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Health Devotional
Belshazzar's Tamperings
TEKEL: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Dan. 5:27.
Our heavenly Father is a loving and forgiving God, but by our own neglect and indifference we can lose our eternal heritage. King Belshazzar had known of the great God of heaven. His predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar, had shared with his people the wonderful and powerful workings of Daniel's God, describing how the God of the heavens had intervened in his own life. Belshazzar's mother and grandmother had tried to guide him. But he chose a lifestyle that ignored the God of heaven.
During his drunken revelry Belshazzar had the sacred things of God's holy Temple brought to the feast, and mocked God by using them. Belshazzar tampered with the sacred things of God, and in the words of the eternal God Himself, Belshazzar was found wanting. His kingdom would be taken from him that very night (verse 30).
The Word of God makes it clear that we are not to tamper with sacred things. The sons of Aaron died because they offered profane fire before the Lord (Num. 3:4); Uzzah perished because he ventured to touch the ark of the covenant (2 Sam. 6:6, 7); even 70 men of Beth-shemesh were struck dead for looking into the ark (1 Sam. 6:19). If we, like Belshazzar, Nadab, and Uzzah, tamper with the holy things of God, we will also be found wanting.
A lifestyle that increases the risk of disease and death is a lifestyle that mocks the Creator-God because it tampers with the holy. Therefore, eating rich, fatty foods, drinking caffeine-laced beverages, getting no exercise, and burning the candle at both ends is tampering with the holy! Holding on to such harmful practices shows little respect for that which God considers holy (1 Cor. 3:16). To give honor and glory to God, we must treat with respect the holy things of God. We do this with what we eat, drink, or whatever we do (1 Cor. 10:31).
Is there anything in your lifestyle that might be tipping the scales in the direction of sinful things, rather than toward holy things?
Our heavenly Father is a loving and forgiving God, but by our own neglect and indifference we can lose our eternal heritage. King Belshazzar had known of the great God of heaven. His predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar, had shared with his people the wonderful and powerful workings of Daniel's God, describing how the God of the heavens had intervened in his own life. Belshazzar's mother and grandmother had tried to guide him. But he chose a lifestyle that ignored the God of heaven.
During his drunken revelry Belshazzar had the sacred things of God's holy Temple brought to the feast, and mocked God by using them. Belshazzar tampered with the sacred things of God, and in the words of the eternal God Himself, Belshazzar was found wanting. His kingdom would be taken from him that very night (verse 30).
The Word of God makes it clear that we are not to tamper with sacred things. The sons of Aaron died because they offered profane fire before the Lord (Num. 3:4); Uzzah perished because he ventured to touch the ark of the covenant (2 Sam. 6:6, 7); even 70 men of Beth-shemesh were struck dead for looking into the ark (1 Sam. 6:19). If we, like Belshazzar, Nadab, and Uzzah, tamper with the holy things of God, we will also be found wanting.
A lifestyle that increases the risk of disease and death is a lifestyle that mocks the Creator-God because it tampers with the holy. Therefore, eating rich, fatty foods, drinking caffeine-laced beverages, getting no exercise, and burning the candle at both ends is tampering with the holy! Holding on to such harmful practices shows little respect for that which God considers holy (1 Cor. 3:16). To give honor and glory to God, we must treat with respect the holy things of God. We do this with what we eat, drink, or whatever we do (1 Cor. 10:31).
Is there anything in your lifestyle that might be tipping the scales in the direction of sinful things, rather than toward holy things?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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