Yet You Have Not Humbled Your Heart

	Belshazzar decides to throw a small party for one thousand of his nobles.  He thinks that it would be nice to bring out the gold and silver vessels captured from the temple in Jerusalem and use these vessels to offer toasts to the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.  Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand appear and begin writing on the wall.  We can't help but enjoy the description of the king's reaction.
	"Then the king's face grew pale," we read in Daniel 5:6, "and his thoughts alarmed him; and his hip joints went slack, and his knees began knocking together." 
	Belshazzar calls for all of the wise men in the kingdom, but not one can explain the message.  This is our first clue that the king is not very bright.  His forefather Nebuchadnezzar experienced a similar situation with a dream.  Only the Jewish captive Daniel was able, through God, to explain the mystery of the dream.  But Belshazzar does not think about Daniel until he is reminded by the queen.  The king calls for Daniel and offers him great riches if he will interpret the message.
	"Keep your gifts for yourself, or give your rewards to someone else;" the prophet replies in Daniel 5:17-22. "however, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.  O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father.  And because of the grandeur which He bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, and {men of every} language feared and trembled before him; whomever he wished he killed, and whomever he wished he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated, and whomever he wished he humbled.  But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne, and {his} glory was taken away from him.  He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like { that of} beasts, and his dwelling place {was} with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and {that} He sets over it whomever He wishes.  Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this."
	Think about these last words.  "Yet you...have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this."
	How foolish can a person be?  Belshazzar has seen all that has happened to Nebuchadnezzar.  Yet he insists on being so arrogant toward God.  And Belshazzar is not alone.
	Earlier in the history of Israel, the people demand to be ruled by a king.  Three monarchs rule over the united kingdom.  But Solomon's son, Rehoboam, finally causes God to divide the kingdom and give most of it to Jeroboam.
	"Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon," God tells Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:31 and 33, "and give you ten tribes... because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and {observing} My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David {did.}"
	"And I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire," God adds in verses 37-38, "and you shall be king over Israel.  Then it will be, that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight by observing My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you."
	It's pretty clear, isn't it?  Rehoboam has turned the people to idols, so God is taking most of the kingdom away from him and giving it to Jeroboam.  Surely Jeroboam is smart enough to see the cause/effect relationship in the situation.
	"Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there," we read in 1 Kings 12:25-31.  "And he went out from there and built Penuel.  And Jeroboam said in his heart, 'Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.  If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, {even} to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.'  So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.'  And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.  Now this thing became a sin, for the people went {to worship} before the one as far as Dan.  And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi."
	We can almost hear the words of God: "Yet you have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this."

	"Yet you have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this," God says.  Belshazzar is so foolish, isn't he?  Jeroboam is so foolish, isn't he?  But we are much wiser, aren't we? God would never accuse us of refusing to humble our hearts in obedience to the things that we know.
	We know about earthly riches.  We know that they are false. We know that they can rob us of our souls.
	"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal," Jesus teaches in Matthew  6:19-25.  "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, {as to} what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, {as to} what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?"
	"You ask and do not receive," James 4:3-5 observes, "because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend {it} on your pleasures.  You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: 'He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us'?" 
	We know about riches.  And God would never look at our lives and say, "Yet you have not humbled your hearts, even though you knew all this."
	We know that we are not immortal.  We know the reality of death.  We know that the time we will spend on this earth is tiny compared with eternity.
	"And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this { comes} judgment," we read in Hebrews 9:27.
	We know the reality of death.  And God would never look at our lives and say, "Yet you have not humbled your hearts, even though you knew all this."
	We know that those who do not obey God will be lost eternally.
	"For after all it is {only} just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you," Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, "and {to give} relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." 
	We know that those who do not obey God will be lost eternally.  And God would never look at our concern for the souls of all our neighbors and say, "Yet you have not humbled you hearts, even though you knew all this."
	We know that sin kills.   We know that it will separate us from God for eternity.
	"For the wages of sin is death," Romans 6:23 warns.
	We know that sin kills.  And God would never look at our lives and say, "Yet you have not humbled your hearts, even though you knew all this."
	We know what to do to be saved.  We know that God expects for things to be done His way.
	We must hear the Gospel.
	"So faith {comes} from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," Romans 10:17 states. 
	We must believe.
	"He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved;" Jesus says in Mark 16:16, "but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."
	We must repent.
	"Repent," Peter tells the people in Acts 2:38, "and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." 
	We must confess Jesus.
	"But what does it say?" we read in Romans 10:8-10. "'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' --that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
	We must be baptized.
	"And corresponding to that," 1 Peter 3:21 points out, "baptism now saves you-- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience-- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
	We must walk in the light.
	"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and {yet} walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;" we learn from 1 John 1:6-7, "but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
	We know what to do to be saved.  And God would never look at our lives and say, "Yet you have not humbled your hearts, even though you knew all this."
	Maybe He won't say this...but maybe He will.  It will be decided by our willingness to obey the truth so that we can be set free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."