Re:Verse passage – Daniel 5:1-31 (day six)
Though sorrow may last for the night, joy comes in the morning! -King David, Psalm 30:5
On the eve of Babylon’s destruction (the Persians just walked into Babylon without a fight) the king had a drunken party with his rich and powerful friends; debaucherous worship of the gods of gold, silver, iron, and wood. Adding fuel to fire they willfully drank and ate from vessels normally used for special offerings in God’s temple in Jerusalem. It was the proverbial fist to heaven, the height of wickedness.
They were partying as if everything was just fine. It wasn’t fine. Nothing was fine. God’s hand of judgment was literally knocking on the front gate.
I certainly don’t think any of us are acting as if everything is “just fine;” we are not oblivious to the suffering existing in our world, especially now in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we can forget that human suffering comes at the hands of our own sin, wickedness (personal, national, and global) and brokenness.
As we approach Easter, let us lament our sin and brokenness. Look what it has done.
And then let us rejoice! For we have a God not content to leave us where we are but forgives us and redeems us from our pit!
“What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”– Paul, Romans 7:24-25
