Writing on the Wall

With every day, history is quickly approaching the day of God’s justice. For all who reject God in their pride (remember last week’s discussion), there is only the justice and judgement of God. But for those who turn to God and trust in Jesus Christ as the bearer of their judgment, there is forgiveness of sin and fullness of life. In Daniel 5, King Nebuchadnezzar has died and his son, Belshazzar, has become king. Belshazzar decides to throw a party and worship gods that were not the true God. At the party a hand appeared and wrote on the wall in front of Belshazzar and his guests. No one could read what the hand had written so King Belshazzar called his magicians and enchanters to see if anyone could read what the hand had written. Still, nobody could read the writing, so the queen said to have Daniel read it because he had interpreted dreams for King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel came to read the writing and told the king he had not learned from his father’s mistakes and that the days of his kingdom were numbered. King Belshazzar was grateful and rewarded Daniel well. However, that same night the king was killed, and Darius the Mede became the new king. Here we see King Belshazzar did not learn from his father’s mistakes and chose to worship false gods. We have all worshipped false gods and God does not like it when we choose to do so.  However, our God is a God of mercy who offers us forgiveness in Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross, He brought justice to all of our false worship. In this chapter, a great kingdom crumbles in the midst of its pomp and pride. From this passage we get the phrase, “the writing is on the wall.” In other words, the end and judgement are on their way. It was on the wall for Babylon, and it’s on the wall for all of history. Thus, the call is to turn and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.