When he was little, my brother Chuck had a habit of writing on the walls. Our mother was savvy and knew better than to confront him directly. She simply explained the problem as she saw it. “Oh, my! Someone is coming in and writing on our walls again!” she lamented.

In a stroke of brilliance, she dubbed Chuck as Guardian of the Wall. He would be the one who watched over it going forward, making sure it didn’t happen. I asked him this morning how he’d felt back then. “Terrified,” he said simply: it had been all on him.

After that, Chuck stepped up and guarded that wall wholeheartedly. Mama lavished praise on what a good job he did. As you might expect—and surely he really was good at it—no one ever wrote on our walls again. A little faith and trust in Chuck went a long way.

That story became one of our family’s favorites. I was born after The Writing on the Wall incident, but I heard about it enough times to learn two things: not to write on our walls and not to underestimate our mother.

Writing on walls isn’t something to mess around with.

Daniel 5

When the chapter opens, Babylon is under attack by the Medes and Persians, but King Belshazzar is having a party rather than leading the city’s defense team or even hunkering down in his bunker. Evidently he isn’t concerned about the siege because Babylon is so well fortified and supplied. It was the night of a national festival when the whole city parties, including the watch guards, (Guzik, enduringword.com/bible-commentary/daniel-5/).

Belshazzar is eating and drinking with a thousand of his nobles at a banquet. He’s feeling full of himself and has the idea to send for the gold and silver goblets that had been stolen from God’s temple in Jerusalem.

Showing off, he passes the goblets around filled with wine, and the drunken party-goers “praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.” All gods are praised, in fact, except the God who gave them hands that hold his very own chalices, Da 5:1-4 MSG.

In an instant, a human hand appears and writes four words on the wall. Belshazzar turns white and calls for his wise men, but none of them can interpret what they mean. The queen mother overhears the hubbub and tells him to stop being such a wimp. Daniel, his father’s right hand man, is still around, and he can figure out what these words say, Da 5:5-12.

So Daniel comes, but he starts talking about Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar’s father, not the words on the wall. He recounts Neb’s experience living out in the wild, when God humbled him “until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes,” Da 5:18-21 MSG. (for that story, see November 27–A Look in the Right Direction).

Belshazzar’s gotta be wondering when is Daniel going to get around to those words. But Daniel has a reason for bringing up the past. Evidently, he sees the same fatal flaw in Belshazzar that his father Nebuchadnezzar had. Though the son knew the history of his father’s madness, he hadn’t learned the lesson his father had, that “God…holds in his hand your life and all your ways,” Da 5:22-24 MSG.

Belshazzar’s disdain of the goblets was a window into his disdain for the God whose temple they came from. It was no small matter to use them to praise lifeless building materials. Apparently, anything and everything was more important to honor than God himself, Da 5:22-24.

Finally, Daniel turns to the wall and interprets the Arabic words: God’s numbered the days of Belshazzar’s reign, and his time is up. He’s not fit to rule his kingdom, so it’ll be given to the Medes and Persians, who were storming the gates that very minute, Da 5:25-28 and NIV text note.

That same night, the Medes and Persians get into the city. An assassin finds the king asleep in his bed. Evidently, Belshazzar’s not only unrepentant after Daniel’s prophecy, he’s complacent. There were no extra guards posted, the enemies get in with hardly a fight. It’s not the first time that God’s held a pagan king accountable for his pride against him, Da 5:30 (see Guzik link above).

The pride that says “I’ll live as I please; I’m the captain of my fate” is like a lightning rod for God to strike. It sets out to erase God, to rewrite the truth that only God-is-God, and to replace him with the fiction that I am God instead.

Belshazzar didn’t have enough sense to know when it was time to sober up and see the writing on the wall. God’s handwritten text should’ve gotten his attention. It should’ve put Belshazzar flat on his party-face, repenting. But it didn’t.

Had he repented, God might’ve spared him, even with Persia storming the gate. God had relented judgment for Assyria and other powerful nations before Babylon. His desire has always been for all people to turn to him and live, “for I take no pleasure in the death of anyone. Repent and live!” Ez 18:32 MSG.

God’s word, written or spoken, is binding for everyone, regardless of race or nationality, faith or situation, or whether or not anybody bothers to read it. Over and over, he writes on our walls to get our attention–to give us, his children, a heads’ up or chance to repent. He also writes on the walls of folks like Belshazzar, who don’t know him and couldn’t care less what he says.

Whether it’s a rude comment, a wayward child, a speeding ticket, a car wreck, a suicide, God’s unseen hand of love is speaking to us everywhere, using every event to warn and guide and grace us if we’ll listen. Love is why he keeps coming, even when the words he brings are hard ones to hear. “Repent and live!” throbs with the love of a Good, Good God who longs for us to find him–along with the best life there is.

2 Peter 2

Peter writes to warn us against lying preachers and teachers and leaders, out for themselves. They “live by lust, addicted to a filthy existence” and despise authority, preferring their own pomposity. You’ll know them by the way they cause divisions and “seduce every vulnerable soul they come upon.” They’re champions of greed, 2 Pe 2:1-3 MSG.

But “their evil will boomerang on them.” In their attempt to bring down others, they’ll be brought down. God sees and knows what’s going on, and he won’t let them get away with anything, 2 Pe 2:10-14 MSG.

They can still cause damage, though, so be wary. Not only are recent converts susceptible to their brand of “freedom,” but everyone is in danger of being tempted to leave God’s straight path and follow these ring leaders. Better never to start out on “the way of righteousness,” than to turn back from it, 2 Pe 2:13-22 NIV.

Psalm 119:113-128

Time. Energy. Money. What do we value most?

The psalmist most values what God says. He “spend[s] all his time keeping [God’s] word,” so much so that it makes him tremble. That’s a lot of time. He looks so hard for God to keep his promises, that his eyes fail him. That’s a lot of energy. He values God’s commands “more than pure gold.” That’s a lot of money. Ps. 119:120, 123, 127 NIV.

It’s God’s word that keeps him safe in a world full of trouble. Like the psalmist, when we pay attention to what God says, it becomes the strong walls of a fortress. It’s our refuge that shields us in a safe place when life reels, Ps 119:114 NIV.

Belshazzar ignored what God said and was defenseless when the enemy came against him and got taken out. But the psalmist honors what God says and gets taken in, “You’re my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me,” Ps 119:114 MSG.

Life after my husband’s stroke has been hard. Along with the issues we already had, now there’s a stroke lying all over them. Recovery is steady but slow, and we’ve had to give up a lot of things to work at it. If it weren’t for God’s words to me every morning, I’d be wrecked before breakfast. I’m more thankful than ever for the retreat they are for me, for the strong tower, for the light on this path I can’t see the end of.

Proverbs 119:19-20

When you “work your garden,” you have plenty to eat. When you “play and party,” your plate’s empty. It’s consistent work that pays off. Trying to “get rich quick” never works.

Prayer

God, I’m thankful to find your words as my fortress. Thank you for their guidance and help. Open my eyes and ears to the messages you write on my walls. Let me read them as the love notes they are, as if you’ve highlighted them just for me and signed them, Abba.

In Jesus’ name.

Passages in Daniel, 2 Peter, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in The One Year Bible.

Parts of today’s post are taken from “Tipping His Hand,” my post from 2022.