I bet you noticed it like I have. People have changed from just two years ago when the fear of a virus swept our world. People are not the same. Half of us are angry, and we are irritated. People are quick to say things, and they are quick to split partnerships and even friendships. People are not the same. People are so quick to pick a fight. The other half of us shrug our shoulders like we just don't care. The first half of us are preoccupied in worry, while the second half of us are engrossed in apathy.
We need an Unshakeable Hope! We need an Unshakeable Hope for our day when everyone is wringing their hands in worry. We need an Unshakeable Hope for our day when everyone is shrugging their shoulders in apathy. We continue our series, Unshakeable Hope, by examing the book of Daniel.
Find Daniel 5 with me if you will (page 881 in your pew Bibles). Now, Daniel 4 closes with these prophetic words: "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble" (Daniel 4:37). As Daniel 4 closes out with a lesson on pride, we turn to Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, a young monarch named King Belshazzar.
Nebuchadnezzar is one of three monarchs the book of Daniel shows us. We see how each one of the three responds to Almighty God. Now, there's a long step in time to take from Daniel 4 to Daniel 5. Without any warning, the story leaps forward to October 12, 539 BC and the biggest event in town is a huge banquet thrown by King Belshazzar. The Handwriting on the Wall is one of the most well-known stories in the book of Daniel.
Today's Scripture
King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.
2 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7 The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." 8 Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. 9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
10 The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, "O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. 11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, 12 because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.
Daniel steps before the king and tells him the story of how his grandfather was humbled.
22 And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
24 "Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
30 That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed" (Daniel 5:1-12, 22-30).
This is an absolutely fascinating story. I find it fascinating that the ancient book of Daniel continues to have influence even in our day. Let me show you two ways this book continues to have an influence today. If you were to say someone has "feet of clay," then you are speaking of a flaw in someone else. The reference goes back to Daniel 2 where the golden image had feet of clay. And today, we bump into another one, the Handwriting on the Wall.
The Handwriting on the Wall has become the proverbial sign that something bad is about to happen in the future. Despite the 2,500 years that separate us from our story, we still refer to the Handwriting on the Wall. Look what happens when God crashes a party.
1. The Party
"King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand" (Daniel 5:1).
1.1 The Great Banquet
It's a palace banquet, and Belshazzar eats and drinks in front of 1,000 people. What a party this was! The king assembled 1,000 of his nobles, plus many wives and concubines. "Now what did they do when they got together," you might ask?
Let's read it again: "King Belshazzar … drank wine in front of the thousand. 2 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, … that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 … and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 They drank wine …." (Daniel 5:1-4).
Four times in four verses, Daniel tells you that they drank wine, plus a reference to the tasting of wine. Nevertheless, they ignored what the Bible said, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1). Maybe they all sang, It's Five O'clock Somewhere with Jimmy Buffet and Alan Jackson. Or perhaps he hired Garth Brooks to come in after midnight to do a Babylonian version of I've Got Friends in Low Places. I'm not sure, but I know the wine was flowing, and the palace roared with laughter.
1.2 Who is Belshazzar?
Belshazzar is actually the grandfather to Nebuchadnezzar, and twenty-three years have passed between the end of chapter 4 and the begging of chapter 5. Note: your Bible will often refer to someone as a father, and it simply means they were an ancestor. Belshazzar's father is the actual king of Babylon at this time. However, Belshazzar's father spent long periods of time away from the capital, and during those times, left his son, Belshazzar, to be king of Babylon. So the father and the son ruled together. So Belshazzar is throwing a party. But he shouldn't be partying for so many reasons.
1.3 He's Surrounded by Persians
He shouldn't be partying because the Persian army has him surrounded. In fact, we can date this banquet to again, October 12, 539 BC, because history tells us that the Persians conquered the city the very next day. Historians tell us that part of the reason the Persians were successful was that Belshazzar and the Babylonians partied all night before the big battle. Herodotus says that people along the outer parts of the city of Babylon were conquered while the inner party of the city danced and celebrated into the pagan holiday. A man named Cyrus the Persian had brought the great army of the Medo-Persian Empire down and had just defeated the Babylonian army decisively. Belshazzar should have known his father was already defeated just fifty miles to his north. Now nothing stood in the way of the Persian army walking right into Belshazzar's capital city. As Belshazzar throws this bacchanalian romp, Babylon is now completely defenseless. But perhaps he felt a false sense of security behind the massive walls of the city. The ancient author Xenophon tells us that the city was magnificently well protected against a siege and had warehouses of food that would have lasted for years. We know it was arrogance that led him to throw this party when he should have been bolstering the defensive walls of the city.
