Daniel 5:23

FAILURE TO GLORIFY GOD

‘The God in Whose hand thy breath is, and Whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.’

Daniel 5:23

Such, in one single sentence, brief, pregnant, inexorable, is the summing up of the case against a doomed man. This in itself was enough. Nothing is here said about the licentiousness, cruelty, or other vices of that Oriental despot: this accusation was enough for him, and it will be enough for us.

There does not appear to be anything so very criminal, after all, in this. It is the sin most frequently committed. There are comparatively few murderers in the world; a large number, undoubtedly, of the dishonest and impure, and so forth; but this is the most common. Whatever other charges may be brought against us, if this one point be proved, it will be enough: the man will stand before his Judge convicted of having utterly failed to accomplish the very end for which he was called into existence.

I. Man exists for the glory of God.—This is a theological assertion which no professing Christian would challenge, though few have an adequate apprehension of its truth. In what sense, then, is the glory of God the end and object of man’s existence? (1) By witnessing to the power of His grace to sustain, defend, and exalt the soul that by faith commits itself to Him, Who is thus seen perfecting His strength in human weakness. (2) By the voluntary acceptance of the Divine Will as the law of human conduct. To such a challenge the child of God responds by accepting the Will of God as the law of his life, and is himself a standing testimony to the perfection of that Will. (3) By so submitting himself here to the Divine Will that he may hereafter triumphantly bear witness, for all eternity, to the perfection of that Divine Will. (4) By the voluntary acceptance of the Divine Will; thus bearing an indirect but eloquent testimony to the perfections of the Divine character, and giving a triumphant answer to Satan—the slanderer of God to man.

II. We shall, perhaps, best understand the full force of the accusation against Belshazzar, and against many now, by considering, How it is possible for us to dishonour God, or to rob God of His glory.—(1) We cannot dishonour God more than by ignoring Him altogether. The worst form of insult is to cut a man dead as you pass him. How many there are who are dishonouring God by ignoring Him! (2) We dishonour God when we repudiate the means of salvation which He, at an infinite cost, has provided for us. We are then acting as though we could dispense with His assistance. Thus you are practically calling the Cross of Calvary a superfluous display of Divine love, and despising the mercy of God by turning your back on His ‘unspeakable gift.’ (3) We dishonour God when we appropriate to some other use that which He has designed for Himself. ‘Know ye not,’ says the Apostle, ‘that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?’ This ought to be the case with every one of us. Our manhood has been given us in order that we may render it back to God, that it may be inhabited by God the Holy Spirit, that He may dwell in us, conforming us to the image of Christ. Claimed, then, by the Holy Spirit those bodies of yours most certainly are; but are they His temples? Does he inhabit them?

III. Remember, God will not be baffled.—He holds your breath; all your ways belong to Him. Will His purposes be defeated? Having created you for His glory, shall you exist only for His shame? Shall there be a stain upon the escutcheon of the Divine honour by your sin, your failure? Not so! The everlasting God will have His meed of glory out of every man. He desires it in the voluntary offering of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, to Him; to have it in the joyful, holy dedication of our whole nature to Him, to Whom it belongs. But, if He may not have it so, He will have it otherwise.

It is not the preacher’s province to pronounce judgment. But he is bound to point out what must be the end of a life that does not glorify God. As by the saints in Heaven, so by the lost in Hell; as by the songs of the redeemed, so by the wailing of the wicked—God’s truth shall be vindicated, and God shall be glorified. Which shall it be with you? You must do one of two things—either glorify God by accepting His salvation; or dishonour Him by refusing it. The decision rests with you: which shall it be?

—Rev. Canon Aitken.