Daniel – Chapter 5c
A. Chapter 5 Outline
I. Belshazzar (5:1-4)
a. The Party (5:1)
b. The Preposterousness (5:2-3)
c. The Profanity (5:4)
II. The Lord (5:5-9)
a. Look At The Wall (5:5)
b. Look At The Weak King (5:6-7)
c. Look At The Wise Men (5:8-9)
III. The Queen Mother (5:10-12)
a. Her Ignorance (5:10)
b. Her Insight (5:11-12)
IV. Daniel (5:13-29)
a. Daniel’s Reward (5:13-16)
b. Daniel’s Refusal (5:17)
c. Daniel’s Rebuke (5:18-23)
d. Daniel’s Revelation (5:24-28)
e. Daniel’s Robing (5:29)
V. Darius (5:30-31)
a. The Slaying of The King (5: 30)
b. The Silver Chest Reigns (5:31)
Message
III. The Queen Mother (5:10-12)
The queen mentioned her is thought to have been Nitocris, a wife of Nebuchadnezzar, and the grandmother of Belshazzar. She was the queen mother.
a. Her Ignorance (5:10)
The entire palace had heard about the commotion in the banquet hall and as the news reached the queen she went to offer her advice and comfort to Belshazzar. The first thing that she said seems to be a bit pointless – let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy counternance be changed.
Basically what she was saying was – don’t panic, everything will be ok…
b. Her Insight (5:11-12)
Verse 11
Her attitude didn’t match the seriousness of the situation, but here suggestion was a good one, “Get Daniel!” No doubt, as Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, she saw first hand the council and godly advice Daniel gave when he was called upon – he was the kings greatest advisor.
How sad then that Belshazzar did not think of Daniel. It would appear that he didn’t even know who Daniel was. The highest official in the kingdom, the wisest councillor in the empire and he has been forgotten. According to Verse 22 Belshazzar had heard of his grandfather’s dream and how Daniel had interpreted it.
Verse 12
The queen’s description of Daniel shows that his testimony didn’t go unnoticed. God had used this man to bring knowledge, and understanding, and interpretation of dreams, and now he would be called upon again.
IV. Daniel (5:13-29)
If Daniel was 16 when he was taken to Babylon in 605 B.C. and Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C., then he was 82 years old when Belshazzar summoned him to the banqueting hall.
So many times in the Scripture you see God use people that we would consider “past it,” in age. However, true servants of the Lord never abandon their ministries but are always available to respond to God’s call. 2 Timonthy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
a. Daniel’s Reward (5:13-16)
You can just picture the scene. Daniel walks into the banqueting hall and casts a glaring eye at the tables strewn with food, the floor strewn with drunks and the walls strewn with the dead, deaf, and dumb idols of Babylon. How things have changed over the years…
Then he spots something on the floor, there lying amongst the debris of the evening shenanigans is a harlot, and what is that in her hand, is it… could it really be… its is, it’s one of the sacred vessels from the temple of the Living God.
Then Daniel sees the message on the wall. There are the glowing letters written with God’s own hand. Could Daniel really read what was on the wall? Of course he could he had been reading God’s Word for almost 80 years.
This was not a new situation for Daniel to be in, he’d been here once or twice before; a revelation from God, a fearful and frustrated ruler, incompetent councillors and God’s servant to the rescue. He paid little attention the the king’s flattering speech, and he certainly had no use for the king’s generous offer.
b. Daniel’s Refusal (5:17)
No one who walked as close to God as Daniel did needed to be rewarded or bribed to deliver a message for God. A scarlet robe, a gold chain and third ruler – those things were worthless to a prophet who knew from the very beginning that Babylon’s fate would be sealed by the Persians and theirs by the Greeks. The God of Israel had already written the word “Bankrupt!” over all that Belshazzar had.
I would imagine that people are starting to sober up by this point of the evening. Daniel has the floor and the people are all ears, he does not pull any punches as he tells the king to keep his gifts – nobody had spoken to Belshazzar like this before. Daniel is in no hurry to interpret the writing; the king is going to get some preaching first.
c. Daniel’s Rebuke (5:18-23)
Daniel was respectful to the king but was not afraid to tell him the truth. From the very beginning of their lives in Babylon (Daniel 1), Daniel and his friends had always exercised humility and tact when dealing with the authorities, and because of this God blessed them Titus 2:8 Sound speech that cannot be condemned:
Verse 18-21
First up is a history lesson. Daniel hammers home the name “The Most High God!” and then goes for the conscience by telling a well known story of the pride, madness, restoration and confession of Nebuchadnezzar.
God waited patiently for Nebuchadnezzar to get off his high horse of pride. Most people mistake God’s long-suffering for weakness, however this is not the case – God is not willing that any should perish…
Verses 22-23
Nebuchadnezzar showed his pride by boasting about his achievements and taking credit for what God had helped him accomplish, but his grandson displayed his pride by desecrating the holy vessels from the temple of the Most High God and treating the Lord with contempt.
By using these vessels to praise the idols of Babylon the king was guilty of both blasphemy and idolatry; by ignoring what he knew of Babylonian royal history he displayed his ignorance.
Like Belshazzar and his guests, many people in our world today are unmindful of the lessons of the past, unintelligent when it comes to interpreting the present and unprepared for the consequences that lie in the future.
d. Daniel’s Revelation (5:24-28)
Verses 24-25
All kinds of comments have been made about the writing on the wall and there are several view points. Some say that the letters could have been written in one line, NISRPULQTANMANM. Daniel simply supplied the vowels (A and U are not vowels here).
Another suggestion is that the letters were written in a square -
PTMM
RQNN
SLAA
Maybe this was the reason why the wise men could not read it – they read it the same as the Hebrew, right to left, but in this case it would have made no sense to them. Daniel would read from the top to the bottom.
Verses 26-28
Daniel at once interpreted the inscription.
NUMBERED! NUMBERED! WEIGHED! DIVIDED!
MENE! The first word was repeated for emphasis and the fact that God had determined and established the end of the kingdom and that it would happen soon. The Babylonian empire had run its course. It’s number had come up.
TEKEL! Belshazzar himself was weighed and wanting. He had sinned wilfully against God Thou newest all this (Verse 22) Daniel had told him while he was preaching. Belshazzar had crossed the line with God and when he was put on God’s scales to be weighed, he came up short.
PERES! Why is the word UPHARSIN now changed to PERES? – they both mean the same thing. Divided!
The two thoughts are firstly that UPHARSIN is present tense and PERES is past tense and the reason Daniel used Peres was because while he was talking to the king the Medes and Persians were already inside the walls of Babylon.
The second thought is that it is a play on words. Peres is very close to the word for Persia
e. Daniel’s Robing (5:29)
In a last gesture of defiance the king gave Daniel the unwanted gifts, maybe Belshazzar thought that these gifts would alleviate the situation. It is like the king trying to put a plaster (band-aid) on a gun shot wound – there is no point, and not much hope.
Daniel was not bothered with these gifts at all, he knew that there was no throne left for Belshazzar.
V. Darius (5:30-31)
a. The Slaying of The King (5: 30)
Belshazzar was slain that very night. Because of the high walls, the guard towers and the bronze gates, the people in the city thought that they were safe from the enemy, but the Medo-Persian army found a way in.
Remember how we said that the Euphrates river flowed through the city, History records that while the king feasted, the Persian army completed a channel they had dug for the Euphrates River. That night, they dammed the main river course, diverting the river into its new channel. Persian soldiers marched under the city walls on the "dry" riverbed. Finding the city undefended, they opened the city gates and the city was taken almost without bloodshed. Belshazzar was captured and executed, one of the few casualties in the fall of the city.
b. The Silver Chest Reigns (5:31)
Cyrus, king of Persia kept most of Babylon, but gave a portion to be ruled by Darius the Mede. Who then is Darius the Mede? Again secular history books and encyclopaedias jump all over this – they say that there is no such ruler etc…
The translation of Darius is “Lord” it is the same title as Caesar, Pharaoh, etc… Cyrus had put one of his commanding officers in charge of the province of Babylon.
John Philips tells of the importance of the “Chest of Silver” In Genesis 9:18-27 Noah made a remarkable prophecy regarding his sons. He passed over his second son, Ham, in silence because of his misbehaviour. He prophetically cursed Ham’s son, Canaan, because he would be the father of the foul and wicked Canaanite nations who so filled and defiled the Promised Land.
He blessed his youngest son, Shem – from him would come the Semitic people, particularly Abraham and, above all, the Lord Jesus Himself. Finally he blessed his oldest son, Japheth. To him he promised enlargement, political domination, and a prominent place in “the tents of Shem”
Satan immediately set about the task of proving Noah to be a false prophet. The first great empires were Hametic and Semitic – The Egyptian Empire was Hametic, and the Assyrian and Babylonian empires were both Semitic. But, with the death of Belshazzar , world empires passed into the hands of Japheth – where it has been ever since, and where it will remain until the Antichrist comes to revive the Old Roman Empire, rule the world, and be swept away by the returning Christ.
