The frailty of life….
In Daniel chapter 5, a young foolish king received a great shock when in the middle of a feast an angel of the Lord gouged certain words on a wall in front of him….Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin….meaning…You have been weighed in the balance and been found wanting!
The young king called on the old prophet Daniel to tell him what these words meant and why had the angel done such a thing for he had been frightened deeply.
Before Daniel explained what the angel had written on the wall Daniel spoke directly to the young king Belshazzar of his failing…..Dan 5:23
For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!
Belshazzar was the grandson of king Nebuchadnezzar, a man who came to know personally the God of Israel through the loving prophet Daniel. But Belshazzar learnt nothing from his grandfather and lived a life that defied God and gave no thought to his eternal future.
Each and every one of us has the tragic overflow of sin from Adam and Eve in our veins. We all will face death at God’s determined time. But let us remember that the reason Christ came was to not only break off the chains of sin from our lives but also to remove the fear of death from our lives.
Heb 2:14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.
Heb 2:15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
Let us not make the same mistake as the young foolish king and never take this life and the time we are now living lightly nor waste the reason why God created us.
God has given us this moment in time to live for Him.
He holds our breath in His hands!