“Come,” my heart says, “seek His face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek. Psalm 27:8 NRSV.

In our chapter, Daniel 5, a new king is mentioned and in the notes below, this king follows after others who reigned briefly before him. The whole tone has changed. King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king, his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. v. 1-6. Just as Nebuchadnezzar had done, Belshazzar summoned all the wise men of Babylon with promises of reward if they would tell him what the words on the wall meant. They tried. They couldn’t. So the queen, in the notes, the queen mother, came into the room and told the king not to be alarmed. She told him Daniel would be able to tell him what the writing meant. When Daniel came into the room, the king asked him if he was Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, and if he could tell him what the writing meant with reward if he could. Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means. Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position He gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone He wishes. But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from His temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and all your ways. Therefore He sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN Here is what these words mean: 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.” v. 17-28. Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, didn’t just give to Daniel the translation of the words. He enabled Daniel to understand and relate all that had gone before in that room. The king did follow through on his rewards including making Daniel the third highest ruler in the kingdom, and then…That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two. v. 30.

Creator God IS. How we each of us need to understand that amazing and wonderful truth. Because He IS whether we acknowledge that truth or not. Remember the statue of gold, silver, bronze, iron and iron mixed with clay? The gold head representing Babylon is smashed. The silver is next. So it will be for every kingdom of men…every one of them. Take your eyes away from the kingdoms of men and seek the Kingdom of God. How? A good place to start is to be humbled enough to be still. Be still and lean into Creator God with your whole heart. Pray. Ask for His help to help you understand and see that He alone is Sovereign and Holy. And repent for the life we all of us have lived in ignorance of Him. And listen. Learn to hear His voice speaking to your spirit. Let the sound of your own voice in your thoughts diminish as you listen to His words of wisdom and love and support. You are loved and He prepares your heart to receive all He has for you and it is good! But we need to listen to Him.