A Fatal Fling

As we prepare to look into chapter 5, we are going to find a name we have not yet heard. So it is helpful to understand that between chapter Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, most scholars suggest that several years have gone by. During that time period, Nebuchadnezzar had a son who took over. However his time in leadership was short-lived, as he was assassinated by his brother-in-law.

The brother-in-law actually had a short rule of four years and was then killed in battle. Then there were a couple of other rulers that were part of the family. The feast we’ll be looking at in this chapter took place about 30 years after the events of chapter 4.

Then we discover this new character, by the name of Belshazzar. As chapter 5 is taking place, Belshazzar's father was actually a prisoner of the Medes and Persians.

That is just a little bit of history to prepare us for this chapter as, once again, we will see God's mighty hand in action. And His sovereignty always happens, regardless of what is going on in the world and its leadership.

My wife and I went to Moody Bible Institute beginning January of 1982. While there, we were intrigued by a form of sidewalk evangelism. It was done by chalk drawings. Sometimes it was done with an easel set up; other times, it was done right on the sidewalk. The intent and purpose was to attract attention so that the presenter could share the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The desire and purpose was that souls would be saved.

Today, we are going to see that the writing on the wall is not one for salvation; it is one for pronouncing judgment.

Today, we will see what is another example of the finality of judgment when one rebels, rejects and refuses to acknowledge God. And as we look at today's passage, I would like for us to try to make a personal application in view of the brevity of time on this earth for opportunities. What I am suggesting is that We must prayerfully and boldly proclaim Jesus to those who stand condemned because of their unbelief. I do not want it to be said of my life that others died to spend a Christ-less eternity because I was silent.

Fearless to Fearful - 5:1-9

We already can tell that there had not been a national revival in Babylon. It is fairly obvious that the nation was still involved in the worship of multiple false gods. Here, in verse one, we see a huge feast that was often held in honor of one of the Babylonian gods.

Just prior to the celebration, the Babylonians had suffered a huge defeat from the Persians. Why this celebration? The city of Babylon had been untouched, and the king and his citizenry felt it was impossible to penetrate. For whatever reason, Belshazzar showed no concern about his possible demise.

In this section, it seems that the focus was on celebrating with much wine. Interestingly, in Jeremiah 51, Revelation 14, 17, and 18, excessive wine is often tied together with Babylon and its system. Obviously, King Belshazzar was not a fan of the one true God. Instead of just drinking to his false gods, he seemed to be intent upon blaspheming the Jews’ God, as well.

The way in which he chose to do this was to bring the gold and silver vessels that were in the temple at Jerusalem, which had been taken during the time of the capture of the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem. Obviously, this would already be blasphemous. By simply using these sacred vessels at a feast in honor of a false god, would have been an ultimate blasphemy. But Belshazzar dared to drink to his own glory and that of the false gods using Jehovah’s holy vessels. This seemed to be a deliberate demonstration of complete defiance against God. This is proven by Daniel’s writing in verses 22-24. Plus, the prophecy predicting this exact judgment is found in Isaiah; some 150 years earlier.

The arrogance of Belshazzar is almost beyond comprehension. For the Persians were already outside the gates of Babylon while the Babylonians were having this feast. Belshazzar was so prideful that he believed that the city could not be penetrated. He basically was laughing at any army that would attempt to come in. The city of Babylon actually had incredibly strong walls. The walls were 350 feet high and 87 feet thick. The city entrances had giant brass gates, as well.

Do you see the incredible similarities to what is happening in our world today? Even though Judgment Day is coming, the world shouts out that we must eat, drink, and be merry. They proclaim that we must live for today and for ourselves. They laugh and mock when Christians suggest that one needs a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They consider the Christians misguided and antisocial when we suggest that they can escape from this and experience eternal life through Jesus Christ.

It was at this time that God let King Belshazzar know that he was defenseless, in spite of his great defense around the city. In the midst of all the revelry and the intentionality of blaspheming the one true God, the king saw a hand appear out of nowhere. This hand was writing on the wall opposite the king. We know that because the king saw the back of the hand.

