Handwriting On The Wall

“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. His face turned pale, and he was so frightened that his legs became weak, and his knees were knocking.” [1]

This hand crashed the king’s party. He and his supporters were drinking alcohol from the cups of God’s temple. Stolen from Jerusalem! They were praising gods that were no gods. Suddenly, the true and living God interrupted the vile behavior of these worthless leaders. The king was so frightened that his knees literally began to knock together. The king’s wife got him to call for Daniel the prophet of God to give him the interpretation of what the divine hand wrote.

Daniel said to the king, “You, Belshazzar… have not humbled yourself... Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from His temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and all your ways. Therefore He sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin.

Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” [2]

What are our nation’s leaders doing? Have they set themselves against the Lord of heaven by the things they are doing both before us and behind us? God knows! God sees! In due season, God acts against arrogance. They too, will see the writing on the wall, and not be able to wiggle out of the consequences that are coming to them from the hand of God.

Let us humble ourselves, turn from sin, and give glory to God because the day of judgment on proud rebellion against God is at hand.

[1] Daniel 5:5-6
[2] Daniel 5:22-27