If you are like most people, your first thought when you need a job is that you need an organization--a company, a ministry, a social service organization--to hire you. Then you pretty much expect to work there for a long time and if you are released or phased out, it can create waves of fear and depression, and then you start the process over again.
There is nothing wrong with this but God may use a company to take care of you, but He doesn't need one. He can take care of you all by yourself. What's more, God is your job counselor and can open and close doors in order to position you where He wants you to be. Daniel found all this to be true in Babylon as we will see in this week's lesson in our Success in Babylon series.
THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL
Eventually, Daniel and Judah's nemesis, Nebuchadnezzar, succumbed to death, as all kings and leaders do: "Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing" (Psalm 146:4-5). He was replaced on the throne by his son, Belshazzar, who was as arrogant and proud as his father had been:
King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 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. 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. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. 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. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking (Daniel 5:1-6).
There is a saying that "the writing's on the wall," and it means that things are not going well and is about to end--and the saying came from this story.
This scenario has always fascinated me. What did the fingers look like? What was the skin color? What did they write with? What were the reactions of the guests? Did they run? We know the reaction of the king, for he was terrified. Obviously God knew how to get His message across in a manner and in the language that got everyone's attention.
Yet my question to you is this: Where was Daniel when all this was happening?
THE LORD TAKETH AWAY
The answer is that Daniel was nowhere to be found. After all his service to the king and Babylon, he had been fired and demoted by the new king, who had every right to choose his own team of wise men and counselors. In choosing his team, however, he overlooked the best man in the kingdom, and what's more, in his time of trouble, he did not even remember Daniel existed:
The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! 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. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners" (Daniel 5:10-11).
The queen had to remind Belshazzar that Daniel was around and capable of helping interpret the writing. That is how far removed Daniel was from his once prominent role in the kingdom. We used to remind all the inmates in prison ministry that God was in control of their sentence and the jobs they had while incarcerated, and that would be the same when they got out. They did not own their positions and what they had was by God's choice, not man's. We reminded them and I remind you of the oft-quoted verse from Job: "And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21 KJV).
The king hastily summoned for Daniel, who was immediately ushered into the party room to see if he could interpret the handwriting. Let's see how Daniel responded.
DANIEL TO THE RESCUE
When the king asked Daniel for help, he could have said, "Why you little brat! I was serving your father when you were in diapers running around his throne. I didn't deserve to be demoted. You have treated me terribly. Read your own handwriting. I quit! And if you kill me, who cares. I am older now and lived a fuller life than I ever thought possible in Babylon." That is not what Daniel did or said, for once again, he was magnanimous in service, knowing he was there as God's representative and not as an independent contractor: "Then Daniel answered the king, 'You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means'" (Daniel 5:17).
Of course, the message on the wall was not good for the king, for God was about to taketh away his throne and life: “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians" (Daniel 5:26-28). And that is exactly what happened, for the king was assassinated that very night. Daniel was the only one who could interpret the strange writing because he was the only one in touch with the living God, and the same may be true for you in your life situation.
Are you in Babylon? Have you been unfairly treated? Are you angry? Have you decided to withhold the best of who you are and what you can do? Do you think God needs a king or the world system to care for you or to make a place for you? The verse from Job is as pertinent and relevant for you as it was for Daniel, for God in His infinite wisdom opens and closes doors, promotes and demotes, uses and retires, as He sees fit.
Even though you are in Babylon with all its enterprise and wealth, you are still God's child and He is the best Father in the universe, even though at times He works with us in ways we cannot see or understand. Have a blessed week!
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