Daniel 5, Do You Enjoy Yourself?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

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Daniel 5 Do You Enjoy Yourself?

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Daniel chapter 5, repeating the entire chapter, hear the word of the Lord. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.
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Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and the silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
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Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
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They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
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Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace opposite the lampstand, and the king saw the hand as he wrote.
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Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him, and his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
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And the king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
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Then the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation.
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Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
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The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared,
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O king, live forever. Let not your thoughts alarm you, or your color change.
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There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.
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And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters,
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Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems, were found in this
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Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.
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Then Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king answered and said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king, my father, brought from Judah.
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I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.
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Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter.
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But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
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Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another.
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Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the
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Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty, and because of the greatness that he gave him, all people's nations and languages trembled and feared before him.
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Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive. Whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled.
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But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him.
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He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was like that of wild donkeys.
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He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the
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Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you, his son
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Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the
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Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have you brought in before you, and you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the
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God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways you have not honored.
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Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed, mene, mene, tickle, and person.
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This is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
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Tickle, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom is divided and given to the
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Medes and the Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler of the kingdom.
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That very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the
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Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. May the
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Lord add his blessings to the reading of his word. Well, what do you enjoy?
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Well, movies, sports, music maybe, eating. I think we all enjoy that.
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Bowling, basketball, hoops, socializing, reading. How about yourself?
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You enjoy yourself? We commonly tell people to enjoy yourself, but is there a problem with that, enjoying yourself?
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Can you be a Christian and enjoy yourself? Is the goal of the
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Christian life to deprive you of pleasure? Is it to get you to embrace a lack of enjoying yourself?
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Is it to make you into an austere Puritan wearing black and stiff high -button clothes, eating simple food, drinking water, singing only old songs?
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Of course, no, and the Puritans weren't that way either, but sometimes we sound like that is what we believe.
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We decry self -indulgence, and isn't indulging yourself the meaning of getting pleasure, having fun?
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Isn't it? I mean, how do you have fun without indulging yourself? If you're not indulging yourself, can you enjoy yourself?
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That's why we look forward to the weekend, isn't it? You know, maybe having parties or going on vacation, go to concerts for indulging ourselves.
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Do we feel guilty? If you're a Christian, do you feel guilty enjoying things that are not overtly spiritual?
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In the movie Chariots of Fire, a true story, Eric Little preparing for missionary work in China, living in Scotland, but his sister
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Ginny is concerned, she too, a missionary, is concerned that he's too distracted by his athletics.
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He should be so focused on God that he should not have time for running and competition in sports, and finally he tells
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Ginny that he will be a missionary to China, to which she perks up, she's elated by the news, but first he says he's going to try to compete in the
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Olympics, to which she's disappointed. Oh, how could he do that? And she goes,
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Ginny, Ginny, you've got to understand. I believe God made me for a purpose, for China, but he also made me fast, and when
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I run, I feel his pleasure. To win is to honor him.
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Ginny thought if something you enjoy is not overtly spiritual, then it's profane, it's carnal, it's at best a distraction.
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She would want you to confine yourself to spiritual enjoyments. You need to so love long sermons in the
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Bible that this right here, what we're doing, it is a good time for you. When I ask, what do you enjoy?
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You say, well, this is it. This is the highlight of the week. You wish it were longer. Add another hour to your sermon link, please.
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You wish we had a traditional evening service so you come back at night for a second shot at it, and Ginny would say, yeah, that's right, and enjoy reading your
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Bible and taking part in Bible studies and reading books about the Bible like a good Puritan. You seek to enjoy the
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Lord in his ordinances, that is, word and sacraments, and that's where you get all your enjoyment.
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There's no need then, Eric, for sports, for running, competition, for medals, or for us, for movies, for TV, for bowling, for parties, for concerts, for plays, for video games, restaurants, trips to the mountain or the beach.
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Just enjoy spiritual things. That's the only things that you can feel God's pleasure in.
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Eric disagreed. How do you enjoy yourself?
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Well, I do hope you have a love and even an enjoyment of the word of God, of church, of his ordinances.
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Every truly born -again Christian should crave the pure spiritual milk of the word of God, like a baby craves milk,
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Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2. But to believe that that is the only way we get any enjoyment, we should get any enjoyment, is really not right either.
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Eric was right. God made us to enjoy him through all kinds of things.
