you do this?”
I think the awnser is he forgot.
We need to find ways to help us remember those places where God moved. Thats part of why we give parents a jar of beads, because its a way of remembering God’s grace and the commitment you are making.
Find ways to remember how God has moved, because it will give you direction and peace.
Lets look at this last part verses 24-28. Because Daaniel interprets it and It says this:
24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. 25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin 26 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. 28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
So Daniel says it says MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.
and this is littery translated to:
Your days are numbered, Your days are numbered, You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting, Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. (SHOW ON SCREEN)
And so God has been so patient and really has given a ton of grace, but while God is graceful, there is also a just part of Him.
And this message says the days of your kingdom are numbered and the kingdom will be divided.
And the reason is the middle word “Tekel” you have been weighed
This word would have been used as a litteral scale (almost like an old fashioned one)
And God is telling Beltshazzar that the way he is living is less then where He should be.
I think to often God sets the scale, and God is not sitting their waiting for us to mess up.
Its almost like how in college I tried to learn piano, and my teacher did’n’t go you need to play Betovens 5th, but it started with us playing super easy songs.
And songs that if you practice and show up you show have no issue.
And here is the thing, because God knows where you are and he does not throw a hundred pounds and say do it, but He goes you are where I am calling you.
And he pushes us further into that call and we just need to show up and say I am giving you my all.
And let me just say this as we close because you hav e probably noticed this but Daniel is a little bit of a messy book isn’t it?
I mean it seems like every week there is something.
But I think what it comes down to is the people in this story keep forgetting whose they are and what that means.
Its kind of like this does anyone have a $100 bill?
No way, can I have it? thanks Adam I really appreciate it!
You want to know why Adam gave mw the $100 bill?
Because I gave it to him before service and I told him when I ask him to give it to me, he should give it to me.
He knew this was never his in the first place.
And as we close I want us to understand something, our lives are beautiful and valuable, but they are not our own.
And can I just say this makes it so much easier when God calls us to stop something, or to give something away, because Beltshazar did not understand whose He was
And it caused him to live that way, what would it look like to begin to understand whose you are?
To live a life balanced with where God is calling you
And to live a life where your life is the dwelling place of God.
Will you pray with me?