“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Daniel 5:27)
This verse is taken from the message God gave Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian ruler who exalted himself above God. God then made him as an animal, living in the wild and not being groomed until he humbled himself before the Lord. Then the Lord restored him. When his son came to the throne, he was viler than his father had been, using the cups that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem for a drunken party. That’s when the hand of God appeared and wrote on the wall, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” Daniel was called in to interpret what it meant. Our Scripture today is “TEKEL.”
It's one thing that I do advocate quite often to weigh ourselves in the balances of God. In other words, to self-examine ourselves against the Scriptures. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2Corinthians 13:5) While it’s true, we are washed by the shed Blood of the Lamb of God. Our sins are forgiven. We are pure. We are declared righteous having the righteousness of Jesus placed on us. But when the Scriptures say this, it’s talking about our spirit man. Our spirit man is born of God. It’s eternal and in union with God the Father, Jesus our Lord and the Holy Spirit. But our minds are in the process of being renewed. Our flesh is having to be constantly brought into obedience. We are living in this fallen world. These factors in our lives makes it essential that we self-examine our motives, our thoughts, our desires and wants, our actions and our words, daily. John stated this perfectly. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1John 1:8)
The Truth is that we do sin. We sin because we give in to the flesh. It’s the easier thing to do. We are weak. And we practice a sloven type of faith. I don’t ever want to hear the words “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” While our salvation is given to us freely, we must renew our minds and rein in the flesh. Can we do it? The answer is not in our own strength. It’s a surrender to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is constantly in every situation pouring God’s Will into us. But our ears have become dull of hearing because we not only want to but have gone and done what we want instead of listening to Him.
Christians miss church because they don’t have the fire in them to obey the invitation of the Lord to join together with the holy family of God to worship and to be in His manifest Presence, to offer that perfect sacrifice and join in that spiritual altar of worship to our God and our Lord. I hear of the brethren stealing, lying, living in sin, cheating on their spouses, abusing their wives and divorcing. There are two things evident here. Either they were never saved, or they are found wanting.
I hear, “None of us is perfect.” That is true. But that is not an excuse not to go to your prayer closet during temptation. Because we are not perfect, we need God when we are tempted. We need to go to Him because He is the only One Who can give us the strength to obey. Our flesh will cry because the desire to sin is great, but God is greater. The word is surrender. And when the temptation is done and we have obeyed God, there will be a beautiful peace. And next time, because it’s an unending battle with the flesh, the strength to obey will be greater, until it’s no longer a battle.
Have you made Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life? Then allow Him to reign Lord in every area of your life. This will not happen immediately or completely all at once. But one step at a time is what our Lord and God requires. As He reveals sin, surrender to Him, acknowledge your sin, confess your sin and allow the Lord to change you. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...” (Hebrew 12:2)
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