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Daniel 5
Not much is really know of this king, Belshazzar. But, it can be pretty well deduced that he was more-or-less a waste of a king. And the message he received from God pretty much summed it up here in verses 26-28:
This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
As I am reading these verses, I couldn’t help but recall what is probably the biggest contrast to them, an exact opposite comment from Matthew 25:23,
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
In Matthew, we a story (or parable) told by Jesus that is kind of famous called the Parable of the Talents. Essentially, Jesus has given this guy some money or some kind of gift, and this guy leveraged it for the greater good, making the most of his talent. In contrast, the other guy in the story wasted his gift and was judged by Jesus.
This morning, my thought is really about this contrast between a person who lives his/her life so as to leverage it and make the most of it, not for his OWN benefit, but for God’s kingdom, vs. the guy who wastes it on himself like this king appears to do. Obviously I would rather be the former and not the latter, but it just causes me to pause and think, in what ways have I recently lived for my own benefit to detriment of living for the greatest good? It causes me to sort of take inventory. It causes me to do a sort of reset on myself.
So, that’s my prayer today, that I would live in a state of awareness today, that I would notice those moments when I have that subtle choice between leveraging the moment for the greater good or just living for my own good. Often times, it is just the awareness of this choice that provides the will power to make the best choice...it is just listening to the angel on my shoulder instead of the little devil!
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By Steve AndersonNot much is really know of this king, Belshazzar. But, it can be pretty well deduced that he was more-or-less a waste of a king. And the message he received from God pretty much summed it up here in verses 26-28:
This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
As I am reading these verses, I couldn’t help but recall what is probably the biggest contrast to them, an exact opposite comment from Matthew 25:23,
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
In Matthew, we a story (or parable) told by Jesus that is kind of famous called the Parable of the Talents. Essentially, Jesus has given this guy some money or some kind of gift, and this guy leveraged it for the greater good, making the most of his talent. In contrast, the other guy in the story wasted his gift and was judged by Jesus.
This morning, my thought is really about this contrast between a person who lives his/her life so as to leverage it and make the most of it, not for his OWN benefit, but for God’s kingdom, vs. the guy who wastes it on himself like this king appears to do. Obviously I would rather be the former and not the latter, but it just causes me to pause and think, in what ways have I recently lived for my own benefit to detriment of living for the greatest good? It causes me to sort of take inventory. It causes me to do a sort of reset on myself.
So, that’s my prayer today, that I would live in a state of awareness today, that I would notice those moments when I have that subtle choice between leveraging the moment for the greater good or just living for my own good. Often times, it is just the awareness of this choice that provides the will power to make the best choice...it is just listening to the angel on my shoulder instead of the little devil!