Thursday - November 10, 2016

Woodlawn Family Bible Study
THURSDAY

BIBLE READING:  Daniel 5:13-30

 “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” 

 Those were the words written on the wall by a finger that appeared during the wild party of King Belshazzar in Daniel 5. Of course, this troubled the king. The text says his face grew pale and he was greatly alarmed. I wonder how long it took the King to realize that this actually happened, and wasn’t just a result of all the wine he had been drinking. When none of the Chaldeans, diviners, or magicians could interpret its meaning, the queen remembered that there was a man “in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God” (Daniel 5:10).  Thus, Daniel was summoned. Daniel interpreted the writing to mean that the king’s days were numbered, and he “had been found weighed in the balances, and found wanting” (Daniel 5:27). 

 As a child, I remember this story intriguing me, but I never really understood what it meant until I was in college. One Sunday night, an elder at my home congregation brought out an old-fashioned set of scales and preached a lesson based on this text. He asked various questions as to where each one of us should be in our church attendance, giving, Bible study, evangelism, and the like. He would then place things that represented these attributes on the scale. The result I saw was that my life was weighed in balances that night, and was found deficient. 

 Application: How about you? If your life were to be weighed in the balances today, how would you be found?

 Prayer Request

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