Daniel 12: The Writing on the Wall
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Dan 5:1-9
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning and happy Palm Sunday! Thanks for being here today, whether you’re in the room of online, to worship the Lord Jesus together, and to spend time in fellowship and in the study of His Word with the family of Eastern Hills. Later this morning, we’re going to do something as a family that we generally do four times a year: the taking of the Lord’s Supper together. I’m looking forward to that time of worship together.
If you’re a guest in the room today, I’ll give instructions about the Supper later, but for now, I would like to encourage you to fill out the communication card that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. We would just like to be able to know that you were here this morning, be able to pray for you, and to send you a note thanking you for your visit. When you’ve filled that out, you can get it back to us by dropping it in the offering boxes that are by the doors as you leave later on, or better yet, if you could bring the card down to me here at the front once service has ended, I’d like to meet you personally and give you a small gift to thank you for your visit today. If you’re online and visiting with us today, you can fill out a short communication card on our website: ehbc.org, under the “I’m New” tab.
I’d like to take a moment to thank our Welcome Ministry team this morning. These folks are just so helpful and friendly and a blessing to our church members and guests alike. Thank you, Welcome Team for your ministry.
Announcements
Announcements
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AAEO Video (Josh & Beth Glymph, Jacksonville, FL; Refuge Church, largely for adoptive and foster families)
Opening
Opening
While it is Palm Sunday this morning, we are going to continue our series through the book of Daniel by stepping in to chapter 5. Last week, we saw how the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon ended with this declaration: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all His works are true and His ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Dan 4:37). He had indeed been humbled. We saw that truly being humbled is always the ultimate fruit of self-exaltation, and that true greatness from the biblical perspective is the ultimate fruit of humility. This morning, we will discover whether Nebuchadnezzar’s faith carried on as a legacy—whether those who came after him walked in faith or not.
So let’s open our Bibles or Bible apps and turn to our focal passage this morning, Daniel 5:1-9, and let’s stand as we are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word:
1 King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine in their presence. 2 Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines could drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them. 4 They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 5 At that moment the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the king’s palace wall next to the lampstand. As the king watched the hand that was writing, 6 his face turned pale, and his thoughts so terrified him that he soiled himself and his knees knocked together. 7 The king shouted to bring in the mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners. He said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this inscription and gives me its interpretation will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around his neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom.” 8 So all the king’s wise men came in, but none could read the inscription or make its interpretation known to him. 9 Then King Belshazzar became even more terrified, his face turned pale, and his nobles were bewildered.
PRAYER (Gratitude for the lighting and display upgrade; Josh & Beth Glymph and Refuge Church, Jacksonville, FL)
One thing that’s fun about language is the fact that we can use metaphors. If you remember your grammar lessons from elementary school, you’ll recall that a metaphor is a figurative term or phrase: something that is applied to an object or action, but that isn’t literally applicable to that object or action. We can be very creative in our use of metaphoric phrases. I have a couple of examples this morning:
“I’m on top of the world.” Even if we were to say that either the magnetic or geographic north were the “top” of the world (which it isn’t, necessarily), or if you were to say that the Tibetan Plateau in Asia is the highest elevated land area and thus the “top”, one would still have to be actually IN one of those places to literally apply this phrase to themselves. No, we understand that this phrase means that the person saying it feels wonderful.
“This week was a roller coaster.” The events of this week were not a constant visit to Six Flags aboard a fast moving ride full of dips and twists and loop-the-loops. The week had a lot of ups and downs, excitement, and perhaps some unexpected occurrences. And it did, actually.
“The writing (or handwriting) is on the wall.” This metaphor only exists because it points back to our focal passage today, and that occurrence wasn’t metaphoric—there was literally writing on a literal wall, and that writing literally portended something dire or unfortunate was going to occur. Our metaphoric phrase comes from this passage, and we use it to say that it appears that something is going to come to an unfortunate end.
