THE
TRANSCRIPT BELOW IS
FROM THE NEW SERIES OF DANIEL, PART 1
Daniel –
Part I
Lesson 7
Living Out A Biblical Worldview
Who...What…Are You Toasting With Your Vessel?
This week, we studied a party
that happened 2500 years ago in the year
539BC. At the party the vessels that
belonged to Almighty God and were used to worship Him were used to toast the gods of this world,
the gods of their imagination. God’s message for us is
“Who are we toasting with our vessel,
our body?
Who are we praising
with our vessel our body which belongs to God?”
Let us look at Daniel 5. Kay has
taught this book many, many times. But “Oh God! What a blessing to study this book at this time!
What a blessing to look at the life of this man by the name of Daniel, and
to draw precepts of life from his life, so that [she] might be in [her]
generation, a “Daniel” for these times."
Daniel 5:1-2
Belshazzar the king held a
great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the
presence of the thousand. 2 When
Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave
orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which
Nebuchadnezzar his
father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the
king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.
This man knew about those vessels.
This man knew that those vessels belonged to the
Most High God and that
they were used in the temple worship of this Most High God; and yet he
calls for these particular vessels. They had conquered many, many
countries. No one was more powerful than this head of gold, the nation of
Babylon. He has his choice of any vessels from which to drink. Yet, very
specifically, he calls for these vessels. It says,
Da 5:3a Then they brought the gold
vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was
in Jerusalem;
Daniel does not want us to miss
this. Daniel is saying it once, [then] he is saying it again so that we do
not miss the fact that these vessels of gold belong to the God whose
temple is in Jerusalem.
Da 5:3b and the king and his
nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank the
wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and
stone.
In other words it is like [saying],
“This is in Your Face, God. This is in Your Face.” They take those goblets
and they hold them up and it is like it is in the Face of God. It is like
[saying], “We are taking Your vessels, and we are praising our gods of
gold, silver, iron, wood and bronze. We are drinking from Your vessels,
God, to the gods that we believe in.” In other words, it is an “in Your
Face” kind of party. They do not know that they are going to party now,
and pay later. But, right now, they are not aware of this.
We need to present the historical context. If we have Reginald Showers book on
Daniel, then we have the history down [in the video lecture, the commentary
appears on the screen -
The Most High God- A Commentary on the Book of
Daniel, by Dr. Reginald E. Showers] because they have
found, through many archaeological digs, all sorts of documents and
records that the Babylonians kept, and that the Medes and the Persians
kept, that tell us all about this time.
They were sitting inside a city that
they felt was impregnable because it had this huge, huge, thick, thick
wall that surrounded this marvelous, marvelous city. We heard about it
when Bob Gilbert so wonderfully taught … how impregnable it was. This
wall…was so thick that there was no battering ram, on the face of this
earth (at that time) that could bring down that wall. Inside that wall
there was another wall. There were fortresses and ramparts inside that
city. [With] those fortresses and ramparts, it would have been suicide to
try and go over them because of the way it was constructed. In the minds
and the hearts of those people, their city was indestructible. So
therefore, they were protected. There was no way anybody could get in and
do anything to them. We might say that when they came to cities like this,
the strategy (in those days) was to starve them; mount a siege so that no
food or water could get in. But Babylon felt so secure in the way that
they were living because they did not worry about food, or an army camping
around there. After all, what people could keep an army around their city
for twenty years, because they had a twenty year supply of food for all
the inhabitants of that city. Not only that, but also water. They had
built the wall of Babylon over the Euphrates River, which was not going to
dry up. So they had enough water and food; they had an impregnable city.
They felt awfully, awfully secure. And they could take those vessels and
party. “Why a thousand nobles and those people there?” In all probability,
they had come into the city because the
Medes and the
Persians had been outside the city for about four months. And who was this
man
Belshazzar? Well, for years they thought, “Well, Daniel’s wrong.
Daniel’s wrong. He hasn’t got his act together. He hasn’t got his facts
together.”
There is no record or account of a
king that was called
Belshazzar, until the last century. We just have to wait
long enough. God makes us wait to find out, “Who are we
going to believe? Are you going to take Me at My Word? Are you going to
live by faith? Are you going to believe this is MY book that I have
written it, that I have breathed these words and you are listening to MY
very words? And are you going to believe and understand that what I speak
is truth and it will come to pass? Do you believe that? Have you embraced
that? And will you believe it in the face of the world saying, ‘Oh no.
