God Is Not Mocked

The Bible tells us that one of the signs of the last days is that people will go out of their way to blaspheme God. That will be a distinguishing characteristic of the Antichrist, whom the Scripture says will blaspheme God. Even as God’s judgment is falling on nonbelievers during the Tribulation, Revelation 16:9 says, “And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.”

Blasphemy represents the conscious denouncing and rejection of God. It is a defiant irreverence, the sin of intentionally and openly speaking evil against God. To commit this sin does not merely represent unbelief, but determined unbelief.

A primary example is King Belshazzar of Babylon. One day, he held a big feast and invited his nobles, wives, and concubines. Then he brought in the objects that had been seized from the temple in Jerusalem and were used in the worship of God. Belshazzar served wine in them, toasting to the false gods they worshiped in Babylon. Belshazzar was mocking God. But the Bible says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Sure enough, as Belshazzar was partying away, he saw a hand writing across the wall, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,” which was interpreted by the prophet Daniel to say, “God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; . . . You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; . . . Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:25–28).

Belshazzar was weighed on God’s divine scale, and he was a lightweight. Belshazzar had no substance, and that night he lost his life. He found out the hard way that God is not mocked.