LORD’S DAY, MAY 6
Daniel 5:25-29
Psalm 139:23-24

“Search me, O God …”

SUSPENSE AND SENTENCE

What suspense must have gripped the proud king Belshazzar as he waited for the inscription on the wall to be read. Have you been through something similar, such as waiting for examination results, having failed the last several times, or the doctor’s diagnosis when cancer is suspected? The suspense could be worse than the sentence!

For Belshazzar, moments of suspense climaxed in a solemn sentence. There were three parts to the sentence:

1. MENE, MENE. “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it” (Dan 5:26). Your kingdom’s days are numbered, the end has come, the countdown has begun.

2. TEKEL. “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting” (Dan 5:27). Calvin commented: “Thou thinkest thy dignity must be spared, since all men revere thee; thou thinkest thyself worthy of honor; thou art deceived says he, for God judges otherwise; God does not use a common scale, but holds his own, and there thou art found deficient.”

3. PERES. “Thy Kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians” (Dan 5:28). “Your mighty kingdom of Babylon shall be brought to an end by the united power of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus.”

GOD’S JUDGMENT SURE

God’s sentence on Belshazzar must have come as a bolt from the blue, but he accepted Daniel’s verdict, for he recognized that it was true, as it was from God. He could not escape His sure judgment.

Here is a lesson for all of us: King or commoner, no matter who you are, everyone will be weighed in God’s scales. None can escape. Will you be found wanting? Can any of us be good enough in God’s sight? The answer is: outside Christ, no. In Christ, yes.

THOUGHT: When God judges me, how will I fare?
PRAYER: Help me, Lord, to always judge myself against Thy Holy Word.