That’s not true because we haven’t found any record of a man called
Belshazzar?’”
God lets us walk in faith (2Co 5:7).
Hebrews 11:1-note
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen.
So, always in life (and this is key
in this lesson), we have a choice: are we going to listen to the Word of
God and hold to it, no matter what, or are we going to listen to the
culture? Are we going to listen to the “intellectuals?” Are we going to
listen to the “philosophers?” To whom are we going to listen? We must
purpose in our heart to listen to God because it is a wise person that chooses truth
over a lie, and the Bible is absolute truth.
In the 1920’s, they did an
archaeological dig and found some writings. When they studied those
writings, they found out [that]
Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus. And
Nabonidus was out in the field and he defending and fighting the battles
out there and he had made his son,
Belshazzar, king who was taking care of
Babylon. It was a dual reign, a co-reign, which is very interesting
because all we have to do is keep reading and in verse seven, it says
Daniel 5:7 The king called aloud to
bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and
said to the wise men of Babylon, "Any man who can read this inscription
and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have
a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler in
the kingdom."
The Word of God just told us that
there was a position for the man that could read it: he would be the
“third ruler,” which implies there were already two rulers:
1. Nabonidus, [who] was outside and had been in these battles. History
tells us that he had fled, but
2.
Belshazzar was secure within the walls. It describes him, later on in
verse two,
Daniel 5:2a While
Belshazzar was
drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets
that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,...
As we trace his genealogy, we find
out actually, he is not even in the bloodline of
Nebuchadnezzar. And yet,
Nebuchadnezzar is called his father. Daniel wants us
to know that it was proper to do that within the
Babylonian kingdom because he was a king. “Nebuchadnezzar, your father”
refers to the "patriarch" Nebuchadnezzar the one who built this great kingdom, with its famous hanging
gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We saw, in
chapter four, how he looked out and
Daniel 4:30-note
he said, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal
residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?"
There was no king, no Babylonian
king like Nebuchadnezzar. As we stop and think about it and look at the
history, God wants us to know and understand, from Nebuchadnezzar, He
jumps all the way over…Nebuchadnezzar died, they say, October 7, 562, B.C.
Other expositors say it was in 563 B.C. We know the year is now 539 B.C.
Nabonidus, the father of
Belshazzar, became king in 556 B.C.
All these things add up for us and let us know how old Daniel is at this
time. If it is 539 B.C., they estimate that Daniel was about eighty-one
years old. So Daniel had been watching all this reign, from the time of
Nebuchadnezzar because Nebuchadnezzar takes the kingdom and the throne
from his father, Nabopolassar when he conquers Jerusalem and Daniel is
brought to
Babylon.
As we look at it, we see that this is a very secure time.
When Daniel
mentions Nebuchadnezzar, this refers to what we have studied in Daniel one through four. Having that knowledge, we know that God has
spoken and
Belshazzar knew that God had spoken.
Belshazzar knew about his
father, Nebuchadnezzar. So, let us go back and see what God has spoken,
because God had told
Babylon, “You’re coming to an end.” Some commentators
will tell us that
Belshazzar knew that the
Medes and the
Persians were the
next to rule but the Bible does not tell us that. The Bible does not identify
who the chest of silver is in Daniel.
Let's review the things God has spoken to
Babylon through the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel interpreted
that dream. Nebuchadnezzar knew there was an end to his kingdom. Daniel
knew there was an end to his kingdom. God had spoken. Yet,
Belshazzar
acts like there is not going to be an end to his kingdom because
he was looking at the natural instead of the
supernatural. He was looking at things as they were, looking at his
surroundings and he felt that he was secure; but God had spoken. In Daniel
2:36,37, Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar:
Daniel 2:36, 37-note
"This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king.
37 "You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has
given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory;”
Nebuchadnezzar received the kingdom,
power, strength and glory from God. He lets him know, “God has given you
this. ‘You…are the king of kings.’ In other words, there is no king
greater than you. You are the ultimate earthly king.” He goes on to say,
Daniel 2:38a-note
“and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the
birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to
rule over them all.”
When we look at that where you are
the one of where all the beasts of the field dwell and the birds of the
sky, it reminds us of Daniel 4 and another dream that
Nebuchadnezzar had
(Daniel 4:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17-notes), a dream of a tree where the birds of the air rest, and
the animals find shelter in that tree. Once again, we see this truth
transferred over to Daniel 4 and another dream; we see the parallels here.
