I am going to try various ways to improve my blog. The last couple of days I was asking for people from particular countries to respond to my blog. I chose countries that I had been receiving hits from for the previous couple of days. Interestingly, no one visited my blog from the country I chose each day. So, I am going to discontinue that idea. I will be trying different things. If my changes make any difference to you, please let me know what you think (good or bad).
     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

     Today’s passage is where the phrase “the writing on the wall” comes from. The story begins by telling us that King Belshazzar, one of Nebuchadnezzar’s successors, was throwing a feast for some of his nobles. As part of this feast, he thought it would be a great idea to use cups taken from the temple in Jerusalem to drink in celebration of their various idols. In the middle of their celebration and worship of these gods a hand appeared and began to write on the wall. King Belshazzar became frightened and immediately summoned his various magicians and fortune tellers. He offered them a great reward if they could tell him what the writing meant. None of them could read the writing let alone tell him what it meant.
     The king and the nobles were badly shaken by the failure of these wise men to interpret the writing. When the queen mother heard of the uproar, she hurried to the banquet and instructed the king to summon Daniel, recounting how Daniel had demonstrated great ability under Nebuchadnezzar. King Belshazzar followed he advice and summoned Daniel. When Daniel arrives the king offered him great riches for solving the mystery. Daniel declined the king’s offer but answered the mystery anyway. Daniel told the king that he, the king, knew of Nebuchadnezzar being humbled before the Lord, but chose to defy the Lord by drinking to idols with cups taken from the Lord’s Temple. The writing was a message that God had chosen to end King Belshazzar’s reign. That very night Darius the Mede conquered Babylon and killed Belshazzar.
     This is a very telling story. King Belshazzar and his nobles are busy partying while the city which they are in charge of is under siege. On top of that they chose to ignore the evidence of God’s power that had been evident in the reign of the king’s predecessor. I have a sense that they used the implements from the Temple in Jerusalem at the feast as a deliberate defiance against an ethos of moral behavior and self-sacrifice. The king and his nobles saw no reason they should refrain from obtaining their own pleasure even though their city was under attack and some of their fellow citizens were suffering.

     Peter writes that just as there were false prophets in Israel there will be false teachers among the Church. These false teachers will make up clever lies to get a hold of other people’s money. Peter writes that God will bring judgment upon these false teachers just has He has brought judgment upon sinners in the past. He tells us that we have the example of Lot to show us that God can and will rescue the godly out from the middle of such sinners. God is especially harsh on those who indulge twisted sexual desires and defy authority. These false teachers indulge in evil pleasures and lure people into sin. They will attempt to build up a reputation for godliness among the Church while plotting to take advantage of those whom they have fooled. They scoff at the idea of supernatural powers while indulging in evil pleasures. They claim that the freedom of Christ is the freedom to engage in licentious behavior, rather than recognizing that such behavior enslaves those who partake in it. There is a reason that our society has added sexual addiction to the list of addictions that people need treatment to escape. All sins are addictive, we are to accept the freedom of Christ and resist being re-enslaved to sin (become addicted to once more).
     We should be wary of false teachers. Peter here gives us several methods for recognizing them. The first is their obsession with gaining other people’s money. Preachers who spend an inordinate amount of their time asking others to give to their ministry, especially when that ministry is situated in such a manner so as to make it difficult for those giving to receive an account of how the money is actually spent. In addition, they are constantly talking about their powerful ministry and perhaps the power they have over supernatural beings. Finally, they often indulge in sexual sins and do not make much effort to hide such behavior from their followers. We see this again and again in accounts of big name preachers (and some not so big name ones as well) who have brought discredit on Christianity, from Jim Jones to Jim Baker to many others. The story often comes out about how they have indulged themselves sexually with persons other than their wives.

     O Lord do not let me have divided loyalties. Let me desire to follow your commands, not seek after worldly pleasures. Help me to focus on keeping your commands and serving You. Give me a love for serving You that dwarfs my desire for wealth. Teach me to seek how I may better serve you in all that I do. Show me the actions You wish me to take and the wisdom to understand why that is the course I should follow.

     A hard worker will have sufficient to supply their needs and a trustworthy person will be rewarded. On the other hand those who seek to get rich quick and fantastical schemes to profit without effort will end in poverty.