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Enjoy God through delicious food he's created. That's partly why we thank him for it before we eat it. Enjoy God through the sheer fun of friends and coming together, or through sports you enjoy watching or participating in, the excellence of a good movie or TV show, the beautiful physics of bowling, or the athletic excellence of basketball, or the teamwork of football, the exquisite beauty of fall leaves in a forest in a fall morning, or the simple immensity of the ocean, or the love and pleasure of a spouse, or the freedom of singleness.
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And all these things we can enjoy, not just ourselves, but the
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Lord. And God's word tells us how to do that. Psalm 36 verse 8 says, feast on the abundance of your house, that is where God lives, or his church.
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Feast on it, the Lord is inviting you. And then we pray to him, you Lord, give them, that is us, to drink from the river of your delights.
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Well, the Puritans weren't actually scolds and killjoys. They said the chief end of man is to glorify
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God. And if I stopped there, you would be not surprised at all, would you? But, and enjoy, enjoy him forever.
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Our chief end is to be deprived of joy, or pleasure, or enjoyment, but to have it.
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You can't glorify God without enjoying him. Now, if this church service is dreary to you, this is like a discipline you make yourself do, because you think it's good for you, you aren't glorifying him or worshiping him by being here.
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And you can't, you cannot enjoy him, can't enjoy God without glorifying him.
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Like some who will say that they enjoy God, they fellowship with God, instead of going to church, out and playing golf, or something like that on Sunday mornings.
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They are enjoying something, I guess, but because they aren't obeying God, they aren't glorifying
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God, and so they aren't enjoying God, just themselves. The problem with the profane isn't that you are enjoying something that isn't overtly spiritual,
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Jenny, like a movie, or a sport, or a meal, it's that you're enjoying it without God.
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To be profane is to take God out of what you enjoy.
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So, do you enjoy yourself? Belshazzar was enjoying himself until God showed up and reminded him of who he should be enjoying.
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We see that here in four parts. First, Belshazzar's feast. Second, Belshazzar's forgotten prophet.
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Third, Belshazzar's failure. And finally, Belshazzar's finished.
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First, Belshazzar's, it's all about enjoying yourself. It's a great feast, says for a thousand, that probably means all the top, all the big leaders, all the cool people were there, all the cool kids, the in crowd, with power and money.
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All of them were there. A thousand means lots of them. Lots of women, too. Wives, plural.
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Notice that his wives, more than one, chose what he enjoyed, and concubines. It's all about having a good time so that you've got to have the girls and the wine, right?
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Wine, women, and song. Belshazzar started drinking the wine, opening two verses, starts drinking it, and then gives some kind of toast, and then he has an idea.
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Instead of just drinking from our regular glasses, going more and more drinking, let's drink out of the gold and silver cups that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem.
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How fun that'll be. When they would conquer another people, they would take souvenirs, often some of the idols from the temples that they had captured, just to show, take their idols, you know,
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Baal or whatever, Asherah, from the Philistines or whoever they conquered, to show that their god, our god, who helped us win, is superior to the god of the people, these people we had just conquered.
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But when Nebuchadnezzar came to the temple in Jerusalem, well, there's a problem. There's no statues there.
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There's no idols there. Nothing to take. At least not like that to take, no images. And so he took the gold and the silverware used for the sacrifices and the offerings.
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And now several decades later, now before the other stories of Daniel, probably he's a young man, this is when he's an old man,
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Belshazzar thinks, wow, you know what would be great fun? Using all that stuff
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Nebuchadnezzar got from that temple in Jerusalem for ourselves, you know, reminding us that we conquered
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Jerusalem, reveling in our superiority, thinking about how this cup that had been used to glorify the
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Most High God is now being used to help us enjoy ourselves. And of course, don't forget to toast their gods, to Marduk or to Bel, or Belshazzar, it's actually named after Bel, it's with a
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Bel, and Belshazzar is. Thank Bel, thank Marduk, thank whoever else, whatever god they had a statue for around that palace.
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Idols of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone, in verse 4, thank them all for giving us this fine silverware, these cups, chalices from Jerusalem, maybe sing a song, and just let the good times roll.
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Well, their gods had given them victory and let them enjoy themselves, they thought. Now some people today, even around us, think that their gods, their superstitions, whatever they have faith in, are just as good or better than the
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Lord at giving them success, giving them prosperity, making their business boom, their stocks to perform, giving them a good home, good house.
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So they'll thank whatever it is they believe in, whatever superstitions they believe in, their ancestors, their cultural gods,
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Taoist gods, Buddha, whatever, the idols of ceramic or plastic or paper, they'll thank those ancestors, the ancestral tablet.
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After all, these gods, they think, have made me successful. And people who are all about themselves enjoy whatever god helps them enjoy themselves.
