So this is the story from Daniel that is the inspiration behind the phrase “the handwriting on the wall”. It’s a way of saying, “Dude, it’s over.” Doom is imminent.
This story from 2500 years ago is filled with relevant warnings for us when God is trying to get our attention and get us to heed the warning signs he’s sending to us.
Check it out, and see the outline and video below!
COUNTERCULTURE—The Writing on the Wall
(Daniel 5:1-5) “King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 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, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.”
WHAT IS WRITTEN ON THE WALL FOR US?
(Daniel 5:25-26) “This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.”
- We forget that our days are numbered.
(Daniel 5:27) “Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.”
- We allow our lives to get out of balance.
(Daniel 5:28) “Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” ü We ignore the warning signs.
- We ignore the warning signs.
TURNING POINTS
(Daniel 5:29-31) “Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.”
- Live with a sense of purpose and urgency.
(Psalm 39:4-5 NLT) “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath.”
- Put first things
(Matthew 6:33) “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
- Do it now.
(2 Corinthians 6:2) “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”