Sin makes you stupid!    

Read: Daniel 5:1-12 NLT – The Writing on the Wall – Many years – Bible Gateway

“While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” Daniel 5:4 NLT

I don’t believe there is any of us who has not done anything that was dumb. After you have done it, you say to yourself, ‘that was stupid’. I have had many of those encounters and still do. They are not fun and are embarrassing if seen by someone else. At least you don’t need to say, ‘that was stupid’, they’ll say it for you. Common mishaps happen to us all, some more than others, but that’s part of life. What is tragic is when a life of sin causes you to do dumb things. Desires to participate in ungodly acts will cause you to do things you have never thought possible. Sin makes you stupid!

In the book of Daniel, King Belshazzar displays the art of stupidity in drinking from the gold and silver cups taken from the Temple in Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the city years earlier. The Babylonian empire, now under the reign of Belshazzar, was about to fall into the hands of Medo-Persia. The Persian army was just outside their walls within the city limits waiting for the right time to attack. Belshazzar thought of lifting the mood of the people by throwing a party. Not exactly a smart idea.

The king gives orders to bring out the articles from the Jewish Temple for all the attendees to drink from. Perhaps reminiscing about the great victory of the past. He used the cups from God’s holy temple to drink wine from praising the Babylonian gods in the process, calling on them for deliverance from their enemy. Belshazzar’s behavior was unrestrained and sacrilegious Again, not very smart.

When one’s mindset is not focused on the one true God, and we attempt to handle things on our own, or we seek pleasure outside of God’s parameters we fall into sin. Once we are there, we do dumb things. Don’t allow sin to make you stupid!