Jump Start # 2651

Daniel 5:22 “Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this”

Our passage today takes us to the final days of the Babylonian empire. That once powerful, beautiful and enormous kingdom was coming to an end. This was not new news. Isaiah had prophesied this. The great Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream in which this was revealed. And, now, all these years later, it happens.

By this time, Nebuchadnezzar has died. A quick turn-around of several kings revealed the unsteady and turbulent times that the nation was going through. Belshazzar was the last. He wasn’t truly the king. His father was. His father was out fighting battles and had a palace in another location. Belshazzar was left to run the city, or more accurately, to ruin the city. As the Persians and Medes marched closer and closer to the city, the foolish Belshazzar throws a drunken feast for a thousand of his nobles. Either clueless to how close the enemy was or so arrogant that he thought Babylon was untouchable, he drank the night away. He called for the vessels of God taken from the Jerusalem temple by Nebuchadnezzar. They drink and toast the gods of Babylon from those stolen cups. A hand appears out of no where. Words are written where everyone can see. The king falls apart in fear. His wise men are brought in but they are unable to make sense of the words. Daniel, for the third time in this book, comes and interprets.

It is from this event that we get those great expressions, “handwriting on the wall,” “weighed in the balances,” and “days are numbered.” But Daniel does something this time that he didn’t do when interpreting for Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel preaches. He thumps Belshazzar for being a fool and not glorifying the God that gave him the breath in his body. Daniel tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar, arrogant and proud, but God brought him low. He lost his mind. He ate grass like cattle. His hair and nails grew long. When he learned his lesson, God restored him to the throne. It was God who put Nebuchadnezzar there. It was God who is the supreme ruler of the universe. And, it is here where Daniel say, “You knew this.” You knew that story. It was not locked up in the achieves. Nebuchadnezzar had published this and sent it throughout the empire. Belshazzar knew. He knew but it didn’t change him. He knew but it didn’t impact him. He knew but he lived and acted as if he didn’t know.

And, what a great lesson for us.

First, God has kept the stories of failures in the Bible so we don’t have to walk down those same dead end streets and make the same mistakes ourselves. Judas betraying. Peter denying. Ananias lying. Nadab worshipping differently. Eve talking to serpents. Demas returning to the world. All of these wrecks upon the highway of life are lessons for us. You know these things, yet do we follow in these same steps?

Second, people have this underlining belief that they are different than others. What happen to them won’t happen to me. Nebuchadnezzar’s pride brought him low. Did Belshazzar think his pride would be overlooked? Did he think it was different now? Paul told Timothy that elders who continued to remain in sin were to be rebuked publically. This would cause others to be fearful of sinning. Others would take it to heart. Others would learn. Belshazzar knew, but it didn’t do him any good.

Third, this is how one generation helps the next. This is how parents help their children. This is how older Christians help younger Christians. When we hide our mistakes and paint the picture of perfection, those younger feel that they can never live up to that standard. Some quit trying. The truth is, we all have struggled, fought temptation, had bad days and have made the wrong choices. Being honest, open and clear can help others. They will find us easier to talk to. They will find us being real. They will find us as being success stories. Only Jesus is perfect. We need to stop trying to out do the Lord because we never can.

Fourth, knowing and doing are two different actions in our lives. Belshazzar knew. But he never acted upon what he knew. He might as well had not known. What he knew didn’t help him. The reason is, knowledge is only good if it becomes action. Knowing something doesn’t help you if you ignore what you learned. The same is for us. We can know the Bible. We sit through Bible classes and hear dozens of sermons. We take notes. We write things in our Bibles. Our heads are full of knowledge. But does that knowledge translate into better behavior and actions. Has that knowledge calmed our anger? Has that knowledge made us purer? Has that knowledge opened our hearts and our hands in compassion? I know and I do are not the same.

The judgment scene of Matthew 25 is about what one has done. I was hungry and you fed. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was in prison and you visited. It was about action. The story of the good Samaritan ends with the Lord saying, “Go and do thou likewise.” He didn’t say, “go home and think about this.” No. Go repeat this. Go do this. Paul told the Galatians, as we have opportunity let us do good to all, especially those of the household of faith. Do good. Titus was told to encourage others to engage in good deeds. Over and over and over the N.T. teaches the lessons about doing what we know.

Belshazzar knew. It didn’t change him. He wasn’t any better for knowing. He died that very night. The night the hand appeared was his last night. It wasn’t a call to repent. It was too late for that. He should have known.

Could the same be said of us? We ought to put into action the things that we know.

Roger

Jump Start # 2030

Daniel 5:22 “Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all of this.”

I’ve been preaching through Daniel. Our verse today was part of my sermon yesterday. Up to this point in Daniel, the king has been Nebuchadnezzar. Now, time has marched on. Other kings have come and gone. Belshazzar is running the kingdom while his father is out on travels. Belshazzar is more likely the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.

