Someone close to me once asked me what I would do if I ever found myself alone. Would I re-marry? I said no; I am content when alone. They countered that I should not be so adamant about that. After a lot of back and forth conversation, I ended by saying, if God wants me to re-marry, He’ll have to write it on the wall!
That reference, of course, comes from the Book of Daniel, chapter 5. King Belshazzar, a descendent of Nebuchadnezzar, threw a big party for a thousand of his nobles and their wives and concubines. As the party got going, they brought in the sacred vessels dedicated to the LORD that were stripped from Solomon’s Temple when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. While they drank from those vessels, they praised their idols.
Until God had enough … and suddenly a finger appeared and wrote on the wall. Eventually, Daniel was brought in to interpret what the message (MENE, MENE, TEKEL PARSIN) meant. A portion of Daniel’s interpretation should warn and frighten us!
This is the interpretation: “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.”
“You have been weighed on [God’s] scales and found wanting.” I do not even want to imagine hearing those words applied to me or anyone I love. To be found wanting by God Himself would be unthinkable. That said, it’s prudent to “weigh” ourselves against God’s Word and against the lives of the people of faith God lovingly approves of in His Word. If we find ourselves “wanting,” then we need to repent and rededicate before the handwriting is on the wall.