The fiery furnace in chapter 3, the lion’s den in chapter 6, and this record in chapter 5 are likely the best known parts of Daniel. But one thing that we may not have given a lot of thought to is: who in the world is Belshazzar? And what happened to Nebuchadnezzar? There is zero explanation between the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5 to tell us what had occurred or how much time had passed.
Daniel is not a book of history. It is historical (meaning that it accurately represents the history it explains), but being a historical narrative is not its purpose, especially the last 6 chapters. It’s more about how we can and should live a life of faith in the midst of the world system, and how we can trust God no matter what. That’s why we jump nearly three decades between the end of 4 and the narrative of 5.
History tells us that King Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC, probably about two years after he received the Babylonian empire back following his humiliation in chapter 4. Following him was his son Amel-Marduk (562-560 BC), who was assassinated by Neriglissar who reigned from 560-556 BC, followed by his son Labashi-Marduk (556 BC… he was only king for like a month). Labashi-Marduk was assassinated by Nabonidus, who is thought to have been married to one of Nebuchadnezzar’s daughters. However, even though Babylonian religious culture was polytheistic, Nabonidus didn’t give priority to the usual chief of the gods of Babylon, Marduk (notice two of his predecessors had “Marduk” in their names), choosing instead to exalt the Babylonian moon god, interestingly enough named Sin, so he had a lot of religious conflict. To keep the Babylonian clergy from revolting, Nabonidus set up his royal residence some 500 miles SW of Babylon (in Tema on the Arabian peninsula). However, his son Belshazzar did worship Marduk primarily, so Nabonidus gave him a co-regency and left him in charge of the capital. So Belshazzar was a “king,” but not the only king.
And what we see from Belshazzar in his passage is all about his choices. He chose to be ignorant. He chose to be blasphemous. And as the representative of the world in this chapter, we see that the world does the same things.
1: The world chooses ignorance.
1: The world chooses ignorance.
The book of Daniel doesn’t explain the existential threat that Babylon faced as chapter 5 dawns. Following a decisive large-scale military victory a few months earlier and a determined campaign toward the capital of the Babylonian empire, in the fall of 539 BC the Persian army surrounded the city of Babylon and prepared to engage in a protracted siege. On October 12, 539 BC, possibly for religious reasons, and possibly for political or morale reasons, regardless of the seige happening outside, Belshazzar decided that it was time for a party of epic proportions:
1 King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine in their presence.
The city of Babylon had massive double walls. The city’s gates were strong and well guarded. The Euphrates river ran right through the city, so it had a reliable, constant, and voluminous fresh water supply. The Greek historian Herodotus recorded that it was believed that Babylon had enough supplies stored to survive a siege for up to twenty years.
Belshazzar was supremely confident of his safety and well being. He was so confident, in fact, that he wasn’t even paying attention anymore. He was choosing to be ignorant of the threat that he was facing from the Persians. But rather than putting his head in the metaphorical sand, he put his mouth to the bottle, doing something that was considered a breach of decorum and protocol for a Babylonian king: he drank in the presence of his subjects. Not only that, but the way this is worded in Aramaic suggests that he continually drank wine in full view, likely from his very throne. To put it bluntly, he was drunk, showing off that he was drunk, and was encouraging all of the nobles to get drunk as well, even as the Persian army was outside the gates.
There’s a reason King Lemuel’s mother taught him:
4 It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire beer.
But sadly, the wine led him to ignorantly cast off not just the restraints of his responsibility, but of respect and even superstition as well. While Nebuchadnezzar had taken some of the sacred items from the temple in Jerusalem when he had taken Daniel and the boys some 66 years earlier, they had simply been placed in the treasury of Marduk, according to Daniel 1:2. And even though his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had experienced much at the hands of Yahweh, ultimately believing in His sovereign rule over the kingdoms of the world, Belshazzar chose to remain ignorant of that history and of the testimony of Babylon’s greatest king:
2 Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines could drink from them.
