Daniel 13: Weighed In the Balance

Good morning, and welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills to those of you in the room and to those of you online. I’d like to take a second and say thanks to all of those who serve as “shepherds” in our Kids Ministry. Many of them aren’t in the room right now, as they are busy shepherding some of our little lambs in Kids Worship. But they do so much for our children, and I just wanted to express my appreciation this morning.

If you are visiting with us today, we would like to know that you are here this morning, and so we’d ask you to take a moment during service and fill out a welcome card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. We want to be able to thank you for your visit, and find out if you have any questions or if you need any prayer. You can get the card back to us in one of two ways: you can drop it in the offering boxes by the doors as you leave at the close of service; or better yet, you can bring it down to me when service is over, because I would love to meet you and give you a small gift to say thanks for your visit this morning.

I have just one announcement to make, and then a video to share with you this morning before we get into our study.

Announcements

AAEO ($13,263.24). SLIDE: NAMB serves the U.S., Canada, U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa. Estimated population: 371M. Estimated lost: 281M. 350 languages. Over 2,900 missionaries. 35% of the budget for the NAMB comes from our Cooperative Program giving, which we contribute to from our undesignated tithes and offerings. But 50% of NAMB’s annual budget comes from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. Every penny from the AAEO goes to the mission field through support, resources, and training.

AAEO Video: Faith Garland, Anti-Trafficking Campaign “The Beloved Initiative” in Boston.

Opening

We took a one-week break from our study of the book of Daniel last week to focus on the Living Hope that we have in Jesus Christ as we celebrated His resurrection. You’ll recall that two weeks ago, we looked at the beginning of chapter 5, where we found we had jumped a little over 20 years into the future from the end of Daniel chapter 4, and we found ourselves at a party being held by King Belshazzar, the co-regent son of Nabonidus, who had taken the Babylonian throne in 556 BC. Babylon was under seige by the Medo-Persian army, but Belshazzar held this massive feast anyway because he felt completely safe within the walls of the capital city. He chose to remain ignorant of the true nature of the threat that he faced and to thumb his nose at the besieging army through reveling even while they stood at the gates. He also chose to act in ignorance and blasphemy against Yahweh, the One True God, by having the sacred articles that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem brought in so that they could use them for drinking their wine.

When a disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the wall of the palace where they were feasting, King Belshazzar panicked. He was physically shaken. He screamed for his wise men to come and tell him what the inscription meant, promising them wealth, honor, and power if they could do so. But they were unable to provide the king with an interpretation. It is at that point that we return to the narrative of Daniel today.

So as you are able, would you please stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God as we open our Bibles or Bible apps to consider the rest of Daniel 5, beginning in verse 10?

Daniel 5:10–31 CSB

10 Because of the outcry of the king and his nobles, the queen came to the banquet hall. “May the king live forever,” she said. “Don’t let your thoughts terrify you or your face be pale. 11 There is a man in your kingdom who has a spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your predecessor he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods. Your predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners. Your own predecessor, the king, 12 did this because Daniel, the one the king named Belteshazzar, was found to have an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and intelligence, and the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems. Therefore, summon Daniel, and he will give the interpretation.” 13 Then Daniel was brought before the king. The king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the Judean exiles that my predecessor the king brought from Judah? 14 I’ve heard that you have a spirit of the gods in you, and that insight, intelligence, and extraordinary wisdom are found in you. 15 Now the wise men and mediums were brought before me to read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not give its interpretation. 16 However, I have heard about you that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Therefore, if you can read this inscription and give me its interpretation, you will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around your neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom.” 17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts and give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription for the king and make the interpretation known to him. 18 Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, greatness, glory, and majesty to your predecessor Nebuchadnezzar. 19 Because of the greatness he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages were terrified and fearful of him. He killed anyone he wanted and kept alive anyone he wanted; he exalted anyone he wanted and humbled anyone he wanted. 20 But when his heart was exalted and his spirit became arrogant, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him. 21 He was driven away from people, his mind was like an animal’s, he lived with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky until he acknowledged that the Most High God is ruler over human kingdoms and sets anyone he wants over them. 22 “But you his successor, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. 23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of the heavens. The vessels from his house were brought to you, and as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drank wine from them, you praised the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or understand. But you have not glorified the God who holds your life-breath in his hand and who controls the whole course of your life. 24 Therefore, he sent the hand, and this writing was inscribed. 25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Mene’ means that God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. 27 ‘Tekel’ means that you have been weighed on the balance and found deficient. 28 ‘Peres’ means that your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then Belshazzar gave an order, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was killed, 31 and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

PRAYER (Faith Garland and The Beloved Initiative in Boston)

One of the wonderful blessings that God has given to us is the fact that we get to be in relationship with other people. We don’t do life completely alone. And in His grace, some of the people that God gives to walk along the road with us are godly friends who can give sound, biblical advice to us when we need it. Think about it for a moment: Do you have people like that in your life? Who do you go to for godly counsel and wisdom?