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That's what they put their faith in. Who's going to help me have more money, have more pleasure, whatever god that is,
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I'll believe in that. Mammon, money, that's the god they might believe in. Here, the gods they praised were the ones that they believe had given them a good time.
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The gods of that temple in Jerusalem, that god, that singular god, him they didn't care about because they had his cups, they had his bowls, they're drinking out of them, they're reveling in them.
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He must have failed. His temple was conquered. We took his stuff. We're superior. Our gods are superior to that god.
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He doesn't help them enjoy themselves, so they profane his things. They commit profanity.
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Now, profanity isn't just using crude Anglo -Saxon one -syllable words that some people find offensive.
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Properly, profanity is taking something that is holy and using it in a common way, as if it's not special.
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Something that's supposed to be set aside for a particular purpose, particularly for god, using it for ourselves to enjoy ourselves with.
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Something that god has ordered to be for him, for his worship, whether here for the cups or for us, maybe his name, his word, prayer, the church, the
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Lord's Supper, the sermon, and something that's holy and then using it for whatever purpose we think is more important, more enjoyable, more to our usefulness.
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Maybe the sermon, use it for politics, talking about who you should be voting for, this kind of thing. That's making it something holy into something common, to treat them like common ordinary things for our entertainment to help us enjoy ourselves.
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That is to profane them. That's why Christians ought to be much more offended by a casual mention of god as in, oh my, than by many of the crude language, the crude terms that were supposed to be profanity.
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His word is just another book on our shelves to be used as a prop or a coffee table or to be quoted out of context inaccurately to support our preconceived ideas.
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His church isn't just a social club where we go for entertainment like a theater or a political place where we go to hear the politics we want to hear.
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Some want to use the church to serve something else and they almost always want to use it for something good. Patriotism, that's good.
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They like to use it for that. I think patriotism is great. Kids in school need to begin the day with a respectful pledge of allegiance, begin sporting events with the national anthem.
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But some want to use the church for that and they will sing patriotic songs in church with the same zeal that they sing songs to the
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Lord. They'll adore the flag in church. They want to do that with the same adoration that they show to the
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Lord, maybe even more. I was once asked at another church if I would be offended if a military color guard brought in with their guns and the kind of way they marched forward with their flags.
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They're supposed to pray down the church as we all stood up and looked respectfully. They asked me about the guns, taking for granted that the flags were okay.
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They didn't think about asking about that and I thought, no I'm not offended by the guns. We might even need guns sometimes, who knows.
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But there's no need to have a flag in the church. The church is holy. It belongs to the
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Lord only. That is profaning it. It's using it for another loyalty to give respect to something else besides the
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Lord. Here they're using the holy things in an unholy way just to have a good time, to show their superiority to the
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God, praising their inanimate gods at the same time. Gods who didn't mind if you enjoy yourself.
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Gods they thought existed to help you enjoy yourself. They're enjoying themselves up until God shows up.
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The one won't let us use him just to enjoy ourselves.
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He shows up in the form of fingers writing on the wall. So apparently on the plaster. Maybe there was fresh plaster put up and he was writing into it so it's still wet.
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And suddenly there was no more good times. Belshazzar's color changed. In verse 6, he was terrified. His body became limp.
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His knees knocked together. Recovering a bit in verse 7, he cries out horrified, bring in the enchanters, the
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Chaldeans and the astrologers. They're the specialists. They'll help us with this stuff. He offers an enormous reward to anyone who can decipher the meaning of the handwriting on the wall.
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They'll be clothed with purple. That's the royal color. So basically he promises they'll be made now part of the nobility and have a chain of gold around their neck and shall be third ruler.
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They'll be number three after him. This guy Belshazzar is actually number two. His father kind of semi -resigned and went into retirement.
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Father first, him, Belshazzar, and now whoever can decipher this will be number three in the kingdom.
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The band has stopped. No one has any more appetite for wine. The laughter and the games have come to an end.
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Suddenly what had been a roaring party all about enjoying oneself became a deadly serious gathering focused on like a laser beam on finding out what the handwriting on the wall meant.
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But just as in chapters 2 and 4, they can't. These specialists, these magicians, these enchanters, these people who specialize in priests of some god is supernatural.
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They're helpless. They don't know what to make of it. In verse 8, all the king's wise men came in and couldn't figure it out.
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And all this superstition that they believed so much in, they believed in so much they had the staff of them, they funded them, they paid them, they had them around for this purpose.
