Judgment


"This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN    This 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 5:25-28
 
Judgment

As the words of condemnation rumbled through my soul like a tidal wave, I found myself drowning in a sea of negative emotions ... anger, shame, regret, bitterness, guilt, and even malice if I am going to be completely honest.  After all, who are they to judge me?!  The intensity of emotional disturbance in times of personal assault can be completely consuming and paralyzing.  It is only by God's grace that we can navigate our way through to health and perspective.  We have all had people who, for whatever reason, felt the need to express their disappoinment with us.  On their grading card of self-righteousness, we flunked out.  More later on how to process the judgment of others in a healthy way, but first let's consider our verses for today that contain the world's first text message, a divine note of judgment.

King Belshazzar had chosen a course of action that was so wretched to God that he sent a message to the king via a floating hand writing on the wall.  "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting." ... Yikes!  The end of the chapter records his divinely determined demise.  The truth is we are all found wanting on the scales which is, of course, why Jesus came.  He is our Rescuer.  This job of rescuing is one we continually keep him busy doing.  I still mess up.  I still need to confess sins and to trust in his faithfulness and justness to forgive and cleanse me.  Don't you?  All any of us can stand on is his grace.  Thankfully, his grace is all that we need.  Given that reality of all of us needing grace, the first step in dealing with people judging people is to dispose of our own bag of rocks.  "You who are without sin, throw the first stone."  To go one step further, if you have anyone in your world that has taken a hit from you, it's time to go to them and humbly make peace. 

When stones are hurled at you remember these few important Biblical responses: First, bite your tongue ... "Be slow to speak"  Chances are really good that the first words that come to you will not be beneficial.  Second, with God, humbly examine all that is being said so that even the slightest nugget of truth can be detected and used by the Holy Spirit to "conform you to the image of Christ" ... "Examine yourselves"  Third, forgive ... "Forgive as you have been forgiven"  Bitterness is drinking poison believing the other person will get sick.  It's crazy and will only escalate the tension.  Fourth, pray for them ... "pray for those who persecute you"  Pray that God's grace will flood their hearts with joy and freedom.

- Tom Wiles

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