I have many people to whom I can and do go to when I need to prayerfully think through something and need another God-honoring perspective. First of all, my wife Melanie is a true blessing to me in this regard. She’s really wise, and very godly, and always wants the best for me and for my walk with God. I also know that I can go to anyone on the church staff and seek advice, and I’ll receive godly counsel. I have a few men in my life who are mature in their faith and are willing to share godly wisdom. I know that I can go to the deacons, and I often do for feedback and wisdom from a larger group that can discuss a matter together.

Having people who can give us godly advice is a blessing and a treasure. And what we find in this morning’s study is that Belshazzar had access to at least one person who could give him good advice. However, it is apparent that for a long time he didn’t care to utilize that person, Daniel. It does seem as though Belshazzar wanted to throw off any restraint that Nebuchadnezzar had personally held, including blaspheming the God who the former (and greatest) king of Babylon had surrendered to before his death, and Daniel could have been a part of that whole picture.

Given Belshazzar’s seeming lack of memory of Daniel, perhaps Daniel had been relegated to a lesser position (or even a non-position) before Belshazzar’s reign by the kings who came after Nebuchadnezzar. Or maybe, given the fact that Daniel had to be somewhere around 80 years old at this point, Daniel was basically retired. Maybe the king thought Daniel had died. It is certain, however, that Belshazzar was alive when Nebuchadnezzar was serving Nebuchadnezzar, and so Daniel’s existence could not have been completely unknown to him.

But upon hearing all of the panic in the palace because of the writing on the wall, the queen—almost certainly Nabonidus’s wife, so the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and the mother of Belshazzar—comes rushing in to offer her advice to her son. She remembers Daniel quite well:

Daniel 5:10–12 CSB

I want you to notice three things very quickly: 1) the queen greets Belshazzar with the standard greeting of respect for the king, which we also saw in chapters 2 and 3: “May the king live forever!” Little did she know what was coming. 2) In her little speech, notice how many times she refers to Nebuchadnezzar: Three times. The CSB translates the Aramaic ab here as “predecessor,” but its primary meaning is “father.” Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar’s grandfather, but the term was used for those kinds of relationships as well. It could also be used for “predecessor,” but I think she meant the term as more than that. 3) She knew how Daniel had served Nebuchadnezzar throughout his reign, and the accuracy of his interpretations of dreams and visions. She said that he had “the spirit of the holy gods in him,” “wisdom like the wisdom of the gods,” and, “an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and intelligence, and the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems.” Quite the resume Daniel has, and one that the queen knew clearly by experience.

She insists that if Belshazzar summons Daniel, Daniel will be able to give the interpretation of the writing on the wall. After this, Belshazzar will have to choose what to do. We are given similar choices when we face difficulties. If we are going to be wise, we must choose whether to listen to the godly, whether to learn from our mistakes or the mistakes of others, and whether to trust the Word of God. We should choose to do all three:

1: Choose to listen to the godly.

You have to hand it to Belshazzar in one regard: he listened to his momma when the time came. Not that his mother was a godly woman, but she pointed him to godly Daniel, and he sent for him. And once he had done so and Daniel had come before him, Belshazzar allowed Daniel to speak:

Daniel 5:13–16 CSB

13 Then Daniel was brought before the king. The king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the Judean exiles that my predecessor the king brought from Judah? 14 I’ve heard that you have a spirit of the gods in you, and that insight, intelligence, and extraordinary wisdom are found in you. 15 Now the wise men and mediums were brought before me to read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not give its interpretation. 16 However, I have heard about you that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Therefore, if you can read this inscription and give me its interpretation, you will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around your neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom.”

If there’s one thing that we can know about Belshazzar from the little that we read about him in Daniel, it’s that he was pretty full of himself. The way that he speaks to Daniel—the guy that Belshazzar’s mother claims is going to be able to take care of his problem—is actually kind of rude. I’m certain that Belshazzar knew more than nothing about Daniel, and it seems that he is doing a little bit of posturing here to show that he’s still not convinced that Daniel is anything special, and that he doesn’t care about how he served Nebuchadnezzar.

