King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father[a] had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.7 The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers[b] and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. 9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.
Is it funny that when I was reading this, the television show Ghost Hunters came to mind? This is a show where people use night cameras and try and capture paranormal activity on tape. In our house, when something falls, or a door opens or whatever, we don't blame the dog, we holler "Paranormal activity!" We as a society try very hard to explain everything. Whether it is our actions, the weather, or things we don't understand. And if we don't understand, we explain it away with thoughts of the unknown.
But can you imagine King Belshazzar's confused mind when this hand appeared and started writing on the wall. I think I would have ran away scared. I can't imagine seeing a floating hand. This was scary to the king. Having things that can't be explained are nothing new, but as a leader, you need to be prepared for anything. I was asked a question, "What if you don't know the answer? I said, "I'll find it out and get back to you." That should be true to all of us. As parents, teachers, leaders, don't lie and make something up, let them know you don't know and follow through with the answer. It sure makes life a lot easier!
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