Then, he goes on to say,
Daniel 2:38, 39a-note
“You are the head of gold. 39a "After you there will arise another kingdom
inferior to you,”
In other words, an inferior kingdom
is going to take over a superior kingdom. Is that not interesting, because
that is not the way we would think it would happen. We think of superior
overtaking inferior instead of inferior overtaking superior. And this is
what he is saying here. “In other words, you’re the king of kings, the
head of gold, but I want you to know there is an end to your kingdom.”
We know that in Daniel 3:1-note,
Nebuchadnezzar—in defiance—said “No. There is no end to my kingdom.” He
builds a statue and it is not just gold, silver, bronze, iron and
iron-clay: it is all gold. Everybody is going to bow down to this statue.
“In other words, you’re going to give your allegiance to my statue that I
have set up here in the plain of Dura. We are not going to be taken.”
America is saying, “We are not going
to be taken. We are going to win. We are in a war and we are going to win
and we are not going to be conquered. Because,” we say, “who is America?
Of all the nations on the earth, who is America?” We think that we are the
greatest, the strongest. That is what we think of ourselves. We think of
ourselves almost the way that Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar thought of
themselves. “I’m impregnable. We are okay.” When Kay studies Daniel 5, she
thinks about September 11,
2001 that shocking day when we were invaded and
attacked, something we never dreamed could happen to America. And so the
question comes up where do we find America in
prophecy. One man came up to Kay at the Christian Booksellers Convention. wanted to give her
a book on
Babylon!” The problem was that thing he told
her
Babylon is really America!
Kay told him his theology
was off. America is not
Babylon and Babylon is not America. We may be
acting like Babylon, but we’re not.” The thing is Babylon is in prophecy
in the future, but America is not there. Something is going to happen to
our country. In the light of that, Who are we toasting,
who we are praising in this vessel. Will we be part of the cause of the
demise of America? Will we be like a Belshazzar in this nation? Or will we be like a Daniel who is in the midst of destruction
in order that he might let others know what the
times signify?
He tells them in Da 2:39,
Daniel 2:39, 40a--note
“After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another
third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. 40a "Then
there will be a fourth kingdom
This is what Nebuchadnezzar had,
what Belshazzar had access to, the information they had access to. Isaiah
44 had been written well over a century, maybe a century and a half before
this night in 539 B.C., when
Babylon is brought down by the
Medes and the
Persians. In Isaiah 44, God wants His servant, Jacob, to listen to Him.
Isaiah 44:1, 2, 3,6, 7a -- But now
listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen: 2 Thus says
the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, 'Do
not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 'For
I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I
will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your
descendants; 6 "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer,
the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God
besides Me. 7a 'Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let
him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the
ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming
And the events that are going to take place.
He established the ancient nation
with Abraham in Genesis 12:1, 2, 3.
Isaiah 44:7b From the time that I
established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things
that are coming And the events that are going to take place.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD does
nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets.
We are not to be in the dark. In
Daniel’s life, we see a man who feared God and did not walk in the dark,
but walked in the light of the knowledge of God.
Isaiah 44:8a Do not tremble and do not
be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?
God is saying to us that we do not
have to be afraid of the future. God has laid out the future and we are
about out to study it in a very awesome detail. We are about to understand
what is going to happen in the last three and a half years before God
Almighty sets up His kingdom. We are privy to these things. God has spoken
and we have His Word.
Isaiah 44:8b And you are My witnesses.
Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.
Is there any god besides God? Why
would we would take our vessel and praise other gods. When we look at the
church, we see them praising other gods by what they are doing to their
bodies, by the way that they dress; the immodesty, the sensuality. We see
them praising other gods by what they watch, and what they listen to and
sing. We see them praise other gods by the way that they behave and by the
way they spend their money. [Our bodies are] God’s vessel. What are we
doing with God’s vessel?
Belshazzar to the vessel, the
goblets of gold, and poured into them wine, which was perfectly alright,
until he took the wine and he praised his gods of gold, silver, wood,
bronze and iron. What are we doing? Whom are we praising? He goes on to
say,
Isaiah 44:9a Those who fashion a graven
image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit;
even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to
shame.
