November 24, 2024
Daily Devotion:
"Worship and Idolatry"
Daniel 5:23
New Living Translation
23 For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been
drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your
destiny!
“Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” It is a shame Belshazzar did not take to heart all that King Nebuchadnezzar had gone through as God humbled him. For
some reason, he didn’t think there were any lessons for him to learn.
Belshazzar’s pride went even further. By choosing to use the goblets from the temple to praise false gods, he set himself up against the one, true God. God would demonstrate who was truly powerful.
God showed a lot of patience with King Nebuchadnezzar. Why did Belshazzar not get a second and third chance like his father? God is all-knowing and wise beyond our understanding. We know He is faithful and just. Because of this, we can confidently say that He did the right thing with both people.
The parable of the rich fool holds a lot of parallels to what happens with King Belshazzar. Though the issue with the rich fool was pride and greed rather than pride and power, they both spend their lives exalting and praising something or someone else rather than the God who holds their days in his hands. Foolishness in the Bible is characterized as rejecting the truth about God.
It is God who breathed life into us. He provides for and sustains us. He is the One we were made to glorify. Anything else we praise, worship, or glorify is always less than and will always disappoint. We were made for so much more.
The idea that God holds our days in His hands can be comforting, but it can also be alarming. We know we are far from perfect. God is not waiting for us to fail, so He can wipe us out. Your sins have been canceled. They have been paid for at a great cost. God desires a relationship with you, which starts here and goes on into eternity. Glory belongs to Him alone! with you, which starts here and goes on into eternity. Glory belongs to Him alone!
