Hard to know where to start this devotional. If you’ve spent any time with Daniel 5, particularly after Cullen’s description of Belshazzar, you walk away from it going, “How is it that after centuries and centuries of leadership development and study, people like that still manage to find themselves in positions of power?”

Belshazzar reads like the bad king in Gladiator or Braveheart: completely delusional, selfish, insincere, entitled, and arrogant. The only reason Belshazzar is important is because of his failure and incompetence. Let me quickly tick off the other fantastic qualities of Belshazzar…

– He takes the Temple objects of devotion and worship and treats them with utter contempt and disrespect.
– He is throwing a party while an enemy army is surrounding his city.
– He is throwing a party while his dad goes missing.
– He is presented with the one guy who might be able to help him, but he immediately insults him.
– He offers a position in the kingdom that NOBODY wants, because it means the person could be closer to him.
– He’s so unaware of the situation that he doesn’t realize Daniel wants nothing to do with him.

Have you ever had to deal with a Belshazzar? Maybe to a lesser extent, we’ve all encountered someone with a few of these traits. Maybe even a lot of these traits. A boss… a coworker… a teammate… a classmate that was aloof or arrogant or clueless.

I worked with a guy once who constantly found himself in the middle of conflict. He seemed to have a nose for finding the most minute issue to argue about. Context didn’t seem to matter – work, church, small group, family – he just wanted to have the last word on every single thing. A few valiant efforts were made to help him, but alas… he seemed to enjoy the constant conflict until of course there was no one around to argue with anymore.

What I think is fascinating about the Belshazzar story are the two different responses to him.

Option 1: Silent Compromise
There is a room full of nobles, wise men, sorcerers, magicians, and kingdom officials that just watch Belshazzar act like an idiot and say nothing. They don’t even try to help him be a better person. Was it because they feared the repercussions? Did they feel like it was a lost cause? Were they opportunists and wanted to see how far they could ride the money train?

Scriptures are silent on this but I’m struck by how we have the same temptation in front of us today. Just ride it out, because we don’t want to deal with the fallout, don’t want to deal with the consequences, aren’t sure of the effectiveness of it all… The list could go on, but does it really matter? If God has put us in positions to make a difference, is there any excuse that will hold up in front of God for just being silent?

Option 2: Humble Wisdom
Then there is Daniel. He’s called into the room and is immediately insulted. “Aren’t you the Judean that’s been in exile?” To which Daniel responds, “I’m the Judean who was Nebuchadnezzar’s best advisor. Let me tell you his story since it seems that you have a short memory.”

Daniel speaks bluntly and can’t be compromised. “Keep your gifts and positions.” Daniel doesn’t oversell the truth. He just flatly says, there does exist the one true God, whom you have insulted, and you are about to experience how real He is. Daniel doesn’t get distracted by the pomp and circumstance. He doesn’t get sucked into the celebrity of it all. He’s not impressed at all. But he’s not arrogant either. He knows his insights and knowledge have one source: God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7

Never let yourself think that you are wiser than you are; simply obey the Lord and refuse to do wrong.
Proverbs 3:7

Want a good start to gaining wisdom? Be humble. Do the right thing. That’s the starting point for godly wisdom.

Yes, it may fly in the face of conventional wisdom that seems to preach to do whatever you can to get ahead and make a name for yourself. But there are plenty of stories that show the train wrecks of that kind of living. It never ends well. It didn’t end well for Belshazzar, and it doesn’t end well for so many others as well.