America is still probably the most
rich population. We live better collectively, than anybody else on the
face of this earth. We have all these material things, and yet what have
we, as a nation, have done. We have turned away from the One Whose Name is
on our money, engraved on our monuments in Washington, D. C., Who was
mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance, Who was mentioned in the
Constitution of the United States. We have turned away from Him and we
have praised a gods of gold and silver that we have fashioned.
Isaiah 44:9b even their own witnesses
fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.
He is telling them, “I’m your
redeemer! I’m your redeemer and this is what I do!”
Isaiah 44:24, 25a "I, the LORD, am the
maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading
out the earth all alone, 25 “Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making
fools out of diviners,”
Are afraid of those who are into
witchcraft, or diviners, or soothsayers, or those who read our palms, or
read the crystal ball, or read the Tarot cards? God says,
Isaiah 44:25 Causing the omens of
boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw
back And turning their knowledge into foolishness,”
Think of all the people that said
Daniel was wrong because “there never was a king by the name of
Belshazzar.” Then they did the dig and found out, and He made that wise
man sound like a fool. Listen to what He says:
Isaiah 44:26, 27, 28a 26 Confirming the
word of His servant And performing the purpose of His messengers. It is I
who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited!' And of the cities of
Judah, 'They shall be built.' And I will raise up her ruins again. 27 "It
is I who say to the depth of the sea, 'Be dried up!' And I will make your
rivers dry. 28a "It is I who says of
Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd!
We are talking about rivers, seas,
the city of Jerusalem, and all of a sudden, we have named the man.
Isaiah 44:28a "It is I who says of
Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd! And he
will perform all My desire.'
This is about a hundred and fifty
years before Belshazzar’s party. Belshazzar almost assuredly had not read
Isaiah! Daniel is probably aware of the prophecy of
Isaiah because it was recorded (740-680BC) and he could have read the
following words (Just like he read Jeremiah in Da 9:1,2)...
Isaiah 44:28b “And he declares of
Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation will
be laid.'"
He is saying that when the Temple is
already there, when there is already a foundation. There is already a
building and yet He is saying it is going to happen, again.
Isaiah 45:1, 2a 1 Thus says the LORD to
Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken
by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of
kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2a "I will
go before you”
God Almighty is going before
Cyrus!
Isaiah 45:1, 2 "I will go and make the
rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through
their iron bars. 3 "I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden
wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the
God of Israel, who calls you by your name.”
Little did his mother know that she
was being led by the LORD when she chose the name
Cyrus for her son.
Isaiah 45:4, 5, 6 "For the sake of
Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your
name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me. 5 "I
am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will
gird you, though you have not known Me; 6 That men may know from the
rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the
LORD, and there is no other,”
If He is the LORD, and
there is no other, why would we who know Him, take these vessels [our bodies]s and praise the god of this world. We know that He created us for
His pleasure. Revelation 4:11 tells us we have the whole counsel of God.
God has spoken.
Revelation 4:11-note
"Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and
power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed,
and were created."
It is done. It is finished. It is
all in the Bible, everything we need. We need to be honoring Him by not
only seeking knowledge of Him, but by living out that knowledge in our
lives, remembering that we are the temples of the living God, vessels of
the Holy Spirit, that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. As Paul
asked...
Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is
in you and whom you received from God? 20 You are not your own property,
then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of
God. (1Cor 6:19-note,
1Cor 6:20-note)
What are we doing with that which belongs
to God?
We need to be like Kay who prays
“God, remind me, every moment of the day, every circumstance, every
situation, that I am to praise You. Remind me that I am to live, not
according to what my eyes see, but I am to live in the light of Your
Sovereignty and the light of eternity.”
God put Kay to the test recently -
She was writing a book:
Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days
and she lost a computer file with hours and hours of work, and she
panicked. But she remembered that God is Sovereign and His word was
“in everything, give thanks” (1Th 5:18-note).
And so even in panic, she gave Him
thanks. She remembered about the one
who translated the whole Bible in India, and after it burned up, he
started translating again! Remembering all that she knows about God, and saying,
“Okay, what am I going to do in this vessel? Am I going to praise You? Or
am I going to use this vessel of Yours to desecrate Who You are and what
You say?” God's answer in Isaiah is that He is...
Isaiah 45:7 The One forming light and
creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD
who does all these.
