Don't Be Sloppy With Your Faith

 

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

 

Isa 21:5 Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield!

This portion of Isaiah deals with the sudden overthrow of Babylon during the reign of Belshazzar. It’s a point we would do well to consider….namely the suddenness of God’s judgement. When the shoe drops, it drops quickly and thoroughly, but it never drops without ample warning. God warns and gives us time to repent before He sends His calamity.

 

The world was given 120 years’ worth of warning in the days of Noah, but they ignored it and the flood came in all its suddenness and destroyed the unfaithful.

Isaiah and the other prophets had warned the Assyrians of the coming destruction and again they ignored it, and as Belshazzar was feasting and mocking God…God’s judgment against them interrupted their feasting, as the finger of God wrote a chilling message on the wall of their banquet hall.

 

Daniel was summoned to interpret the message and it was simply this: “Balshazzar, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”

But before Daniel interpreted the handwriting, he reminded Belshazzar of his great sin!  

Da 5:23 "And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.

 On that very night, the watchman of Babylon cried out, Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield! The city was under attack and the city was overthrown and on that very night Belshazzar met his Maker, whom he had mocked with all his feasting. Daniel 5:30 tells us:  That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.

 

O pilgrim, may God make you aware of the suddenness of His judgement. Be on guard! Watch and pray. He has given us ample warning. Get your faith house in order and be prepared like the five wise virgins who kept the oil in their lamps and were allowed in to the only feast that matters. The other five were slovenly with their faith until it was too late, due to the suddenness of God’s final judgement.

Mt 25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

 2 "Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

 3 "Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,

 4 "but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

 5 "But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

 6 "And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'

 7 "Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

 8 "And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'

 9 "But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'

 10 "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

 11 "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'

 12 "But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'

 13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

 

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