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All scripture quotations from the New Living Translation
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You’ve heard the expression "Deja vu all over again."
Well, that’s what our text in Daniel 5 reminds me of.
Doesn’t this episode seem to be a lot like the stories we’ve already read in Daniel? I don’t mean the details – obviously this isn’t the same king as before chapters – but the pattern is the same through out the first five chapters.
Chapter 3 is a little bit of an exception but in some ways it fits in, too.
The king has some kind of supernatural encounter – a revelation. He can’t understand it so he calls on his pagan advisors. They, too, are clueless. But then Daniel comes on the scene.
God gives him the interpretation. The puzzle is solved and the king praises the God of the Jews, declaring that he is the sovereign God.
Except in chapter 5 it doesn’t turn out that way. More about that in a minute.
The King in chapter 5 is named Belshazzar.
From other sources we know that Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 B.C., succeeded by his son Amel-Marduk, a.k.a. "Evil-merodach" in 2 Kings 25. Except he wasn’t evil. That was just his name.
He is noted in 2 Kings 25 for his kindness to the Jewish King in exile.
Amel-Marduk ruled for only about 2 years. He was executed by his successor Neriglissar, who ruled for about six years.
Neriglissar was succeeded by his son, Labashi-Marduk, who reigned only a few months before he was killed in a coup d’etat.
The king who came into power at that point was Nabonidus, known as the last king of the Babylonians.
However, near the end of his reign, Nabonidus lived away from the capital at his country estate. His son served as a co-regent – holding down the fort in Babylon. And that son was named Belshazzar.
Now, I mention all of this, and tie my tongue up over all their names, to highlight the fact that this was
not a very stable period. Kings were coming and going -- not always peacefully.
Also, Daniel was no longer a young man at this point. The scholars who have plotted out all of the regimes suggest that Daniel was around the age of 80 at the time of the story in chapter 5.
In this story Belshazzar is throwing a party.
He had to have been aware of the fact that the Medes were closing in on the city. But he throws a party for his buddies and his wives and concubines.
He calls for the holy goblets that his forefather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem years and years earlier.
And they begin to party, drinking wine from the sacred goblets, as they were getting loaded.
Suddenly, verse 5 says, “they saw the fingers of a human writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lamp stand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fear. Such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him.”
This appears to be a euphemistic expression meaning that he wet his pants and more. He was freaken out!
The mysterious finger wrote four words on the wall.
vs. 7 – "The king shouted for the enchanters, astrologers, and fortune-tellers to be brought before him. He said to these wise men of Babylon, ’Whoever can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor and will wear a gold chain around his neck. He will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom!’ But when all the king’s wise men came in," (SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE) "none of them could read the writing or tell him what it meant. So the king grew even more alarmed, and his face turned ashen white. His nobles, too, were shaken."
The Queen Mother hears of the situation. You need to have a woman to bring some clarity to the situation. And she rushes to the scene and suggests that Belshazzar call Daniel out of retirement.
So he brings Daniel in and offers him all of the booty if only he will interpret the enigmatic writing on the wall.
Daniel says, I’m not really interested in all your stuff, King, but here’s what the writing means.
Vs. 18 – "Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, majesty, glory, and honor to your predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. He made him so great that people of all races and nations and languages trembled before him in fear. He killed those he wanted to kill and spared those he wanted to spare. He honored those he wanted to honor and disgraced those he wanted to disgrace. But when his heart and mind were hardened with pride, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven from human society. He was given the mind of an animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys. He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he learned that the Most High God rules the kingdoms of the world and appoints anyone he desires to rule over them."
Vs. 22 – “You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. For you have defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!
"So God has sent this hand to write a message. ’This is the message that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN."
Vs. 26 – "This is what these words mean: Mene Means ‘numbered’ — God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end.
"Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have failed the test.
"Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
In other words, King -- you’re dead meat!
Interestingly, in vs. 29, Daniel ends up with the robe, the gold chain the proclamation that he had earlier declined.
But of course, all of this is short lived because, as verse 30 says – "That very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed. And Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two."
That’s it -- the flow of the story.
And there are four sins or fatal errors that Belshazzar makes – four sins which are instructive to us and our situation. Not that we’re kings or that
that God’s judgment is imminent. It could be. We don’t know.
