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Word from Scotland
by Sandy Shaw
We are in Daniel Chapter 5 – and now, for Belshazzar the king, it is too late. He cannot do anything about it. The writing is indeed on the wall. Verse 25 .
Nebuchadnezzar got 12months to repent - Belshazzar does not even get 12hours. For him it is doom and disaster and tragedy.
His daring lifestyle and his playing with the things of God have just gone too far. There comes that day when God says – “Enough”.
Daniel reads the verbs - but of course Daniel knows the God Who wrote them -
"Numbered - numbered - weighed - divided." Then he explains and interprets.
God has numbered your days and you are finished.
Weighed - and you are too light - you are not big enough and heavy enough for the job - you are frittering away your life as a playboy.
Divided - God has divided your kingdom and He is going to give it to the Persians.
Why is it so mysterious? Why did God not spell it out? God wants to draw attention to His Word before they understand it. This Word is supernatural - and it needed the gift of interpretation.
All Belshazzar gave Daniel was his medal - this robe – and made him third highest ruler.
These gifts are worthless - what was the point of being third highest ruler in this kingdom which is about to fall? Already the enemy is inside. They dug a channel - and drained off the water - and then went in under the wall.
The last official act of this mighty empire was to honour a man of God - a Jew – a Hebrew – an Israeli - what irony. People thought Babylon would never fall.
Soon Belshazzar is slain - lying in a pool of wine and blood. This had been foretold in Daniel 2 - and in Isaiah 21 - and Jeremiah . Whatever God says must happen.
Babylon fell in a night because of the drunken behaviour of its Emperor.
There was another occasion when the finger of God wrote - John Chapter 8 and verse 6 - stone her - stone her - we have found this woman taken in adultery. But where was the man? Why did they not bring the man? Was he one of them - a member of their club? They had let the man off.
Jesus wrote - I wonder what Jesus wrote - was it - Mene - Mene - Tekel - Parsin? They left - they had been found wanting. To her Jesus said - I will not condemn you - but go and sin no more. Jesus regarded the whole sordid incident as sin.
When we come before God - what should we want to see? "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8 .
When in Christ Jesus, we are on the other side of God's Scales.
“Lord God Almighty – our heavenly Father – we give thanks for the many warnings sounded in Your Holy Word. Thank You for warning Your people regarding the reality and seriousness and danger of sin. Thank You for these truths revealed in the book of Daniel – and for these truths in John’s Gospel and in the letter to the church at Rome. We bow before You in the name of Jesus.” Amen.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.