I heard someone use an expression about President Joe Biden stepping away from the upcoming Presidential race. They said he finally saw “the writing on the wall,” maybe a little later than most, acknowledging that winning the election was a no-go given his cognitive decline. Did you know that “the writing on the wall” is an expression that came from the Old Testament? It means you can see something negative coming before it happens.

In Daniel Chapter Five, there is a certain king by the name of Belshazzar who is having a drunken feast with nobles and consorts. On a whim, the king decides to use golden goblets to drink out of that were taken as plunder from the temple in Jerusalem. As the party gets going, they continue to imbibe and begin praising “the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.” (5:4) All at once, a hand appears out of thin air, and fingers write words in an unknown language on the wall. The king is more than worried. He is distraught. So, he brings in a consortium of wise men, astrologers, diviners, call them what you will, and he asks them to read the words to him and tell him what they mean. What is more, he makes it a contest. He offers a rich reward to the winner: they’ll be clothed as royalty, have a golden chain placed around their neck, and will become the third most powerful ruler in all the land. Who wouldn’t want a reward like that?

Each of the wise men come in with high hopes, and each leave the king more frustrated. No one can read the words, let alone interpret what they mean. It is at this point in the story that the queen becomes involved. She remembers a wise man who has been of service to former monarchs and who has the ability to see through mysteries. The man is an exile from Judah by the name of Daniel.

Daniel comes in and immediately recognizes the words (they are in Aramaic, his own native tongue). What is more, he is given insight by God as to what they mean. Daniel tells the king to keep his extravagant reward. It is neither required nor desired by him. Nevertheless, Daniel interprets the words: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided is the meaning. The days of the kingship of Belshazzar are numbered and are quickly coming to an end. He has been weighed on the scales and come up short. His kingdom will be divided and then given to two of his rivals. The king follows through in rewarding Daniel, as unwanted and unsought for as the reward may be. Then later that evening, the king is suddenly attacked and killed.

I believe that story is one of the most terrifying stories in all of scripture. Why? Because of that Aramaic word “tekel,” the idea that you can live your whole life, and in the end not amount to much. After all of the advantages you have had, the family you grew up in, the education you were given, the gainful employment that allowed you to have what you needed and then some, and the spiritual riches of the offer of forgiveness and mercy extended through the grace of God, you did not become a person of substance, a person that realized what God had in mind for you in the first place. You are weighed on the scales and come up short – way short.

Contrast the way King Belshazzar ends his life with what the Apostle Paul says about himself near the end of his life to his protégé Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (II Timothy 4:7-8) There had been a time in Paul’s life when he had come up short in developing into the kind of person God was calling him to be. He was a zealous Pharisee who cruelly hunted down the earliest followers of Jesus, all in the name of the Living God. That changed on a certain day as God first blinded him for several days and then restored his sight upon his repentance. From that day on, Paul was a changed man, the strongest defender of the Christian faith in his generation, planter of churches, and ultimately (according to church tradition) a Christian martyr.

The heavy weight of the word “tekel” is the idea that one day I will need to give an account to God of how I have used the life God has given me. If you knew ahead of time that everything you ever said, thought or acted upon was known fully by God and that you would be answerable to him eventually, what would you change? Are there patterns of behavior that would have to fall by the wayside? Are there good things you are currently doing that you would want to do more of and possibly amplify?

The way the writing on the wall story affects me is that it reminds me that I am held accountable for the way I live my life. I want to live in such a way that I can say along with Paul, “I’ve fought the good fight, finished the race and have kept the faith.” When all that is true about me is weighed, I want to measure up to the standard that God had in mind for me when he created me in the first place. Certainly, I need God’s help and mercy to measure up, but I don’t want to live out my life thoughtlessly and come up short in the end. How about you?

Derek Russell is pastor of the Hillsboro Global Methodist Church. He loves Jesus, family, dogs and football.