WRITING ON THE WALL

Daniel 5:1-31; 2 Peter 2:1-22; Psalm 119:113-128; Proverbs 28:19-20

“But when Nebuchadnezzar’s heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven from human society. He was given the mind of a wild animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys. He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he learned that the Most High God rules over the kingdoms of the world and appoints anyone he desires to rule over them. You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself…. [Y]ou have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! So God has sent this hand to write this message. This is the message that was written: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end. Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

“For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: ‘A dog returns to its vomit.’ And another says, ‘A washed pig returns to the mud.’”

“My eyes strain to see your rescue, to see the truth of your promise fulfilled. I am your servant; deal with me in unfailing love, and teach me your decrees. Give discernment to me, your servant; then I will understand your laws. Lord, it is time for you to act,”

“A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty.”

Roughly 2600 years ago, God delivered a message to Belshazzar, successor to Nebuchadnezzar, King of the great Babylonian Empire. He had it written on the King’s wall for all to see, arguably with His own hand. The message, however, was not new. Nor has it changed much in the last 2600 years, either. Pride is a deadly disease. It destroys people, and it can destroy entire kingdoms. No one is entirely immune. Worse, our stubborn persistence in plotting and following our own course is a slippery slope from which few ever recover without choosing an entirely different path – usually from the bottom of the cliff! We need to change our thinking and our actions now, because it’s a lot more difficult to come all the way back up from the bottom than it is to select a different road before we reach a point of no return.

Anyone who has ever run cross country, climbed a mountain or ridden a bike up a steep slope should appreciate this particular spiritual truth. The longer the hill set before us, the tougher it is to ascend. In addition, and somewhat counterintuitively, it is not always the steepest climbs that are the most difficult to overcome. For those recognized trials, we tend to psyche ourselves up and prepare mentally for them in advance. No, the most insidiously difficult climbs are often just the long, slight grades which wear us down and seem to continue on without end or relief. These are the roads we tend to try to conquer in our own strength. These are the times we figure we should be able to handle ourselves. In our pride, we determine to tough things out without help. We make our own strategic decisions, never recognizing that, sometimes, the Lord may have a more indirect course in mind that, while admittedly longer, will not be so hard on us overall and really does make the obstacle more manageable. We choose not to follow it at our own peril.

Ah, if I only had a quarter for each of the times I’ve misjudged the trials before me, or placed too much faith in my own strength or “wisdom,” only to find I had neither the smarts nor physical prowess necessary to complete a particular faith journey. I routinely underestimate spiritual obstacles and overestimate my own ability to cope with them. I forget that, no matter how enthusiastic I may be, emotion runs thin in the face of difficulties. When I try to move forward without the power of Christ focused on the task at hand, I almost always end up bottomed out. Only then, looking up from where I have fallen, do I recognize where I stepped off the Lord’s intended path.

It is a very disheartening place to be, and very disillusioning to be reminded once again that we are not as good or as talented as we’d like to think we are. If only we’d come to the place where we turn and face the Lord directly sooner, we could save ourselves and others a lot of grief. There’s no point in getting to where we become like wild animals away from human society, eating proverbial grass and being soaked to the skin in a storm of our own prideful making. The writing on the wall is absolutely consistent. “Turn back, O Man! Foreswear thy foolish ways!“ …Now, before it is too late, or at least a heckuva lot more difficult on everybody. We simply are not equipped to get through all of life without Christ and all He brings to the table. Besides, the Lord wouldn’t have it any other way.

It is a wonder God does not at some point just give up on us. Watching us repeat the same mistakes over and over again in direct opposition to His directions for a well-lived life must be incredibly frustrating. It is a measure of grace we do not often take that He has not already given us the judgment we deserve. Why He continues to believe in us when we so often disbelieve and reject Him and His ways is truly a divine mystery. But it is also a mystery with a message of hope. The fact that God does believe in us means there is still time: time to change; time to warn; and time to lead back to the One who started it all. As Christians, we need to be much more intentional about doing just that. The Lord is not going to wait forever. We have it on excellent authority that a time of judgment is coming. We need to do what we can to prepare, and help others prepare as well. We must not be daunted by their reluctance to accept counsel or to accept the Lord Himself. The writing is on the wall. Whether we like it or not, and whether we believe it or not, we all need Christ.