WTM JOURNAL
by Yuri Solomon In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote... And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. (Daniel 5:5 & 22) Yuri Solomon holds degrees from Gospel Ministry Outreach Theological Institute and the College of Biblical Studies. He is author of the book Biblical Masculinity. More info @ www.wordtalkonline.orgThe Daniel Discipline V
4/04/2011 / Devotionals
It is ironic that Daniel and his friends maintained the lessons of their parents while here Belshazzar has failed to learn the illustrative lesson of God dealing with his father Nebuchadnezzar. How often it is that great lessons of one generation are, many times, left and lost in the next. How painful it is for parents to watch their children choose to do what they know will not and cannot turn out good. I heard one elderly lady remark about children, "When they are young, they are on your lap, but when they are grown, they are on your heart."
The prevailing wisdom common to young people today is not unlike that of Belshazzar, "I'm young and have time" "I have to experience the world for myself like my parents did, then I'll see for myself" "I should be out having fun right now, that's for old people."
On the other hand, what virtue, to simply pay attention, learn the hard lessons, do the hard work, and stand on the shoulders of those who have been through the trials and errors. There are some trips you don't have to make. God has put a road-sign there, a warning, an example of its consequences. And if you choose to take a trip down that road, you just might not come back, and most certainly you won't come back the same. They say "Experience is a good teacher." Yet one must ask, "At what cost???" if mere inconvenience is the only price, then one might freely consider it as a alternate route to the same end; however, so-called experience often results in great loss, pain, deep wounds, scares, and even death. The fact is sometime experience does not give a second chance. The classroom of experience is often painfully unforgiving. Asked any single mother who is raising a child along, because she sold her body for an "I love you" instead of a wedding. Listen to the testimony of a young addict who felt that since his friends were doing drugs, he would try it just this once. Take the story from the graveyard of a fellow who thought a gang was security. Sin will always make you go further then you meant to go, make you stay longer then you meant to stay, and make you pay more then you meant to pay.
The frequently committed error is a failure to count observation as experience. Belshazzar chose to ignore his father's experience with God. He saw his father come the know God and the change God made in him. And that counts too! God never wastes what he gives us. Whether taste, or touch, or smell, or sound, or sight, your every experience is jammed packed with meaning and significance to be examined in the light of God. Act 17 says, "God has determined your time before you were here, and the distance you would travel; That you should seek the Lord, if haply you might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from anyone: For in Him we live, and move, and have our being" Your very existence is both proof and call to worship God. Rest assured, delay in pursuing and serving God is never profitable.
Belshazzar's opportunity was greater than that of His father and so was his condemnation greater. He has more from the beginning, his father's story. Instead he has to hear more, see more, smell more, feel more, taste more and then his end came into view. The handwriting was on the wall. There was no turning back.
If you have more, God requires that you do better. We presume upon God by assuming experiences are parallel. We are all dealt our hands from the same deck of life, but look closely, everybody's cards are different. God judges each of us by what He has perfectly dealt to us. Nebuchadnezzar's idolatry ended in his salvation while Belshazzar's idolatry ended in his damnation. The person who says to himself or herself, I will go as far as I can until I see clearly, BE WARNED!!! By the time you can see the reality of your end apart from faith, it's too late. -- The handwriting is on the wall!