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July 19 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
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If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
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Today we will read about the handwriting on the wall in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5. King Belshazzar will receive a very personal, handwritten notice of judgment from God when he uses cups from God's worship house during a large dinner party while he offered praises to false gods and did not worship God. Even after receiving the translation of God's judgment King Belshazzar did not humble himself before God or repent! In our discussion for daily application we will talk about how God does not like pride in people and He is merciful to relent of judgment whenever anyone humbles themselves after receiving warning from God. We will talk about the importance of remembering that GOD is the one in charge of everything, including every success we experience. It is extremely important to remember that if God speaks to us with His Holy Spirit and warns us of our own pride that we remember this story of King Belshazzar receiving immediate consequence when he did not repent after receiving God's very visible judgment of his pride.
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Transcript
Introduction and Commitment Invitation
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome everybody to today's reading as we read through the day-by-day kids Bible written by Karen Henley. Today is July 19 and I am so glad that you are here with me as we go through the Bible this year.
00:00:19
Speaker
If you are using that commitment calendar it's time to take that out and get your sticker or however you're marking it off because you are about to hear the Bible today.
The Writing on the Wall: Introduction
00:00:33
Speaker
We are going to be continuing in the book of Daniel today. And today's story is something that can be kind of scary. I know that if I were to see this, it would definitely scare me to death.
00:00:45
Speaker
We are going to read about a hand writing on the wall of King Belshazzar's palace. King Belshazzar was King Nebuchadnezzar's son.
00:00:58
Speaker
And ah yesterday, i couldn't quite remember his relationship. I thought he was part of the the the next kingdom who had taken over from the Babylonians. But I was incorrect.
00:01:09
Speaker
So I wanted to be sure and say that.
Belshazzar's Lineage and Idol Discussion
00:01:12
Speaker
We also talked a little bit about ah the the name ah starting with Bel, And I did finally have a chance to look that up.
00:01:21
Speaker
And it is referring to the name of Baal. So the name Belshazzar means protected by Baal. And it's actually very similar to the name that Daniel was giving, which is Belteshazzar.
00:01:35
Speaker
So ah the names can be very similar, almost interchangeable there, and which means protected by bail And these were names. It was very common, ah even like in Egyptian kings, to take on different names and to have different the false gods incorporated into the names that people took.
00:01:58
Speaker
like even Tutankhamen, we have the Ankh, which is the symbol of the Egyptian symbol for life and protection like that. So we we see just a very pervasive usage of ah false idols in everyday life ah in the nations of Babylon and everywhere else around in the world there.
00:02:22
Speaker
So I just wanted to point out some of that.
The Feast and The Mysterious Hand
00:02:25
Speaker
So we are going to be reading about where we get our saying about seeing the writing on the wall. When we say that we are seeing the writing on the wall, that means to understand what is going on.
00:02:40
Speaker
And today we're going to see ah King Belshazzar seeing the writing on the wall, but not taking it seriously. So let's head into our reading today and let's watch something amazing that God does.
00:02:56
Speaker
the fingers that wrote on the wall, Daniel chapter five. Now King Belshazzar had a great dinner for a thousand leaders. They were in the palace.
00:03:08
Speaker
They ate and they drank wine. And the king told his servants to bring gold and silver cups. The cups were from the worship house in Jerusalem.
00:03:23
Speaker
The servants brought in the gold and silver cups, and the king and the leaders drank wine out of them. The king's wives and other ladies also drank wine out of them, and while they drank, they cheered for their fake gods.
00:03:43
Speaker
All of a sudden, the fingers of a man's hand showed up. The fingers wrote on the wall by the lampstand. Our Big Bible actually says that they were written in the lampstand so that the king could see the back of the handwriting.
00:04:03
Speaker
So God made sure that this was done in very visible light. All of a sudden, the fingers of a man's hand showed up and the fingers wrote on the wall by the lampstand.
00:04:16
Speaker
The king watched. His face lost its color. He was so scared that his legs shook, his knees shook and hit together, and his legs got weak.
Daniel's Interpretation
00:04:32
Speaker
The king called for his magic men to come, and he told them, Read this writing. Tell me what it means. Whoever tells me gets to wear the purple clothes of kings.
00:04:47
Speaker
He gets to have a gold chain around his neck and he will be the number three ruler in my kingdom.
00:04:56
Speaker
So all the king's magic men came in, but they couldn't read the writing. They couldn't tell the king what it meant.
00:05:08
Speaker
Then King Belshazzar got even more scared and his face lost even more color. His leaders didn't know what to think.
00:05:20
Speaker
The queen heard their voices. She came into the great hall where they were to having dinner.
00:05:29
Speaker
Live forever, my king, she said. Don't be scared. There is a man in this kingdom who is wise. He has the spirit of the holy gods in him.
