Weighed In the Balances and Found Wanting

 

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

Isa 14:16 "Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, 17 Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?' 18 "All the kings of the nations, All of them, sleep in glory, Everyone in his own house; 19 But you are cast out of your grave Like an abominable branch, Like the garment of those who are slain, Thrust through with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit, Like a corpse trodden underfoot. 20 You will not be joined with them in burial, Because you have destroyed your land And slain your people. The brood of evildoers shall never be named.

 

Belshazzar, the unrepentant idolatrous son of Nebuchadnezzar, is likely the target of this prophecy. Whereas King Neb repented after being brought low by God, Belshazzar was defiant to his inglorious end.

 

Greatly feared while he was in power with a kingdom marked by ruthless cruelty, now his lifeless body would not lie in state, but rather lie like a crumpled body trampled on a street, and passersby’s saying,  “Is this the man who made the earth tremble?” Some state funeral! Some fine eulogy!

 

What kind of man deserves this treatment? Let’s pick it up in Daniel chapter 5.

 

Da 5:1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. 2 While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. 5 In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. 6 Then the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

 

What words did that finger write on the plastered wall, that caused such terror to the king?  Daniel was summoned to interpret the writing and he told the king that God Himself had sent the fingers with the message: “ MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

5:26, "This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 "TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; 28 "PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.

A chilling end for sure, but, unless the Lord tarries we must all come to an end. Heb 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”

 

How will you fare in the final weigh in? If you think your good works will outweigh the bad and that will be your ticket to heaven, think again. The Bible tells us that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags! Isa 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

 

You may not be as wicked as Belshazzar, but without Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will, like Belshazzar, be weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Only those clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, by grace through faith, will pass the muster.

 

It’s why God sent His only Son into the world. Believe that truth! Receive Christ and live!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.