Words You Never Want to Hear
By Pastor Jim May
In the Book of Daniel there is an interesting story about one of the richest and most powerful kings that ever lived. His name is Nebuchadnezzar and he was ruler over the first great world empire known as the Babylonian Empire.
He did a lot of wondrous things during his reign including the construction of the great capitol city of Babylon. One historian, by the name of Herodotus, claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow a four-horse chariot to turn. The inner walls were "not as thick as the first, but just as strong." Inside the walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel that seemed to reach to the heavens. It was a testimony to man’s defiance of the God of Heaven and it was used as a temple to the god Marduk.
Marduk is normally referred to as “Bel”, which means, "Lord". He is called, “the great lord", "lord of lords", "leader of the gods", "the wise, lord of oracles", and "receiver of the dead". Later his name became better known as “Baal” and now you can see why the God of Heaven hated Baal worship. This Babylonian god was an idol whom men worshipped and put in the place of the One True God.
In addition to all of the temples, fortresses and great city, Nebuchadnezzar also built one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. According to some historical accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar’s homesick wife, Amyitis. She was a daughter of the king of the Medes, and was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The land she came from was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing. King Nebuchadnezzar decided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens. This mountain has been estimated by historians to be as much as 400 ft square and 320 ft high. It was layered into terraces and all sorts of trees and plants were on each terrace. The whole thing was watered by bucket style elevators that were in motion all the time, powered by oxen and slaves to keep the whole mountain well watered and green so that the queen could feel at home.
When money and power are given to a man, there is no limit to what he will do to make his own life better. It’s no different today, is it? Even people who claim to be ministers of the gospel will abuse the money and power in their hand to build lavish lifestyles. God will judge those who abuse his provisions in such a manner. God never intended for a preacher to own jet planes just so he wouldn’t have to wait in an airport terminal with everyone else. And if he did, he certainly wouldn’t want preachers to use them to take vacations to Tahiti or Hawaii. I don’t believe that God ever intended for a preacher to have Hummer just to ride around in the pasture to check out his herd of cattle, or to have a mansion to live in, plus several more as vacation homes.
You can tell me that it’s all “gifts” from people who admire you, but that doesn’t make it right in the sight of God. Those gifts are meant not just for the man of God, but for the work of God. I believe in prosperity, but only as your soul prospers in your relationship with God. A soul wrapped in greed and selfishness isn’t prospering, no matter how much money you have and God will judge those who abuse the provisions that are meant for the work of the Lord.
How many souls could be saved through the funding of missionary efforts instead of buying another vacation home? How many people could have received medical aid if we had send medicine and doctors to care for them instead of buying $3000 suits and Hummers? How many churches could have been built for the price of a private jet? Woe unto that preacher when he stands before God on judgment day and has to answer for his avarice at the expense of the gospel!
King Nebuchadnezzar was a great man, and a powerful, rich king in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God he was an idolater whom God used to bring about God’s own will in the end.
Nebuchadnezzar defied God and lost. Daniel 5:20-21, "But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will."
My friend, God knows how to get your attention. The question is, how far will you go before you decide to hear him?
It seems that people do not learn from the past. They simply refuse to learn from the experiences of others. We are all bent on doing things our own way at all costs. Our attitude is much like that of Admiral David Farragut during the American Civil War.
During the Battle of Mobile Bay, the south had mined the harbor and the bay to keep Union ships away. There was a small channel that was clear to allow blockade runners to enter the harbor to bring much needed supplies for the southern war effort, but the no one in Farragut’s fleet knew where it was. He attempted to enter and lost one of his ships before they had gone very far. Farragut knew that the port had to taken at all costs and so he issued a fateful order. It went something like this, “[forget] the torpedoes, full speed ahead”!
We are in a spiritual warfare all the time. The battle never ends. And all too often we have Farragut’s attitude. When we refuse to heed the warnings given by the Word of God, and we refuse to keep right with God, and we choose to go full speed ahead in spite of all that God can do to stop us – then we are going to suffer the consequences of that decision. Farragut finally conquered Mobile and won the battle, but my friend, you will not win the battle of defiance against God’s Word and his law. An eternal price will be paid.
Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way, but his son, Belshazzar, refused to learn from his father’s mistakes. He inherited everything that his father had built and his father’s beliefs, but he didn’t learn to humble himself before the God of Heaven. Instead, Belshazzar shook his fist in the face of God Almighty and dared God to interfere in his life.
Daniel 5:1-5, "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 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."
It was bad enough for Belshazzar to be an idolater. It was bad enough when he defied God and refused to learn from the experiences of this father. But now he was taking the very things that God had provided for His own temple in Jerusalem, those things that were used to worship the One True God, and for the spreading of his knowledge through the whole world, and for the saving of the souls of men, and Belshazzar was using them to worship idol gods.
God said, “That’s enough!” Then the Lord God Jehovah stepped into the life of Belshazzar in a way that made history and became an example for everyone who defies the Living God.
My friend, God is getting ready to step into the lives of preachers who defy him and waste that which is meant to spread the gospel and save souls. Judgment must begin at the House of God, and woe to those on whom that judgment falls.
The handwriting is upon the wall for false preachers and false teachers.
The handwriting is upon the wall for everyone who calls himself Christian and yet does not serve the Lord.
