“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Daniel 5:27)
Belshazzar was the son of Nebuchadnezzar who took the Jews captive into Babylon. Belshazzar took the throne when his father died. He made a feast for a thousand of his princes, his wives, and his concubines and brought out the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. (Daniel 5:1-3) They drank and worshipped the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone when suddenly fingers appeared and wrote on the wall MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. Daniel who was a captive Jew from his youth was known to interpret dreams and mysteries and was brought before the king to interpret what the hand had written. Tekel is the third word of the warning and condemnation of Belshazzar.
Just as gold and silver are weighed in the balances to find if it’s quality and quantity is good. God had weighed Belshazzar and Belshazzar did not come up to God’s standard of good quality and good quantity. He was lacking and condemnation was pronounced on him because he had seen his father Nebuchadnezzar judged and punished for pridefully taking credit for what God had done for him. Now Belshazzar had done the same thing by taking the Lord’s vessels. Daniel interpreted the writing and said to Belshazzar, “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:” (Daniel 5:22-23).
The Lord God has weighed us also. We were found wanting and not coming up to God’s standard of good quality and good quantity. The quality and quantity of our works and words were inspired by our human minds influenced by the flesh, the world or the devil. They are not divine nor eternal. We were condemned from the beginning, deserving of the wrath of God and death. We were unable to escape sin, no matter how hard we tried.
Sinful man cannot sacrifice enough, work enough nor give enough to be weighed and found of good quality and good quantity. “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) God provided the sacrifice that was sufficient. Jesus, our Lord, the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity was born a man. He was all God and all man. A man had condemned all of humanity. Now a man who had not been tainted with Adam’s sin and rebellion could redeem them. God in speaking to the serpent says, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. (Genesis 3:15) Jesus did not have the seed of a man. He never sinned. “And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” (1John 3:5) Only a pure, spotless and untainted man could be the perfect sacrifice to redeem man. No one other than Jesus is that man. He was the perfect sacrifice. He was the man who could redeem man. He was the man Whose sacrifice would suffice because although He was all man, He was not tainted with Adam’s sin.
Jesus took our sin, suffered the wrath of God for us and He took our death so that we could be delivered from sin, delivered from the destiny of death and live eternally in righteousness. (John 3:16) We are weighed today. But Jesus is on the scales in our place. And we are found of good quality and good quantity because we are judged for the righteousness of Jesus. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Corinthians 5:21) And there is no condemnation for us. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)
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