How is your life
going? Is it humming along with business
as usual, or has something interrupted your regular routine? It may be a happy occasion that has broken
the normal rhythm, or it could be sickness or tragedy. Life has a way of letting us know we are not
in control. And God often allows
interruptions to turn our eyes to Him and away from the frantic rush we live in
or the mundane schedule we cling to.
When we
experience divine interruptions, it’s time to proceed with caution, to slow
down and pay close attention, because God is speaking into the normalcy of our routines
to capture our attention. These divine
interruptions turn us away from the sameness of our lives and cause us to focus
on something else. We will either focus
on the situation itself, or we can look deeper to the God Who is calling our
name, the God Who beckons us to break our routine to see Him and listen to His
voice.
When business as
usual suddenly ceases, we rarely know what to do with ourselves or how to
respond. We find ourselves in the realm
of the unknown and on the verge of change that causes us to feel unsure and
even a little hesitant to proceed at all.
In those times we will hear the voice of cynicism, fear and intimidation
shouting for our attention. But, be
still and wait until you hear the whisper of God’s voice. Depending on the
nature of these disruptions of the normal, we may feel a surge of power and
insight within our hearts, even an excitement to move in a new direction. Or we may feel we have reached the end and have
no desire to go any further at all. But
God is waiting for us to look His way and listen to what He has to say. What does He want us to do with this turn of
events? What is He saying to us from the
midst of the uncertainty? Some never
hear Him speak even when “business as usual” is brought to a screeching halt. Others hear, but cling to business as usual
as if nothing had happened.
Such
was the case with Belshazzar, king of Babylon.
God drastically interrupted his “business as usual”. Belshazzar
knew about God because when Nebuchadnezzar, his predecessor, had conquered
Judah, Judah’s God conquered Nebuchadnezzar.
Belshazzar knew the whole story. Obviously, Belshazzar didn't learn from
Nebuchadnezzar's experiences. Who knows how many divine interruptions
Belshazzar ignored before this final interruption we read about in Daniel 5.
"Belshazzar
the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before
the thousand.” While he was drinking, he
commanded that the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of
God’s temple be brought for them to drink from.
So they were brought, and “they drank wine, and praised the gods of
gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a
man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall
of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”
Can you imagine
hosting a royal party and having it interrupted by a man’s fingers writing on
the wall in the candlelight? The king
was terrified, as any of us would be. He
turned pale and was shaking uncontrollably.
It was a sobering experience in every sense of the word. He immediately called for his “astrologers,
the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers.” He
must have thought he was still in control.
After all, he had resources. He
offered a high position to whoever could read the writing and explain the
meaning, but none could do it. Belshazzar’s revelry had been interrupted by
something terrifying that neither he nor all his lords and wise men could
understand, explain or control.
Finally, Daniel was
brought in, and he reminded Belshazzar how Nebuchadnezzar was given a great
kingdom, but “when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he
was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him…till he
knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth
over it whomsoever he will. And thou his
son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all
this; But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven.” Belshazzar was living life as he chose, but
that never goes on forever. He knew who
God was and what He had done, but he chose to ignore Him. And now he was being called into
account.
Then Daniel read
the message sent from the Most High God, not the gods they were drinking to,
but the One Belshazzar had excluded from his life and worship. “This is the interpretation of the
thing: Mene; God hath
numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances,
and art found wanting. Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given
to the Medes and Persians."
What an alarming
revelation! Belshazzar had been weighed
in God’s balances and was not up to standard.
The foolishness of Belshazzar’s heart was exposed and impending judgment
pronounced. In all this, there is still
no mention of him acknowledging God or repenting. Instead, Belshazzar proceeded to give Daniel
the position in his kingdom he had promised as if life would continue on as
usual. But before the night was over,
Belshazzar had no kingdom. He was killed
and his kingdom and power were seized by Darius the Median.
What if God
interrupted our “business as usual” with a pair of balances in His hand? What if we were weighed in God’s balance
today…right now? Would we be found
wanting, or is our heart pure before God?
We hear the warnings and are quick to agree with them, but are we
continuing on with business as usual?
How many times
has God interrupted us, but we refused to turn to Him? We can wait too long, and the mercy that
flows so freely now will be ended. Right
now, Jesus calls us to be cleansed by His blood and empowered by His
Spirit. He may not call tomorrow. If we are too caught up with the world to
turn our attention to God, we are flirting with danger. If we are friends of this world, we are enemies
of God. Most of us know that, but are we
truly living in the reality of that knowledge?
Belshazzar was very familiar with the story of Nebuchadnezzar, but it
didn’t change him. And he paid an
eternal price.
Yet there are
those who come face to face with a divine interruption and meet it with
skepticism at first, but press on to move into the next level. Those are the ones who see God.
Gideon was an
Israelite whose “business as usual” was living under the oppression of the
Midianites and struggling to find enough food to survive. The Midianites had invaded Israel and now controlled
them. They destroyed all their crops,
sheep and cattle. Gideon was hiding by
a wine press to thresh some wheat he had managed to find somewhere when he came
face to face with the angel of the Lord who said, “The Lord is with thee, thou
mighty man of valour.” Gideon’s reply
was, “if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and
where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of.”
Initially,
Gideon was skeptical and tried to hold on to business as usual because he saw
no sign of God coming through, and he was a ‘nobody’ who could do nothing to
change things. He argued with the angel
that his whole family was poor and that he was the least in his father’s house,
far from being a “mighty man of valor”. Finally
he asked for a sign that God was speaking to him. He asked the angel if he would stay where he
was until Gideon returned with a meal for him.
He agreed to wait. When the meat
and bread were brought, “the angel of the Lord put forth the end of
the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes;
and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his
sight. And when Gideon perceived that he
was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I
have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.” (Judges
6:21-22)
That’s what happens when we look for
God in our interruptions – in spite of our unbelief, skepticism and
circumstances. If we look for Him, we
will see Him. Gideon was ready to listen
after that, and “business as usual” was all but forgotten as he began to listen
to God’s directions and follow them step by step until he finally led an army
of 300 men that defeated the Midianites and freed Israel…just like the stories
he had been told! Some of the things God
told him to do didn’t seem to make sense and could have had disastrous results
if God didn’t come through, but Gideon followed the Lord because he had seen
Him. When his “business as usual” was
interrupted by God, he accepted the challenge and obeyed God, leaving behind
the oppression of the enemy and any doubts that God was still the God who his
fathers had told him about.
When God interrupts our lives, we
are at a crossroad of decision. Look and
listen carefully before you choose your course.
What would happen if we all opened our ears to what God is saying to
us? How could He use us if we turned our
attention away from “business as usual” to listen to God’s directions and
followed them step by step…even when they seem to make no sense or could have
disastrous results? What if we actually
believed the stories we have heard about God’s power and faithfulness and acted
on it today even if we have to take the “risk” of depending on God instead of
ourselves?
What has interrupted your “business
as usual”? Whether it is a heart full of
joy or a broken heart that seems to be un-mendable, listen to God. He is speaking. Hear Him above the pain, above the laughter,
above the shouts of the enemy, above the uncertainty. Hear His whisper and follow.