Notice the difference between what his mother said and how Belshazzar refers to Daniel: Other than saying that Nebuchadnezzar had brought Daniel from Judah as an exile (basically implying that he’s really just a slave), he makes zero mention of anything that Daniel has done or any other mention of Nebuchadnezzar.

He’s basically, like, “Okay, so I heard you might be able to do the things that my guys couldn’t. So if you can do that for me, I’d appreciate it and make it worth your while.” He offers to Daniel the same things that he offered to the other wise men: royal clothes, a valuable and important gold chain, and the third highest position in the kingdom, after his father and himself, of course. But he’s at least willing to listen if Daniel is willing to speak.

This is a good reminder for us. So often, when we seek advice from someone, we aren’t actually looking for advice. We’re looking for agreement. Those are not the same thing. If we actually want to be wise, then the person we’re asking for wise counsel from should not have to agree with what we’ve already decided in order for us to listen. We need to have godly people around us who are willing to speak the truth in love as Paul says in Ephesians 4:15, and we need to give them permission to do so. Otherwise, we don’t actually want wisdom at all. In fact, we are just trusting in ourselves and wanting someone to tell us we’re right. But this is foolishness according to Proverbs:

Proverbs 28:26 CSB

26 The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.

You see, if we actually want to be wise, then we will want to walk with those who are wise:

Proverbs 13:20 CSB

20 The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.

If we want to know how to live a life that honors God (which is what true wisdom is), then we will consider carefully who we follow and emulate. We will be discerning about who we spend most of our time with and go to for counsel.

Proverbs 2:20 CSB

20 So follow the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

Ephesians 5:15–16 CSB

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.

Paul even wrote personal advice to the church at Corinth, expressly saying that it was not a command from the Lord:

1 Corinthians 7:25 CSB

25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I do give an opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is faithful.

I’m not saying that you can’t spend time with people who aren’t believers, or get advice about things from those who don’t share your faith if you’re in Christ. I’m saying that if you need godly counsel, you have to get it from a godly source. The things of the cross are foolishness to the world.

The greatest source of godly counsel and wisdom is God Himself. In Jesus, God Almighty came as one of us, so He understands us. He knows what it is to be human. And He also has the mind of God, so that He knows how life is supposed to work. He has all wisdom, all understanding, all knowledge, as Isaiah wrote about in chapter 11 of his prophecy:

Isaiah 11:1–3 CSB

1 Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 3 His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears,

If we belong to Christ by faith, then we are in a relationship with Him that’s real. He speaks. We can listen. We speak. He hears. If we want wisdom, we find it in Jesus. He is the greatest wise man who has ever lived, because only He is God in the flesh. We should listen to Him.

Belshazzar was willing to listen to Daniel, even if what he was going to say wasn’t what the king wanted to hear. He offered the gifts without condition other than that Daniel read and interpret the writing on the wall.

But for Daniel, the gifts and position were unimportant. In fact, Daniel knew that they were just about worthless given what was about to happen. To quote Alistair Begg from his commentary on Daniel again:

He knows that Belshazzar, for all his popularity, status, and wealth, is facing judgment that very night. He knows that God has lifted his finger, and so Belshazzar has nothing he can offer that Daniel needs. He knows that by the end of the night, only one of them will be alive, and it won’t be the king.

—Alistair Begg, Brave By Faith

Not only that, but Daniel probably didn’t want the king to think that miracles could be purchased. So he told the king that he could keep his rewards and gifts, but he would still read the inscription and provide the interpretation.

Daniel 5:17 CSB

17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts and give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription for the king and make the interpretation known to him.

However, before he does so, Daniel decides to give Belshazzar a little history lesson, which brings us to our second point this morning:

2: Choose to learn from mistakes (our own and others’).

Remember when you were in elementary school (maybe middle school, and occasionally high school), and you got to go on a field trip with your class? You’d get out of the classroom and go somewhere and experience something for yourself. I say this because if you think about it, there are basically two ways to learn something: in the classroom and on a field trip. When we learn from our own mistakes, that’s learning on a field trip. We personally take the journey that leads to our error, and we then we directly apply the lesson of our own failures. When we choose to learn from others’ mistakes, we find ourselves in the classroom. We hear of or read of someone else’s error, discover the results of that error, and then apply the lesson to our lives.

