DANIEL 5 - BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST
This chapter deals with Belshazzar’s feast and makes a striking contrast with the previous chapter which described Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion. Both kings heard the Word of God - and for them it was a final word - but what a difference in their response. The author deliberately placed the two accounts together to make a vital point, with Daniel consistently representing the Word of the Lord in good times and in bad. First, we should consider:
THE REJECTION OF THE PROPHET
The story of Belshazzar, his vision, his judgement and his bad end, has been placed next to the corresponding story of Nebuchadnezzar, his dream, his judgement and his good end. The purpose of this arrangement is to bring home to us that some are accepted by God, while others, in very much the same circumstances, are rejected. It tells us in a vivid way that the Word of God which gives life to one can also bring death to another. The New Testament tells us the same: the apostle Paul quoted from Isaiah, "I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame" (Rom 9:33). That "stumbling stone" to one is the saviour of the other, the Lord Jesus, God’s final Word to mankind.
Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar were two rulers of a great empire. Nebuchadnezzar ended as a humble follower of Jehovah, but his successor was quite the opposite. We are told that Nebuchadnezzar ended his reign practicing righteousness and showing mercy to the oppressed and he encouraged the leaders of his empire to do the same. Sadly, after his death the vision was lost. It is said that a fish starts rotting in the head, and that the same happens to countries and communities. If the leadership changes for the worse it has a trickle down effect, and the rot spreads.
Daniel had played a very prominent part in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, but it seems he had been sidelined. When the new regime took power the values that Daniel cherished were found to be old-fashioned, out of place, and as the court let things slide Daniel was put on the shelf. He must have been deeply hurt and puzzled. After the promising reformation in the last years of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel must have expected that the work God had begun in the previous generation would continue, but it was not to be. It is certainly a lesson not to take anything for granted. The revivals of history show that their power is often spent in the next generation.
I wonder what Daniel made of this disappointing situation? We must remember that it is only God who can bring about lasting change. It depends if the vision received from God remains fresh and vibrant, and if the people involved continue to be faithful to their calling. Our trust must be in the leading of the Holy Spirit, not resting on past achievement or on the other hand seeking change for its own sake.
When we think of the great men and women of the Bible and those who have served God in more recent times it’s quite clear that they had times when their message was rejected; when it seemed they were "out of season" with the people around them and it seemed that they were wasting their time. But whatever was the visible result they continued to work with the same urgency and zeal, remaining true to God’s Word to them. Daniel learned such waiting and the time came when he was really wanted and listened to once more - what a good thing he did not lose heart and give up! God was still in charge of the situation, whatever the ungodly might do. And so we turn to:
THE SACRILEGE OF THE TEMPLE VESSELS
Belshazzar had arranged a great feast for a thousand of his courtiers. They were going to have a terrific party! How sad it is that a celebration can quickly turn into a degeneration; when a night out turns into a blackout! It all happens because God and his values are rejected. Every Monday my local newspaper carries stories of people who have been out for what they call "a good time" but it often ends in tears.
The story tells us that this assembly of the great and the good of Babylon turned an evening of pleasure into a scene of reckless abandon, of folly and blasphemy. We read, "They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone" (4). All these are good fruits of the earth. How sad that the material gifts that God makes available to mankind become perverted and turned over to evil. What a commentary on the evil intrinsic in mankind. Great advances have been made in learning and technology but the heart of man hasn’t changed an iota. Basically, without the regeneration of the Spirit of God, we are but educated pagan savages!
The story deliberately states that it was "while Belshazzar was drinking his wine" (2) in front of his thousand guests that he got the mad idea which started the night of extravagance, madness, terror and ruin. What took place then has been repeated over the centuries. Too often the mind of a person becomes befuddled; sound judgement disappears and things are said and done which a sober person would at least think twice before doing. It is a warning to be ignored at one’s peril.
Belshazzar was clearly under the influence of drink; his judgement impaired. He thought it would be a good wheeze to have some fun at the expense of the Hebrew God by bringing out the gold and silver goblets that his forefather Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. He would know that Nebuchadnezzar had had a remarkable encounter with the living God and yet he refused to accept the clear message Nebuchadnezzar had learned only after a painful experience that sin brings its grim reward of judgement. Nebuchadnezzar, in the mercy of God, did eventually repent and found forgiveness and blessing but it seems that Belshazzar had gone too far.
This is a salutary reminder that no one can fool around or even presume, with the mercy of God. The story of Belshazzar stands out like a sign on the top of a dangerous rock, warning us to keep away and directing us to the safe navigation channel. If we trifle with God, our hearts gradually become hardened, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit has less and less effect until we hardly know what we are doing wrong. It is then that disaster will come. It is for this reason that the Belshazzar story is there for us - not simply to say what a bad man he was. The apostle Paul warned his readers in Rome to "see to it" that they did not "fail to obtain the grace of God" (Rom 11:20-22).
Little did Belshazzar realize that he was playing with fire when he brought in those sacred vessels. We may wonder why such an apparently trivial action should bring such severity of judgement. Why should God make such a fuss about the use of a set of golden cups from a temple he seemed to have deserted? We might think that there were worse sins - after all no human being was being harmed by what was done. But God’s measures are different to ours.
We must remember that God had chosen certain people and certain things for his own special use. It is not that these people or things were holy in themselves, but because God had chosen them they were to be regarded as "holy" and were called "holy". The temple was called the "holy place" because God chose it as his dwelling place where he could meet with his people, and similarly he set apart the priests and their equipment for his service. So when Belshazzar abused the vessels which had been dedicated for God’s use it was a clear defiance of the third commandment: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." Belshazzar compounded his evil by parading the vessels at his drunken orgy, and in doing so challenged the God of Israel. He was declaring how he despised God. It was a very foolish thing to do.
God still has his holy vessels. These are not so much the physical things like our church premises and equipment, although if they have been provided by money given to the Lord’s work we certainly have a duty to take care of them. No, the "holy vessels" in the New Testament era are what are known as the "means of grace". They are the institutions given to the church by the Lord Jesus. They are the Word of God and the sacraments, especially the Lord’s Supper. The temptation that we face is different to Belshazzar - no Christian would dream of such coarse behaviour. Our temptation is simply to the careless use and light-hearted neglect of these means of God’s grace. It is not something to be trifled with.
The view that we take of the Scriptures is most important - does it contain the Word of God or is it the Word of God? Take as an example the book of Daniel. Liberal thinkers say that it was never intended to be a faithful historical account of the time of the exile of Judah to Babylon even though Jesus, when he was teaching about his second coming and the end of the age, referred to signs "spoken of through the prophet Daniel" (Mat 24:14). No, in spite of this clear reference to a historical person, the liberal theologians say that Daniel was at most a folk hero that tradition passed down the years from the Babylonian exile that a writer 400 years later used to convey his message.
The book, they say, was only a tract written to remind his persecuted contemporaries that God understood their plight, to encourage them to be faithful and to give them an example to follow in their suffering at the hands of their Greek masters. The writer put words into Daniel’s mouth in the same way as a novelist, as if Daniel was a legendary hero, plucked from the mists of time, perhaps like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table which may or may not have some element of truth. Yes, there are abiding truths and lessons even on this supposedly fictional basis, but I think you will agree with me that this is a poor foundation for truth. This is a type of sacrilege which God will not forget.
The early church was warned against another subtle kind of sacrilege. "My house", said Jesus to the Temple authorities, "shall be called a house of prayer" (Mat 21:13. There is the classic warning to the Corinthian church against a casual approach to the Lord’s Supper: "whoever eats the bread or drinks the wine in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27). The first converts after Pentecost set the standard: "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (Acts 2:42).
Belshazzar had spurned the God of Daniel once too often in his Rejection of the Lord’s Servant and the Sacrilege of the Vessels, and so we turn to:
THE VERDICT OF THE RIGHTEOUS GOD
The scene in the banqueting hall was one of great revelry and then something extraordinary happened. One moment the hall was filled with the noise of drunken shouting, the next there was stunned silence. The story tells us: "Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall" (5). It was something out of this world; it was something supernatural; it was the hand of God delivering his verdict on the blasphemy that had been perpetrated by Belshazzar against a righteous God.