Click to enlarge
The year was 539BC and as we go
back and look at Daniel 5, we know about how the queen comes in because
she hears about the handwriting on the wall and hears that Belshazzar is
offering to make anyone who can give the interpretation of the handwriting
on this wall, to make him the third ruler, the triumvir of the kingdom of
Babylon. So the queen comes in. They believe this is the queen mother and
in all probability, was the wife of Nebuchadnezzar that has been passed
down to the king of Babylon because that was the common thing in that day.
The next king inherited the wives and the concubines.
She comes in and tells them about
Daniel and says,
Daniel 5:11a "There is a man in your
kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods;
Can people say about us, “Oh, hey.
There is a person in your office, the PTA, in that beauty parlor,
barbershop --- they are unusual. There is a spirit about them that is so
different. There is a person in your church [that is] not the ‘run of the
mill’ in your church. They are very unusual.”
Daniel 5:11a "There is a man in your
kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your
father, illumination, insight and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were
found in him.”
Where did he get this wisdom?
Proverbs 1:7a The fear of the LORD is
the beginning of knowledge;
Job 28:28 "And to man He said, 'Behold,
the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is
understanding.'"
Daniel 5:11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16a And
King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, appointed him
chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans and diviners. 12 "This was
because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of
dreams, explanation of enigmas and solving of difficult problems were
found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be
summoned and he will declare the interpretation." 13 Then Daniel was
brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, "Are you
that Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king
brought from Judah? 14 "Now I have heard about you that a spirit of the
gods is in you, and that illumination, insight and extraordinary wisdom
have been found in you. 15 "Just now the wise men and the conjurers were
brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its
interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation
of the message. 16 "But I personally have heard about you,”
Belshazzar’s name means a tribute to
[Bel], their god. Here is a man who is a heathen, who has heard about
Daniel, who has knowledge about the fact that this man has the spirit of —
so to speak — the gods in him, is a wise man, a knowledgeable man, and yet
[even though] he has this knowledge, he has not acted on it. So, the queen
mother comes in and tells [Belshazzar] this. [Belshazzar offers to make
[Daniel] the third ruler in the kingdom.
Daniel 5:17 Then Daniel answered and
said before the king, "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.”
He is saying, “I’m going to tell you
honestly and I’m not going to tell you for any financial gain, or any
power that you are going to give me. You can have al that. That’s not why
I’m going to tell you the truth or the interpretation.” And then he says,
Daniel 5:18, 19, 20a "O king, the Most
High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory and majesty to
Nebuchadnezzar your father. 19 "Because of the grandeur which He bestowed
on him, all the peoples, nations and men of every language feared and
trembled before him; whomever he wished he killed and whomever he wished
he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated and whomever he wished
he humbled. 20a "But when his heart was lifted up”
He is talking to a man whose heart
is lifted up. You know it is lifted up because he has just toasted his
gods in the vessels of the God Whose Temple was in Jerusalem.
Daniel 5:20, 21 "But when his heart was
lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he
was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.
21 "He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that
of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given
grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven
until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of
mankind and that He sets over it whomever He wishes.”
He lost his mind, until he came to
his senses. When he came to his senses, he recognized that it was God that
ruled.
Daniel 5:22 "Yet you, his son,
Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this”
America knows that there is a God.
If we look at the majority of Americans, they hold values like we hold.
But there is an element that has arisen that has let their voice be heard
and it is bombarding Washington. But where are the Daniels? Where are we?
Part of the problem is that we love God, that we know that our
bodies are the temples of His Holy Spirit, and yet we are praising the
gods of this world because we do not want flak from the world and we are
not standing, with integrity, on the Word of God. He says,
Daniel 5:22b “even though you knew all
this,”
Da 5:22, 23 are key verses for us
today.
Daniel 5:22 "Yet you, his son,
Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this
He knew truth. He knew what
Nebuchadnezzar had done. He knew what Nebuchadnezzar remembered.
Nebuchadnezzar made a decree and it was read throughout his kingdom:
Daniel 4:35 "All the inhabitants of the
earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the
host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off
His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'
Nebuchadnezzar had made that
statement. He knew that the Most High ruled over all. God brought him,
through a series of incidents, to his knees until he recognized that God
was God. Kay along with many other conservative commentators believes that
we see a description of Nebuchadnezzar's salvation in Daniel 4. We see him
respecting God, up until that point, to different degrees, but we see God
humbling him and then bringing him up.
