0272. Belshazzar in Life: (D) He Thought Himself Secure
Belshazzar in Life: (D) He Thought Himself Secure
"A great feast.
"They drank.
"They praised" (Dan_5:1-4).
It is easy to discover that Belshazzar thought himself in perfect security. What cared he if the armies of the Medes and of the Persians were encamped about him? He had much food within his city walls–so great a supply that he dared to have a "feast." He had water from the river Euphrates, which flowed through the city. He had an impregnable wall between him and the enemy. The city was safe. Had Cyrus mustered an army twice the size, Belshazzar would have felt secure. The battering rams of Cyrus could never fell so great a wall; no guns of Darius could throw shrapnel over its mighty height.
The man of the world lives in the same sense of false security. He says: "I shall never be in adversity," "I shall not be moved." He says, "How doth God know?" "Is there knowledge with the Most High?"
No wonder then, that the wicked are compassed about with pride; no wonder that "Violence covereth them about as a garment."
No wonder, then, that the ungodly "speak loftily. They set themselves against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth."
Yet, I have seen these same thoughtless blasphemers caught down to destruction as in a moment. I have seem them set in slippery places. I have understood their latter end.
Let the sinner beware, when he thinks himself secure in his evil way, secure against the enemy. He might say, "I have much goods laid up for many days. I will say unto my soul, eat, drink and be merry;" but what if God should thunder forth: "This day shall thy soul be required of thee, then whose shall these things be that thou hast acquired?"
Let no man hide himself under a covert of lies, and think himself safe. Though your covert have walls as thick and as high as those that sheltered Belshazzar, there is a day coming when God, "will sweep away your refuge of lies."
Though you thought to secure yourself from God in the cleft of the rocks and said, "Who shall bring me down to the ground?" yet "the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee." "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord."
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR