Daniel 5:22 And thou his son, Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.
Most of us wish we knew more than we actually know. On the other hand, most of us know more than we actually think we know. We understand more than we give ourselves credit for. That feeling of not knowing is an alibi to do all kinds of things that we don’t really in our heart of hearts believe to be right.
What do we do when it comes to matters of right and wrong, matters of conscience, and decisions we make every day, including today? The answer is, in part, that we need to acknowledge what we know. Now, I think we should keep learning all the time. There is no doubt about that, but I think most of us could be better than we are right now if we would simply acknowledge, be honest about, what it is that we actually know.
That is part of God’s message to the great king Belshazzar who ruled Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar. On the very night that the Medo-Persians would sneak in, sack the city, and kill the king, Belshazzar was having a crazy party, drinking himself drunk, praising the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood and stone. He was getting drunk out of the very vessels that had come from the temple of Jehovah, and he was praising those vessels instead of praising the God for whom those vessels had been made.
In verse 22 God gives a message to this great king Belshazzar. In mere moments he goes from being proud of all he had accomplished to a man whose knees were knocking together. God says to him, “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.” He was proud even though he knew all this. What was “this”? It was all that had happened to those who had come before him, namely Nebuchadnezzar.
In other words, he wasn’t living in light of what he already knew. Did Belshazzar know Jehovah? Was he a theologian? Did he know a lot? No! But he knew more than he was acting on. Today, we should just acknowledge what we know. Live in light of what you know.
Here are a few things that you should know. First of all, you should know who God is. In verse 18 God says, “O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom.” In verse 23 the Bible calls God the “Lord of heaven.” Now the king of Babylon knew what he knew, but there was so much he didn’t know. His kingdom was very short-lived when all was said and done. Who is God? God is the most high God, not the more high god, and He is the God of Heaven.
Secondly, you should know and acknowledge who you are. In Belshazzar’s case he was the king of the world in one moment and literally in the same hour his knees were knocking together.
Thirdly, and maybe most importantly, you should know what has come before you. When you read Belshazzar’s story, it is almost exactly a repeat of what Nebuchadnezzar had done as recorded in the very first chapter of Daniel. History was repeating itself.
King Belshazzar died that night, and he hadn’t learned from what had come long before. The previous chapter tells us how God humbled an arrogant Nebuchadnezzar, yet Belshazzar was living in the same way. This is a book of prophecy of a distant future, yet Belshazzar hadn’t even considered what God had for him the next day.
Now, you don’t have everything you might wish you had, but you have the Bible, you have God’s Holy Spirit if you are saved, and you have life. Daniel was a man in whom the pagans said “is the spirit of the holy gods.” They were pagans trying to describe God Jehovah. They didn’t do it adequately, but they somehow knew there was something or someone with Daniel. There is someone with you too. It is God. You have the Bible, you have God’s Holy Spirit, and you have life. Each of us should pay attention to these.
So, learn all you can, but realize that you already know something about God, something about yourself in comparison to this omnipotent God, and you know what has happened in the days before you. Acknowledge what you know and begin by acting upon that.