This kind of thing just wasn’t done. The idea was that these articles were supposed to be trophies that honored the victorious “god,” since the superstitious belief was that battles between armies were actually battles between gods, and the stronger god always came out on top. Even with the taking of such items as trophies, they were still to be respected both because they belonged to the victorious “god,” and because they were still the holy articles of another “god,” and the gods were not to be trifled with.
Einstein is quoted as saying, “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” Perhaps no one person better personified that quote than old King Belshazzar. He was an example of what Paul wrote about in Romans 1:
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
And today, the ignorant influence of the world is no less apparent. From a practical sense, most of the world (even much of the church) lives in a way that reflects a rejection of at least the sovereignty, if not even the very existence of God. We believe that we are in charge of our own lives, that we answer to no one but our own consciences, that we can manufacture our own reality based on how we feel.
Alistair Begg, in his book on Daniel, wrote about this perspective:
We take what God has given and then announce that we don’t like God or His ways, so we will not believe in Him. We’d rather have a God who agrees with us and with how we want to behave: a God who is accessible and malleable; a God who we can keep or change as we wish; a God who answers to us rather than us answering to Him.
—Alistair Begg, Brave By Faith
But the Scripture tells us that this is complete foolishness:
1 The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt, and they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. 3 All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.
The Bible doesn’t set out to prove that God exists, because it doesn’t need to. The Bible from the very beginning takes Him as THE irrefutable fact, because Scripture begins with creation, which only God could have explained, since only He was there for it. The Scriptures then reveal the relationship that God designed us to have with Him, but that we rebelled against (and continue to rebel against) through choosing to go our own way—the Bible calls this “sin”—and our sin separates us from Him, and we are unable to fix it because we’re the broken ones. So God has to fix the brokenness. And He has done so through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh according to Scripture.
Jesus lived a life without sin so that He could take the punishment we deserve, by dying on the cross in our place. But then He overcame death and the grave, rising again to eternal life. If we will trust His work to save us, giving up going our own way and surrendering to Him as Savior and Lord, then we receive forgiveness of our sins, and eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If you’ve never believed the Gospel, don’t choose today to dismiss it out-of-hand as some religious fantasy story. It’s not. Decide that you will at least choose to investigate the claims of the Bible, the claims of Jesus, the claims of Christianity. Choose to not be ignorant of the Gospel.
Much of the world chooses ignorance. But worse, much of the world chooses to actively stand against the truth of the Bible and the hope of the Gospel. Like Belshazzar, the world chooses blasphemy.
2: The world chooses blasphemy.
2: The world chooses blasphemy.
According to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, blasphemy is “an injury offered to God, by denying that which is due and belonging to Him, or attributing to Him that which is not agreeable to His nature.” Nebuchadnezzar had been blasphemous when he presumed to be more powerful than God, and when he glorified himself for the success of Babylon. And even though he had been punished for his blasphemy, Belshazzar had apparently decided that he didn’t need to learn that lesson, either. So when the sacred articles from the temple of Jerusalem were brought in, he used them as part of what was likely at this point more of an orgy than a party:
3 So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them. 4 They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
Even as the temple articles were brought in, Belshazzar could have changed his mind. But in his drunken ignorance, he chose to let the wine be poured in them, and to turn these things created for the sole worship of Yahweh into basically red Solo cups for his pagan festival of worship to mere idols—gods made by human hands out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
In so doing, he continued being an example of what Paul wrote about in Romans 1, as the passage continues in verses 21-23:
21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Belshazzar’s grandfather had believed that God was real and that He was in charge of everything. Belshazzar literally could not have cared less. He was foolishly showing how much power he believed that he had. He was thumbing his nose at Persia by having the party at all, and he was thumbing his nose at the Lord Almighty by using the temple articles to do so.
