Daniel 5:27

God has a judicial standard by which He measures and weighs the actions of all men. The divine observation, evaluation and verdict on Belshazzar teaches us that every human being of every class is under the accurate observation of God’s sleepless eye. It is therefore of infinite importance to be conscious of God’s watching eye every moment of our lives. On what will our destiny be determined on the day of reckoning? We shall be tried and judged, not by the laws of the land, but by the law of God. We shall be weighed in the balance of God’s judicial standard. Who, tried in this balance, could hope to come forth triumphant, without Christ’s redemption, forgiveness and salvation? Only through Christ’s merit, who has satisfied the demands of God’s perfect law, in its minutest demands, can anyone hope to stand before God justified and uncondemned.

Weighed in the balance of human opinion, Belshazzar might have been approved. But while he was being approved and acclaimed by his lords, princes and people, another judgment was going on! He was being weighed in the scales of conscience. “His thoughts troubled him”. Many people who are accounted good men by their neighbours, are nevertheless accused and condemned by their consciences. Stricken by conscience, the “still small voice” stings them and, dries up the fountain of inner peace and joy. There is in every man’s soul something which calls him to himself, holds up the mirror before him and puts a check upon the praises of men.

Belshazzar was ultimately weighed in the scales of divine justice and condemned. “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.” These words brought the deepest dread and despair upon Belshazzar. As his soul approached the final day, the scales of the balance were before him. In one scale of the balance was placed the divine moral requirement, in the other was his sinful, immoral, idolatrous life. The turning of the scale fixed his destiny. “Weighed and found wanting”! Belshazzar’s last day on earth had come and those words of divine judgment struck him with indescribable anxiety. His judgment was irreversible. Let men and women of wisdom and spiritual vision anticipate and see the handwriting on the wall and ask for forgiveness, salvation and grace for righteousness before it becomes too late.

GUILTY SINNERS WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING
Daniel 5:27,5,6; I Samuel 2:3; Romans 3:10-19, 23; Deuteronomy 18:9-12; Romans 1:21-32; Jude 12-16; Romans 2:1-5; Revelation 3:1,2; Galatians 6:3; Mark 10:21-25; Hebrews 4:1,2; Revelation 3:17-22.

God’s watching eyes are looking at our intentions and actions, nothing escapes His attention. The details of the life of everyone on earth, every sinner, every hypocrite, every moralist, every religionist, every “worldling” are not hidden but visible to God. No sinful thought or deed is overlooked – nothing is trivialized or made light of, nothing is insignificant on which sin has breathed the breath of hell. “There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 12:2). Without forgiveness and redemption through Christ, every sinner is guilty before God and when weighed in His balance will be found wanting. How little do men think of this? Our thoughts, our words, our actions, our decisions, our response to God’s offer of grace and divine strength, all will be weighed. When the inspection of heaven shall be carried out on all our acts of commission and omission what deficiencies shall be revealed! Only through the meritorious atonement of Christ can anyone hope to stand before God uncondemned. At the Judgment Bar, when all our deeds on earth shall be weighed, if we are found wanting or lacking what will our prospects be in eternity? “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36,37). The unrepentant sinner, the unregenerated sinner, the unrenewed sinner, no matter who they are or whatever they may be in other respects are certainly wanting when weighed in the divine perfect balance. Religion without righteousness has no weight or value before God. Those who hold to heartless forms of religion who say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” will hear the Searcher of hearts say, “Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3,5). All unsaved sinners and all who have a form of godliness but lack grace and power for godliness will find to their eternal shame and sorrow that when weighed in the balances, they will be found wanting. If all are weighed in the scales of Divine justice and found wanting, who then can be saved? All who have “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). All who “with the heart believeth unto righteousness” (Romans 10:9,10).

GRACELESS SOULS WEIGHED AND FOUND WORTHLESS
Daniel 5:27,22,23; Job 31:6,4-7,13-24,39; Jeremiah 13:7-10; Matthew 22:8-13; 25:24-30; Mark 8:36-38; Luke 12:15-21; Acts 13:27,44-46; Matthew 5:13; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Matthew 10:37,38;Hebrews 10:37-39.

