Tues.’s Devo - The End of Belshazzar

Read: Daniel 5:1-31; 2 Peter 2:1-22; Psalm 119:113-128; Proverbs 28:19-20 A new king named Belshazzar had come to rule in Babylon. He gave a feast for 1000 of his nobles. He had his servants bring the gold cups that they had stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem. These were sacred cups that just the priests were to drink from. With them, they offered toasts to their gods. Suddenly a hand wrote a message on the wall: “Mene, mene, tekel, epharsin.” *** The king was frozen in fear and called for his magicians to interpret it. When they couldn’t do it, the queen ran in and told Belshazzar that she knew of a man who Nebuchadnezzar had used to solve his difficult mysteries. He had the spirit of the gods in him. *** They brought Daniel in and the king told him he would give him a purple robe and a gold chain for his neck and great honor if he could tell him what it meant. *** Daniel told the king he could keep his gifts, but he could tell him the answer. First he told him the story of what Nebuchadnezzar had to go through to learn that God was the Most High God who rules over the kingdoms of the world and he appoints whoever he desires to rule them. He, Belshazzar should have known this but instead chose to defy God by drinking from his sacred cups. *** The message meant that his days were numbered. God had judged his rule and it had not measured up to his standard so God was going to give his kingdom to the Medes and the Persians. *** Belshazzar gave Daniel the gifts he had promised, and that night Belshazzar was killed and Darius the Mede took over his kingdom. *** In Second Peter, Peter warns them of false teachers who teach destructive heresies and deny Jesus. They teach immorality and slander the truth. They are bringing judgment and destruction on themselves. *** God did not spare the angels when they rebelled but threw them into hell. He also did not spare the people during Noah’s day when he destroyed the earth with the flood. God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made all of these examples of his judgement on the ungodly. So, God will surely judge these unholy teachers. *** But, God also knows how to save his godly, like Lot who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness of the people in Sodom. He knows how to rescue his people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. *** They will be caught like the evil animals they are and their reward will be their destruction. The list of their evils is astounding. God calls them wells without water - useless. When they heard the truth, they couldn’t continue in it and went back to their own nature. *** Lord, help us to love our enemies but discern what is evil and stay away from it. We take shelter in your wings and rejoice in your ways.