Today’s Scripture Reading (July 1, 2017):
Daniel 5
We probably all have movies that are
our “guilty pleasures.” You know, the fluff stories that really do nothing but make us feel good. These aren’t
the cinematic masterpieces that influence the film world, they aren’t
critically acclaimed, but we like them anyway. One of my “guilty pleasures” is “A
Knight’s Tale.” If the movie appears on T.V., I have a hard time not watching
it. I was hooked from the Queen “We Will Rock You” introduction and routinely
ignore all of the anachronisms of the movie that follow.
One of my favorite scenes is at the
end of the story. William’s friends gather around the fallen Adhemar (the villain
of the movie) and repeat the words that Adhemar had spoken to William twice
before in the film. “You have been
weighed … You have been measured … And you have absolutely … Been found wanting.” It is the moment when the ones who exists at the top of the social ladder,
the people who know they are better than everyone else fall – and the ones who
have been barely able to scratch together an existence are raised to a new
height. It is the story ending that we all wish that we could write for
ourselves.
For Belshazzar, King of the
Babylonians, the writing was literally on the wall. The words were Mene, Mene,
Tekel, Parsin (or Peres). As Daniel comes to interpret the words for
the king, the interpretation of the words
was not good news. The message was being spoken from the throne room of God and written on the wall by
his hand. Mene indicated that God had Belshazzar’s number, and it fell short. Belshazzar
had been measured. Tekel indicated that God had evaluated Belshazzar and
had determined him to be light. Belshazzar had been
weighed. And because, in both of these measurements, the king had been
found wanting, the Kingdom was to be taken away from him and given to someone
else – divided among the Medes and the Persians.
And Belshazzar didn’t have to wait
long for the prophecy to come true. The Babylonian under the command of
Nebuchadnezzar had been a formidable force in the ancient world. But Belshazzar
did not measure up to Nebuchadnezzar. All of the historical sources are unified on this point. The end of
Belshazzar’s Babylonia was quick, and there
was little loss of life outside of the King himself. This was Belshazzar’s failure. He had been weighed and measured.
And he had been absolutely found wanting.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 6
Happy 150th Birthday Canada.
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