Singing the Songs of The Lord In A Strange Land November 21, 2004
Daniel 5
“The handwriting is on the wall”
“Your days are numbered”
You have been weighed and measured and been found wanting”
This story has shaped English idiom, but not too many people actually know the story!
Jesus tells this story in Luke 12:
42The Lord answered, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45But suppose the servant says to himself, ’My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
47"That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
You would almost think that Jesus had Belshazzar in mind when he told the story.
In Daniel 5 we jump at least 25 years ahead from the end of Daniel 4. Nebuchadnezzar has died, there was some wrangling for the throne, until Nabonidus concolidated his power. Belshazzar was Nabonidus’ son. Nabonidus was out of the country for either political or personal reasons for about 10 years and he left Belshazzar on the throne as co-regent during that time.
While the cat’s away, the mice do play. Belshazzar, it would appear didn’t rule the empire for the people’s sake, but used it for his own purposes, so much so that when the Persians are knocking at the door, instead of rallying the troops and arming the city, he throws a party for 1000 of his closest friends. Darius the Mede and the armies of Persia are marching on Babylon and Belshazzar is getting drunk with his friends.
In the middle of the party, Belshazzar takes the opportunity to mock the God of the Israelites. He calls for the gold goblets that were taken by Nebuchadnezzar out of the temple in Jerusalem 60 or so years prior and they use them to continue their drunken party, and they toast their own gods that are made of gold, silver bronze Iron, wood and stone.
In the midst of the party, a disembodied hand appears and writes on the wall. Belshazzar, like you or I would be, is scared out of his wits – the blood drains from his face, his legs go soft, his knees knock. When he regains his composure he yells for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to come, read and interpret the divine graffiti on the wall. Déjà vu all over again, the “wise men” of the kingdom can’t figure it out.
The queen mother (likely Nebuchadnezzar’s queen) walks in and tells them to get Daniel.
The interaction between Belshazzar and Daniel is very different than how Daniel would relate with Nebuchadnezzar. Even with all his faults, Daniel loves Nebuchadnezzar, there is no love lost between Daniel & Belshazzar. Daniel treated Nebuchadnezzar with the respect he deserved as leader of most of the then known world. He treats Belshazzar like a disobedient child. Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar were not blood relatives, but they use the terms father and son as intimate synonyms of predecessor and successor.
13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, "Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? 14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. 15 The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. 16 Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom."
17 Then Daniel answered the king, "You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.
18 "O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. 19 Because of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. 20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21 He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.
22 "But you his son, [4] O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. 23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. 24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
25 "This is the inscription that was written:
Mene , Mene , Tekel , Parsin
This inscription that God’s hand places on the wall is a reminder, that even in judgment, God has a sense of humor. The Aramaic would have been written without vowels or spaces between the words, so it would have looked like this: mn’tqlprs.
Not only is it hard to read, once you know the divisions and the vowels, It’s a riddle!
As nouns the words could sound like the bottom line of a grocery bill: “mina, mina, shekel and a half.”
Daniel takes the verbal roots of the words and translates them “numbered,” “weighed,” and “divided”
The inscription is a riddle, but it is also a pun, or a play on words. Al Wolters says that with other vowels, the inscription could read “He has paid out, you are too light, Persia!”
This is what Daniel says:
26 "This is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
A Warning to Children of the Redeemed
You might ask why is God’s judgment so swift on Belshazzar, but he gives Nebuchadnezzar the opportunity to repent?
I think that the answer is found in Daniel’s pre-interpretation lesson to Belshazzar and in Jesus’ story of the unfaithful servant.
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Nebuchadnezzar had wronged God from a position of ignorance – he had no idea that this God of a minor province that he trampled on the way to Egypt was the God of the universe – over time he learned his lesson, and at the end of Chapter 4 he recognizes God as God and gives him the honour he deserves. Belshazzar doesn’t learn from his previous king, and with the knowledge of who God is, rebels against him.