Suddenly, all the bravado left the king, his face became pale and his body basically went limp as his knees knocked together. It is interesting how all that wine and all that wealth and all that great protection was unable to keep God out. In fact, the very God whom he was mocking was writing a message to him specifically.

In verse 7, the word for "Called aloud" literally means shrieked. The king brought in all those workers of Satan to try and give him the meaning of what was written. He was so desperate, he offered whoever could explain it to him, the position of the third ruler in the Kingdom. Of course, none of those so-called wisemen were able to even read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king.

We may wonder why Daniel was not there. After all, Daniel was very close to Belshazzar's grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. However, this 35-year-old Belshazzar appeared to be all for himself. It seemed that he was focused on more power and more pleasure. The only spiritual things that mattered to him was the tradition that was part of the entire nation of Babylon. Let’s move onward and find Daniel.

Forecast - 5:10-29

Now a new character becomes part of our chapter. It is the queen. We are not told specifically who she is. Many scholars suggest that she may have been the widow of Nebuchadnezzar, plus there are several other theories. But we know she was of the royal family and older, as she knew about Daniel. Knowing what we know from reading the entire chapter, her greeting to Belshazzar seems somewhat empty. He is certainly not going to live forever.

The queen tells Belshazzar about Daniel. She tells about all that he had done and recognized that his abilities were supernatural. However, she does not attribute them to the one true God. She strongly urges Belshazzar to bring in Daniel.

More than likely, because Daniel was fairly old at this time, many suggesting around 80, he probably was not part of the official service of the kingdom, since Nebuchadnezzar had been dead for some 20 plus years. Since he was an honored member of the royal family, he may have been invited to this feast. But you and I know that he would not be there because it would compromise who he was as a follower of God, as well as his testimony.

My friends, sometimes I fear that Christians are too willing to participate in things that are completely contradictory to God. When the Christian does this, they dishonor themselves and destroy their testimony.

Interestingly, in verses 13 and following, it appears that the king is trying to butter up Daniel. But Daniel was not manipulated. In fact, when the king offered him great riches and gifts and power, Daniel basically lets him know that they are meaningless in view of God's blessing in his life. In fact, Daniel tells Belshazzar that the same blessing which came from God alone had been given to his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was who he was because he recognized who God is. Daniel continues to share with King Belshazzar how God humbled his grandfather.

That brings us to verse 22 where Daniel speaks directly to Belshazzar and points out that he, as the king, had not humbled his heart. And it was not because of lack of knowledge; it was because he had exalted himself against the Lord. You see, Belshazzar knew all this information about his grandfather. Basically, Daniel was preaching a sermon and reminding him that God judged pride and sin and would continue to judge pride and sin. Listen to what he says in verse 23: but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified. Sadly, for Belshazzar, he was not given a year to repent, as was his grandfather.

Then Daniel gives the explanation. The writing is given in Chaldean. The words, mina or mene and tekel, were actually different weights. The word, peres,or parsin means to divide. Now those who were there could see the words, but they could not understand what was meant by the words.

Once again, God enabled Daniel to give the interpretation: numbered-numbered-weighed-divided. King Belshazzar’s days have been numbered. His time was finished. He has been weighed in God's scales and was in desperate need, completely deficient. And his kingdom was going to be divided or destroyed in pieces. Plus, the king is informed that God is giving the Babylonian kingdom to the Medes and Persians.

Finality - 5:30-31

The Bible is very plain and clear about the finality of God's judgment. You remember that I stated earlier that Darius was at the gates of the city at that very time. One would think that Belshazzar would have believed this message that God had given in such a unique way. Yet, we see that King Belshazzar still did not get it. There is no sign that he had a repentant spirit, much less a concern about his kingdom. Even to the point where we find him keeping his promise and making Daniel the third ruler. He was acting as if his kingdom would go on forever. As a result of the king’s defiance toward God, his mighty kingdom would be taken from him and the Medes and the Persians would divide it up. Plus, historians tell us that Belshazzar was executed within hours.