The handwriting is upon the wall for every sinner who refuses to bow his knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
The handwriting is upon the wall for everyone who defies the Living God.
We had better take heed to the warning and make sure that all is right between us and God for judgment is surely coming, and coming very soon!
Belshazzar saw the hand, but no arm and no body. Yet the writing was there. Out of nothing but thin air a hand appears and begins to write God’s appraisal of Belshazzar’s life and his kingdom.
Can you imagine what that must have been like? Can you imagine the absolute fear and the panic in the hearts of sinful men? That’s the same fear and panic that will fill the heart of every man, woman and child, above the age of accountability, as they stand before God on Judgment Day! Pride, arrogance, selfishness, greed and every sinful thought will suddenly be replaced by fear and panic and that feeling will never go away, for eternity. Hell will be a place filled with fear, with panic, with pain, with darkness and with everlasting fire. You don’t want to go there so learn from the experience of others and avoid it at all costs.
Belshazzar promised scarlet robes, golden necklaces and a powerful place in the kingdom to anyone who could interpret the writing on the wall. But none of the priests of his idol gods could do it. When God writes, only the Spirit of God can fully interpret. So Daniel was brought forth. He was a man of God with an excellent spirit, for within Daniel was the Spirit of God.
Here is what Daniel had to say. First of all, he told the king to keep his riches. Daniel wasn’t doing the work of the Lord to get rich or powerful, or to better his lifestyle, but only as an obedient servant to his Lord. His heart was right before God and God was getting ready to reward Daniel’s faithfulness in ways that Daniel could never imagine.
Daniel 5:22-28, "And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."
Now comes the words that I hope you will never hear from either a man of God, or especially, from the Lord himself.
Mene – your kingdom is numbered and finished. All of your plans are at an end. All of your dreams and ambitions are over. God has counted the cost, measured your success, determined the beginning and ending of your days on earth and it’s over. Your time on earth is finished and it’s time to face eternity without God. All of what you hoped for, built, saved, horded up, purchased, wasted and own are for nothing. It’s over and finished. To confirm this fact, God wrote it twice.
Tekel – These are the most fearful words that you could ever hear, and will hear if you don’t heed this warning I give today. Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting! Oh what a terrible thing to be found wanting before God, to not measure up to his standards, to not be counted as an obedient and faithful servant! Belshazzar suddenly knew fear as he had never known before. He was destined for hell and suddenly he knew it. All of the defiance, disobedience, idolatry and selfishness in his heart rose to surface and condemned his heart, and there was nothing he could do but confess it was true.
Finally, the Lord had written, Peres, or in some translations it is written, Upharsin - Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Everything that you counted as more important to you than the True God are now going to belong to someone else and you are going to be empty handed.
Beshazzar traded eternal life for power, wealth, fame and glory in this life, now he burns forever in the flames of Hell. What are we trading eternal life for? Is it worth the price in the end? I think not!
Now just so that we don’t think that this was just a story for the Old Testament people and not meant for us today, I want you to know that there are times in the New Testament where this same type of scenario takes place.
What about the story of Ananias and Sapphira who died at the very altar in the House of the Lord for lying about their financial dealings and lied to the Holy Ghost. It cost them their lives.
What about the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus? That story carries the same implications as the story of Belshazzar. The Rich Man traded eternal life for hell because he loved his riches more than God or God’s people.
And, what about those who serve idols, and misuse the provisions of God for personal gain? Is there an example in the New Testament for them as well?
Matthew 7:21-23, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Many today are dwelling in the very House of God. Many are even standing behind pulpits proclaiming their version of the “gospel” saying that the good news is that God wants you to be rich, but they don’t preach the good news of salvation by grace through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Many sit in the pews professing to be born again, but still living lives of sin and shame, with no thoughts of true repentance. Many claim to be the Children of God and yet they serve idols of their own making and gods of their own choosing, refusing to surrender their lives in service to the One True God and refusing to give the glory to Him for all that they are.
I hope that you never hear those words, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin! Put Jesus first and you won’t have to.
In a final note, Daniel was given everything that Belshazzar had promised. He was given scarlet robes of the finest fabrics, golden necklaces and the third highest office in Babylon. But the kingdom of Babylon was destroyed that night and was overcome by the Medes and Persians who would establish the second great world empire. The Babylonian position and wealth was destroyed, but another was going to take its place.
You see, God will bless you if you are obedient. He wants you to have the desires of your heart. He will supply all of your need in this life and he will pour out blessings upon you. But don’t forget that it’s all temporary and will be gone in a moment, only to be burned up in judgment day.
What He has waiting is far better. Daniel’s desire was to serve the Lord and his day of blessing truly came under the new king by the name of Darius. He was given power and authority under the new empire because of his faithfulness.
Your real riches aren’t on planet earth, they are in Heaven. Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be also. I’ve saved up more treasure in Heaven than on this earth. Nothing here is worth missing Heaven to obtain it. My heavenly home is bright and fair, I feel like traveling home. No pain, nor death, can enter there, I feel like traveling on. It’s glittering towers the sun outshines, I feel like traveling on. Than heavenly mansion shall be mine, I’m getting ready to travel on.
Are you ready? Don’t let the handwriting on the wall catch you unprepared. I hope you never hear those terrible words, that you have come up short and found wanting. Make your heart right with God and stay right with God. You never know when your days will reach their final number.
