In the month of January, our January Intensive is looking at the book of Daniel. We are covering the whole book – Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night. And we come tonight to Daniel chapter 5, page 742 and 743 if you’re using one of our church Bibles. This is the famous account of Belshazzar’s feast where he sees a disembodied hand and the proverbial writing on the wall. Belshazzar appears in the narrative without any preface or introduction, so maybe a bit of background before we get into the teaching of the chapter will help us set the scene.
Nebuchadnezzar, who has been as we saw this morning, the focus of the first four chapters, he died in 562 BC. His son succeeded him until he was assassinated by his brother-in-law – this is a delightful family! His brother-in-law succeeded him by bumping off Nebuchadnezzar’s son, but he only lasts four years and then his own son succeeds him. And then about a month into his reign, a group of conspirators staged a coup d’etat led by a man named Nabonidus. They murdered the king and Nabonidus came to the throne instead in 555 BC. But Nabonidus was not especially popular in Babylon, and so he made the city of Tayma the seat of his government and he left his son, Belshazzar, as virtual co-ruler to govern the city of Babylon in his stead. Of course the book of Daniel isn’t really all that interested in palace intrigues or in the succession of Babylonian rulers, which is why the opening scene of chapter 5 focuses on Belshazzar’s party without any preface or background or introduction to this debauched man and his behavior. The book of Daniel is interested in the advance of the kingdom of God, despite the machinations of petty despots and their wickedness. And that is where the focus of our text lies.
As we look at the passage together, I want you to see three things. First in verses 1 through 9 and in verses 18 through 23, we’ll see the lessons of history ignored. The lessons of history ignored. Belshazzar ought to have known better, and his ignorance was culpable. The lessons of history ignored. Then secondly, verses 10 through 12, we’ll see the witness of faithfulness remembered. The witness of faithfulness remembered. For all the king’s ignorance and unbelief, Daniel’s character and testimony have not been completely forgotten in the corridors of power. The lessons of history ignored. The witness of faithfulness remembered. Then finally in verses 24 through 31, the verdict of heaven disclosed. Time has run out for Belshazzar, and judgment falls. So the lessons of history ignored, the witness of faithfulness remembered, and the verdict of heaven disclosed. That’s where we’re going as we work through Daniel chapter 5. Before we do that, let’s bow before the Lord and ask Him to give us His help as we read and hear His Word. Let us all pray.
As Jennings prayed earlier, O God, we cry out to You – to whom else shall we go? Lord Jesus, to whom else shall we turn? You have the words of eternal life. Grant now the ministry of Your Spirit that we may hear You, and hearing You bow before You in faith and new obedience for the glory of Your name, amen.
Daniel chapter 5 at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.
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. 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. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
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. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 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.’ Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
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. 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, 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.’
Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, ‘You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. 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.’
Then Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 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.
Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 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.
That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy, inerrant Word.
On June 24, 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia. His troops actually made it all the way to Moscow and then the brutal winter set in and he was forced to retreat at a terrible cost to his army. The soldiers’ mouths actually froze shut, horses died in their thousands, the army was devastated. Now having studied Napoleon’s Russian campaign carefully, Adolf Hitler was confident that when he launched what he called “Operation Barbarossa,” and he invaded Russia in 1941, he wasn’t about to make the same mistakes. But for all his study of the past, Hitler learned the wrong lessons. While Napoleon retreated, Hitler said that was his big mistake. “Well stay and fight.” But Napoleon’s decision to retreat wasn’t the problem, and so Hitler’s decision to stay and fight was not the solution. The problem, of course, was the devastating winter, and Hitler simply did not account for that. In the end, German forces endured over 1 million casualties as a result of the errors of Operation Barbarossa. “Generally speaking,” writes one account of this part of the war, “the knowledge that Hitler possessed or was at hand was adequate to have avoided this blunder. But past successes blinded him and his general staff.” In his arrogance, Hitler failed to learn the lessons of history and the consequences were devastating.
It’s that same terrible failing and arrogant refusal to learn the lessons of history that we see in Belshazzar here in Daniel chapter 5. Verse 1 opens with the king throwing a party for 1,000 of his closest friends. And when the text highlights, notice the text says, “The king drank wine in front of the thousand,” it’s telling us not just that the king was a lush, but that he was a show off. He was displaying proudly his debauchery. And verse 2 tells us that as the king fell deeper and deeper into his cups, the idea struck him that it would be deliciously transgressive to pull out the old vessels that Nebuchadnezzar, his predecessor, called his father here – he wants to claim legitimacy by pointing to Nebuchadnezzar – that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, and use them, you know, to keep the booze flowing. Ezra chapter 1 tells us there were 5,400 vessels of varying sizes and uses that had been taken from the temple into Babylon. So all the guests at Belshazzar’s supersized frat party could have had a cup or two each to play with that night. And what’s more, as they drank themselves silly from the holy vessels used in the worship of the Lord, verse 4 says, “they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.” This is a deliberate, purposeful, knowing act of desecration and blasphemy, reveling in contempt for Israel’s God. Debauchery, arrogance and idolatry are the key features of this man’s character.
