The writing is on the wall

They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. – Daniel 5.4-6

Chapter 5 opens with a new king. Nebuchadnezzar was dead and his son Belshazzar is on the throne. Things have changed. The scene opens at a great royal party. Belshazzar has decided to bring the vessels from the Temple in Jerusalem into the palace and was using them for his debauched party.

We find out than rather than worshipping the God his father had come to worship Belshazzar and the others worshipped gods of silver and gold and bronze and iron and wood and stone.

He thought he was grand. The nation had thrown off the shackles of this foreign God his father had adopted. They were free to party hearty.

But then, suddenly, the writing was on the wall. Belshazzar’s countenance changed. His knees were knocking. He was terrified.  I suspect that all this happened because somewhere in his past He had an encounter with God and he knew exactly what he was doing when he used the Temple utensils at his party.

Now it was time to reckon with God.