vessels of honor

Daniel, chapter 5, is a well-known passage, but this morning I want to emphasize how you and I see ourselves reflected in this passage, either we are Daniel or we are Beltsazar. This passage in the Book of Daniel is as if God had paused in Daniel's walk and many of us see ourselves reflected in or identify with Daniel because he was an immigrant and apart from being an immigrant in Babylon his nation, his people were slaves . And one of the things that draws my attention to Daniel is that he didn't forget who he was and he didn't forget who his God was.

Let us continue to the context that precedes this passage. Much has been made of the scene when they recently arrive in Babylon and are confronted with the idea of eating the food that everyone else was eating. They decide not to eat that food, they are not in Israel, they are not in Jerusalem, they are in a foreign land and they could act differently, no one would notice; but they did not forget where they came from or the instructions they had received as children.

And they decide, as the Scripture says in the historical and biblical context, not to partake of this food and if you continue reading the passages referring to that event they saw themselves more robust, healthier for not having eaten this food and there begins the drama of the Daniel's story. It establishes from the beginning: although I am in a distant land, although I am not in my culture, although I am in a town that does not know my God, although I am in a place where perhaps no one has heard the Name of God, I know God and If I have known and heard of that God wherever I live, wherever I work, wherever I speak, I have to reflect the God that I knew from my childhood. And sometimes it's easier said than done.

Daniel finds favors in his friends, he occupies very important positions and they were under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, a powerful king in those years, in fact he built one of the wonders of the ancient world: the hanging gardens of Babylon. But as everything comes to an end, Nebuchadnezzar passed to another life and then Beltsazar came.

Beltasazar is raised in the palace, Beltasazar the son of Nebuchadnezzar knows what his father has been through with the God of Daniel. From the statue, the fiery furnace and eating and living among the animals and we come to today's story. Beltsazar knows not because he has read it but because he has lived it. Beltsazar has not been told a story, he has seen it with his own eyes and the Scripture begins.

King Beltsazar offers a great banquet, it is so big that a thousand people are invited to this banquet and the writer says that he drank wine, he drank so much with them until he got drunk and while they were toasting Beltsazar ordered them to bring him the gold and silver cups that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Sometimes when people get drunk, in Puerto Rico they get funny and Beltsazar got funny.

These utensils, these vessels from the temple that were dedicated at that time in a highly ritual ceremony for the service and worship of God had a specific use: they were vessels of honor. They were vessels that, when the priests used them, reminded them that these vessels were sent within that Levitical order, something purely holy. They were occasional moments.

Some ancient writers mention that when the priests took their turn to be able to use these vessels it was a joy, they said to each other: tomorrow my turn has come so when I go to the temple after ten years waiting as a priest I can take and offer sacrifice from that vessel that has been specifically set aside as a vessel of honor. Many spent their lives looking at the utensils but never touching the utensils.

And now this man, what does he know? because he has seen how God struggled with his father, he had two drinks, he became funny and forgot about the God who consecrated those vessels of honor. If God has consecrated you, if God has consecrated you, if God has consecrated you as a vessel of honor this morning, believe it because you are a vessel of honor and we cannot be contaminated.

And he says that he brought, he does not say that he asked, ordered and so it was done. They brought him the cups, with which the king drank, his no less than a thousand people together with their wives and concubines and he says: "Already drunk they melted in praise of the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron and wood ." How many times in our walk have we taken what God has given us, what has been consecrated for us, for the service of God and by following the crowd, the crowd, the friendships, the communities we contaminate what God has given us and we have it for less?

We are so successful that we forget who made us successful. We rise so high either in our jobs or because of our education or because we have plenty of money that we forget that we, this body is a vessel of honor. It is not a glass of gold or silver or bronze or wood, this glass was conceived and cleansed by the blood that was shed on the cross of Calvary.