The prophet Isaiah thundered against the pride of Babylon: "You felt secure in your wickedness;
you said, "No one sees me";
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
"I am, and there is no one besides me."
11 But evil shall come upon you,
which you will not know how to charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you will not be able to atone;
and ruin shall come upon you suddenly,
of which you know nothing" (Isaiah 47:10-11).
The king should have come down from his high horse and humbled himself before Almighty God. The handwriting was on the wall for so many reasons.
1.4 Bigger Barns
Jesus told a story on one occasion on a wealthy farmer whose crops were growing so well he said to himself, "I've got no place to store all of my crops. I need to build bigger barns to keep all this." But Jesus finished this short story with these solemn words: "But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be'" (Luke 12:20)? Like the rich fool in Jesus' parable, Belshazzar thought, "Why not throw a party? Why not build bigger barns?" Money and riches give us a false sense of security. And they are counterfeit gods. No counterfeit god will offer you the hope that the living God offers. Counselor David Powlison asks this perceptive question: The most basic question God poses to your heart: Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart's functional trust? Are you trusting 70% money and 30% Jesus sitting in that pew this morning? Who has your functional trust, the deed to your heart this morning? For our friend Belshazzar, there was no question who had the deed to his heart.
1.5 Sacrilege
In the midst of the party, the king demands that his servants bring out the golden vessels that were brought from Jerusalem (Daniel 5:2-3). If this were a movie, you'd hear the theme to Jaws begin to play right about now. All the way back in chapter 1, when Belshazzar's father defeated the Hebrew nation, Daniel makes reference to these vessels (Daniel 1:2). They would have been silver and gold goblets. Remember Jerusalem had come under the judgment of God. Daniel and his friends had been forced to go to Babylon nearly 700 miles away. They were captives in a foreign land all through the book of Daniel. God had allowed the nation of Babylon to thrive for a certain period of time. Babylon was God's hammer breaking into pieces the very nation He loved because Jerusalem had deserted the Lord, our God. So these vessels, these golden and silver goblets, would have been taken some 66 years before with Daniel and his friends. Now on the eve of a massive battle against the Persians, Belshazzar decides he's going to flaunt Babylonian power by drinking from the conquered vessels of the Hebrews. As he drank, the alcohol removed the restraining element in his mind. The caged monster of his heart was released. He calls for the gold and silver goblets that were the booty, the plunder from the temple of Jerusalem. We can almost hear his boastful spirit calling out to some of the servants, "Get those Jewish holy cups here, and we'll drink a toast to those parasites too." This was a deliberate act of spiritual defiance as your Bible mentions twice they were taken from the Temple. Again, look what happens when God crashes the party.
1. The Party
2. Moving Fingers
"Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote" (Daniel 5:5).
2.1 FINGERS ONLY
Now, notice carefully the Bible doesn't say a hand appeared in mid-air. Instead, it was only fingers appearing: "Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared…" (Daniel 5:5a). There is no man, no arm, and hardly even a hand — just fingers.
2.2 The King's Mood
How the mood can quickly change. When my parents were but teenagers, record sales hit new heights when they heard these words:
My hands are shaky and my knees are weak
I can't seem to stand on my own two feet
King Belshazzar would have certainly agreed with King Elvis, but for an entirely different reason. The Bible says: "Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (Daniel 5:5-6).
When your Bible says, "his limbs gave way" in verse 6, it likely means he soiled his britches. Yes, the mood had changed. No matter, the king had gone from arrogant luxury to a loss of control of even his sphincter muscles. The king had visibly seen the judgment of God.
2.3 Plaster Walls
It's interesting that Daniel mentions the plaster on the walls in verse 5. More than a century ago, archaeologists went to work excavating the ruins of ancient Babylon. The archaeologist Robert Koldeway says that in one particular part of his excavations, he came upon a large room in the palace. In fact, he says it was the largest room discovered, measuring more than 55 feet wide and 170 feet long. This room was half as long as a football field. In the center of one of the long sides, just opposite the entrance, is a niche where the throne must have stood. And this archaeologist finds walls covered with white plaster approximately 2,400 years after Daniel was written. Still, other archaeological excavations help us picture the room. They describe a place filled with dark blue glazed bricks with tall columns of yellow glazed bricks. Germans [archaeologists] discovered thousands of fragments of shattered tiles that included scorpions, serpents, panthers, lions, and other mythological monsters that adorned the walls and possibly the floor itself. The doorways had thresholds of bronze, and traces were found of cedar doors covered with bronze. The roof was constructed of cedar, and the room had windowless walls that were whitewashed. Can you picture the moving fingers in such a palatial palace?
