20230630

found deficient

Daniel 5:24-31 (JDV)

Daniel 5:24 Therefore, he sent the hand, and this writing was inscribed.
Daniel 5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.
Daniel 5:26 This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Mene’: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
Daniel 5:27 ‘Tekel’: you have been weighed on the balance and found deficient.
Daniel 5:28 ‘Peres’: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Daniel 5:29 Then Belshazzar gave an order, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Daniel 5:30 That very night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was killed,
Daniel 5:31 and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

found deficient

Belshazzar lost his kingdom and his life because he was found deficient. An unseen hand (like the hand that wrote on the wall) had been weighing him. An hourglass was signaling that his time was up. A judgment at the resurrection will determine our permanent destiny. But there is also a judgment going on right now to determine how many days we are allotted in this life. We are all on death row, waiting to see how long we actually have.

Is there anything we can do to prolong our days alive? There appears to have been something Belshazzar could have done. He could have invested in a different kind of life, a life of honor and integrity, compassion and mercy. But he did not live that kind of life. He was found deficient.