But when the disembodied hand appears in verse 5 and begins to scratch with its fingernail a message from the God whose holy vessels they were debasing, Belshazzar is scared out of his skin, isn’t he? Verse 6, “Then the king’s color changed and his thoughts alarmed him.” When the ESV translates the next phrase, “his limbs gave way,” it’s being polite. Literally the text reads, “the knots of his loins gave way.” Drunken Belshazzar with his knees knocking together urgently required a change of the royal underwear! This was eerie, unnerving. The laughter in the party all died. The music stops abruptly. Hairs stand on end on everyone’s arms and on the back of their necks. Blood drains from faces. Screams echo through the hall. The king almost passes out. It is like a scene from a horror movie. Instinctively, Belshazzar calls for his magicians in verses 7 through 9, but as the book of Daniel has shown us over and over again, in every chapter thus far, these guys are empty shirts, snake oil salesmen. They have absolutely no clue what’s really going on. And so verse 9, Belshazzar and his 1,000 drinking buddies, they freak out.
Never one to miss an opportunity, when Daniel is at last summoned to explain what’s going on, you’ll notice he preaches a sermon first. He recounts the story of Nebuchadnezzar in verses 18 through 21, how Nebuchadnezzar too had been arrogant but was brought from his kingly throne and his glory taken from him. He was driven out from among the children of mankind. His mind was made like that of a beast until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will.
And then comes the crucial point of application. Look at verse 22. “And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this. But you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven and the vessels of His house have been brought in before you. You have drunk wine from them, you have praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and 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.” It was unspeakably wicked of Belshazzar to have used the vessels, the holy vessels for the worship of God in His temple, for his drunken, pagan rites. But Daniel’s indictment is all the worse because of verse 22 – “though you knew all this.” You knew how God dealt with your forefather Nebuchadnezzar. You knew how He had intervened and brought him low. You knew how He showed the repentant king His mercy. You knew all this! The simple fact that Belshazzar thought about the vessels from the temple in the middle of this drunken stupor, proves that he knew perfectly well about the ways and works and words of God in the history of the Babylonian kings.
Make no mistake, sins of ignorance are still sins, but sins against the truth you know are doubly heinous. In Belshazzar’s life, ignoring the truth of God made room for carnal indulgence and the deep, dark, wickedness of his idolatry. He ignored the lessons of history, and now as he is about to realize, he will have to face the consequences. This is the tragic trajectory that repeats itself, sadly, in the lives of so many people today, isn’t it? Maybe you can even recognize it in yourself. You were raised in the church, you know the truth, you know about the cross and the empty tomb, you know about the holiness of God, the offer of pardon through faith in Jesus Christ. You know about friends, family, parents who were brought low and then brought to Christ and about His work of grace in their stories. You knew all this, but you have drifted over the years. You have ignored the lessons of history. You have turned your back on the truth of which you have been trained. And your life, like Belshazzar’s before you long ago, has slipped now slowly down into carnal indulgence and the dark idolatries of your heart. Oh sure, you maybe don’t have a literal idol of gold or silver of bronze or iron or wood or stone, but remember Colossians 3:5 which says that covetousness is idolatry. The lusts of the heart are counterfeit deities. And we come to serve them just as readily when the truth of God is ignored in favor of our pleasures. What a terrible thing it will be to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in the final judgment, when the sentence on your sin is proclaimed, and to have over it all this one, damning indictment written, “You knew better.” The lessons of history ignored.
Now look down at verses 10 through 12 and the witness of faithfulness remembered. Verse 10 tells us that the king’s dramatic promise to make anyone who can interpret the writing on the wall the third-ranking ruler in the kingdom – remember Nabonidus, he’s in charge; Belshazzar his son rules in Babylon – number one, number two; whoever can interpret the writing will be number three. But this extravagant promise seems to have drawn the queen with some urgency to the king’s side. What in the world is going on? You’ll notice in the ESV next to the mention of the queen there is a footnote indicating this might actually be a reference not to Belshazzar’s wife but to the queen mother, which makes much more sense of the text. Verse 3 says that the king’s wives and concubines were all at the party already. It also helps explain why she remembers what Belshazzar seems conveniently to have overlooked. She has a longer memory and she recalls Daniel quite well.
