Diamond Author
Have you ever read of the exceedingly fall and collapse of an Empire? Over these past dew years we have observed various economic and business empires collapsing because of greed and corruption and sheer mismanagement. Pride at the top might also have been involved to a large degree.
Turn with me in the Old Testament to Daniel Chapter 5 where we have the record of the last days of the Empire of Babylon. Babylon had been a massive empire with tyrannical leaders. It was a cruel regime rather like one of its successors, namely that of Saddam Hussein.
The message of Daniel Chapter 5 is similar to the message which Almighty God gave to my late friend David duPlessis when he heard these words. "God has no grandsons". It is as simple as that. Godliness cannot be inherited.
It does not follow that if your parents and grandparents loved God, that you will love God.
We have to come to Jesus Christ ourselves, as individuals.
We can lead others, and pray, and set the example, but ultimately each man and woman has to accept or reject Jesus Christ.
In one night Belshazzar lost everything his grandfather had built up.
Through a single act of defiance against God, everything went terribly wrong and suddenly too.
Godliness cannot be passed on but ungodliness certainly can. We read that the sins of the fathers can reach and touch and the children to the third and fourth generation!
Have we not seen this happen? People have thought they could have a little rebellion, with just a little game of disobedience, and in the middle of the game when they thought they were going to win, they saw the writing on the wall, with the result which was, they had lost. This is a horrendous tale which gives us a rather severe and salutary warning.
Firstly, we see how Belshazzar the Emperor got the worse of drink. He is the Emperor of Babylon, and ruler and king to millions of people. This is modern day Iraq and Baghdad.
It is October 539 B.C. and Belshazzar is very much a playboy prince.
He is in this large banqueting hall, and the walls are made of white plaster.
Opposite the kings platform there would be a niche to hold a large candelabra, to shed light. There would be 1,000 people in this hall. It was half the size of a football pitch, and a party went wrong.
Have you ever seen things go wrong at a party? When he gets a bit of drink in him inhibitions go down, and sometimes go altogether, and you want to do things for kicks and for excitement and for thrills. The Feast gets out of control. Be careful. Be very very careful. Do not permit such occasions to get out of control. Learn the lessons. Give heed to the warning given to us here by Almighty God.
Sandy Shaw
About this Author
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland. He has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, 12 visits to Israel, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya. He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland", as well as a weekly newspaper column. His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly. Sandy Shaw.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sandy_Shaw
