Bible
Study: Daniel 5, 1 to 28. And Luke 21, 12
to 19.
The very first
commandment states “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You
shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. (Exodus 20, 2 to 5).
Furthermore, Jesus himself reminds us in Matthew 4, 10. “It is written: You
shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”
The sin of
King Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar was the sin of SACRILEGE. What is
sacrilege? According to Catechism of the Catholic Church, Number 2120, “Sacrilege
is profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical
actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God.”
The word “holy”
simply means “set apart” or “dedicated.” For instance, if you have many biros
but decide to set one particular biro only for signing cheques, that biro
becomes holy to your cheques since you do not use it for anything else. In the
same way, in our worship of God, we also set things apart.
This includes
the church building itself where the people of God gather, as well as other
items such as the pulpit, the chairs, the vessels for carrying Holy Communion,
and so on. Also, in the worship of God, certain persons are set apart from the world;
priests, religious and those who enter into vows not to marry, not to have
riches of their own and to be obedient to God and the church. By setting
themselves apart from the world and making themselves available only for the service
of God, they, like the items dedicated to God become Holy! And it really
offends God when something or someone that has already been set apart for him
is now engaged in another service other than worship.
In our
first reading today, we get to see a graphic image of how God reacts to such high
disrespect. Feeling like a mighty man, Belshazzar ordered that the vessels of
gold and silver which were looted from the temple in Jerusalem be brought that
he and his wives and concubines might drink from them. What an insult? And if
it was not enough to drink from these holy vessels, which ordinarily only an
ordained priest is allowed to touch, Belshazzar and his harem of wives and
concubines started singing praises to the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron
wood and stone.
God could
not hide his displeasure anymore and decided to show up with the handwriting on
the wall. Belshazzar could only see the hand, he couldn’t see the rest of the
body and the hand wrote those words which only Daniel, could interpret: MENE,
MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN, which meant that “God had numbered his days as king, he
had been found wanting and his kingdom would be divided and given to others.”
To cut the story short, Belshazzar did not live to see the next day. He was
killed that very night according to the prophecy of Daniel.
God does
not joke with his own. He does not force anyone to dedicate himself to him neither
does he force us to dedicate items to his worship. But when we do give
ourselves or certain items to him, we must endeavour that we do not incur his
wrath by profaning our bodies or items already dedicated to him. It is an act
of respect to God to keep holy things, persons and places holy, set apart and revered.
On no account
is it permissible to dishonour the things set apart for God. Even if we have to
face the scorching fire of persecution. Jesus encourages us in the Gospel
passage this morning that there would be hard times, there would be moments of
trials but our minds must never waver about even on what to say. Our endurance
and perseverance even in the midst of persecution will win us victory in the
end.
Let us Pray:
Lord
Jesus, teach us to fear you and respect that which belongs to you that we may
not draw your anger upon ourselves. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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