But really, these are four fundamental sins which tend to put people over the edge.
The first is ARROGANCE – or should I say SMUG ARROGANCE.
Vs. 22 – “You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself.“
You know the saying, “If you don’t learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it.”
Belshazzar had not learned from the errors of his predecessor. And worse than that, Belshazzar hadn’t learned from his own errors.
It seems that all God was asking of these pagan rulers is that they acknowledge him as sovereign. But there is none of that in Belshazzar. He was his own man. He was the life of the party. Wives, half-wives, cronies -- all going at it while the Medes were marching on the city -- the shear arrogance of thinking that we’re invincible -- that we’ve got life by the tail and we’re in charge of it all.
The second sin mentioned here is BLASPHEMY.
Blasphemy is the act of spitting in God’s face. It’s a high level of arrogance.
Vs. 23 – "For you have defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you."
These were the sacred cups that had been used for worship in the Jewish Temple before Nebuchadnezzar had carted them off. We read about this in verse 2 of chapter 1.
And in using these sacred objects – objects set apart for worship of the Lord God – for profane acts of partying – Belshazzar was spitting in the face of God.
You can imagine this party in the playboy palace with all of the carousing – and intentionally using the holy things of the Jews.
There are always some people who just want to keep pushing on the boundaries. They enjoy the thrill of seeing how outrageous they can be -- how "in-your-face" they can get -- and still survive.
Do you remember the couple who two weeks ago made the news because they engaged in certain sexual activities inside St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York? There was a guy with a cell phone was feeding a play by play description to a radio station, which was
broadcasting it live.
Meanwhile, in the background the church was holding a worship service.
It’s an adolescent thing that some people never grow out of – push, push, push -- without a whole lot of consideration for anyone other than self – even God.
“Look, the world revolves around me. I’m going to show the world that I’m here...” It’s a game. It’s a mind set.
And Belshazzar hadn’t grown out of adolescence. He just kept pushing things to the point where he came to the final frontier. I’ll play the game with God and use his special cups in my party.
If that were not enough there was also the sin of IDOLATRY -- that is the worship of false gods.
It wasn’t enough to be an arrogant jerk. It wasn’t enough to blasphemy the Lord God. They also engaged in idiolatry.
Vs. 23 – "You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and
stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!"
Idolatry is the act of honoring a false god – “...gods that neither see nor hear not know anything at all.”
It’s more of this spitting in God’s face thing. So instead of honoring the God who gives you breath controls your destiny -- you sing the praises and bow down to a pile of rocks or greenbacks or whatever it is.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense! Congratulations you win a Darwin Award.
Then finally there is the sin of UNRESPONSIVENESS.
By that we mean unresponsiveness to God’s grace.
Nebuchadnezzar was a little slow on the uptake however he eventually repented – turning to honor the Lord. But there is none of that in Belshazzar.
Sometimes people ask me if there is an unforgivable sin. This is it -- failure to receive the gift of grace -- failure to turn from the old things to the one true God.
This morning we’re going to once again celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. In the bread and cup we come in touch with the forgiveness – the grace – the New Life -- that God provided when he sent his son Christ Jesus into the world. The bread and the cup are a gift – just as is forgiveness. But it has to be received.
To reject what God has done and is doing for you is ultimately a matter of spitting in his face.
And ultimately, such a way of thinking and living will run it’s natural course – completely away from God and
the joy of life with him.
Not that God is a meany! He gives us a lot of freedom. He lets us choose our destiny – but make no mistake –
ultimately he is in control.
IN THE JUDGMENT OF BELSHAZZAR WE ONCE AGAIN SEE THAT GOD IS CLEARLY IN CONTROL. (Key point)
This is the point of the story, the book of Daniel, and it’s the point of the writing on the wall.
Let me leave you with a kind of Twilight Zone thought. Imagine that you’re sitting down to dinner this afternoon – having a great time – enjoying each other’s company -- when suddenly in the air there appears a hand with a Marks-a-Lot permanent marker. And the hand is writing words on the wall.
What words would that hand be writing for you? Numbered, weighed, divided or life, joy, peace, forgiven, humble child of God?
What exactly is the writing on the wall saying to you?
