A Text From God

I need to make a correction to a statement from last Sunday. I credited Thomas Jefferson with the statement,”God helps those who help themselves.” In fact, that is a quote from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Benjamin Franklin is the author of that statement, often credited to scripture. I miss-spoke in the excitement of the beauty pageant in Esther.

In the Seventh chapter of, I Hear Voices…., James more lifts up an event that brings all activity to a halt at the king’s banquet. In the sports world, he credits Howard Cosell with bringing reality speak to the sports casting field. The king, Belshazzar, decides to have a party and celebrate by using the sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem for cocktail glasses. They, not only, use them for party drinking, but also for toasting all manner of local gods. Because of this terrible desecration of something holy in a show of disrespect, God sends them a text message. A large ghost like hand writes on the wall, these four words, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN”. Suddenly, Belshazzar has a moment of sobriety. Not has the unknown hand written on the wall, but it has written in a language that Belshazzar can’t understand. Daniel is called to interpret the writing. In essence, Daniel tells the king that he has messed up big time. MENE means your days are numbered. TEKEL means that you have been weighed and found wanting. PERES means that your kingdom will fall and be divided. (Dan. 5:18-28). That night the king is killed and his kingdom fell. Moore says that some are so preoccupied that they can’t take time to see the handwriting on the wall. There are too many other interesting distractions in life to see that has been written. They, like the story of Grimaldi, are so preoccupied with the glitz and glamour that they miss the message. Life is so busy that it is empty. Secondly, Moore talks about those that look at the writing and just blow it off because it would take effort to learn the meaning of it. He likens it to those that pick up The Bible and read some random passages and decide that it is meaningless garble. I wonder what would happen if we all went to the first day of school and left because we couldn’t read the instructions? Does anyone expect learn, in one sitting, the whole of a subject? Maybe they just believe that they are without value and can't imagine that God would want to have a relationship with them. In a third case, Moore feels that there are those that just can’t handle ,”Telling it like it is”. He raises the possibility that some in the banquet actually could understand the words on the wall, but were afraid to tell the king because it would not make him happy. Not many ever really want to anger the person in power. Now, when Daniel is called, he speaks the truth to power. The king is willing to listen to Daniel because someone that he trusts, vouches for Daniel’s ability to translate the words. Moore calls us to examine our spiritual strengths. He asks if anyone has ever cast you in the light of one that in whom there is the spirit of the holy God. Daniel has stood in the presence of power before and been a fearless messenger. Think of the ways that our society kills the messenger. The ways that we become preoccupied and miss the message. Are we “too nice” to speak the truth? Are there writings that we don’t understand? What do we do to seek understanding? Are we like Mark Twain? He is supposed to have said that it wasn’t the part of The Bible that he did not understand that bothered him. It was the part that he did understand that bothered him. Think about it.