During a massive banquet that he throws, he calls for the vessels that were taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Those articles of God are used to toast the Babylonian gods. Irreverent, shameful and blasphemous, they mock God and believe that their gods have made them untouchable. It is at this point that a hand appear and four words are written on the wall. No person. No face. Just a hand. The powerful king is unable to stop it. He doesn’t understand what the words mean. Fear ruins his banquet. Experts are called in and no one understands the words that were written on the wall. Someone remembers Daniel, now an old man, who interpreted the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel is brought in. He retells the story of how the proud and boastful Nebuchadnezzar lost his sanity and ate grass like a cow until he recognized God as the absolute ruler. His place and his mind was restored when he humbled himself. It is here that our verse is found. Daniel tells the present king, you have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all of this. The words, Aramaic financial terms, was a message from God. The Babylonian dynasty was finished. You, the king, are deficient spiritually. The kingdom is given to the Medes. That very night, the Babylonian king was killed and the Medes took over the power structure.

Our verse is so powerful for us. That ending expression, “even though you knew all of this,” cuts to our hearts. Belshazzar knew about Nebuchadnezzar. He knew what lessons God had taught the king. Yet, he ignored all of that.

On a large scale we see applications of this all around us. Here is a guy who watched his parents smoke themselves to death. And, he smokes just the same. He has not learned any lessons. Or, here is a guy who grew up in the home of a drunk. He saw all the trouble that came with that. Yet, today he walks in the same steps, even though you knew all of this.

But spiritually, the lessons are astounding.

Here is someone who grew up in a family that rarely talked about spiritual things. The Bible was not the center piece of the home. Worshipping God was not a regular activity of that home. Prayers were not said very often. Now, years later, in his own life, work, kids, and sports have filled his time. He finds himself walking in the very same shadows as he grew up. He is doing the same things, even though he knew all of this.

There are some reasons for that:

First, even though one knows, some how they think it will be different for them. The smoker thinks he will escape the diseases that come from smoking. The Christian who doesn’t take advantage of the opportunities that a congregation offers him, thinks everything will turn out fine some how. Even though he knows, he believes it will be different for him. It usually isn’t different. His heart, his home, his life, reflects the choices that he has made. Some will grow up and be just as weak as their parents were. Some will follow the very mistakes that they read about in the lives of the Bible characters.

Second, knowing, isn’t the same thing as doing. It takes effort, time and will power to make the changes that will bring positive results. Many can talk a good game, but they come up short in the doing department. They can spend a long time in the huddle, discussing what ought to be done, but in the end, nothing does get done. We can sit in a Bible class or listen to a sermon about the lukewarm Christians who lived in Laodicea. We can talk about the signs of lukewarmness. We can talk about what prevents lukewarmness. We can talk about the solutions to being lukewarm. Powerful studies. We go home, and do nothing with that information. The class papers are tossed. The sermon is soon forgotten. We drift along, ourselves bordering on being lukewarm, and nothing changes. Knowing isn’t the same as doing.

Third, there are those who take what they learned to heart and they become what God wants. This is why we constantly retell those great and powerful stories from the Bible. They were written for our instruction. They are examples, good and bad for us. We don’t have to make the same mistakes as others. We don’t have to be the product of our times. We don’t have to think like everyone else thinks. We don’t have to do what comes naturally. We can transcend all of that. We can be renewed in our minds. The inner man can be renewed day by day. The spiritual knows these things and makes the appropriate changes. He doesn’t need to wait for the calendar to change to a new year to make resolutions, he is doing that weekly. He is adjusting as he learns. Better attitudes. Kinder words. More thankful. A better servant. Over and over he learns and over and over, the better he becomes. He is not just following the path of others, he is following the path of the Savior. He is making a new path for his family. He knows and so he changes his life.

Unlike Belshazzar, who refused to humble his heart, even though he knew, God’s people are humbling themselves. They know the same lesson that Belshazzar knew, but they have chosen to honor and exalt God. Belshazzar knew, but did nothing with what he knew. God’s people are growing, changing and getting better all the time.

This is a powerful reason for Bible classes and Biblical sermons. We need to know. Based upon what we know, we become. Those old, old lessons still work. They still touch the heart that is honest and good.

Belshazzar was a fool. He died that very night. His lavish, blasphemous banquet became his last supper and he didn’t even realize it. How can a king be partying while the enemy are outside the walls? How did he not know? Asleep at the wheel of life. Oblivious to what is going on around him. Ignoring the things that he knew. How many today, are following in those same steps? Partying through life, laughing all the way, while judgment sits just outside the walls.

Even though he knew…

Roger