Belshazzar knew all this.
Daniel 5:23 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.”
“But the God in
Whom your life’s breath.”
We got up this morning because God
ordained for us to get up. We are sitting here because God ordained for us
to sit here. He has given us our life’s-breath. But not only is our
life’s-breath in His Hand, our ways are in His Hand. The question is, are
we glorifying Him?
Precept Ministries was about to miss
a tremendous opportunity on radio and through a set or circumstances, we
thought we had missed it. Kay was not there and Precept Ministries had let
it go by because we needed an additional eighty-thousand dollars. When
Precept Ministries gets through this year (2006), if all goes according to
budget, we will only have six thousand dollars left this year for this
ministry that is operating in one-hundred-and-twenty-one countries, in
sixty-seven languages, here in the United States, across the United States
and across the world. Precept Ministries is not flush, as you can tell.
Here is an opportunity that costs eighty-thousand dollars and we say that
we have to pass it by, but the thing is, did we have to pass it by, or
were we required to simply go to God and say, “Here is this unusual,
tremendous opportunity that is on radio. They are slotting me between Ed
Young and Charles Stanley, and they are putting a woman in there (which
they never do) and offering this time to us. Do we pass it by?” And Kay
said, “God, You know that I don’t want to lose this opportunity, and You
know that we don’t have the money. God, what do I do?” Kay said, “Is that
still available? Should we go back to them?”
She prayed and God laid a name on her heart. She made a phone call. The person
said they were praying and fasting that day. She said, “You know I’ve
never asked you for anything. It’s an opportunity. All I want you to do is
pray and fast.” The person said, “I’ll pray and
fast. I’ll call my financial person. I’ll call you back this afternoon.
But you know that I won’t do it unless really I feel God wants me to do
it.” Kay said, “I know, and I thank you
for that.” The phone rings. “Go ahead. Get the
time.” “I never called my financial man. I
just got a phone call an hour after I talked to you, and I was told I was
getting fifty-thousand dollars, and I’ll take care of the rest, since I
can spread it out over the year.”
God is on His throne, whether it was
“Yes,” or “No.” When it was “No,” when Kay thought they had missed it, and
it was “No,” she prayed and said, “I will give thanks in everything.” Why?
Because this body is to be to His praise. If she does not give thanks in
everything, in this vessel [body] that belongs to Him, she is denying His
sovereignty.
We know that is written on the wall,
Daniel 5:25, 26, 27, 28 Now this is the
inscription that was written out: 'MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.' 26 "This
is the interpretation of the message: 'MENE '-- God has numbered your
kingdom and put an end to it. 27 "'TEKEL '-- you have been weighed on the
scales and found deficient. 28 "'PERES '-- your kingdom has been divided
and given over to the
Medes and the
Persians."
America’s days are numbered. America
will have an end. We have been weighed on the scales and been found
deficient. May we not be weighed on the scales. As Ephesians 4 says,
Ephesians 4:1-note
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
in Christ Jesus. May these vessels
be used to praise only One—the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe. Then it
says,
Daniel 5:28 "'PERES '-- your kingdom
has been divided and given over to the
Medes and the
Persians."
There is a Day Of Accounting coming.
There is a day when our works are going to be weighed and we are going to
give an account to God for what went on in this vessel of His. Whether we
walk by the Spirit or walk by the flesh, there is a day coming and we need
to live in the light of that day. The handwriting was on the wall. It was
very clear because the interpretation was made known. God had spoken.
God has spoken and we need to live
in the light of what He has said. He said,
Daniel 5:22 "Yet you, his son,
Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this,
We know a lot. May we live in the
light of it. Then, he goes on to say
Daniel 5:23a “but you have exalted
yourself against the Lord of heaven;”
May we not do that. He says,
Daniel 5:23c “But the God in
whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.”
May we desire to glorify God, as
long as He gives us life, and may we do it in the ways that He takes us.
May we honor Him and may we glorify Him. May we be Daniels, and not
Belshazzars. May we be Daniels. May we be here to let others know what is
happening. He told him very clearly: this is what is going to happen. We
need to get the message out: America’s not going to last forever. This is
what is going to happen. We better live for God almighty.
Paul wrote in II Corinthians,
2Corinthians 5:9-note
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be
pleasing to Him.
May everything in this vessel say,
“Holy!” to the LORD.
