Daily Lesson for May 3, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Daniel chapter 5 verses 2 through 9:

2 Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the vessels of gold and silver that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.3So they brought in the vessels of gold and silver that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote. 6Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners; and the king said to the wise men of Babylon, ‘Whoever can read this writing and tell me its interpretation shall be clothed in purple, have a chain of gold around his neck, and rank third in the kingdom.’ 8Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king the interpretation.9Then King Belshazzar became greatly terrified and his face turned pale, and his lords were perplexed.

It was impossible for King Belshazzar of Babylon to read the  handwriting on the wall because he was so drunk on the wine inside the vessels. Wealth and power had so blinded him that he could not understand the dire straights to which he had brought himself and his kingdom. And "all the king's men" were just as blind as Belshazzar himself.

Thus, the entry of the Prophet, Daniel, who can read the handwriting on the wall AND dare to speak the truth of its oracle. "Mene, mene, tekel, and parsin" -- Babylon would fall.

We need truth tellers in our lives and in our nation and world -- prophets who have not gorged themselves on the wine of the treasury's vessels and are therefore not too drunk to read the handwriting on the wall.