Missing God: Daniel 5:1-4
Where am I failing to recognize the significance of God because my focus is elsewhere? God is an incredible God. He makes all things possible. As great as He is, though, it can be easy to get sucked into the day-to-day life and fail to see His hand at work.
In this story, the king of Babylon asks for the holy implements of the temple in Jerusalem to be brought out of storage. Belshazzar wants them to be used in the service of a grand feast he happens to be throwing. He uses them like dinnerware. The intent is to show the opulence of the royal family and impress the Babylonian nobility.
These vessels and cups brought forth were intended to be in the temple in Jerusalem. They were service instruments, but they were service instrument for the worship of God. They were designed to demonstrate the splendor of God and His provision to His people.
It was God that sent His people into exile under Nebuchadnezzar. It was also God who allowed these very implements of worship to fall into the hands of the Babylonians. God knows they have them, it isn’t like they stole them from God while His back was turned.
The problem isn’t that the Babylonians have access to these vessels; the problem is how Belshazzar treats them. These vessels were created to bring glory to God. Belshazzar uses them to bring glory to himself. These vessels were created from materials that God provided to the Hebrew people when the temple was being constructed. Belshazzar treats them like war trophies.
In doing so, Belshazzar takes the holy things of God and profanes them. What should be uplifting the greatness of God is used to illustrate the greatness of Belshazzar. What should be bringing people’s focus onto the Lord is instead being used to shift focus to Belshazzar.
Even worse, Belshazzar turns the praise to the Chaldean gods of the wood and metal in the vessels. What could be reminding people about the one true God is turned into the worship of false gods. One might call this worse than profane; it could be sacrilege.
While I’d like to believe that I never imitate Belshazzar’s actions and point people to false gods, it is prudent when studying a passage like this to wonder how often I profane things that could point to God. How often do I fail to recognize a significant blessing from God’s hand because I see it as something common or even coincidence? How often do I miss an opportunity to give God the glory He deserves because I’m too focused on the moment or too worried about the future?
We can’t always get it right. As human beings, we miss blessings God sends into our life because we don’t always see or understand until after the fact. We err, and fortunately God forgives and continues to bless our lives. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t occasionally pause and examine our life. What in my life am I treating something as being common yet it truly is a blessing from God? Where am I failing to recognize the significance of God because my focus is elsewhere?
Historical Aside, continued: This story lends credence to the fact that the previous story was about Nabonidus and not Nebuchadnezzar. From the Babylonian record, Nebuchadnezzar did not have a son named Belshazzar, but Nabonidus did. Additionally, Belshazzar was never officially a king of Babylon but rather the crown prince. There is some evidence that while Nabonidus was king over the whole of the Babylonian Empire he set up his son Belshazzar as the ruler of the city of Babylon. This means that the title of ruler of Babylon is not in error, but it might mean something different than a cursory reading assumes. This doesn’t need to change anything in the reading of the text. Rather, it serves as a side note for historical sake.