The more that we know about God and understand his ways, the more he expects us to follow those ways. I remember hearing one young man who had grown up in a Christian home, but was doing his best to rebel complain that God wouldn’t let him get away with anything!
It is not that God will forgive those in the know any less, but I believe that he calls us on our sin quicker – we feel the ramifications of those sins more strongly that someone who may not know God or who is a new Christian and hasn’t learned God’s ways as much.
The more we know the more God demands of us.
Mishandling the Sacred
It sounds as though Belshazzar never obeyed God, and was a terrible king, but the straw that breaks the camel’s back is how he mishandles the goblets from the temple. It is not that he doesn’t believe in God and therefore thinks one cup is as good as another. He believes in God, he just thinks that he is weak and not able to defend himself against the gods Belshazzar and his friend were toasting with God’s cups.
Belshazzar’s actions were blasphemy against God.
Blasphemy is an act of dishonoring God through speech or actions. Belshazzar commits blasphemy through the misuse of objects consecrated for the worship of God.
Today we have no equivalent to the holy temple vessels. But it is not that we have less, we have more.
Jesus has broken the divide between the sacred and the profane. Zechariah prophesies this coming day when he says:
20On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: SET APART AS HOLY TO THE LORD. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the LORD will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar. 21In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be set apart as holy to the LORD Almighty. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that day there will no longer be traders in the Temple of the LORD Almighty. – Zechariah 14
Tremper Longman III says,
The understanding that everything is holy “intensifies the concept of blasphemy. Blasphemy is not just defacing a church or a cross. It is a misuse of any part of God’s creation. An assault against a fellow human being is an act of blasphemy. After all, we are all created in the image of God. An angry word spoken against a fellow believer is an act of blasphemy. After all, Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The destruction of the environment for selfish purposes is an act of blasphemy. The land, the air, the seas are each the creation of our holy God.”
- Creation – as we learn more of what harms the environment, and what helps it, we have greater responsibility – the earth is not god or a god, but it is created by our God and we must treat it as sacred, and not misuse it in business, or sacrifice it on the altar of Profit, Convinience, or Prosperity.
- Trust – at our work, in our families, in our friendships, we hold certain things in a sacred trust. The directors of a company are not supposed to get whopping bonuses while the company goes under – they are not supossed to sell their shasres while the working stiffs are required to hold on to theirs. They have been given a trust. Parents are not to use children as playthings or punching bags – they have been given a trust. We are not to Abandon friends when they need us – we have been given a trust.
- Word - when we use the word of God as a tool to get our own way, when we form our own passionately held opinions as prophet uterences, we are mishandling the sacred
Belshazzar lost his kingdom and his life because he mishandled the sacred.
Finally, as we take a break from Daniel over Advent, this chapter reminds us of the theme that runs through the whole of Daniel:
In spite of present appearances, God is in control.
At the beginning of Daniel, we see that God gave Judah and Jerusalem into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. It wasn’t because Nebuchadnezzar was so great and mighty that he defeated Judah, it was because Judah had turned so far from God, that God had to take them out of the land. Most of the people are carried away to Babylon, and Jeremiah tells them that they will be there for 70 years. It is in Babylon, that they finally get the fact that they are God’s people and begin to serve him alone. Here in Daniel 5, as Daniel is in his 80’s Darius the Mede invades and takes the throne of Babylon. Darius is one of Cyrus of Persia’s great generals. Cyrus is the one whom God has appointed to bring the people back to the land. Isaiah writes of this pagan king:
Cyrus, ’He is my shepherd
and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt,"
and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid." ’
13 I will raise up Cyrus [2] in my righteousness:
I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
says the LORD Almighty." – Isaiah 44-45
God used Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish His purposes.
God used Belshazzar to accomplish His purposes.
God used Darius the Mede to accomplish His purposes.
God used Cyrus to accomplish His purposes.
In spite of present appearances, God is in control.
Things might seem chaotic at work, or at home, or in your neighbourhood… it is good to know that, In spite of present appearances, God is in control.