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But it was good at helping them enjoy themselves, but it couldn't tell them what they really wanted to know.
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And that's the difference between superstition and real devotion to the
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Lord. The Lord will demand that you glorify and enjoy. Yes, you can enjoy.
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You enjoy Him. That everything you enjoy from sports to family to your nation to food and to drink, you enjoy as a way of enjoying and glorifying
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God. Then in it, in whatever you enjoy, you feel
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God's pleasure. Superstition, on the other hand, magic, astrology, psychics, all these kind of people, they exist to help you enjoy yourself, to give you what you want for your self -enjoyment.
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You know, someone maybe wants to someone else get make someone else fall in love with them, or they want somehow the trick to being prosperous, to being rich, or they want to be healed.
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It's all about them. And then some people with the same mentality come to the Lord and they want to use the
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Lord for the same thing, to make someone fall in love with them or to prosper them or to heal them as though God exists to help them enjoy themselves.
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And that's profane. Well, here it didn't work.
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The enchanters, the magicians, the astrologers couldn't figure out what the handwriting on the wall meant. It's the same today.
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Superstitions, the charms, Feng Shui, ancestor veneration, filial piety,
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Taoism, kitchen gods, Buddhism, whatever, talismans, magic, whatever, that seemed like they were working, seemed like it was helping me prosper, it was that the business was going well, the house was, the family was succeeding, everything's fun, the party is cranking, but they all show themselves to be empty when the handwriting on the wall shows up.
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For Belshazzar in verse 9, now he's even more, even more, notice that, after these superstitious people, these magicians, these priests, whatever, come in and they can't figure it out, he's even more greatly alarmed and his color changed.
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It had changed before, so now he's gone from pale to paler. He's probably white like a sheep by now.
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And his lords, his underlings at the party, were perplexed. They don't know what's going on.
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When the party this world tries to distract you with, right, the world is trying to distract you with its party going on, when that crash is, it's crashed by God, those who have spent their life enjoying themselves will be left pale and perplexed.
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Second, the forgotten prophet from verses 10 to 16. When Belshazzar's feast came to a screeching halt, pale and perplexed, the superstitions didn't help, he is reminded of the forgotten prophet.
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In verse 10, the queen, perhaps the queen mother, in other words probably Belshazzar's mother, comes in and reminds
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Belshazzar of Daniel. So she's older, she would remember him. In chapter 4, Daniel was the head of the wise men, he was the leader of them.
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But here, and when he finally comes in, remember in chapter 4 he came in, Nebuchadnezzar said, at last, the head guy, he really has it, he's for real.
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But here, everyone is looking around, we don't know what to do. Finally the older lady comes in, the queen, and she says,
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Daniel, you need Daniel. This is many decades later, Daniel has been replaced, he's ignored and forgotten.
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Daniel was the one, after all, unlike the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers, today unlike psychics,
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Daniel, unlike them, kept reminding them about a most high God who's above the stars, who controls the stars, so don't look to the stars for your future, who doesn't exist to help us enjoy ourselves, but we exist to enjoy him.
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Daniel kept reminding every one of him, and so they let him slide into being forgotten.
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And by this time he is so forgotten, when Belshazzar's wise men can't figure out the handwriting on the wall, they don't know what to do, they don't know where to turn.
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Only the queen does. The queen reminds Belshazzar of Daniel, describing him in verses 11 and 12, just like he had been described in chapter 4 by Nebuchadnezzar.
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Remember? The spirit of the holy gods is in him. It's kind of pagan language, but that's the way they thought. And so Daniel is brought in.
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Verse 13 is probably actually a question, the king asking him, are you really
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Daniel? And so even though he's heard of Daniel, which shows us that Belshazzar doesn't know
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Daniel personally, hasn't met him yet, apparently, so he has to check if all these things he sort of, kind of, remembers hearing about.
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He remembers kind of some of those stories that are true. I have heard of you. He says twice in verses 14 and 16.
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You know, it's foggy. I don't really, I didn't really pay too much attention. I don't remember so well, but I've heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems.
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He then repeats the promise of a great reward clothed in purple that's made part of the royalty and given a golden chain and promoted to be number three in the whole kingdom.
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Everyone would want that, he assumes, because everyone is living to enjoy themselves, right?
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But Daniel isn't. He's living to glorify God and enjoy him.
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Besides, Daniel knows what the words mean, and he knows that they mean
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Belshazzar is finished. But first, the third part,
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Belshazzar's failure from verses 17 to 23. Belshazzar has failed to remember that there is a
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Most High God who gave Nebuchadnezzar this vast empire that now
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Belshazzar enjoys, takes for granted, and he enjoys it for himself in verses 18 and 19, that the
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Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. God gave it to him.
