Friday: Further Thought ~ From Arrogance to Destruction
Further Thought:
Large feasts were common in the courts of the ancient world. Kings loved to throw parties with extravagance and luxury to show their greatness and confidence. Although we do not know all of the details of this particular feast, we know that it took place when the Medo-Persian army was poised to attack Babylon. But humanly speaking, there was no reason for concern. Babylon had fortified walls, a food supply for many years, and plenty of water, because the Euphrates River flowed through the heart of the city.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
So King Belshazzar sees no problem in having a party while the enemy surrounds the city. And he orders a momentous celebration, which soon degenerates into an orgy. What a powerful testimony to the hubris of humanity, especially in contrast to the power of the Lord. Through Daniel, God tells the king that despite the opportunities he has had to learn truth, “the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified” (Dan. 5:23, NKJV).
“The history of nations speaks to us today. To every nation and to every individual God has assigned a place in His great plan. Today men and nations are being tested by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes”. — Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 536.
Discussion Questions:
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I have spent some time this week looking at the evidence for the historicity of Daniel. There is method in my madness. Daniel is important to us as Seventh-day Adventists because it gives us a perspective on history. If Daniel was an inaccurate record of its present history, what confidence could we have in its prophetic history? That is why we should dig a little deeper into archeological and historical records to "test" the book of Daniel.
Modern critics believe that Daniel was written as a work of fiction sometime around 200BCE. and they cite historical discrepancies as evidence of that date. While there is evidence to suggest that the book of Daniel was accepted into the Jewish canon of scriptural writing at that time, it was written much closer to Daniel's time.
It adds to our argument for the historicity of Daniel if we can show that the secular records and biblical records are not inconsistent. Naturally, we expect that there will be some differences. The book of Daniel was written with a Jewish audience in mind, while the secular records were there to record the exploits of conquering rulers. Within that framework, the secular and biblical records show surprising consistency and should give us confidence when we move on to the prophetic passages.
Thank you Maurice for your careful study and sharing it with us. I read the two links from your comments on Thursday. Good info!
Another way God demonstrates the credibility of the Bible is when history literally seems to repeat itself. Some may have heard of Jonathan Chan a Messianic Jew and scholar. His books such, as the “Harbinger” and the “Paradigm”, describe some very remarkable parallels between ancient Israel and modern times.
There is no way we can be perfect by our own strenght. Because we can be made perfect only by the blood of Jesus! Self-confidence is important, but ours must be hidden in God. He owns history itself, no matter what we think about who's reporting the facts. In fact, the real deal is that God holds time and space in His hands. Thus, the safest way to go through life is to be close to Him, walking by Him and always grabbing His hands, letting Him guide us through what was left for us in this PRESENT, TODAY, NOW!
Summary thought to this week's lesson:
Man's way: Arrogance to destruction via punishment - an arbitrary phenomenon.
God's way: Arrogance to (self)destruction via cause and natural consequence - a reality-embedded, non-arbitrary phenomenon (Galatians 6:7,8; James 1:14,15).
Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Belshazzar seems to be much less formidable a foe than his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. How he cowed in fear at the sight of the wall writer. His grandfather was bold, daring and arrogant. Upon conversion, however, he declared that God could humble anyone who was proud, arrogant; that none could stay God’s hand.(Dan 4:35,37). Why didn’t God humble and save Belshazzar like He did Nebuchadnezzar?
Hi Kenny and happy Sabbath! Daniel told Belshazzar how his grandfather had been humbled and told him "You knew all of this." Belshazzar should have learned from his grandfather's example. The experience of others are to be examples and lessons to us. That is how God tries to save us all.
"These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age." 1 Corinthians 10:11 NLT
Happy sabbath to us all.despite of all material wealth we have,we can have a great army, and enjoy everything at our reach without us focusing and respecting God ,we can be destroyed to nothing in a fraction of a moment.world strongest leaders have witnessed the same.