From what Daniel said to Belshazzar and how directly he said it, it appears that the king had failed at both. First, the lesson from the classroom of his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar’s life:

In verses 18-21, Daniel gives what is basically a summary of chapter 4, and this summary explains to a certain extent why the contents of chapter 5 follow directly on the heels of chapter 4. Yes, it may be that Daniel didn’t really have a lot to do with the running of the empire after chapter 4, but clearly this summary connects the two events together. Nebuchadnezzar had it all. The most powerful man on the planet at the time, he was essentially over everyone: people were terrified of him. But verse 20 tells us of what brought him low:

Daniel 5:20 CSB

20 But when his heart was exalted and his spirit became arrogant, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him.

His heart was “exalted” and his spirit became “arrogant.” As we saw when we studied chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar became completely full of himself. So God humbled him by inflicting him with what we would call lycanthropy today, until such time as he acknowledged that “the Most High God is ruler over human kingdoms,” (v. 21) which he eventually did. Nebuchadnezzar went on a doozy of a field trip.

But the account of that field trip was chronicled, written down, available for Belshazzar to learn from. He could have just read it, saw what happened to his grandfather when he exalted himself above God, and chosen to apply that lesson to himself right then. That’s not what he did, but he could have.

In the book of Proverbs, we see the importance of learning in the classroom of other people’s lives. Solomon, writing to his son, reflects this concept:

Proverbs 4:1–4 CSB

1 Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding, 2 for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching. 3 When I was a son with my father, tender and precious to my mother, 4 he taught me and said, “Your heart must hold on to my words. Keep my commands and live.

And we know from the book of Ecclesiastes that Solomon went on a lot of “field trips.” I know that I wrote this point as “choose to learn from mistakes,” but I suppose it’s really more “choose to learn from experience.”

So listen to others’ faith stories. Listen to their successes and their failures. Students: listen to your parents’ and your grandparents’ stories. Ask good questions about their triumphs and their defeats. Adults: you might be shocked at what you might learn if you just stop talking for a minute and listen to your kids’ stories. Especially in mid- and high school, they are learning and experiencing things, navigating situations that didn’t even exist when you were their age. You could really learn a thing or two from your kids and grandkids.

But outside of our family relationships, read books that teach you things that others have learned. Listen to biographies of faithful people. And be willing to be transparent in sharing your own stories of failure, because your faith experience might be the classroom that someone else learns a valuable lesson in, as Paul said of his own life in Philippians 4:

Philippians 4:9 CSB

9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Now, you’ve heard the old saying, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?” Well, to translate this into how we’re looking at this concept today: “Those who do not learn important lessons in the classroom will learn them on a field trip.”

This is what happened with Belshazzar. Notice how Daniel chastises him:

Daniel 5:22–23 CSB

22 “But you his successor, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. 23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of the heavens. The vessels from his house were brought to you, and as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drank wine from them, you praised the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or understand. But you have not glorified the God who holds your life-breath in his hand and who controls the whole course of your life.

Daniel basically says, “Belshy, you knew what happened to Grandpa Nebby when he was full of pride, but you didn’t care. You took what he did one step further by defiling the sacred articles of the living God through using them as common party supplies and to worship false gods. You didn’t learn what your grandfather learned: that God is in charge of your life and your very breath.”

He had chosen to take a field trip. This was certainly not the first time. The historian Xenophon (late 5th, early 4th C. BC) wrote that Belshazzar was suspected as being the person behind the assassination plot against King Labashi-Marduk, his father Nabonidus’s immediate predecessor. Belshazzar was known to have killed a competitor in a jealous rage following a royal hunt. So he was a blasphemer, an assassin, and a murderer. Selfishness and pride drove his choices. One archaeological record called the Cyrus Cylinder recorded that he was such a wicked king that when the Persians invaded, the citizens of Babylon actually welcomed them.

Proverbs graphically warns against the foolishness of not learning from our mistakes:

Proverbs 26:11–12 CSB

11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so also a fool repeats his foolishness. 12 Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

If we are going to be truly wise, we must learn from the field trips that we go on. We must not repeat our foolish mistakes, but repent and submit to the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we sin. This is why Jesus died for us: to cover our sin and to make a way for us to be right with God again; to not remain foolish.

Belshazzar was a fool. He hadn’t been willing to listen to the only godly counsel he had around him. He hadn’t learned in the classroom of Nebuchadnezzar’s life, and his own field trips hadn’t taught him anything. And now, he had been given a declaration by the hand of God: a declaration that he could completely trust as true.

3: Choose to trust the Word of God.

The writing on the wall was given by the hand of God, and so it was the Word of God. Because of Daniel, we have the record of what was inscribed that terrified the king so. It is entirely possible that the words were written in such a way that the wise men of Babylon had been unable to even read them, much less interpret them. Regardless, Daniel was able, by the work of the Spirit, to do both.