I imagine Beltsazar: we are going to drink now and whoever does not drink because I am the king, everyone to drink is paying the king and it is free, it is free and then now we are going to drink from the glasses that have been consecrated to the Jehovah God as if he were the king of Jehovah God, as if he were in control of our sovereign God and many times we believe that we are in control of our sovereign God, we believe that we have our God in our pocket. No... pretty soon Beltsazar is going to find out who's in whose pocket.

And verse 5 says: "At that moment" in the best part of the party, look they have drunk and drunk, they have celebrated, everyone is partying and forget that this is until dawn and suddenly cataplum! a hand begins to write, it is as if they were saying: turn on the light, the party is over: the police have arrived. I know that no one here has gone through that experience, okay?

I worked in a place that had dormitories for students and the dormitories in these universities are famous for their good and their bad. And each bedroom has a characteristic, has a distinction. For example: if it houses cross country players, it is known by the smell, the sweat is strong. If it houses the women's basketball team the bedroom smells good until you open the doors to the rooms.

I remember on one occasion in this particular dormitory on the weekend everything is fine, easy, it's night, you can't drink inside this school but you know: there's always someone who gets funny. So they start drinking, they have a party in the lobby of this bedroom, they decide to put black sheets to cover the windows so that no light comes out but inside there was a dance and a party that was incredible and there was alcohol. They didn't drink alcohol and a funny guy came, he drank with a lighter to smoke, right? and he put it in the sprinkler, not knowing that if one automatically comes out, they will all come out. So what seemed like something funny was that all the sprinklers were thrown, it automatically activates the fire alarm that goes to the fire department.

As far as I know, in that school they called me and other people and when I arrived there is the fire department, the chief of that town, the police are there, the thing is that there is no one in that lobby; You can see the dark sheets, the bottles of alcohol, someone left a radio, they left some CDs, there were some computers but there was not a single soul and in that dormitory there are 160 students. How do you find out who was in that party?

The person who works as an adult when we knocked on the door because he had not come out, he came out all wet, the director of the dormitory was all wet. He alleges that he went to try to close the sprinkler, I don't know how he is going to close it because those are the firemen, right? so he admits that he is involved in this. We went door to door, as the boys and girls are under the influence of alcohol, no one changed their clothes so all those who were wet had been at the party. There was one who said: no, it was that we felt baptized and that was the best way.

What I want to get at is: something so simple, something so simple to follow the crowd they were all on a semester suspension. When God has given you something, when God has chosen your being to make you a vessel of honor that has made you different, that your characteristics are unique, there is no copy of you, you are unique, unique, you are blessed, blessed, you are light, you shine; Your way of speaking, your behavior is different because you are a vessel of honor and a circumstance has arrived, a moment, a tribulation, an event that calls you to continue. You have to be the difference and say: not because I am a vessel of honor, let the others continue but I am not going to continue.

If I had been at that party, if you had been at that party we wouldn't get drunk, I hope. The second thing is: from the moment Beltsazar said: bring me the glasses that my dad brought from the temple, right there I say: time up, not with me, not with me, I'll see them later, I'll see them later because where I come from we had to fight to touch those glasses; people died seeing them without being able to minister to them, people grew up listening to the Jewish teachings that this was dedicated, this was unique for the service of the Lord, how am I going to take that now and sell it as if it were absolutely nothing? What God has given me I cannot sell, I cannot give it away because God has given it to me and I cannot dishonor it, hallelujah!

That others dishonor him, that others sell what God has given them but I do not question what God has given me, think that way. What God has given you possess it. If he has given you a key to victory, use it for victory and once God gives you that opportunity and God has blessed you and be successful and be an example, do not dishonor what God has given you.

I have always heard I don't know how true it is that if a person is under the influence of alcohol and is drunk, drunk that they drink coffee without sugar, black coffee I don't know how true that is because that takes away their drunkenness and I am not going to practice to know if it's true or not but it's what I've heard, right? but here Beltsazar saw another cafe. When Beltsazar says in verse number 6 he saw that hand writing he says that: "His face turned pale" he became pale.

