Shade Tree Wisdom 2/11/11

These cold days here along the Gulf Coast are making me long for the Pancake House in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. They offered an apple pancake that was our standard fare each Friday night. Boy such eating. That’s all they had, pancakes and waffles, but they were always busy, especially after a football or basketball game.

Party time reminds me of another party given centuries ago by a successful king. The guest list includes leaders in business and in government. There’s lots of food and drink, music and dancing girls, and the mood is festive. Celebrating another victory. As the night wears on, the party gets more boisterous, as such events often do. And finally the king, for it is Belshazzar of Babylon (grandson of the king who defeated and sacked Jerusalem), called for the golden temple vessels which the army had carried off as loot. And they used these gold vessels to drink toasts to their gods. The insult supreme, using holy vessels to drink toasts to false gods. The party grew wilder, but suddenly it grew quiet, and the latest filthy witticism never was uttered. For there, on the wall above the king’s head, just where the light fell, a hand appeared, and wrote several lines on the wall.

The king couldn’t make it out, so he sent for his wise men. They came hurrying, this group of wise men, solemn in their robes, and clustered around the writing. Finally they turned to the king and admitted they did not recognize the language. Then the queen remembered Another time, and a man named Daniel who had come as a captive, and risen to the role of trusted advisor. The king called him, and he came. He read the message, because the Lord revealed it to him, and this is what he read.

“Mene. Mene. Tekel, Upharsin.” Then he told the king its meaning. And this is it: “God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. You are weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Daniel 5, 25 – 28. The story ends so. “That night was Belshazzar slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom”. V.31-31.

Everything in Scripture is written for our learning, as the Apostle teaches, so what lesson do we learn from this?

We stand accused as sinners, as falling short also. For “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Found wanting, yes, but also forgiven. Hear this truth, “For God made Him to be sin for us, who had no sin, so that, in Him, we might be become the righteousness of God. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come, and all this is of God.” 1 Cor. 5, 18-20. So, we join the host of those who “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” Rev. 7,14.

So shall it be, because of Christ’s blood shed on the cross, for us. To God be the glory. Amen

GPD 2/11/11