“Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Daniel 5:26-28

Lord God, Belshazzar did not learn from his father’s failure. He did not learn from the lesson, the spiritual lesson which you gave his father when you humbled him and drove him mad. God, I pray, help me to learn the lessons you long to teach me. When you send your Word into my life, help me to hear it, receive it, and then use it in my life. Your Word is not meant to be put on a shelf; it is meant to be used for faith and for life. You give it to me so that I believe it and obey it. When you send trouble and trial into my life, use this pain to draw me closer still. In moments of trial, I pray, set your word deep into my heart so that it moves from my mind down deep into my heart. Make your Word a living and breathing part of my day, my thinking, my deciding, and my acting. Your Word is life. Your Word is truth. Take your Word-all of it- and plant it deep into my heart. Amen.

It is good for us to take in Daniel’s account and take it personally. It is good for us to learn from history. In history we learn to see our fallibility, weakness and fragility. In history we learn to see God’s rule over and plan for our lives. In history we learn to see our Savior Christ who has ransomed us from sin and every evil.