00:05:43
Speaker
He is as wise as a god. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, put him in charge of the magic men. His name is Daniel.
00:05:56
Speaker
He knows and understands lots of things. He can tell the meaning of dreams too. He can tell you what riddles mean. He can tell you what to do about hard problems.
00:06:11
Speaker
So call for Daniel to come and he will tell you what the writing says.
00:06:16
Speaker
So Daniel came to see the king. Are you Daniel? Asked the king. Are you one of the people my father brought from Judah?
00:06:29
Speaker
I've heard that you're wise. My wise men came, but they couldn't tell me what the writing means. And now I have heard that you can tell what dreams me.
00:06:41
Speaker
I hear that you know what to do about hard problems. So read this. Tell me what it means. And then I will give you purple clothes.
00:06:53
Speaker
I will give you a gold chain for your neck. I will make you the number three ruler in my kingdom.
00:07:03
Speaker
You can keep your gifts, said Daniel. Or can give them to somebody else. I will read the writing for you and I will tell you what it means.
The Prophecy Fulfilled
00:07:17
Speaker
God gave power to your father, King Nebuchadnezzar. God made him great. People from every nation looked up to him.
00:07:29
Speaker
He killed whoever he wanted to kill. He saved whoever he wanted to save. He made some people great. He put some people down.
00:07:42
Speaker
But your father's heart became proud. Then he could not be king. God gave him an animal's mind. He lived with the wild donkeys.
00:07:55
Speaker
He ate grass like an ox. Dew made his body wet. And he lived that way until he said that God is king. God rules over the kingdoms.
00:08:10
Speaker
He chooses their kings.
00:08:14
Speaker
You know all this, King Belshazzar, but you are still proud. You set yourself up against God.
00:08:27
Speaker
You brought in the cups from his worship house. You drink wine from them and then you praised fake gods, which can't see or hear or understand.
00:08:43
Speaker
You did not worship God, said Daniel. He holds your life in his hands. So God sent the hand that wrote on the wall. And these are the words.
00:08:56
Speaker
Many, many, tekel, harsin. And here's what the words mean. Many means God has counted the days of your kingdom and he has ended it.
00:09:12
Speaker
Tekel means that you have been tested and you are not good enough.
00:09:18
Speaker
Harsin means two other nations will share your kingdom. These are the Medes and the Persians.
00:09:27
Speaker
Then King Belshazzar gave Daniel purple clothes to wear. He gave him a gold chain for his neck. And he made Daniel the number three ruler in his kingdom.
00:09:42
Speaker
That night, Belshazzar was killed. And King Darius from the Medes nation took over.
00:09:54
Speaker
That's the end of our reading today.
00:09:58
Speaker
Can you believe that?
00:10:01
Speaker
Wow. So that's where we get the saying to see the writing on the wall. God gave King Belshazzar
00:10:11
Speaker
his judgment.
Lessons on Humility and Warnings
00:10:14
Speaker
He said that he had counted the days of his kingdom. It was ended. He had been tested and he had been found to not be good enough.
00:10:24
Speaker
And his nation was going to be split into two nations.
00:10:29
Speaker
So did you see King Belshazzar do any kind of repentance or humble himself before God or admit that he was wrong? Nope.
00:10:42
Speaker
God's judgment was very fast, wasn't it?
00:10:46
Speaker
God can give us warnings about our behavior too. And it's very important that we take those warnings seriously. We have seen that God is very gracious and forgiving.
00:10:58
Speaker
And whenever he says that he's going to do something, when somebody immediately humbles themselves before him and repents, God is lenient.
00:11:09
Speaker
We've seen that happen many times. God will give warnings. And when people show repentance, such as the Ninevites, when Jonah sent the warning from God.
00:11:20
Speaker
In fact, remember, that's why Jonah didn't even want to go give that warning because he knew that the Ninevites would repent and that God would release, it would be lenient and not send his consequences.
00:11:33
Speaker
Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. And when we saw the king of Judah ah be sentenced, the king was humbled and he put on sackcloth and God said that he would delay the judgment until after him, after he was gone, because God saw that he had humbled himself.
00:11:54
Speaker
We see time and time again that God is gracious and forgiving. And God is it shows us ah this over and over again. And yet this king, having seen his own father go through these things, going through the madness that God sent him until he proclaimed that God is king, he still didn't take any notice. He was very arrogant. He was very proud.
00:12:21
Speaker
was very stubborn. So can we too can and be stubborn when God sends warning to us. And we want to remember and King Belshazzar and see that it's very important that if God sends us a warning and convicts us of our sin today we have the Holy Spirit and so what we might perceive as something like our conscience when we know we are doing something wrong and we know that we are going against what God wants us to do and yet we do it anyways it can have very serious consequences
00:13:00
Speaker
In today's reading, ah King Belshazzar was completely disrespecting God. He was using the ah the cups that had been taken from God's worship house.
