A Heart Darkened By Sin
“But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven...and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.”
As we live life in this fallen world, there are many times we fall short of the glory of God and miss 'the writing on the wall' so to speak. We go the wrong way only to end up learning the hard way realizing that we should have gone God's way.
Haven't we all said at one point or another, "I wish I would have known then what I know now"? It is an even more serious thing to know the truth and to refuse to live in light of it. Sometimes, we take our sin too lightly and do not measure our decisions by the Word of God.
Jesus taught in Luke 12:48, "...For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."
This was surely the case for Belshazzar, who should have known better as he was aware of the great works of God when he was entrusted with the throne in Babylon by his father, who was a descendant of King Nebuchadnezzar. The problem was that there was no fear of God in his heart and his heart became darkened.
Belshazzar knew about God and the history behind him but he had no regard for the God above Him. He ended up throwing a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, wives, and concubines. As they grew more and more intoxicated, Belshazzar decided to mock the God of the Jewish people and had the gold and silver cups of the temple in Jerusalem brought to him to continue in their sensuality and revelry.
He was willing to mix the holy things with the unholy, invoking God's wrath, "because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom. 1:21).
As followers of the Lord, we all need to live by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and heed the Word that is written on our hearts. Only then will we become more aware of God's presence and see His hand at work in our lives instead of pushing His hand away. After all, the very One who made us holds our very breath in His hand...and He is also able to hold the whole world in His hand!
The same Jesus who was in the midst of the fiery furnace was now extending His hand to interrupt the party of desecration and to warn the king of his impending doom and destruction. He had willfully ignored the writing on his heart and now he was confronted with the writing on the wall.
Is it possible that you might be missing the writing on the wall in your life? ...Are you mixing the holy things of God with the unholy practices of the world forgetting your body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit and that you belong to Him now?
Whenever a person falls into sin and begins to walk in darkness, the lights slowly turn off and fade in his heart. It is only by the entrance of God's Word that the light turns back on in the heart of man.
This same finger of God that wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone was writing once again as the king and his guests trembled at the sight. The same was true when Jesus stooped down on the ground to write with His finger when the people were holding their own stones to throw at a woman being accused of adultery.
When will people learn to listen to God's voice and to choose to align their will with God's will before needing to be judged harshly. It is a serious thing to become blind or deafened to the living power of God's holy Word and it is "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31)..."because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness" (Eph. 4:19).
They had already suppressed their darkened their hearts and ignored God's written law on their conscience, but now God was going to write down His judgment before their very eyes. The only problem was that they could not understand what the writing meant as they needed someone to turn on the light.
Proverbs 25:2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
There are many today living life with NO IDEA of the true state of their souls and the reality of the times they are living in. The writing is on the wall but their foolish hearts are darkened with blindness.
Titus 1:15-16 says, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
Once again, God would use Daniel to interpret what was the rest of those dwelling in Babylon were too blind to see. We saw this in Acts 8 when Philip was sent by the Spirit to the Ethiopian eunuch to explain the scroll in his hand and to preach Christ to Him. Daniel remained true to His conviction of purposing in his heart not to defile himself and so God used him to expose the works of darkness and reveal the writing...
Mene meant "NUMBERED"
Tekel meant "WEIGHED"
Upharsin meant "DIVIDING”
...but Daniel used the word “Peres” instead because he was prophetically speaking in real time that the kingdom was already divided as the Persians were ready to come inside!
The same is true today as judgment has already begun in the house of the Lord.
To the lukewarm church of Laodicia, Jesus says, "Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see" (Rev. 3:17-18).
When all is said and done, let us learn that the scene of Belshazzar's feast is actually a foreshadowing of the final days to come and the result is...
"Babylon is fallen, is fallen...And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, “I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her." (Revelation 18:4-8).
DANIEL CHALLENGE:
GET RID OF ANY MIXTURE IN YOUR HEART WHERE GOD’S HOLINESS IS BEING DARKENED BY YOUR SINFUL PASSIONS.
