Tues.’s Devo - Judgement

Read: Daniel 5:1-31; 2 Peter 2:1-22; Psalm 119:113-128; Proverbs 28:19-20
Belshazzar was the son of Nebuchadnezzar so he had heard of how God had humbled his father by taking his mind, but it hadn’t affected they way he lived. He had also heard of stories of how Daniel interpreted dreams yet he hadn’t paid attention to them either. He was strictly living in the moment and making his own mistakes instead of learning from the past. He sounds like most of us.
This story gives us the meaning behind the statement “written on the wall”. As Belshazzar’s men were drinking out of the goblets stolen from the temple of the Lord and worshipping the gods of gold and silver, God wrote with his hand on the wall. The wall he chose to write on was the one that had engravings of all the exploits that the Babylonians had accomplished. God was putting his stamp of disapproval on Belshazzar’s reign. He did it by the candlestick that had been taken from the temple of the Lord. The candlestick is a symbol of revelation and God was giving them divine revelation.
The queen mother would have been Nebuchadnezzar’s wife and Belshazzar’s mother so she well remembered Daniel and all he had done. She had him called and God gave Daniel the interpretation. King Belshazzar’s days had been numbered and weighed in a balance. He had been found lacking so God was going to take his kingdom from him and give it to the Medes and the Persians. The Medes and the Persians were the shoulders of silver that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his vision.
Daniel was clothed in purple, had a gold chain placed around his neck and was promoted to third in the kingdom. Second place went to the son of the king. That very night Belshazzar was killed and his kingdom taken by the Medes and Persians. Daniel’s prophesy was coming true.
Peter warned them of false prophets and of how God judges. He started with the angels that were judged for rebelling with Satan and were put in dungeons in hell. The people of Noah’s day were also judged by the flood for their rebellion and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were judged by fire. God rescued Lot from the vexation of Sodom’s sin. God knows how to rescue us also from the sins we see every day in our lives. We have to remember that the men who live to sin will be punished and judged one day. They are only slaves of their own sins and they are the ones to be pitied.
Lord, help us to walk with a clean soul and with joy because we know the end reward.