Wednesday, November 29, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Daniel reads the writing on the wall
When the gold and silver vessels taken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in, and while the king, his lords, his wives and entertainers were drinking wine from them, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
Not long from now Daniel will disobey the next king’s order and be thrown into the Lion’s Den. That story works on flannelboard and works on the active imaginations of Lutheran Sunday School boys. It worked on me. The picture of Daniel and the peaceful lion was etched on my brain.
But Daniel’s life took many turns, and today’s lectionary text tells the tale of his encounter with King Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar. The king threw a party, using sacred Jewish utensils and bowls to serve his guests their drinks and libations.
Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king’s palace.
The king’s thoughts terrified him, and he called on Daniel, whom he had never yet met. Daniel, as he always did from childhood on, spoke to King Belshazzar with confidence and strength.
You have rebelled against the Lord of heaven. You praised your own gods which neither see nor have intelligence. But the God in whose hand is your life breath and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify. The writing on the wall is written by Him.
Daniel spoke to the king about his bleak future.
and still Belshazzar gave Daniel the rewards he had promised.
God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.
You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Your kingdom has been divided and give to the Medes and Persians.
Still, Belshazzar gave Daniel the rewards he had promised. But he would not be there to benefit from Daniel’s wisdom, now that he had discovered it.
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain.
Belshazzar’s successor was crowned the same night. Darius the Mede also admired Daniel, but his satraps despised him because they were jealous. And thus the lions run into Daniel, and the Holy Spirit protects Daniel, and the king (third king in a row) loves his servant Daniel.
It being long after 5 pm, and having a bottle of chilled New Zealand sauvignon blanc near to hand, it seemed only appropriate for me to drink a glass of wine while writing this story of a party gone very wrong. But I did not use gold or silver goblets from the temple, that’s for sure. I’ve learned something from the stories of Daniel, something besides that lions and fiery furnaces aren’t always the winners in God’s wonderful world.
Remember, do not prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself will give you words to speak, words that your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. Still;, some of you will be put to death, and hated because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
(Daniel 5, Daniel 3, Revelation 2, Luke 21)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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