Borrowed Breath Series

Borrowed Breath

Book of Daniel Series

Daniel 5

CCCAG March 9th, 2025

Scripture- Daniel 5

Introduction

A few notes before we begin this message today.

Before we dive into Daniel 5, a quick note: I got some emails concerning that I missed something about how to identify the antichrist in last week’s sermon on Daniel 7.

I didn’t miss it—I’m saving it for chapter 9, where it’s a major theme.

To set the stage for this sermon- Belshazzar is king as of Daniel 7 as Nebuchadnezzar has died. Belshazzar has been king for about 13 years. This chapter marks the fall of Babylon under his rule.

With that, let’s dig into today’s message on Daniel 5.

As many of you know, I’m a bit of a history buff, and I read that after Germany’s surrender in World War II, records recovered from Adolf Hitler’s bunker, along with some eyewitness testimony, showed how they spent the final weeks as the allied armies advanced on Berlin.

You would think they spent the time terrified, huddled in bunkers as wave after wave of Allied bombing ravaged the city.

Instead, records and reports show that they spent the last days of the Third Reich throwing lavish parties, drinking, and dancing into the night only to wake up and do it again the next day. These people were clinging to Hitler’s promise that the German Army would somehow rally and drive the Allies back out of Germany.

They bought the lie and died believing it.

This kind of mindset is exactly what we see in Daniel chapter 5.

This chapter tells of the downfall of Babylon and its King Belshazzar.

Belshazzar was a very proud king of Babylon, who unlike his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar never learned to humble himself before God. Because of this pride and arrogance, he has a very unpleasant divine encounter.

In chapter 5 we will see that the capital city of Babylon was surrounded by the armies of the Medes and Persians. Belshazzar was trusting that Babylon’s walls were so large, so thick, and so tall that no army would ever be able to conquer the city.

Like the Nazi’s in WWII, Belshazzar and the ruling class believed their armies would eventually come and destroy these foreigners and within the city, they had plenty of food and water, so they had nothing to worry about.

That is, until their feasting and partying was interrupted by a mysterious handwriting on the wall giving a message of judgment that shook an empire to its core.

That’s the background, so let’s read from Dan 5:1-6

King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine in their presence. (2) Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines could drink from them. (3) So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them. (4) They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. (5) At that moment the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the king’s palace wall next to the lampstand. As the king watched the hand that was writing, (6) his face turned pale, and his thoughts so terrified him that he soiled himself and his knees knocked together.

Prayer

Have you ever been so scared that you soiled yourself?

I admit, with everything I’ve gone through in life, I’ve never been that scared, even in the most dangerous situations.

However, I’ve never been extremely drunk and seen supernatural handwriting on the wall.

The king is freaked out and like previous kings of Babylon, makes the same mistake. Belshazzar calls for the “wise men” to help him decipher this message.

Once again, they are again not able to interpret the message.

Then Daniel gets called, and after telling Belshazzar that it’s because he refused to be humbled like his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, God is proclaiming judgment in what was written on the wall.

So what was written? Daniel explains this writing is from God,

Dan 5:24-28 (Daniel says) Therefore, he sent the hand, and this writing was inscribed.

(25) “This is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.

(26) This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Mene’ means that God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

(27) ‘Tekel’ means that you have been weighed on the balance and found deficient.

(28) ‘Peres’ means that your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”