Do you think he turned pale because he was seeing a ghost? Or did he turn pale because his conscience reminded him? I don't know how many remember this many years ago in the 60's, I'm not that old but I know history right? there was a television series that was Lost in Space, the Robinson family and there was a robot I saw in Puerto Rico, right? as a child who said: danger, danger, danger, danger, right? So when Beltsazar saw this that he turned pale, it was like the robot said: danger, danger but that's too late.

And it says: "His knees began to shake" but he was not wearing pants or a skirt, how does the writer know that his knees were shaking? What physical movement did Beltsazar have to make, the one who was giving orders a little while before, the one who a little before was the king of Babylon, the one who a little before cared little and nothing what the people of Babylon thought because he had the power now just to see a write your knees begin to shake.

So that means that this movement was not dancing merengue because there was no music there, the music stopped, the music ended there, have you never been in a situation like this? that you feel in control; you have the power right? what I say is like that and it's over and at the moment you realize that you have no power and at the moment all those who are with you do: I'm not with him, I'm not with him, I'm not with her.

He says that: "He could barely hold himself" what did he do? Well, verse 7 says that he ordered the sorcerers to come. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong but a mind that does not honor what God has made cannot think rightly because from the beginning it thought wrongly. He can't call Daniel, he doesn't even remember who Daniel is because he's there so big that he forgot that even though Daniel wasn't in his new administration now, even though Daniel was no longer in the contact power he had before Daniel was still the vessel of honor that God had chosen and Daniel was sure of that.

Daniel did not need to be put on the first page or to be played a trumpet or anything, Daniel understood: I am a vessel of honor whether I am on the first page or on the back page, sit in front or sit in the back, have a placed in the Church or not have it: I am a vessel of honor because the Lord of lords has honored me.

He says that apart from sorcerers he called astrologers, fortune tellers, wise men. He called out to everyone as we sometimes do when we find ourselves in troublesome circumstances beyond our control we call out to everyone except the vessels of honor. We took out the cell phone and took out the list of contacts to call because we have a problem: ok look I have a problem yesterday the sister did not greet me, you are already wrong because you are a glass of honor; Not that one day they didn't recognize me in the Church, they didn't give me a letter.

You are a vessel of honor. In the community there are issues and instead of being agents of peace in that community we become agents throwing coal on fire and we are called to be different agents. It says in verse number 8: "All the wise men" well the wise men according to Beltsazar says: "They showed up but they couldn't decipher what was written" of course if they can't decipher it they can't tell you what is written there.

This made the king more scared and turned pale and the nobles, those who were drinking with him, were confused. I imagine that if that were at this time we would be calling on our iPhones: let me advance my ticket to leave here because I have to leave here, find me a car to leave because we no longer want to be part of that problem but everyone was part of that problem because they shared the same characteristics with him, the same events but as always.

The men this morning are going to forgive me. The one who was not invited, the wife, the king's wife arrived very serene. Can you imagine the chaos that exists at that moment? a hand writing can't see an arm, a language they don't understand, everyone is drunk without coffee because it's a different coffee, they bring in the king's experts and that's important because he called what he considered expert, he called what society considered experts but did not go to what God had honored as expert people and that is the moment for you and I to shine, the moment that we have to act.

And she says, I imagine her this is many centuries ago where women do not have much power, the queen arrived very serene, very calm because she has the answer; she knows who to call. She recognizes who is the vessel of honor that although she was not in the present administration, she knew that during her husband's father's time that man had been different and she says to him: "Long live your majesty" he would feel very flattered? No? "forever and don't be alarmed or pale" how many have been through that?

I remember when Vivian was giving birth to her second child, I was with her in the delivery room and I didn't last long in the delivery room because I remember that I prepared myself, when that moment comes I will be there, I am the husband, I'm the couch I'm behind her I'm going to be there and I remember that when they told her: push and I was telling her: don't worry that doesn't hurt take it easy. I was the wrong vessel of honor at that time so you know the end of it right? I wasn't at the end of that movie.