What do we take away from this story?
Two Take-Away's
1. Trust the Word of God
"But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:16).
You and I can trust the Word of God.
1.1 Belshazzar Is Real
For more than a century, people taught in Religion classes that Daniel 5 is a perfect example of why you can't trust the Bible. College professors would say something like this, "We know that after Nebuchadnezzar, there were three other kings of Babylon, and none of these was named Belshazzar. The last king of Babylon before Cyrus, the Persian monarch who conquered Babylon, was a man named Nabonidus. He was the third and last king in the Babylonian line." Then the liberal religion professor might say something like this: "There was no such person as Belshazzar. He was not the king of Babylon. None of this could've happened. This is a legend. These guys don't know what they're talking about. You can't trust the Bible." I wondered how many people would be in church this day if they didn't believe something like this? Young minds would naturally think, "If the Bible cannot get history right, then I just need to go on with my life. I'll have sex with who I want to have sex with. You cannot trust the Bible. There are some good things in there like 'turn the other cheek' and 'love your neighbor,' but it's a book full of errors and half-truths." But unbeknownst to all those young college students who had grown up and rejected God's Word, a little inscription was found about a century ago. In fact, more than thirty plus inscriptions followed, telling us that there was indeed a monarch in Babylon named Belshazzar all along.
1.2 Third in Line to the Throne
If we were not so arrogant, we might have realized at least some of the truth all along. I'm not here to make you an expert on Babylonian kings, but you need to know some essentials. Nabonidus (ca. 556–539 BC) was the actual king of Babylon at this time, and he was Belshazzar's father. However, Belshazzar's father spent long periods of time away from the capital, and during those times, left his son, Belshazzar, to be king of Babylon. So the father and the son ruled together. This arrangement may help to explain why later in this chapter, Belshazzar promises that the successful interpreter of the handwriting on the wall will be made the third ruler in the kingdom (Daniel 5:16). If Belshazzar was in effect the second ruler in the kingdom, this would be the highest honor he could grant someone like Daniel. If we were not so arrogant, we might have realized at least some of the truth all along. The truth was sitting right in front of us for centuries.
1.3 Believing Only Parts of the Bible
Tread lightly around people who don't fully embrace all of God's Word. So many people in our day say something to the effect of this, "There are some things in here I just don't believe. I don't believe in a God who would do that. I don't believe in this or that, so I will believe this part, but I won't believe that part." If your god is one that you agree with all the time, aren't you saying in effect that I am god? If your god doesn't disagree with you, aren't you worshipping yourself in effect? Trust the Word fully and wrestle with the parts of the Bible that offend you.
1. Trust the Word of God
I know a lot of people think that when you read a story like this, Christians should run around saying, "Wipe that smirk off your face! God is coming, and He's going to judge you. You think you've had your fun, but you've been in power, and you're going to get yours." But this isn't what this story is about, and this isn't how Christians are to relate to others.
2. Embrace Spiritual Humility
"And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this" (Daniel 5:22).
The first lesson is to trust the word of God, and the second is to embrace spiritual humility.
2.1 A History Lesson
Daniel is old by the time the handwriting appears on the wall. Remember, it was Belshazzar's grandfather who captured him and forced him to live in Babylon. If Daniel were fifteen years of age when captured, then he is around eighty-one years old when he addressed King Belshazzar. He didn't even know King because when he met him, the king says to him in the backend of verse 13: "You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah" (Daniel 5:13b). So Daniel's old and he's unfamiliar, but he's not afraid! We need more Daniels in our day! Like so many prophets before him, Daniel gives it to Belshazzar with both barrels. Daniel pulls no punches, and he says you can keep your gifts (Daniel 5:17). And he proceeds to retell a lesson his grandfather learned. "In essence, your problem, my young king, is that you knew the story of your grandfather and how he was full of himself. The God of Heaven humbled him by giving him a short-term mental illness. He was out of his mind, barking at the moon if you will, 'until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will'" (Daniel 5:21b).
