“Though you knew all this.”

Daniel 5:17-23, Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.”

Daniel lays it out plainly before the king including the meaning of the writing, that the days of his kingdom are numbered, and his kingdom has been found wanting. That very night the king was killed and the kingdom was divided just as the writing foretold. The kings heart was too hard to accept the truth, that there is a God and he was not. How easy it is for the truth to be ignored when our hearts are hardened. Is there any area of my own life where my heart is hardened against His truth?

We thank You for Your promise to take away our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh; reveal any areas of hardness that I may repent, turn to You and be renewed before Your throne of grace in Jesus Christ, our Lord!

ESV Lectionary