Daniel 5: Something's Missing!

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 and 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.

-Daniel 5:1-6 (NIV)

Human beings cannot live in the fullest awareness of the meaning of death. If our death is personal extinction so that when we die there is no continuance, nothing that survives or goes on, and, the Sun’s death is the end of civilization, then, everything previous will be totally insignificant to the mass of years and years of dead time before and after, so that no one will be around to remember anything that was done.

-Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

Every culture is in its most essential intent a way to heroically deny our creatureliness, to deny death. We need to feel heroic, We need to know that our life matters in the great scheme of things. We need to know that there is some higher meaning.

-Ernest Becker

3 Coping Mechanisms:

The Romantic Solution:

The belief that if we can find that one true love, all our feelings of insignificance, purposelessness, and meaninglessness will dissipate.

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

-Daniel 5:3 (NIV)

The Romantic Solution may solve some problems but a myriad of others emerge!

The Creative Solution:

The task of your life is to show yourself and the world around you that you are above and beyond.

  Your devil is mediocrity and your savior is your unique gifts that will eventually enable you to achieve immortality! You are different from others! You are a step above!

Pride, real pride gets no pleasure out of having something. Pride only gets pleasure out of having more of it than the next person. You may think you are proud of being successful. Intelligent or good looking. But when surrounded by those who are equal or better than you, you lose all pleasure in those things. It’s the comparison that makes you proud. It’s the comparison that you are above the rest.

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Point: We look for Something to separate ourselves from the herd-to make the ache of meaninglessness and unworthiness go away.

You can’t fill an eternal void with temporary means!

  If my identity, meaning, and purpose is attached to temporary accomplishments, my soul knows they are fading and will slowly disintegrate.

  To belong to a group that has given you acceptance and identity will inspire a willingness to say yes to things that may not be preferred.

The Religious Solution:

The gods of the modern world assist us in our attempts to drown out the noise of death with religious efforts.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

-Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV)

So, through our religious efforts, we convince ourselves that we are ok:

• Efforts we deem worthy of merits and rewards.

• Efforts that grant us the right of passage into something beyond that is never really identified.

• We do “good” as we define good.

• We avoid “bad” as we define bad.

• To determine our own destiny— whatever and wherever that may prove to be.

How easily religious people will shed blood to purchase assurance of their own righteousness. Our need to deny our nakedness and be arrayed in glory will keep us from acknowledging that our Emperors have no clothes.

-Ernest Becker

This is a picture of the modern world and a pluralistic society.  Like all superficial kingdoms, His begins to crumble!!!

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. The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

-Daniel 5:6-7 (NIV)

Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled. The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. 'May the king live forever!' she said. 'Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.' So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, 'Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.' 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.' Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

-Daniel 5:8-31 (NIV)

If we can’t fill an eternal void by temporary means, then how then can we cope or deal with impending death?

  Answer: By understanding that all experiences, no matter how wonderful, are temporary and thus, cannot provide ultimate meaning. And then, asking the question:

• Where is ultimate meaning discovered.

• What can cure this dis-ease in my heart?

• What can grant me the wonder and hope for which my soul is searching?

• With what or who can I connect and pursue that will make everything ok?

Lesson One: Hear the Word of God!

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.

-Daniel 5:17 (NIV)

What happens when we are unable to read the writing on the wall?

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners.

-Daniel 5:7 (NIV)

Daniel is saying: You don’t need wise men. You need the all-wise God. You need the voice from heaven. You need objective truth!! You need revelation!

  If you want ultimate answers to ultimate things you must get them from the Ultimate One. You need the Word of God. You need the objective word of God that is sure and trusted.

Lesson Two: Identify the revelation of God

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

-John 1:1,14 (NIV)

Our hope to find meaning, significance and hope for defeating death is found in the person of Jesus Christ!

A persons self-concept is determined by what he thinks the most important person in his life thinks about him.

-Charles Tooley, The Looking Glass Self 

Whatever the most important person in your life thinks of you—will to a large degree—determine what you think of yourself.

  Jesus must be more than a doctrine or a position. He must have preeminence in your life. When he does, your self-esteem will be off the charts.

Lesson Three: Put away false idols.

The real issue concerning our denial of death and our refusal to listen intently to the knock at the door is PRIDE!

  Why do you think Jesus said:

He who humbles himself will be exalted.

• He who exalts himself will be humbled.

• To meet God you must begin again!!!

• You must start again.

• You must be “born again.”

• You have to lay everything down.

• You have to admit the idols of your life.

• You must stop using Sacred things in a profane fashion.

• You have to give up YOU and begin pursuing HIM!

  Religion: I give God a good record, then I am owed a good life. Christianity: God has given me a perfect record in Jesus Christ, and I live with grateful knowledge that he is with me and has made me significant forever.

  Those are two totally different things. Religion takes what is sacred (Grace and the Atonement) and cheapens and profanes it as if it can be earned.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

-John 7:38 (NIV)

Make a Decision