We live in a time much like many other times in our history and yet different than any other time in our history. What I mean by that is that we are still doing things to lose favor with our one true God.
First of all I want to go back to Daniel 5 and look at what was going on in the court of Belshazzar. Outside the once thought city to be impregnable, Cyrus the Great and his ally Darius the Mede were fighting against the king. We can at times be so distracted by our might that we do not pay attention to the world around us. Or we don't care that the world is falling apart outside because our great might has made us callus to the pain around us.
In Daniel 5:2 we read that when Belshazzar tasted the wine he commanded that the vessels of gold be brought into the feast so they could drink the wine from the plunder, so to speak. It is hard to imagine that someone could be this brazen while destruction is going on outside the walls but isn't that the way the world works today? It could also be unimaginable that the world could find pleasure in profiting from the fall of the financial markets in the 2008 stock market crash, but we know that this has happened.
In Daniel 5:5 we can then read that an unknown hand, which was obviously considered to be a miracle at the time, writes on the wall of the palace. King Belshazzar then sends out orders for all who can help him understand what has just happened. Of course this is immediately after his knees knock together with fear.
God can often make gestures of change in our lives as He did in this occurrence, but then there was Daniel, a good man who was able to interpret the image. Who is our Daniel today? Has God sent a Daniel to interpret the writing on the wall or has He left us to destroy each other with our greed for gold and wine? When is there ever enough money? when do we begin to give back a little of what has been given to us? I think it begins with the thought that we did this for ourselves and therefore we deserve all that we get. That statement might come back to haunt you much like the writing on the wall. Perhaps some day soon we will all get what we deserve.
I want to end this story with this final comment, Daniel does interpret the message on the wall to King Belshazzar but it is what he says to him before his interpretation that I feel is important for all of us to hear and that is, "Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another." Daniel is very wise because in his answer he tells the king how to change his life so as to find true peace. We should pay attention to this message because if we treat the world as a place of tranquility and peace, to do for one another as we can with what we have, we shall find a sort of heaven on Earth. Daniel basically says I don't want your gifts, I don't do this for you but for my true King.
One of my favorite songs of all time was by Casting Crowns and it was a song named after that group. In that song the idea of casting our crowns at the feet of Jesus pays homage to the king. Belshazzar called for such things as gold crowns from a previous time a time that he did not have a thing to do with but an inheritance from years past. We accept such riches as our own and we wear them with honor but we dishonor our past by not giving to support people with less than ourselves. We, if we bow to our true master and king, can be given a crown which we can choose to wear or lay at the feet of one more worthy to wear a crown. Most everyone who is worthy to wear a crown knows that he is not worthy.
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