Your Time Is Up

YOUR TIME IS UP (DANIEL 5)

Here are some wonderful quotes from Edward Everett Hale:

“Do not blow your own trumpets nor, which is the same thing, ask other people to blow them. No trumpeter ever rose to be a general.”

“I was asked, “Do you pray for the senators, Dr. Hale?' I answered, “No, I look at the senators and I pray for the country.’”

“If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.”

Daniel the prophet had served under two kings and one family so far: Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 1:18) and Belshazzar the grandson (Dan 5:1). The grandfather was eccentric but Belshazzar was egomaniacal. Their pride drove their family to madness (Dan 4:33) and murder (Dan 5:30).

How have we taken for granted what is given to us? What can we do to better our lives and the lives of others? Why is it true that pride comes before a fall?

To the Privileged: You Have a Big Ego

1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. 5 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. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. 7 The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to be brought and said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom." 8 Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. 9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled. 10 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. "O king, live forever!" she said. "Don't be alarmed! Don't look so pale! 11 There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your father — your father the king, I say — appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. 12 This man Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means."

One of the greatest Premier League turnaround and success stories is winnows Leicester City winning the league by a staggering 10 points in 2016, but was relegated seven years later. Why? Less than 100 days after winning the title, Leicester’s Thai owners rewarded the squad with an Azure blue BMW sports cars for each player to be presented a game before the next season started.

The concerned coach Claudio Ranieri said, “Let me think about the match, not the cars. It’s not important to me to think about cars. Forget what we achieved, I want more and this is not the maximum. Look, I forgot what happened one month ago, two months ago. Now, my focus is on the new season. I am very concentrated and ambitious, but we know it will be hard.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/leicester-vs-manchester-united-claudio-ranieri-believes-his-players-can-repeat-last-season-s-heroics-a7174486.html

The team let the cars, the contracts and the celebrations got into their heads.

There was no “great banquet” bigger than the banquet King Belshazzar hosted for a thousand of his nobles in the Bible (v 1). Belshazzar was the grandson of the mad king Nebuchadnezzar (4:1) made well. The presiding king ordered to be brought in the gold and silver goblets that his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that Belshazzar and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them (vv 2-3). The people who polluted and profaned the gold and silver goblets include the king’s concubines (v 2). The vessels were taken for fun, festivity and feasting. The companions mistakenly, mischievously and maliciously ascribed praise to the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.