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Nebuchadnezzar learned that. Daniel here describes for us what sovereignty is like.
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Nebuchadnezzar could have one person killed. He could have one person allowed to live. That's sovereignty. He gets to decide on who lives and who dies.
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And he said, and in all that sovereignty that Nebuchadnezzar exercised, he forgot the one who was sovereign over him.
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And then he learned that when he became insane, everything we read about last week.
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And twice Daniel uses the word gave, that God gave Nebuchadnezzar all the power that he had.
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And the whole story of chapter 4 we heard last week is recounted to a king, recounted to Belshazzar who should know it, who's heard it before, but has willfully forgotten it.
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And it's repeated from verses 20 and 21, but how Nebuchadnezzar was proud, boasting of how all this, this kingdom, this earth existed for my glory,
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Nebuchadnezzar thought, so that I can enjoy myself. When he was then made insane without even the power of his own mind, before he had power to kill people, now he didn't even have power to stay sane.
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Remember, he's a human being thinking now he's a grazing animal living out under the stars. That continued until, he sums it up in verse 21,
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Nebuchadnezzar knew that the most high God rules the kingdoms of mankind and sets over it whom he will.
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People like you, Belshazzar. Belshazzar had known all this, he had heard it, but he had failed to remember it.
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We have today many people who have heard of what God has done. Maybe they're raised in church, they've been to Sunday school, they know some
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Bible stories, they've heard that there's a most high God, they've heard that they've sinned against him, and that there is a coming judgment, but right now they're too busy enjoying themselves to remember all that stuff, they kind of forget it as they go about their life.
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They're too busy making money or going to school or dating or marriage or family or career or just having a good time, and so they fail to remember.
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Like a child who puts his hands over his eyes, imagining that if he can't see you, then you can't see him. They think that if they can forget
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God, then maybe God will forget them, but it doesn't work. And when the party comes crashing down, they desperately need to know what to do now, what is happening now.
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They may have so forgotten that they can't remember even to seek the Word of God.
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They can't remember where to find the Word of God. Can't remember that God has spoken.
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Unless someone comes along to remind them. Daniel reminds
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Belshazzar what he has failed to remember, that Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled until he knew that the most high God rules over the kingdoms of mankind and gives it, gives it to whom he will.
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God is sovereign. He is the king. Now, because Belshazzar has failed to remember that, he has, in verse 23, lifted up himself against, that is, opposition to the
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Lord of heaven. He looks for astrologers who thinks he can tell him what heaven is going to do.
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No, go to the Lord of heaven, whom he's forgotten. He thought he was a master of the universe, but in so thinking, he opposed the true master of the universe.
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In his arrogance, he thought he could take the things that God had given to Nebuchadnezzar, the holy things in the temple, and that he could use them profanely, use them to party with, use them to enjoy himself with wine, women, and song, singing praise not to the
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God who gave him those things but to the lifeless statues, the idols, the ancestors, the
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Buddhas, superstitions that promised them they could enjoy themselves. It's that God, Daniel tells
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Belshazzar, who holds your very breath in his hand, at the end of verse 23, in whose hand is your breath, he holds your respiration.
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At any moment, he can let go, and you stop breathing the moment -by -moment continuation of your respiration.
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Even while you enjoy yourself in your profanity, saluting your idols, your breath is a gift from him.
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In his hand are your ways. Also in verse 23, that is,
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God is sovereign over everything you do. And yet at the end of that verse,
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Belshazzar, you have not honored him.
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He honored all those other gods but not the Lord of heaven. Belshazzar, like many people today, lived his life to enjoy himself.
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He never thought of living to enjoy God, for God's glory. It wasn't that he had pleasure that was the problem.
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Understand, he's not being condemned because he enjoyed pleasure. His problem isn't that he drank wine or he liked women or at a party.
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The problem wasn't that he has pleasure. His problem was what he had pleasure for himself.
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The gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone today, mammon, money, business, success, ancestors,
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Buddha, whatever, let us enjoy ourselves. The enchanters, the
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Chaldeans, the astrologers, the priests of other religions let him live as if his chief end was to glorify himself and enjoy himself.
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And so that's what he did, conveniently forgetting the one that he knew he had heard would have him humble himself and glorify the
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Most High God. So Belshazzar's feast ends. Belshazzar's forgotten prophet reappears.