Belshazzar had no thought or consciousness of the existence of the true God. He sinned freely without thinking of God’s law or God’s judgment. Yet that did not hinder God from weighing or evaluating his acts of infidelity, immorality and profanity. Those who claim to be atheists deny the existence of God and live without any thought of divine judgment. When they are weighed in God’s divine balance, they will be found not only wanting but deceived. Belshazzar was a sensual man, addicted to fleshly pleasures. Wine, women and wealth were all he cared for. While the flesh was nourished and satiated, the soul was famished and defiled. He was a king but in heaven’s evaluation, the influence of his kingdom was worthless. Graceless, worldly sinners live for the flesh without making any positive impact on the world. “Let us eat and drink,” is their whole purpose of living. Their lives will soon be weighed in the balance and they will be found not only wanting but worthless.

Belshazzar was selfish and self-centered. He was forgetful of God’s judgment on proud Nebuchadnezzar. As he was forgetful of the past, he was negligent of present duties and nonchalant about the future. His heart was deadened, his mind was darkened, his senses were dulled, his understanding was dimmed and when he was weighed in the balances he was not only found wanting but worthless. The dishonest man, the intemperate man, the fraudulent man, the corrupt man, the self-deluded man, the gambler, the swindler, the drunkard and the “worldling” will soon be weighed in the divine balance of righteousness and truth. They will all be found, not only wanting but worthless.

The man or woman who lives as if there was no God in heaven to inspect his or her conduct, as if there was no judgment bar at which we must one day appear, says, ‘give me riches, honour, pleasure, fashion, health, friends, long-life, that is all I care for’. Like Belshazzar each one of such people will soon be weighed in the balances and be found wanting and worthless. What a day that could be.

GODLESS SEDUCERS WEIGHED AND FOUND WORSE
Daniel 5:27,18-24; Psalm 62:9; 1 Kings 16:25,26; 2 Chronicles 33:9-11; 2 Kings 21:9-18;
Jeremiah 7:26-28; 16:10-12; 2 Timothy 3:13; Luke 11:15-26; Hebrews 10:26-31; 2 Peter 2:20-22; Revelation 2:20-23.

Belshazzar was not merely an individual sinner, he was a royal sinner, an influential sinner, a seductive, enticing sinner. He led “a thousand of his lords”, “his princes, his wives and his concubines” into the sin of idolatry, sacrilege, profanity, infidelity, irreverence, blasphemy and perversion. Apostates and seducers are not content or satisfied to sin and dishonour God all alone by themselves, they must drag others into sin with them. To sin against God is bad and terrible enough to earn us eternal punishment but to lead others to sin against God is worse and its damnation is greater and more terrifying. Those who, like Jeroboam, cause others to sin are known to God and when weighed in the balance will be found worse than wanting. The damnation of Jeroboam was irreversible because he not only sinned against God but “he made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 14:16; 15:26,34; 16:13,26; 21:22; 22:52; 2 Kings 10:29,31; 13:2; 14:24; 15:9,18,24,28; 23:15). When sinners are weighed in God’s balance of righteous commandments they are found wanting and condemned. When seducers, tempters and temptresses, who lead others to sin, are weighed in God’s balance, they will be found worse and worthy of “greater condemnation”.

There are those who do not merely sin, “they do evil with both hands earnestly” (Micah 7:3). There are those who “sit in Moses’ seat”, who “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, who neither go in, neither suffer (permit) them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:2,13). These are worse than ordinary sinners and they “shall receive the greater damnation” (Matthew 23:14). These influential apostates make those they influence “two-fold more the child of hell than” themselves “how can they escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:15, 33). All those who “deny the faith” and then labour to destroy the faith of others (2 Timothy 2:17,18) will be weighed on the final day of judgment and found worse than infidels, and “it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for” them (Matthew 10:15; 11:24; Jude7). What shall be the final verdict on each of us on the final day? When the secrets of men are brought before God and weighed in His just and righteous balance shall we be found wanting, worthless or worse than worthless? We can come to Christ today and trust Him to atone for all our moral deficiencies and be clothed in His righteousness, only then shall we be weighed and found weighty and worthy of life eternal in glory with Christ.