00:13:14
Speaker
These were not cups that were used for the daily common people. These were cups used in service at God's temple. And so these were items that were consecrated as holy.
00:13:28
Speaker
And God's name is holy. God is holy. And we have commandments such as do not take the Lord's name in vain. And that means to show respect to God's name.
00:13:39
Speaker
So when he was using these cups that were consecrated as holy, he was not simply using them. He was praising false gods, false idols that couldn't see or hear or understand.
00:13:54
Speaker
And he didn't even have the courtesy to give any sort of praise to the God whom he had ordered the this the cups brought in from the temple.
00:14:06
Speaker
He knew that those cups came in from the temple. He ordered them, the cups brought in from the temple. And so he was deliberately using cups from God's temple, but wasn't even giving any courtesy to acknowledge the God who te who when he had all these other gods that they were worshiping.
00:14:25
Speaker
It was like he just had completely forgotten about it. And that was what Daniel told him was he said, you did not worship God. We need to be sure that we are giving
Reflecting on Pride and Sacredness
00:14:35
Speaker
God credit and remembering that God is in charge of everything beyond just making sure that we don't take the Lord's name in vain and being respectful of our holy God.
00:14:46
Speaker
We need to remember that God is in charge of everything. God is in charge of all people. He sets people up. He brings success.
00:14:58
Speaker
He provides. He blesses. Everything that we have comes from God. And if we become proud and start to think that we have attained things and we have achieved things by our own power, and then God tells us, hey, remember me?
00:15:17
Speaker
I'm the one who brought you all of these things. You are not mighty by your own power. It is God who has blessed us. Then God will give us warning.
00:15:29
Speaker
I have not seen any examples where God simply does not issue any warning. God is gracious. He told the Israelites that he brought his prophets early and often.
00:15:42
Speaker
And here God is sending warning. He and you made sure to say what he was going to do so that they knew exactly why this was coming. And sure enough, God did exactly what he said he would do, just as we see throughout the course of the Bible.
00:15:58
Speaker
When God says he will do something, he does he does it. So ah we just want to take it very seriously that when God sends us the writing on the wall, that we take him seriously, that we remember King Belshazzar, that we remember that we are not to be proud. If we start to become proud in what we consider as our accomplishments, ah God will most likely show us the writing on the wall and warn us and tell us, hey, remember it is me who has given you everything.
00:16:32
Speaker
So we need to take heed of that. We need to pay attention to that.
00:16:37
Speaker
I hope that you have found today's reading to have daily application in your life today. i know that it's it's a good reminder for me as well. i want to be sure that even for things like such as this event, that as I see the subscribers grow and that as I see the lights being lit, um and I want to remember that this is not my event. You're not here and liking and subscribing and following because of me but this is god's event this is a project that he put on my heart and this is to spread the word about reading his word it's not because i am fabulous because i am wise the holy spirit
00:17:19
Speaker
ah tells me what to say. And it is not ah me who is so wise and and is giving you this information. But I'm just very thankful that God is using me for this event.
00:17:33
Speaker
He put this event on my heart ah quite a while ago, and that I had the desire to read his word and to...
00:17:45
Speaker
put it out on a recording like this. But anybody can just pick up the Bible and read it. and I really liked... This version here, when i when he brought me years ago, the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley.
00:17:59
Speaker
And it was just, it really spoke to me to to share God's big
Spread the Word and Acknowledge God
00:18:05
Speaker
story. And so I wanna remember all the time that when I see the the the good analytics and I see people reading or watching rather or listening, that I i don't become proud either.
00:18:18
Speaker
So i mentioned that so that, you know that I'm using these daily readings. God is definitely teaching me. And it's not just for everybody else here.
00:18:32
Speaker
So I know God has lit my light today and is making sure that he reminds me that he wants me to stay, to be humble, to not be proud. Because over and over again, we see even with the story of Job, when he was talking to Job, he said, do you bring down the proud?
00:18:51
Speaker
Something to that effect. And God is very proud. clear about the fact that he does not like pride. So we want to remember to not be prideful in what we may perceive as our accomplishments.
00:19:07
Speaker
Every accomplishment is God's accomplishment. So thank you for joining me today. I hope that you don't feel that that's a little repetitive or ah just rambling on, at but that it is relevant.
00:19:20
Speaker
So thank you for joining me here today. i hope that you do feel that God has lit your light today with his reading. ah So please click that light button, not for me, but for God, because we want to draw people to God since we are the light of the world.
00:19:35
Speaker
We want everybody to be aware of him and to give him the glory. and to spread the word about reading his word so that we can encourage our fellow brothers and sisters to not be proud, as God does not like that.
00:19:50
Speaker
So thank you for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day this July 19th, and will be here for everyone again tomorrow.