Lesson 10: Weighed And Wanting

Daniel 5:10-31

In this lesson we see faithfulness rewarded and sin punished.

It often appears in this life that the righteous are set aside while the unrighteous prosper. While the righteous appear powerless the unrighteous seem powerful. Appearance are not everything - God is always preparing to balance the scales either in time or eternity.

The wicked and blasphemous found out about scales too - but far too late. God was about to judge him on the scales of His own righteousness and the verdict was certain to be fatal.

THE FAME OF DANIEL (11-16)

1. He was remembered as a Significant Man.

2. He was remembered as a Spiritual Man.

3. He was remembered as a Superior Man.

4. He was remembered as a Sensible Man.

5. He was remembered as a Skillful Man.

Daniel had been pushed aside, but the queen mother had never forgotten him and his role in the life of his father, Nebuchadnezzar. She knew that though he was now approaching ninety years of age, he was the only hope of interpreting the writing on the wall.

THE FAITHFULNESS OF DANIEL (17-25)

Daniel does three things when he is summoned before the king.

1. He refused the Gifts of the king.

2. He reviewed the King's Heritage and History.

3. He rebuked the Sin of the king.

THE FUTURE OF THE KING (26-29)

He informed the king of three things:

First, the words "mene, mene" he interprets to mean "God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it."

Second, the word "tekel" is interpreted to mean, "You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting."

Third, the word "peres" is interpreted: "Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."

"Mene, mene (your number's up), tekel (you have been weighed and found wanting), peres (your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.)

THE FALL OF BABYLON (30-31)

Why did God so severely judge the Babylonian Empire?

Promiscuity among the leadership, profanity against the God of heaven, pleasure madness among the people, presumption by the military rulers, and plain, old ugly pride, were the deadly viruses that eventually killed the Babylonian people.

Those viruses are still around today, and seem to be multiplying. We must not forget that they still carry the same consequences - because they still offend the same God.