As we live life in this fallen world, there are many times we fall short of the glory of God and miss 'the writing on the wall' so to speak. We go the wrong way only to end up learning the hard way realizing that we should have gone God's way.
Haven't we all said at one point or another, "I wish I would have known then what I know now"? It is an even more serious thing to know the truth and to refuse to live in light of it. Sometimes, we take our sin too lightly and do not measure our decisions by the Word of God.
Jesus taught in Luke 12:48, "...For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."
This was surely the case for Belshazzar, who should have known better as he was aware of the great works of God when he was entrusted with the throne in Babylon by his father, who was a descendant of King Nebuchadnezzar. The problem was that there was no fear of God in his heart and his heart became darkened.
Belshazzar knew about God and the history behind him but he had no regard for the God above Him. He ended up throwing a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, wives, and concubines. As they grew more and more intoxicated, Belshazzar decided to mock the God of the Jewish people and had the gold and silver cups of the temple in Jerusalem brought to him to continue in their sensuality and revelry.
He was willing to mix the holy things with the unholy, invoking God's wrath, "because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom. 1:21).
As followers of the Lord, we all need to live by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and heed the Word that is written on our hearts. Only then will we become more aware of God's presence and see His hand at work in our lives instead of pushing His hand away. After all, the very One who made us holds our very breath in His hand...and He is also able to hold the whole world in His hand!
The same Jesus who was in the midst of the fiery furnace was now extending His hand to interrupt the party of desecration and to warn the king of his impending doom and destruction. He had willfully ignored the writing on his heart and now he was confronted with the writing on the wall.
Is it possible that you might be missing the writing on the wall in your life? ...Are you mixing the holy things of God with the unholy practices of the world forgetting your body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit and that you belong to Him now?
Whenever a person falls into sin and begins to walk in darkness, the lights slowly turn off and fade in his heart. It is only by the entrance of God's Word that the light turns back on in the heart of man.
This same finger of God that wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone was writing once again as the king and his guests trembled at the sight. The same was true when Jesus stooped down on the ground to write with His finger when the people were holding their own stones to throw at a woman being accused of adultery.
When will people learn to listen to God's voice and to choose to align their will with God's will before needing to be judged harshly. It is a serious thing to become blind or deafened to the living power of God's holy Word and it is "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31)..."because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness" (Eph. 4:19).
They had already suppressed their darkened their hearts and ignored God's written law on their conscience, but now God was going to write down His judgment before their very eyes. The only problem was that they could not understand what the writing meant as they needed someone to turn on the light.
Proverbs 25:2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
There are many today living life with NO IDEA of the true state of their souls and the reality of the times they are living in. The writing is on the wall but their foolish hearts are darkened with blindness.
Titus 1:15-16 says, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
Once again, God would use Daniel to interpret what was the rest of those dwelling in Babylon were too blind to see. We saw this in Acts 8 when Philip was sent by the Spirit to the Ethiopian eunuch to explain the scroll in his hand and to preach Christ to Him. Daniel remained true to His conviction of purposing in his heart not to defile himself and so God used him to expose the works of darkness and reveal the writing...
Mene meant "NUMBERED"
Tekel meant "WEIGHED"
Upharsin meant "DIVIDING”
...but Daniel used the word “Peres” instead because he was prophetically speaking in real time that the kingdom was already divided as the Persians were ready to come inside!
The same is true today as judgment has already begun in the house of the Lord.
To the lukewarm church of Laodicia, Jesus says, "Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see" (Rev. 3:17-18).
When all is said and done, let us learn that the scene of Belshazzar's feast is actually a foreshadowing of the final days to come and the result is...
"Babylon is fallen, is fallen...And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, “I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her." (Revelation 18:4-8).
DANIEL CHALLENGE:
GET RID OF ANY MIXTURE IN YOUR HEART WHERE GOD’S HOLINESS IS BEING DARKENED BY YOUR SINFUL PASSIONS.
Recent
Archive
2025
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
September
November
2024
January
February
April
May
August
September
October
November
Categories
no categories
No Comments