Possibly Daniel has lost much of his prominence, certainly all of his previous influence at court. He is out of Belshazzar’s mind altogether, but he is not out of the queen mother’s mind. He is “Daniel,” she says, “whom the king named Belteshazzar. There is a man in your kingdom, this Daniel, and he can do what all these so-called magicians and wise men can’t do.” It’s striking, isn’t it, in verses 12 and 13 the name “Daniel,” the Hebrew name, is used five times over in these two verses. Daniel means “God is my Judge.” The memory of his Hebrew identity, even though it has been submerged beneath a thick layer of imperially imposed paganism, his real identity has not been altogether lost. He is still remembered, even among these pagans, as a man of God.
And notice what it is that the queen mother remembers about Daniel. He is one in whom, verse 11, “is the spirit of the holy gods.” I think that plural, “gods,” is actually better understood as a plural of “majesty,” so the queen is referring to the great God, singular, to whom Daniel had pledged his fealty and loyalty and whom Nebuchadnezzar was eventually led to honor. “In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods” – or again, better, “like the wisdom of God” – “were found in him. Nebuchadnezzar made him chief of the wise men, the magicians, because,” verse 12, “an excellent spirit, knowledge and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel.” The queen mother remembers that Daniel isn’t like the huckster fortune tellers of the king’s court. No, no, the spirit of the holy God dwells in him, and he is full of wisdom and understanding.
Sinclair Ferguson points out, “The echo here in this pagan queen’s reminiscences about Daniel of the prophet Isaiah’s words about Jesus Christ.” Listen to how much the queen mother’s description of Daniel sounds like Isaiah 11 at the second verse and the prophet’s description of Messiah:
“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear.”
Daniel is like Jesus because the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit that filled Messiah Jesus, filled him too. The likeness of Christ in Daniel made him stand out from the crowd, so that even this pagan queen mother is left to remark upon the work of the Spirit of the holy God in his life. He has a reputation shaped by the power of heaven, and his real name, his true character, could not be forgotten. This is the life to which we are all called if we are Christians. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus told His disciples to “let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” That’s what’s happening here, isn’t it? A pagan queen glorifying God for the bright light of Christlikeness that shines so clearly in the life of Daniel. We ought all to be asking ourselves at this point, “What do people say about me? Does the way I live make other people give glory to our Father who is in heaven? Does my life make them speak about Jesus Christ? Do I point them to Him, remind them of Him? Would they say of me as they said of Daniel that ‘The Spirit of the holy God is in him,’ ‘The Spirit of the holy God is in her’?”
While we’re talking about Daniel’s godliness, let’s not skip over verse 17 too quickly. You’ll notice his bold refusal to perform for Belshazzar in exchange for royal favors. “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another,” he says. The temptation to use religion for person profit – it’s a temptation that persists in every age of course. Titus 1:11 – denounce those who “teach for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.” And 1 Timothy 6:5 rebukes those who imagined that godliness is a means for gain. But Daniel will not be among them. He serves the Lord for the Lord’s sake and not for his own sake, certainly not for his own profit. “Let your gifts be for yourself. Give your rewards to somebody else. I don’t want them.” Godliness is no mechanism for material prosperity, and ministry is not a tool of self promotion. And Daniel clearly understood this. And as the queen mother demonstrates, the witness of his unimpeachable character was unforgettable as a result.
And so perhaps begrudgingly at his mother’s urging, Belshazzar calls on Daniel and look how he addresses him in verse 13. “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah whom the king my father brought from Judah.” Commentators generally identify a note of contempt in those words. There’s a put-down here. “Ah, yes, Daniel. You’re one of those defeated Jews, aren’t you? A subjugated remnant of a now-defeated people.” Like the entitled elites of every age and every place, there is a not-so-subtle contempt here for those Belshazzar considers socially beneath him and yet on whose services he must nevertheless rely. Daniel is the king’s only option now, but he can’t stand Daniel’s God and he doesn’t rate Daniel.
And yet you know, as ugly as that is to see, this is always God’s way. He ordains the weak and the foolish in the world’s eyes, the one the world rejects and holds in contempt, to be the instrument of His purpose. Nowhere is that principle more clearly on display than at the cross. In 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, Paul reminds us that “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” The world rejects the foolishness of a crucified Savior, stumbles over the weakness of a Messiah hanging naked and despised between two thieves. But He is the wisdom and the power of God for salvation. The only way for Belshazzar, or for you or me to find the help we need is to humble ourselves and come to the despised Man that God has ordained – not ultimately Daniel, but the one to whom Daniel points us, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And as shattering to our pride as that is, we must come to Him, not with a king’s imperious demand to be served, but with a beggar’s empty hand, pleading for mercy.
