When I was a child, our family had a Children’s Bible. My siblings might remember it. I certainly do, and two of its stories in particular — those of Samson and Daniel. And while Daniel is probably most famous for his run-in with the lions, that’s not the story I remember most. I was more taken with the story of the writing on the wall.
This story had King Belshazzar getting drunk and cocky with his lords, to the point of coming up with the great idea of using the cups out of the Jerusalem temple to toast the gods of gold and silver.
Turns out, that was a bad idea.
5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
Daniel 5:5-6
I still remember the picture of this in that Bible, especially the hand, writing on the wall.
I came upon that same story in my morning reading today, and while the memories of that children’s Bible did come back, something else popped into mind. Daniel was a prophet, and his prophecy was in full force when he was called in to translate for the king. After being offered purple robes and a gold chain, he got right to work:
17 …“Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. 18 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. 19 And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. 20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. 21 He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. 22 And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in 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, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
24 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Daniel 5: 17-28
That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed (Daniel 5:30).
Daniel pulled no punches. He took seriously his duty to present the truth of the matter to the king. It reminded me of another passage from the book in the Bible right before Daniel’s, Ezekiel. In both chapters 3 and 33 (I’ve always been able to remember that), God makes clear the duty of the prophet:
1The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
Ezekiel 33: 1-9
While we don’t live in ancient Babylon, it is still the responsibility of those who are given the truth to tell that same truth. But things have changed since then. A significant event occurred around year zero that turned the whole thing on its head.
2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.
Acts 17:2-8
Keep in mind too that Paul and Silas had just gotten out of prison the chapter before, but they too knew the need to keep proclaiming the truth. And just like today, it wasn’t received well at all. People just about rioted because the words Paul spoke “turned [their] world upside down.” And today, while we shouldn’t expect our hearers to go out and drop dead like the king, we should take this charge as seriously. Unbelievers aren’t dropping dead — they already are. Just like all of us either are or were.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 2:1-3
This is especially pertinent when we look at the world today. It seems that “carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” is all most people think about anymore. It really is about “what’s in it for me?” — a sad byproduct of the freedoms Americans have enjoyed under a constitution that John Adams made clear was “made only for a moral and religious people” that was “wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” It brings to mind another famous quote, Jeff Goldblum’s line from the movie Jurassic Park — “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” The world is looking for new ways to be edgy and shocking, because really, they can, without a thought toward whether they should or not. We’re not stopping them, no matter the protests and no matter how much everyone thinks Christians are party-poopers who want to legislate their moralities. The world marches on.
So, what to do? Well, that’s what I was getting at with the long intro: speak the truth to the world. Be the watchman, warning those who don’t know Christ. It doesn’t have to be in a sandwich board on a street corner, calling down doom upon the citizens of Sodom (although it could be, though that really ignores Peter’s charge to speak of our hope with “gentleness and respect”). It should simply be this: that we’ve all been given this wonderful gift of life from a loving creator that shouldn’t be squandered by getting cocky and mocking him like Belshazzar did. He knew what he was doing — Daniel reminded him what happened when his dad pulled the pride card: “And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew [all that happened to your father].”
We don’t want people dropping dead because they don’t believe in God. God has his own plan. We should remember, rather, that God’s patience is itself a gift. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). We should all hope and pray that God is exercising that patience just for the very people we can reach. We need only be the watchmen, proclaiming the love and salvation of Christ, and let him do the rest.
