Belshazzar's Tamperings
| TEKEL: Thou art weighed
in the balances, and art found wanting. Dan. 5:27. |
Our heavenly
Father is a loving and forgiving God, but by our own neglect and indifference
we can lose our eternal heritage. King Belshazzar had known of the great
God of heaven. His predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar, had shared with his
people the wonderful and powerful workings of Daniel's God, describing
how the God of the heavens had intervened in his own life. Belshazzar's
mother and grandmother had tried to guide him. But he chose a lifestyle
that ignored the God of heaven.
During his drunken revelry
Belshazzar had the sacred things of God's holy Temple brought to the feast,
and mocked God by using them. Belshazzar tampered with the sacred things
of God, and in the words of the eternal God Himself, Belshazzar was found
wanting. His kingdom would be taken from him that very night (verse 30).
The Word of God makes it
clear that we are not to tamper with sacred things. The sons of Aaron died
because they offered profane fire before the Lord (Num. 3:4); Uzzah perished
because he ventured to touch the ark of the covenant (2 Sam. 6:6, 7); even
70 men of Beth-shemesh were struck dead for looking into the ark (1 Sam.
6:19). If we, like Belshazzar, Nadab, and Uzzah, tamper with the holy things
of God, we will also be found wanting.
A lifestyle that increases
the risk of disease and death is a lifestyle that mocks the Creator-God
because it tampers with the holy. Therefore, eating rich, fatty foods,
drinking caffeine-laced beverages, getting no exercise, and burning the
candle at both ends is tampering with the holy! Holding on to such harmful
practices shows little respect for that which God considers holy (1 Cor.
3:16). To give honor and glory to God, we must treat with respect the holy
things of God. We do this with what we eat, drink, or whatever we do (1
Cor. 10:31).
| Is there anything in your lifestyle
that might be tipping the scales in the direction of sinful things, rather
than toward holy things? |
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