The lessons of history ignored. The witness of faithfulness remembered. And now finally, notice the verdict of heaven declared. Daniel has reminded the king of God’s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar, and he’s pressed home the rebuke – “In light of all of that, you should have known better. You knew all this and still you used the holy vessels, the worship of God, to drink yourself silly in praise of the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. Your life, Belshazzar, is not in their lifeless hands. Your life is God’s alone.” And now in verses 24 through 28, the verdict at last is pronounced. Here comes the interpretation of the terrifying hand scratching out the divine indictment on the palace walls that Belshazzar has been anxiously waiting for. Daniel reads the writing as “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” Scholars point out that a “mene” was a full measure, a “tekel,” the equivalent of a Hebrew shekel, was of much less value than a “mene,” and “peres” was a split-measure, a half-mene. They also note that “mene” sounds like the Aramaic for “numbered,” “tekel” like the word for “weighed,” and “peres” like the word “divided.” They also point out the onomatopoetic character of these words. “Mene” sounds like “mede” – Mede. “peres” sounds like the Aramaic for Persian or for Persia.
And so the interpretation follows naturally enough. In verses 26 through 28, “Mene, God has numbered your days, the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.” Now at this, the king does what he told his 1,000 drinking buddies that he was going to do, despite Daniel’s protestations to the contrary. I don’t suppose Belshazzar is someone you can really say “No” to. And so he robes Daniel in purple, puts a chain of gold around his neck, and maybe through gritted teeth names him third ruler in the empire. And yet while all of this is going on, the army of the Medes and the Persians are at the gates of the city.
Xenophon, the Greek historian, recounts that Babylon was overthrown in a single night. Almost as soon as the words of judgment fall from Daniel’s lips, destruction falls on Belshazzar. That very night, Belshazzar the king was killed.
This morning we remarked on God’s amazing patience with sinners, exemplified in his dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. But the story of Belshazzar reminds us that there does come a time when the judgment of God will surely fall. In the warning of the writing on the wall and in the sermon that Daniel preached, Belshazzar was given a last opportunity at repentance, but it is not an opportunity he was prepared to take. I quoted Robert Murray M’Cheyne this morning. Here’s another quote from M’Cheyne. Speaking about Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” M’Cheyne reminded his congregation, “Christ gives last knocks.” Isn’t that a sobering thought. “Christ gives last knocks.” “Christ gives last knocks;” he says, “when your heart becomes hard and careless, then fear, lest Christ may have given a last knock.” The hand of God, writing on the wall – that was a last knock. Daniel’s sermon on the meaning of God’s Word to the king, as it turns out, was literally Christ’s last knock on the conscience of the king. And without repentance, the judgment fell swiftly. It is an awful thought, but it may very well be, friend, that this is Christ’s last knock on the door of your conscience here tonight. Do not presume like Belshazzar that you are safe behind your walls, immune to judgment, free to indulge the idols of your heart. Judgment is at your gates. The writing on the wall says your days are numbered. Your character weighed and found wanting. And your little kingdom will be taken from you.
That’s actually the verdict of God against the sin of us all, isn’t it? The Lord Jesus Christ is actually the only King against whom no such indictment ever could stand. He knew no sin. He was holy, harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners. And yet in His case, the sentence that the divine handwriting spelled out, actually it did fall on Him, and it fell on Him that He might be a refuge for any of us petty Belshazzar’s that we are, sitting on the thrones of our little empires. He was judged, condemned, crucified, under the judgment we have deserved. And the true verdict, the record of His righteousness, it can cover all our sin. So friends, be warned. Christ gives last knocks. When your heart becomes hard and careless, then fear, lest Christ may have given His last knock. He pleads with us to repent and to turn to Him; judgment is coming, but mercy may yet still be found. Step from your throne, bow to the Most High God who rules the kingdoms of men and sets over it whom He will. Jesus is the righteous one, standing in the room of sinners to bear away the wrath of God that we deserve that in Him we might live, under His righteousness. But you must come to Him now. You must come to Him now.
The lessons of history ignored. The witness of faithfulness remembered. The verdict of heaven declared. When a sinner believes in Jesus, the verdict of heaven over you is “No Condemnation.” It is “Righteous. Pardoned. Accepted. Beloved.” I wonder what the verdict will be in your case? Let’s pray together.Our God and Father, the thought of Your judgment is solemn. Forgive us for trivializing it, ignoring it, overlooking it, failing to live in light of its reality. Help us to feel the urgency of responding to Your offers of mercy while there yet remains time. We hear the door knock of the hand of Christ on our consciences. We would open to Him that He would come in and have fellowship with us. We want Jesus and not judgment. Give Him to us, we pray. May it be that no one leaves here tonight still like Belshazzar – obstinate in their refusal of His mercy. For we ask all of this in His name, amen.