Who is Holy?

Daniel 5:1-3 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
 
AT the conclusion of Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar confessed the power of the Lord God to be above all. As we enter Daniel 5, some years have passed. Daniel is not a present influence in Babylon, and we see the king is Belshazzar. Verse 2 says Nebuchadnezzar is his father. Belshazzar, though, is Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson. In the Hebrew and Chaldean (Babylon) languages the word “grandfather” does not exist. You see this in many Scripture references when people refer to ancestors as “father” (father Abraham). 
    Nebuchadnezzar’s lessons and confessions of God’s authority were lost on his next generations. Nebuchadnezzar’s son and now his grandson deliberately moved to elevate gods of silver, bronze, gold and iron in Babylon. Belshazzar is not only rejecting the Almighty God, he is profaning any belief of the God Daniel serves and Nebuchadnezzar confessed. That’s why In in the midst of an excessive banquet Belshazzar used the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Belshazzar’s mindset was to belittle God. He likely concluded there is no power in the Jews’ God who allowed his temple to be destroyed and its utensils to be stored away for years.
    We can have the same thoughts in God’s silence, can’t we? When he allows us to live in our self-serving ways, when our culture appears out of control, when it seems our church is dying, when children are sick with deadly diseases, we may consider the omnipotent God as an impotent bystander. But we must be careful to discern God’s purposes. The Bible repeatedly teaches his silence is a waiting time to reveal himself to particular people in certain ways. And, we will not always like what he reveals. But in faith we must accept his will. Our purpose is to worship the Holy God, rejoicing his grace has allowed us to enter into his heaven one day.
    Belshazzar’s idolatry will very soon become a climatic judgment on Babylon and his life. Our task is to continue to teach the world that to profane the Holy God brings destruction.  
 
2 Samuel 22:3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior — from violent men you save me. 4 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.