The crazy thing about the world is that the Bible says that a time is coming when God is going to bring His judgment on sin. And when He does, the world will still be worshiping idols like Belshazzar did. They just might not realize that’s what they’re doing. But even as God begins to bring His judgment, they will not repent:
20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
This is because the world is corrupted, given over because of sin to be governed for now by Satan, the one which Paul refers to as “the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient” according to Ephesians 2:2. In the book of Revelation, the devil is shown as a dragon, who will eventually raise up the Antichrist (represented by a beast), who the whole world will worship, and blasphemy will be his speech of choice:
Revelation 13:3b–6 (CSB)
3b The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war against it?” 5 The beast was given a mouth to utter boasts and blasphemies. It was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It began to speak blasphemies against God: to blaspheme his name and his dwelling—those who dwell in heaven.
And as God pours out the bowls of His wrath on the sinfulness of humanity, the blasphemy will only get worse. They will continue to curse God to the end, even as they experience all of the wrath that we deserve for our sin:
8 The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun. It was allowed to scorch people with fire, 9 and people were scorched by the intense heat. So they blasphemed the name of God, who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory. 10 The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues because of their pain 11 and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they did not repent of their works.
21 Enormous hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell from the sky on people, and they blasphemed God for the plague of hail because that plague was extremely severe.
Fortunately for those who are in Christ, the Bible tells us that we are going to be delivered from that time of the pouring out of God’s wrath on the world, as Jesus will return to receive those who belong to Him, and the devil and the beast will be cast into hell.
10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
However, the Bible is also clear that we will reap what we sow. If our lord is our flesh, meaning if we do not believe, then we will reap destruction. If our Lord is Jesus as evidenced by His Spirit in our lives through faith, then we will reap eternal life.
7 Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, 8 because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
The Scriptures are clear that the world as it stands now is not permanent. God’s patience is immense, but there is a time that He has set for His judgment to fall. And there will be no turning back from that. When you read the book of Revelation, you see that, just as it was for Belshazzar, the writing is on the wall.
3: The writing is on the wall.
3: The writing is on the wall.
While Belshazzar was in the throes of his blasphemous revelry, something miraculous happened. This event, or at the very least the outcome of this event, were witnessed by more than just the king.
5 At that moment the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the king’s palace wall next to the lampstand. As the king watched the hand that was writing, 6 his face turned pale, and his thoughts so terrified him that he soiled himself and his knees knocked together. 7 The king shouted to bring in the mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners. He said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this inscription and gives me its interpretation will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around his neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom.” 8 So all the king’s wise men came in, but none could read the inscription or make its interpretation known to him. 9 Then King Belshazzar became even more terrified, his face turned pale, and his nobles were bewildered.
A disembodied hand appeared and wrote on (or perhaps, in) the plaster of the wall of the room, right by the lampstand, so the writing could be seen by all. Some might try to say that this was merely a drunken hallucination by the king, but this doesn’t make any sense—hallucinations to not leave writing behind. And there on the wall (we’ll see this next study) were the words, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin”
To say that King Belshazzar was upset by this would be an understatement. He went from celebratory drunkenness to stone-cold sober terror almost instantaneously. I think that the CSB, while pretty graphic in saying that “he soiled himself,” is a more fitting translation than most, which usually speak about Belshazzar’s hip joints. Literally, the Aramaic phrase there is “the knots (or difficulties) of his loins were loosed.” But no matter how you take it, the king was a mess.
Daniel records that Belshazzar shouted (like a panicked yell) for the mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners. We’ve seen another king attempt this solution a couple of times before, and with the same result. Again, they couldn’t help, even though he offered them the position of the third highest in the kingdom (again, as only the co-regent, third was the best he could do) and the trappings of royalty. The world’s “wisdom” is useless about spiritual things. So Belshazzar was left even more terrified. When we trust the world, and the world fails us, we are even more terrified. And it will fail us if we trust it.
