Context No. 3295 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Daniel (Greek) 5:25-31: in context

25“This is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ 26“This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE: God has counted your kingdom, and brought it to an end. 27TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting. 28PERES: your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and proclaimed that he should be the third highest ruler in the kingdom. 30In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain. 31Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

Daniel reads the mysterious writing on the wall and interprets it for the proud king Belshazzar. MENE: God has numbered 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. That very night, the words come true.

The word that arrests us is TEKEL: you have been weighed and found wanting. Belshazzar had exalted himself, defiled the sacred vessels of God's house, and praised gods of gold and stone rather than the God in whose hand was his very breath. When the scales came out, his glittering reign weighed nothing. Every life is finally weighed by God, not by its splendor or success, but by its truth before him. The writing poses a question to every proud heart: weighed in God's balance, are we found wanting? Belshazzar's kingdom looked secure the evening before it fell.

If my life were weighed in God's balance tonight, as Belshazzar's was, would it be found wanting, and how does that move me to live before him?

Sources

Daniel 5:27: "TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting."
Daniel 5:23: "The God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified."
Galatians 6:7: "Don't be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."