I am conjecturing that Nebuchadnezzar knew a lot about the prophets. Since Daniel was so close to the leadership and the King had come to glorify the one true God, this would makes sense. However, one cannot pass on a love for the Lord to the children and grandchildren if the generations following choose to love themselves and this earthly life more.

In Isaiah 41 and 45, Isaiah had prophesied how the city of Babylon would be conquered and who would conquer it. Cyrus the Persian would actually defeat the Medes and then come down upon Babylon. His strategy was to dig a canal that would reroute the Euphrates River, which flowed diagonally through the great city. Then his army would actually crawl under the gates. Though the Babylonians saw them digging, they assumed that the enemy was digging to build a mound in which they could crawl over the walls. We may wonder how Babylon could have so easily been captured. My guess, is that they were mostly drunk. They were enjoying the pleasures of today with no thought for the future. As a result, the enemy came right into where the banquet was taking place and killed the king.

Does this not sound quite familiar? While there is such a focus on earthly pleasure and mocking of Christianity, many a nation sets itself up to be taken over quite easily. Sadly, there is such an emphasis on welcoming and promoting that which is against God’s Word and honoring those who are opposed to anything having to do with the One True God that they are allowed free access to destroying God’s people, along with those who are not with their thinking. We have seen this sometime back in Paris, as 127 were killed just to honor Allah.

In the church, is there such a focus of tolerance and not being offensive, that we forget that the cross is an offense? Does the enemy of our souls have such an easy access into the lives of God’s people today?

Final Thoughts

The fall of Babylon which we have seen in chapter 5 is a picture of the fall of the current Babylon which is the world's system that is run by Satan. We see this in Revelation 17-18. Interestingly, most of us can see the handwriting on the wall. However, there are many worldly minded Christians, as well as pagan leaders of the nations, who do not recognize the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what do we do? We pray for those in leadership. And I am convinced that we pray not so much that they lead properly or the way we want them to lead. I believe that we must pray that leaders of our nations would come to salvation through Jesus Christ. And if they do, they will lead properly.

In addition, we cannot assume that family members, coworkers, or our neighbors automatically get it. I believe that we need to be diligent in praying for them specifically. Pray that they would come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I think a lot of time is wasted praying for people to stop doing certain things or start doing certain things. We need to be praying for their salvation and their submission so that they would live their lives in accordance with the ways of Jesus.

My friends, there are many who blatantly and arrogantly flaunt their defiance before God. They stand condemned because of their unbelief. My response is to pray for them that they would surrender their lives to Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, there are many who simply have been deceived and are blindly following a pagan culture. They too, stand condemned because of their unbelief. Our response is to pray for them that they would surrender their lives to Jesus Christ.

Church, there are those who have made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. Yet, they have been growing lukewarm and even cool in their walk with Jesus. They have almost been assimilated, if it be possible, into this world system. Our response is to pray for them that they would experience revival in their lives and a fire within them, so that they too would join us in proclaiming Jesus to this world which is full of hurting, helpless, and hopeless people.

Please let’s not waste our time and energy condemning, by pointing out faults and flaws in those around us, whether they be other Christians or those of this world. The exception is for false teachers.

I am convinced that our time is short. I believe with all my heart that we need to be busy about the Master’s business. He came to seek and to save the lost. He has commanded us to go and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to all peoples.

In Daniel's world, he continued throughout his life to live for God, proclaiming Him and glorifying Him. He did this all in the midst of a perverted and anti-God culture. You and I should do no less. We cannot afford to have a fatal fling with this world and its empty pleasures and promises. We dare not lose our testimony. And we cannot sit idly by while others are on a fast track to hell.

We must prayerfully and boldly proclaim Jesus to those who stand condemned because of their unbelief.

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