Belshazzar, we are told, "turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way" (6). He could not read the message but already his conscience convicted him of his guilt and he feared what might happen to him at the hand of the God he had so deliberately offended. This was no private matter; he was exposed to all. It reminds me of what we are told of the Great Judgement Day when the books are opened and we have to give account of our actions (Rom 14:10; 2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:12). It is a solemn thought, but thank God that we can know forgiveness through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.
Belshazzar’s only desire now was to discover what the message was that had miraculously appeared in front of the whole company. In his desperation and terror he called out for his witch doctors. As soon as they appeared he offered lavish rewards to whoever proved able to read what the mysterious hand had written and to give its interpretation. But despite all the promised favours, none could read or explain the writing. This is not surprising when we recall the words of Paul to the Corinthian church: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14).
There was someone who could read and interpret the strange message. Nebuchadnezzar’s widow was present and she remembered the spiritual service rendered by Daniel in her husband’s day and she urged Belshazzar to send for the prophet as he was a man "who has the spirit of the holy gods in him" (11). This certainly was true, for Daniel, without hesitation, handed down God’s verdict to Belshazzar found in the writing on the wall. But first of all he had to explain why so that there would be no misunderstanding as to why God was taking such stern action.
Daniel pointed out that it was the same God who showed such judgement to Belshazzar as showed mercy to Nebuchadnezzar. He fearlessly compares him unfavourably to Nebuchadnezzar. God had given Nebuchadnezzar a great empire but the king had mistakenly thought that it was the result of his own effort, and in his pride he dismissed any thought of his dependence on the Almighty. This was his undoing and he was suddenly humbled by a mental illness which made him think he was an animal. Eventually he learnt his lesson and God graciously restored him to his throne.
Daniel then turned to Belshazzar. "But you," Daniel said, "You have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven." (22). In fact Belshazzar had compounded his wrongdoing by committing sacrilege with the temple vessels and praising the gods made by human hands. These so-called gods could not "see or hear or understand" (23). Belshazzar’s sin was a deliberate choice of darkness rather than light. Sin is a decision of the will, in the full light of knowledge, not to receive the grace of God or to keep his commandments. When that point arrives in a person’s life there is nothing more which can be done. It was because of this that the verdict had been pronounced.
That verdict is found in the mysterious writing on the wall of Belshazzar’s banqueting hall: "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN ... numbered, weighed, divided (26)" Daniel explained that God had numbered Belshazzar’s kingdom and finished it; he had been weighed in the balances and found wanting, and the end result was that the kingdom was to be given over to the Medes and Persians. Belshazzar suddenly awoke to the terrible truth that while he had been living in sin God had been weighing up his life. One moment he had been like the rich man in the gospel story who said, "Eat, drink and be merry," only to be told, "This very night your life will be demanded from you" (Luke 16:19;20). The verdict had now been given, and he had been found wanting, and his doom was sealed.
Judgement was not long postponed. Belshazzar may have thought that he was safe in his city protected by its massive walls, but there was one chink in its armour. The city was divided in two by the river Euphrates. It so happened that the up-and-coming kingdom of the Medes was challenging for supremacy and that very night succeeded in diverting the river from its course, making it possible for the invading army to swarm up the muddy bank beneath the walls of the city and make a surprise attack while Belshazzar and his courtiers were still in their drunken stupor.
This is a sad story illustrating the folly of acting outside the will of God. He is ever so patient and long-suffering but eventually a time of reckoning comes. It tells us that God is jealous of his honour, especially when holy things are profaned. The writer of Hebrews warned his readers: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (10:31). It need not have happened. As the apostle Peter put it, "God is patient ... not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come ..." (2 Pet 2:9, 10). May we ever keep ourselves within his grace. That is our only security.
