Weighed and Wanting

For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! (Daniel 5:23)

The book of Daniel tells the story of a party that God crashed in Babylon. King Belshazzar, the grandson of King Nebuchadnezzar, didn’t follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. While Nebuchadnezzar came to believe in the true God of Israel, Belshazzar went out of his way to mock Him.

He invited his nobles to a big banquet, and then he took the special vessels used for the worship of God in the temple at Jerusalem and filled them with wine. The Bible tells us that “while they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (Daniel 5:4). As Belshazzar and his guests partied away, here is what happened:

Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him. (verses 5–6)

Written on the wall were the words Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin, which meant, “God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end” (verse 26), “You have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up” (verse 27), and “Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (verse 28).

Normally when we step onto a scale, we want to weigh less than we actually do. But on God’s scales, we want to weigh more. But God was saying, “Belshazzar, you are a lightweight. You have no substance in your life at all.”

If you were weighed on God’s scales today, what would He find? Would He find a life of substance? Or a life of emptiness?

Copyright © 2012 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
Listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.

Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.

SPECIAL OFFER

“Do you value the teaching and encouragement you receive from A New Beginning with Greg Laurie

Are you ready for a road trip?

In this one-of-a-kind book, Pastor Jeff Lasseigne has compiled important information, fascinating facts, notable notes and quotable quotes for each and every book of the Bible.

Hop in and buckle up for an adventure . . . along Highway 66!

Highway 66 will be sent to you in thanks for your gift of support to Harvest Ministries this month.