But in this case it is interesting to note and I want to stop there for a few minutes: Daniel is not in this movie, Daniel is not in the king's mind. Daniel is not in the minds of the experts because neither the astrologers, nor the sorcerers, nor the wise men knew about Daniel because they did not mention him, they did not take him into account, he was not important because that is what society does: we are not important, that is what they believe; we are very important and key at crucial moments.

And the wife says following in verse 11: "In the kingdom of his majesty there is a man in whom rests the Spirit of the holy gods." Going to the context of that moment, that expression has a lot of meaning because it was the belief of the Babylonians that in a powerful man, an important man, the Spirit of a God rested in him. But when she talks about Daniel from her Babylonian point of view, she says: this man does not have the spirit of one god, he has the spirit of all the gods.

It is that what this man has is too powerful to have only one god, how God honors us. What better post than that. And it says: "When King Nebuchadnezzar, father of his majesty, lived, it was found that this man possessed wisdom, intelligence, and great perfection similar to the gods." His Majesty's father came to name that man chief of magicians, sorcerers.

Daniel is brought into the presence of the king and I want us to meditate before finishing this morning, that moment will arrive for us who are going to be called to execute as vessels of honor. That moment comes and when that moment comes see what the devil is going to say to you. Beltsazar tells Daniel in verse 16: "As I have been told, you can give interpretations and solve difficult problems. If you manage to decipher and interpret what is written there, I will dress you in purple" royal dress "I will put a gold chain on you" preference in the kingdom "and I will make you the third ruler of the kingdom."

From the darkness that Daniel was in, that no one knew who Daniel was, now they offer him to dress him as someone noble, as someone royal, give him a king's chain that will give him preference treatment, preferential treatment for him and the third will do it man in government; of darkness now is something and all this is something before Daniel said the interpretation and the devil is telling him what he is going to give him but a glass of honor when that key moment arrives is going to say what Daniel said.

His Majesty can keep his gifts or give them to another because what I have, what God has given me is not for you to pay me. What the Lord has given me is not for you to make me important. I don't need the appearance of the world, I don't need the mirages that the world offers. I am sure that without the purple suit, without the chain, without being the third commander, I already belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.

He told her what it meant and I am going to end with these words. At the end of chapter verse 25 onwards it says: "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin, God has numbered the days of his majesty's reign and has set a limit on it. His majesty has been weighed on the scales and does not weigh what it should." regret. Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin, his majesty's kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

When that moment in our lives arrives at the end of our journey, at the end of our path, when that moment arrives we are going to listen to two things or we are going to listen and listen carefully: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin and you already know what that means. It means do not ask for an interpretation or you will listen: well good faithful servant, in the little you were faithful in the much I will put you enter the joy of your Lord.

God bless us this morning, God keep us this morning and God allows us when those moments in our lives come to be agents of difference, we can be like Daniel, not selling what we have like Esau did for a plate of lentils. Do not sell what God has placed in your hands for a cloak, for a chain necklace, for a purple suit because they will give you a lot of importance; that is fleeting, that is temporary. The world teaches us that our success is built here. Our eternal success is built on eternal life, it is that I can say in eternity: Lord, when You needed me I was a vessel of honor and I never sold what You gave me, I never gave away or underestimated what You have put in me. life.

I will not have a lot of money nor will I be very famous but what You have given me I do not sell, what You have given me is not for sale. Hallelujah. We're going to stand up this morning.

As you leave here this morning and during the week and in the days to come, keep in your mind and in your heart that what God has given you as God has blessed you even if others do not take it or take it into account. Count God, Almighty God, Sovereign God, what He has given you is special and unique and if we have to protect it with our lives, we will protect it with our lives because it does not come from the world, it comes from God.