The writing was literally on the wall, but Belshazzar could not interpret it. Obviously, he knew it was bad. Maybe he wisely connected the writing to the blasphemous action that he had taken with the dedicated objects? But it seems as if he knew something terrible was about to happen, as it says in Proverbs 29:1:
1 One who becomes stiff-necked, after many reprimands will be shattered instantly— beyond recovery.
The writing was a sign. And just as the writing on the wall was a sign for Belshazzar that judgment was coming, so Jesus said that there will be signs that point to the coming of God’s judgment on the earth. We don’t have time to go through it this morning (honestly, preaching it would take weeks, maybe even months), but I would suggest to you that you take some time following this message this week to read through and meditate on all of Matthew chapters 24 and 25. In Matthew 24, Jesus answers His disciples’ question about the signs of the end times. Nearly the entire chapter is dedicated to His answer. Matthew 25 contains three parables relating to the end times. We can trust that Jesus is going to keep His word. He’s coming back. How should we live in anticipation for His return?
13 “Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.
Closing
Closing
For the moment, I’ll just leave us with one other place where Jesus said the writing was on the wall. It was on the first Palm Sunday, as He was on His way into Jerusalem following the Triumphal Entry, according to Luke:
41 As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, 42 saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you and your children among you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in your midst, because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.”
By the time the week was over, they would have arrested, tried, and crucified the Lord—the only one who could bring true peace. And He is the only one who can bring us true peace even today.
In a moment, the band is going to come and begin a song of invitation and response. Joe and Kerry, Trevor, and Rich will be down front with me.
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, will you respond to the work of the Spirit this morning in surrender? If you are trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior this morning, would you come and tell one of us? We don’t want to embarrass you—we want to celebrate with you! If you have questions about Jesus or salvation, we’d love to talk to you about those things. If you’re online and you’ve surrendered to Jesus this morning, or if you have questions about Jesus, send me an email so we can help you as you begin this journey of faith.
If you believe that Eastern Hills is a church family where you can connect with the body of Christ, grow in your faith, and serve the Lord, and you want to talk about church membership, please come and let us know that. We’ll set an appointment to sit down and answer any questions that you have, go through our Statement of Belief, and share our testimonies with each other. If you’ve never been baptized, and you would like to be as a testimony of your faith, come and tell us that as well, and we’ll get it scheduled.
Prayer
Giving (Text: EHBCGIVE to 888-364-GIVE[4483])
PRAYER
Invitation
have kids come in
Observance of the Lord’s Supper
Observance of the Lord’s Supper
I’d like to invite our deacons to come down and prepare to serve the Lord’s Supper to our church family.
As they come, I’d like to give both a warning and a welcome.
The warning is that if you do not belong to God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, please do not take the Supper. Since this is a time of memorial of and identification with the Gospel, if you do not believe, you should not participate. This is to safeguard the sanctity of the ordinance and for your protection as well, according to Scripture. We love you, and we’re glad that you’re here. We pray that witnessing this ordinance will be a blessing to you and open your heart to ask questions or to want to find out more about following Christ.
However, the Scripture is clear that the Supper is to be taken in a “worthy manner… recognizing the body.” To take it as an unbeliever is to do so in an “unworthy” manner, much like Belshazzar drinking from the temple articles in Daniel 5. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians:
27 So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. 31 If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, 32 but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world.
In accordance with this passage, take just a moment to examine your own heart, confess any sin, and ask the Lord to reveal any sin that needs repentance and confession this morning.
The welcome is that we’re here together in this room (and online if you are participating at home today), and it’s such a joy to be able to take the Supper together as a church family. We’re told to welcome one another as we come together for the Supper:
33 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another.
Look around you for just a moment and welcome each other to the family table.
Ask Dan and Bryan to come and distribute the bread to the deacons. Have one of the deacons ask the Lord to bless the bread.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
After the cup is distributed to the deacons, have another deacon ask the Lord to bless the cup.
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Thank the deacons for their service to the church family this morning.
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Num 13-14, Ps 83)
Pastor’s Study tonight, starting Eph 5
Prayer Meeting Weds, continuing our consideration of Moses’s intercessory prayer in Numbers 14.
Yoav Rotem April 4 at 6:30pm in Miller Hall. Israel from the time of the Bible through today.
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
15 Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: