Daniel Chapter 5 Series

Daniel Survey

Chapter 5 Outline

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan

www.TawasBaptist.org

Life’s Greatest Mistake

Daniel Chapter 5 shows that having knowledge and applying it are two different things.

Knowledge, to know something and application, to do it are different.

We see King Belshazzar having a great feast to 1000 of his nobles.

It was a drunken feast, an orgy of revelry and blasphemy.

Quote “Great eaters and drinkers are rarely great at anything else.”

It was a drunken feast of immorality.

5:2-4 Drunk King commanded the golden vessels that were captures from the overthrow of Jerusalem in Chapter 1 of Daniel to be brought out of storage and used to drink wine out of.

The vessels that were once used to praise God in the temple, were now being defiled by the drinking of alcohol.

This was the last act of defiance of the King.

He had used up God’s grace.

:5-6 Then God stepped in and the King’s countenance changed.

Thoughts were troubled

Stomach tight

Knees knocked.

God’s hand writes on the wall in letters of fire.

The King went from Defiance to Fear.

:7 So the King did what his Grandfather (Nebuchadnezzar) did before him.

He sent for the astrologers, chaldean’s, magicians and psychics.

Chapter 2 – King said tell me what I dreamed and what it means...but they couldn’t.

Chapter 4 – King said this is my dream what does it mean…but they couldn’t.

Chapter 5 – King says look at this…but they couldn’t understand still.

Because they are FLASE PROPHETS and FALSE SCIENCE.

James 1:5

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

:9 The kings folly, the wise men were called.

Belshazzar in the line of Nebuchadnezzar.

(Queen Mother) King’s mother…the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel is now in his 80’s.

Elder and statesman.

Daniel’s reputation;

An excellent spirit.

Knowledge and understanding.

Interpreting dreams.

Solving problems and doubts.

:13 Balthazar’s drunken ridicule of Daniel.

He knew who Daniel was.

Daniel held the kingdom together when Nebuchadnezzar was dethroned in chapter 4. Everyone knew of him.

:16 Belshazzar tries to bribe Daniel.

:17 Daniel throws he bribe back at Belshazzar.

Some jobs are not worth taking if they take you away from God.

Jobs and relationships.

Daniel replies “My goal is to please God!”

:17 Daniel traces the history of Babylon.

26-28 MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PERES.

"This is the interpretation of the message:

’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."

(Daniel 5:26-28)

"Peres" means divided, but was also a play on words to indicate the Persians would defeat them.

Three charges were brought to Belshazzar by God.

1. He sinned nit through ignorance but through disobedience and pride (v.22)

2. He defied God by desecrating the sacred vessels (v.23a)

3. He praised idols and so did not honor God (v.23b)

The three weights used here may symbolize Belshazzar being the third and last King in Babylon.

Weighed on scales, measured in the light of God’s standards.

Medes and Persians were the second Kingdom of the series of 4 predicted in Chapter 2.

They filled the cup of iniquity.

Crossing God’s line in the sand.

Just as with Nebuchadnezzar.

God gave him His grace, but he turned from God.

He knew but did not do.