Preach The Word In Season Or Out Of Season, Part 1of3, Pastor Phil Sessa

Daniel 5:26-27, “26This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians”

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Tim 4:2).” Ray Comfort says there are only two times to preach the Word of God, in season and out of season! That constitutes all times. In the book of Daniel, The prophet Daniel was summoned because the king, Belshazzar, was told by the queen that “There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods (5:11).” Daniel means “God is my judge,” but was changed to Belteshazzar, or “Bel protect the king. This king, whose name (similar to Daniel’s, cf. 4:8) means “Bel, protect the king,” is about to be conquered by the Medo-Persian army, and is warned as such in the midst of a feast that he threw at his palace. It was in the midst of this feast that Daniel was called upon to preach the Word of God.

The King had desecrated the stolen articles from the temple of God, he was a thief. He committed adultery and polygamy with the many wives and concubines, and made an idol out of the stolen vessels, worshipping the created things rather than the creator. In the midst of a prideful king that was most likely feeling like the mist powerful and untouchable man in the world God comes and awakens him, not with a nice little message that he can live his best life now, he was already doing that!

Stealing articles from the temple would have been attractive booty not only because they were made of precious metals, but because they had been dedicated to the God Yahweh for use in the rituals of the temple. Power was demonstrated over the deity by taking those things that were most significant to him. Daniel 5:4 reads, “They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” Similar to Aaron making a golden calf in the desert and calling it Yahweh, the Babylonians worshipped the false gods aforementioned and would have believed them to be more powerful than the god they stole them from, which in this case was the true and living God. This helps set the backdrop for what takes place in light of the invisible hand writing on the wall. At the height of their celebration, and in addition making a mockery of the God of the Temple from which the vessels were stolen God would not allow His name to be blasphemed by these pagans. Rather, he confronted the king as “Babylonian hands had taken God’s vessels (mentioned twice) and held them in contempt to dishonor and challenge Him. Now the hand that controls all men, and which none can restrain, challenged them (4:35). God’s answer to their challenge was clear, as in vv. 23–28 (MacArthur Study Bible).”.

Bel, a Babylonian deity (god), would not and could not protect the king from any of what was taking place. God wrote on the kings wall, “Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand.”

Illumination.
The lamp stand which was created for the purpose of illumine the furniture in the tabernacle and represented the light that God was to his people in the darkened world of sin (Ps. 27:3).burned day and night, symbolizing the sacred presence of God (MacArthur study Bible). “While in Solomon’s Temple light and golden reflection magnified the sense of splendor and glory inherent in Solomon’s temple and God’s presence (IVP Old Testament Bible Backgrounds Commentary).” Now God placed His Word in such a place on the plaster of the walls, so the lamp stand once again would symbolize the presence of God. “The king saw as the hand it wrote.” To Continue, Blessings Past Phil