How Great Is Our God: Daniel 5:5-9

While He can do all things, God still yearns for relationship with us.  The very being that created the universe wants to know each of us intimately.  The God who can create something out of nothing wants to be a significant part of our life.  There is something great and fearful about this fact.

God doesn’t take long to respond to Belshazzar.  His vessels have been used in the worship of false gods.  The effects of His temple have been used by Belshazzar for self-glorification instead of the glorification of God.  It’s time to step in.

God’s intervention is rather miraculous.  A disembodied hand appears and writes on the wall.  It writes in a script unknown to Babylonians and their Chaldean wise men.  We know the script was unfamiliar to the Babylonians because the king asks his wise men to read it to him first and then provide an interpretation.

Once more, the world’s wise men are unable to rise to the challenge.  Where God is concerned, nothing can comprehend Him if He does not desire to be comprehended.  Who can make sense of the ways of the Lord without His revelation of Himself to us?

This is a very practical point for all of us – not just those who misuse the things of God for their own glorification. God’s righteousness is so great we cannot fathom how righteous He is.  God’s love is so great we may know what it feels like to receive His love but cannot fathom the depth and breadth of it.  God’s power is so immense we cannot imagine all He can do.  If God wants to write on a wall so nobody has a chance of understanding the message, what’s to stop Him from accomplishing the task?  Who are we to think we can stop Him, much less understand His work?

In this perspective, it is incredible that He still invites us to come to Him.  We cannot understand His ways without His help, which is precisely why He invites us in!  He may be greater than our ability to comprehend Him, yet He still wants relationship with us.  He still wants to give us His peace and His understanding.  We cannot do it on our own, but He gives us the ability to understand Him and join Him.  He is a great and glorious God.

Much like Nebuchadnezzar before him, Belshazzar trembles in the presence of a holy God.  He knows he has met more than his match.  He may not understand what he has done wrong.  He may not even understand it is God that he has offended.  He knows, though, that a power beyond his understanding has entered his life and he becomes very afraid.

The Bible tells us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.  He is an incredible being capable of unfathomable actions.  He is beyond our comprehension, why should we not fear Him?  Our fear, though, should be one of deep respect and admiration.  While He can do all things, God still yearns for relationship with us.