Jesus Take My Hand
Haggai 1:5 (New International Version)
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
What a perfect verse for this week of pondering and listening.
In fact, in the short book of Haggai, an exhortation to give careful thought is repeated at least four times.
Haggai writes in verse 9: "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house."
As I read the words, "What you brought home I blew away," I thought of the disembodied fingers of a human hand that appeared at King Belshazzar’s feast .
The message that the fingers wrote on the wall was about a life measured and found lacking.
Sobering thoughts to start a day; being busy, but with the wrong things.
So I listen and ponder. I give careful thought. So much of my life is out of order. I get some of it right and so much of it wrong.
Still I know that I am his beloved child and that if I listen he will teach me.
If I slow down he will take my hand.
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
What a perfect verse for this week of pondering and listening.
In fact, in the short book of Haggai, an exhortation to give careful thought is repeated at least four times.
Haggai writes in verse 9: "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house."
As I read the words, "What you brought home I blew away," I thought of the disembodied fingers of a human hand that appeared at King Belshazzar’s feast .
The message that the fingers wrote on the wall was about a life measured and found lacking.
Sobering thoughts to start a day; being busy, but with the wrong things.
So I listen and ponder. I give careful thought. So much of my life is out of order. I get some of it right and so much of it wrong.
Still I know that I am his beloved child and that if I listen he will teach me.
If I slow down he will take my hand.
Comments
Now I come, to ponder, to hold His hand, to sit awhile.
I am glad just to be...right where I am, in this moment at this time. And it's all o.k.
It feels good to slow down, to be back and to be present again with all here at whateverhesays.
Thanks for your post Belinda. He's holding my hand and it feels so good.
Happy New Year and may it be filled with blessings for you.
Belinda, your perspective pulls us all in the right direction...
"One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple..."
Thanks for putting the links to BibleGateway in. What do you think was written by that hand? Do you think what was written was scary? Or just the hand itself (knowing how to write at that!) was what caused the king to be so full of fright?
I wish I could slow down more. It feels like my life is going so fast, too fast for me to do any more than hang on. I try to slow myself down though... And hope He will take my hand anyway.
Love
Night Owl
I think I should have had the links include more of the account, but you can type in anything you like on Bible Gateway (there is a link in my sidebar to the site) and you can choose any of a number of versions in which to read a passage and compare the nuances of meaning. I love doing that.
The incident of the disembodied fingers took place at a feast for a thousand nobles and seems to have happened as a result of Belshazzar desecrating the gold and silver goblets taken from the temple in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, "Bel's" father when the Babylonians ransacked the city. He desecrated them by using them to drink from them, and to praise idols while doing so. He highly insulted God. If I was doing such a thing and then such a supernatural event took place, I would certainly be terrified too. The words were in a language no one could interpret but Daniel and they were a prophetic word to the king, which came true that very night as the king was slain. I hope that this gives a better context for the reference than I gave in the blog post.
So, to answer your questions. I think that both the incident and what the hand wrote were scary and showed that God will not be mocked.
And dear Night Owl, I echo your final paragraph. I think we all do. The greatest challenge I have is to sloooow down. I love how Jesus was so unhurried in all that he did. You would think he would have raced through his three years of active ministry, but he didn't. We can all pray for one another to hold true to walking as Jesus did and to hold tight to his hand.