5In that moment appeared fingers of a hand of a man writing to the opposite of the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the palace of the king and the king [was] one seeing the palm of the hand which [was] one writing. 6Then the king, his countenance changed it and his thoughts alarmed him and the joints of his loins [were] ones loosened and his knees [were] ones knocking one to this. 7The king [was] one calling in strength to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and ones counseling. The king answering, one saying to the wise men of Babel, “All of a man who reads this writing and declares to me its meaning, he will be clothed [with] purple, and the necklace of the gold upon his neck, and third in the kingdom he will rule. 8Then ones coming in [were] the all of the wise men of the king, ones not able to read the writing and to make known the meaning to the king. 9Then the king Belshazzar [was] one being greatly alarmed and his face [was] one changing on him and his nobles [were] ones being perplexed.
Isn’t this interesting? Here is a man named Belshazzar. He has lived many years, made many, many choices, engaged in thousands of activities, and yet the Lord sees fit to record only the night of his death. It would seem the sum total of this man’s existence was only to provide the world with a glaring example of a bad man and his inevitable doom. The man himself is not only a king, but the son of a king and the grandson of possibly the greatest king in human history—Nebuchadnezzar. The man has lived his life in a palace, enjoyed all the privileges of essentially unlimited wealth, partook of every pleasure known to the human race, no doubt made many administrative decisions, maybe led some great projects, had people executed, and on and on and on.
Yet the Lord would see fit to simply tell us about the night he died. In a sense, the entire rest of his life “didn’t count.” As the Proverb warns us, “The name of the wicked shall rot.” The sad reality is that without the Lord, we really are just overgrown amoebas in a universe which exists and continues on nothing more than blind chance. Without the Lord, our lives really are pointless. Nebuchadnezzar himself did repent of his pride and he gets four chapters of this book to tell his story. Daniel was a good man and he wrote the book! Both men are admired to this very day some 2,600 years later. But what about Belshazzar? He’s a bad man who died in his arrogance. Period.
One of the things I have greatly enjoyed about knowing the Lord is how He makes my life matter. What I mean is, we can all ask the question, “Why should I?” Why should I get up and go to work? Why should I work hard even if I may be unappreciated? Why should I love people who may not love me in return? As a Christian, I already have an answer. I do it for the Lord. “And whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as to the Lord, for you know that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23,24). God cares. God cares if I mow my grass. He cares if we change the baby’s stinky diaper. God cares. My life matters. Every single minute of every single day.
Without the Lord, it occurred to me one day that I didn’t really know if I even exist. I thought about how, at night, I dream and create entire worlds that don’t exist. “What if my whole life is just a dream?” I asked myself. What if I’m just a point source of intelligence in the universe and this whole world is just a fantasy I’ve created for my own amusement? My next thought was, “Yeah, but I’m not amused. If the merry-go-round of this world is just a dream, it’s a bad dream, and I want off!” The utter futility of it all was miserably unsettling. And the truth was, I had no answer for it all. No one does. How do you know?
Again, when we allow the Lord into the equation, suddenly everything changes. We’re here because we were deliberately created. There is an intelligent, wise, and loving Creator God running all of this. I’m here specifically for the purpose of knowing Him, to live a life that matters all day every day specifically because He cares. This world is no fantasy, and it was created not in my mind but in His. I exist because He exists. And my life matters because He cares.
Poor foolish Belshazzar. In a sense, he spent his entire life trying to “matter,” but in the end left behind nothing but a bad example.
There is certainly a lot more to learn from these five verses, but I wanted to start just by noting the very, very big picture of what is happening here. Belshazzar’s example would blast the futility of our lives without God. He was a man who obtained everything this world could offer, all the pleasures, all the possessions, and all the applause, yet all we know of him is that he was foolishly arrogant and he died.
May you and I treasure the relationship we enjoy with our God. May we let Him make every minute of every day matter. May we rise to live in the dignity and honor for which we were created—the dignity of people created to be and to do good in our world, to love God and love people…and then die!
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