Weighed on
the Scales
Dan. 5:1-6
Introduction:
Daniel 5
1.
Enjoying his feast (1-4)
2.
Revealing his fear (5-9)
3.
Discovering his future (10-29)
4.
Suffering his fate (30-31)
What
do the words mean?
·
Mene, mene: God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to
it.
·
Tekel: you have been weighed on the scales and found
deficient.
·
Upharsin: your kingdom has been divided and given over to
the Medes and Persians.
Two
huge walls around the city protected the Babylonians. The inner wall was 21 ft. thick and 300 ft. high. Chariots could ride down them.
Darius
and the Medes had spent months outside the walls, digging. The Babylonians, thinking they were secure,
ignored the enemy and got drunk at their feasts.
This
very night in 537 B.C., Darius (under Cyrus the Persian) took Babylon by
diverting the riverbed and going under the city gates. They slew Belshazzar.
Practical
Lessons:
I.
Drinking wine will trigger foolish acts
1.
Belshazzar was a young man filled with power, lust and
consumed with pleasure.
2.
Intoxication loosens the tongue, loosens the will power, and
loosens the moral restrictions men have in sober times.
3.
Eph. 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is
dissipation,
4.
Prov. 23:29-35 who has woe and sorrow?
II.
Children are often like their parents and grandparents
1.
"Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your
heart, even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the
Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and
you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine
from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron,
wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand
are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.”
2.
Parents, be
careful of the example you set before your children. Pride begets pride.
Rebellion begets rebellion.
Power hunger begets power hunger.
Focus on pleasure begets focus on
pleasure.
3.
Will your children make the same mistakes you make? Likely they
will.
4.
Will your children learn to love God if you do? Likely they
will.
III.
Better the blessing of God than the gifts of kings
1.
What Belshazzar offered (5:16): “Now if you are able to read
the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed
with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have
authority as the third ruler in the kingdom."
2.
5:17 "Keep your gifts for yourself, or give your
rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription to the king and
make the interpretation known to him.”
3.
Belshazzar’s father Nabonidus was living at the time, but he
had been captured by the Persians for four months.
IV.
People often ignore what they know
1.
Belshazzar knew the lessons about pride, power or the Most
High God but ignored them!
2.
God gave Nebuchadnezzar a year to repent, but there was no
year for Belshazzar to repent. He was
doomed.
3.
Belshazzar’s sin was not only in offering drink offerings to
the gods but also in failing to give God the proper respect.
4.
Rom. 1:21-23 For even though they knew God, they did not
honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
5.
“I know I ought to…” will one day become “I knew I should
have…”
6.
The saddest people in hell will be those who knew what was
right and had the opportunity but failed to act.
7.
James 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to
do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Conclusion:
1.
Are there things in your life that you know you should do
but have been putting them off?
2.
Meaning to repent is not repentance.
3.
Meaning to be baptized is not baptism.
4.
Meaning to become part of the family at Concord Rd. is not
identifying.
5.
You will never regret doing what is right!