November 28th

November 28th

"You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! So God has sent this hand to write this message. "This is the message that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is what these words mean: Mene means 'numbered'—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end. Tekel means 'weighed'—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Parsin means 'divided'—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians." (‭Daniel‬ ‭5‬:‭22-28‬ NLT)

So, Nebuchadnezzar was called "God's instrument" in some of our readings. Belshazzar was not, and God did not love anything that was going on. Belshazzar took idolatry to another level, and God took offense to it. He wrote on the wall, and that writing was final. Belshazzar's doom was finalized. And quick it was. The teaching that I think we can get out of today is that when God warns of certain doom, we need to repent. If King Belshazzar turned his life around after this warning, we would have seen a different result. God gives us opportunity to turn around, and when He does that we need to NOT sit on a decision. Our life could be taken that very night. God wants to see change, it is our duty to change.

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