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Belshazzar's failure to remember is exposed, and at the end, fourth,
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Belshazzar is finished. Daniel finally interprets the handwriting on the wall from the god you failed to honor,
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Belshazzar. From that god, the hand was sent, starting in verse 24.
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The writing is four words in Aramaic, mene, mene, tickle, and person.
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Now first, he would have noticed, Belshazzar would have noticed, and all the people around him would have noticed, they're each measurements of weight and money, and they're in descending order, like a ton, a ton, a pound, and an ounce, or a dollar, a dollar, a dime, and a cent.
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This suggests diminishing and decline. They also have another meaning when said another way.
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Mene means numbered. It's repeated, mene, mene, to emphasize that God has really seriously put an end, a number, a limit on his kingdom.
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It is finished twice, so it's irrevocable. Tickle means weighed.
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Daniel says, verse 27, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting an empty life, given over merely to pursuing pleasure for oneself, money for oneself.
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Maybe religious, but using the gods for oneself to get what you want is profane, and honoring only what helps us enjoy ourselves.
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That kind of life is weightless. When it's weighed, it's found that there's no reason to keep it.
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It is finished. Peres means, or person, means divided.
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Sounds like the Aramaic word and the English word, for that matter, for Persia. Your kingdom is going to be divided and given over to the
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Medes and the Persians. That's the interpretation. All to the point,
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Belshazzar, that you are finished. But Belshazzar could do one more thing.
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He wouldn't repent or humble himself, but he kept his promise, probably over Daniel's protest. He gave him a royal purple, a golden chain, and he was proclaimed to be the third most powerful person in the empire, which showed that Belshazzar didn't really believe the handwriting on the wall.
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Daniel had just said he was finished. Belshazzar gives him a job. It's like being given a, you know, made vice president of a company that goes bankrupt the very next day.
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Belshazzar still thinks he has a future, but he doesn't. The feast has ended with a forgotten prophet promoted, but the proclamation didn't last long.
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That very night, Belshazzar was assassinated, perhaps by a coup of his own lords, maybe some of the very guests in the same party conspiring with the invading
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Persians who were right at that moment at the gates of the city, or maybe by infiltrators from the Persian army sneaking into the city by diverting the
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Tigris River. Either way, just like that, Babylon fell.
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The entire empire falls into the hands of the Medes and the Persians, and another man,
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Darius the Mede, takes over. The Lord having now decided to give him the kingdom.
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Belshazzar was finished because he merely enjoyed himself, and he used the gods to help him enjoy himself, even trying to use the most high god to enjoy himself, instead of glorifying the god who can be enjoyed.
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Belshazzar's feast is now set before you, and many people live every day for that feast.
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They're at the edge of the grave. They're desperate to enjoy themselves, so intent on finding the next pleasure, whether wild pleasures of the party or the more respectable pleasures of business, success, family, and religion, career.
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Either way, they forget the word of God. They fail to honor God. They may even profane
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God by using him, trying to use him for their health or their wealth, or to keep the family together, or to salute the flag, to instill patriotism, to promote the politics they're sure is necessary to keep the nation strong.
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Anything other than humble themselves before the most high god, believe that he sets up governments and he takes them down.
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There are all kinds of ways that people pursue their own happiness, seeking above all to enjoy themselves, but whether it's to be wild or respectable, both miss the point.
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A life lived for enjoying ourselves, wild or respectable, is an empty life that will be weighed and found wanting, weightless.
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It is finished. Our chief end is not ourselves, but to honor
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God and enjoy him forever. Belshazzar's feast is set before you now, and now it tempts you to forget
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God, to enjoy something else instead of God. We may have heard the stories like this, that we send an incense to holy
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God who holds our breath in our hands, holds our ways, our life in his hands, and that there is a judgment.
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Our days are numbered, and if we've lived for ourselves, our lives will be weighed and found wanting, empty, weightless, and that the only hope for us is if the punishment for our sins would be poured out on a sinless man who had been weighed and found weighty, and the
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Father declare, in him I am well pleased that someone the
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Father enjoyed, was pleased with, could give his blood for our forgiveness.
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We've heard, but Belshazzar's feast tempts us to forget, while the prophets, even the greatest prophet,
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Jesus himself, still speaks. Two feasts are before you now,
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Belshazzar's tempting you to forget God and enjoy yourself, and the other, the great feast, the marriage supper of the
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Lamb, foreshadowed by the Lord's supper, telling you to remember Jesus, to glorify
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God, and enjoy him forever. Which will you dine at?