Daniel 5:25–28 CSB

25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Mene’ means that God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. 27 ‘Tekel’ means that you have been weighed on the balance and found deficient. 28 ‘Peres’ means that your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Literally, the phrase “mene, mene, tekel, and parsin” would translate to “numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided.” The words also corresponded to monetary weights for the Hebrews: the mina, which was a standard weight of gold or silver; the shekel, which was 1/60 of a mina at the time; and the peres, which was a term for half of a mina or shekel. In one additional wordplay, the Aramaic word peres (the singular form of parsin) also contained the same consonants as the word Persians, the army who was about to bring about Babylon’s defeat.

God had evaluated the state of both Belshazzar’s heart and of the Babylonian empire as a whole, and had found them wanting. He would bring His swift judgment. This was not a message that Belshazzar wanted to hear, but it was the truth, predicted in the Word of God about 160 years earlier by Isaiah:

Isaiah 47:10–11 CSB

10 You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I am, and there is no one else.’ 11 But disaster will happen to you; you will not know how to avert it. And it will fall on you, but you will be unable to ward it off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.

And reinforced by the prophet Jeremiah nearly 50 years before:

Jeremiah 51:57 CSB

57 I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the King’s declaration; the Lord of Armies is his name.

God had spoken. Belshazzar had been judged and would receive the due penalty for his sin.

Do we believe the Word of God? Do we take God’s promises to heart, and lean on them in faith? Do we trust that what God says is true and trustworthy? Do we place our hope in the message of Scripture? We can and we should.

Psalm 33:4 CSB

4 For the word of the Lord is right, and all his work is trustworthy.

Psalm 119:160 CSB

160 The entirety of your word is truth, each of your righteous judgments endures forever.

We can trust in the Word of God and the instruction that it gives. In fact, because in ancient thought a person’s words were actually connected directly to their character, their person. God is trustworthy. We can rely on the things that He says and the promises that He makes.

Read the Word. Trust the Word. Believe the Word.

Belshazzar kept his promise to Daniel, even though Daniel said he didn’t want those things. It’s possible that he did this to save face, given that he had made this promise in front of his nobles. But there’s no indication of any repentance or change in his attitude because of the writing on the wall.

And the Word of the Lord came true. But this wasn’t the only word of God that was fulfilled that night. Don’t forget that this occurrence was the first governmental shift as predicted in the dream about the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had back in Daniel 2.

While all of this was happening, the Persian army was outside the walls of Babylon, the seemingly impregnable fortress with walls 25 feet thick and at least 40 feet high. However, they had come up with a plan. The Euphrates River ran right through the Babylonian capital, travelling underneath the walls. Led by the former Babylonian governor turned Persian general Gobyras, as the Persian army besieged the city, they began to engineer the diverting of the Euphrates away from the city and into a nearby marsh. Once the river had been sufficiently lowered, the army was able to wade under the walls and invade the palace without really even a fight.

In fact, Herodotus (5th C. BC) and Xenophon record that a drunken feast was happening when Babylon was taken by Persia, and both suggest that there was perhaps a Babylonian festival that took place at that time, which would have been why the Persians attacked when they did. So on October 12, 539 BC, Belshazzar was put to death, and the Babylonian empire came to an end, subsumed into the Medo-Persian territory.

Daniel 5:30–31 CSB

30 That very night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was killed, 31 and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

We’ll talk more about Darius next week.

Closing

King Belshazzar was not wise. He decided to exalt himself above the Most High God, because he didn’t listen to godly counsel, he didn’t learn from both his mistakes and Nebuchadnezzar’s mistakes, and he had ignored the Word of God. Now a new message from the Word had been given, a word that was every bit as trustworthy, and that spelled doom for Belshazzar. The writing was on the wall for the Babylonian empire—literally.

We must not be like King Belshazzar. But the beginning of that is to be in a relationship with God through faith in Jesus. Jesus died for our sins, taking our place in death so that we can be made right with God. And He rose again so that we can have eternal life with Him. The Bible tells us that the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, following a surprise earthquake, came and asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they responded: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” If God is at work on your heart for believing in Jesus this morning, will you surrender to that work, and trust Jesus as your Savior and Lord? We want to know if that’s you today.

Baptism.

Church membership.

Prayer.

Giving.

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Catch up day for Numbers; Ps 97)… mention that we know in the app when there is a catch up day, it doesn’t let you open the right passage automatically.

Pastor’s Study

Prayer Meeting

Esther Martinez passed away yesterday. Service will be on Wednesday at 11:00 am, with a viewing immediately before.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Psalm 90:12 CSB

12 Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

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