HOW DO YOU MEASURE UP?

“Thou art weighed in the balances,
and art found wanting.”
Daniel 5:27
King James Version

Belshazzar, the grandson of King Nebuchadnezzar, reigned as co-regent in Babylon with his father, Nabonidus. Belshazzar was left to rule the city while the king traveled the Middle East. For whatever reason, Belshazzar decided to have a huge celebration with thousands of people in attendance. Some suggest that in his drunken stupor, he ordered the holy vessels from the temple in Jerusalem be brought and used for his profane use, idolatry (Daniel 5:3-4).
During the celebration, the fingers of a man’s hand wrote on the wall before Belshazzar. The writing is “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN” which means “NUMBERED, FINISHED, WEIGHED, DIVIDED.” This, in turn, means that God has numbered Belshazzar’s days, he has weighed his worth and found him wanting, and lastly that his kingdom will be taken away and divided between the Medes and the Persians.
The system of weights and measures in use among the Hebrews was derived from Babylonia and Egypt, especially from the former. Weights were used in a balance to weigh out silver and gold. The balance consisted of a beam with its fulcrum in the middle and its arms precisely equal. From the ends of the arms were suspended two scales, the one to receive the object to be weighed, the other the counterpoise, or weight.
The prophet Daniel gave the interpretation of the handwriting on the wall and rehearsed the fate of his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, who was deposed and driven from men and lived as a wild animal for seven years because of his pride. Yet, Belshazzar failed to learn from the error of his forefather. Daniel reproves him and says, “you have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all of this. But instead you have chosen to lift up yourself in pride against the Lord of heaven in whose hand your breath and all your ways are in” (Daniel 5:22-23).
That very hour, the Lord put Belshazzar in His balance. Proverbs 16:11 says, “A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work.” In the Lord’s balance, the weight of the counterpoise is the standard of the Lord, or what He expects and requires. When the Lord weighs us, “what is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). By the grace and power of God, we each must set in order the things which are wanting, or lacking, in our lives before we are weighed in the balance of the Lord. So, how do you measure up?