2.2 The Pathway of Life
Belshazzar did not learn the pathway to life like his grandfather before him. Like the swing of a sickle in ancient times or the swing of a golf club in the modern-day, Nebuchadnezzar went through these three stages. Stage #1: The Mountain of Pride, Stage #2: The Valley of Humiliation, and lastly, Stage #3: The Worship of God. The pathway to life leads from the pride of self through the valley of humiliation to the praise and worship of God. The only way to be healed of pride is the worship of God. The ONLY way to be healed of pride is the worship of God. Belshazzar knew stage #1, and he was experiencing stage #2, but he never completed the arc, where he made stage #3, the worship of God.
2.3 The Handwriting Is On the Wall
Listen to Daniel's words to the young king: "And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this" (Daniel 5:22). As if the fingers weren't scary enough, four simple words stared everyone in the face. I notice two specific items about these four words. These four words were not written but they were inscribed! As if to be branded on the hearts and minds of everyone there, they were inscribed: "Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN" (DANIEL 5:24-25).
God didn't write these words on an etch-a-sketch, but He inscribed them. The royal wall resembled a gravestone, and the whole company had seen the epitaph being engraved upon it: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. The second item to see is that Daniel says the fingers left the presence of Him and dropped into directly to Belshazzar's party: "Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN" (DANIEL 5:24-25). The fingers left the very presence of God and appeared in the palace halls of the king. They did not "pass go and they did not collect $200!" Listen again to the word of Daniel: "This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians" (Daniel 5:26-28). Down from Belshazzar's day down to Hitler's evil actions, these symbolic words remain an eternal affirmation of divine justice that humbles the proud and uplifts the lowly.
2.4 National Sin, National Judgment
The Bible says there is a heavenly weighing of kings, emperors, governors, and all people in authority. Though they may escape the scales on earth, they will never free themselves from being weighed on the scales of God in eternity! There is a time of weighing for nations for national sins demand national punishments. When a nation wages bloodshed, tyranny, and war, that nation will be sure to see the angel of vengeance visit. There can be no eternal damnation for nations because only individuals stand before the judgment of God.
Just as there are three kings in the book Daniel, there are also three different nations. And the lesson of the book is obvious: I raise nations up, and I take nations down. God had allowed the nation of Babylon to thrive for a certain period of time. Babylon was God's hammer breaking into pieces the very nation He loved because Jerusalem had deserted the Lord, our God.
2.5 Desecration
Belshazzar sought to mock God. His actions sacrilege through and through: "They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone" (Daniel 5:4). Remember, these vessels would have been used in the worship of God in the Temple. During this drunken orgy, Belshazzar drinks to the gods of gold and silver. This was no innocent mistake. It would be like me taking the chalice a church might use in the Lord's Supper, bringing it home, and drinking a beer from it while calling on all of you to worship another god. He's scoffing a the God of heaven, and he's shaking his fist at God. This was open defiance to the Lord God Himself.
2.6 Coming Judgment
"Pastor, I've never done anything like Belshazzar. I've never taken God's vessels and drank from them to worship gold and silver." Have you ever weighed yourself by even the first commandment Jesus said was the utmost of importance? I'm not asking you to weigh yourself against all the Ten Commandments or even all the words of Jesus, but just Jesus' first commandment? Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38). Friends, if we were to weigh ourselves by even this one, single, solitary command, we have to acknowledge that we are guilty. There's a day coming when ALL the clouds of God's vengeance will gather into one, and the firmament above will crash with His thunder. Your very knees will knock, and you will lose control over your bodily functions when the wrath of God appears in full force in front of you. On that day, your color will change. Your mind will go insane with thoughts of fear, and your knees will shake until you cannot stand. Your life will be weighed, inspected, and examined. So many people will hear the words, "you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting…".
2.7 The Law of Gravity
"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). There are certain fixed principles in the natural world. One of the laws of the natural world is the law of gravity. The law of gravity is what is keeping you on your seat and off the ceiling right now. It's the law of gravity that just simply holds you down. Now that's just a fixed law in the universe. You don't break the law of gravity; it will break you. You may step off a ten-story building. You won't break the law; you'll only demonstrate that law. You won't break it, but it will break you. Now there are certain laws in the physical universe; and there are certain fixed laws in the spiritual universe, and they are just as fixed. You know there are lots of folks who sow their wild oats six days a week, and then they come to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure.
God is a good judge, and He will certainly do what even a corrupt earthly judge can do from time to time: He will judge the living and the dead on that day. The only hope you have when being weighed is to have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ on your side. Then and only then will you have enough right acts on your side of the ledger.
Jesus got the punishment we deserved so we could get the love He deserved. Jesus got the punishment we deserved so we could get the reward He deserved.
