The finger of God – Daniel 5
Proposition: What do we do to build security into our lives? Is it in things? i.e. greed, or is it through
Him, i.e. worshipful lifestyle?
One of the great needs we have as human beings is for security, and as we open up our bibles again
this morning to the book of Daniel and look at chapter 5, the question that this historical account
raises for me and for you again, is this: How do we find our sense of security in this life? Is it through
our reputation, our careers, our relationships, our cars, our houses and things? How do we meet the
human need for security personally?
In this prophetic book we look at the life of a king who looked for security in the wrong places and
lost his life and lost his eternity with God even though he felt `100% safe’ until he died and God
called him a fool.
Let me paint for you the setting of this part of world history before we read from the Word.
The year is 539BC, king Nebuchadnezzar who we spoke of last week is long gone. His son in law
Nebonadus rules the kingdom and yet he is always away engaged in war and so his son,
Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson is on the throne. A man called Belshazzar.
Belshazzar rules the great city of Babylon, a city thought to be impregnable. There was an outer wall
around the city protecting it. Within those walls was a huge moat which the river Euphrates had
been diverted to form. Inside that were these huge walls that we mentioned last week 350 feet high
that is 35 stories high and so wide you could race six chariots along the top of them. Within these
walls were 250 strategically placed guard towers were placed so defending soldiers could easily drop
rocks, oil, and throw spears at any pathetic invader. Within these walls Belshazzar and the people
felt totally safe. No one would ever be able to conquer their city.
The Medes and the Persians formed an alliance against ancient Babylon and surrounded the city in
preparation for an attack. Belshazzar thought that they were such a joke that he throws a massive
party for his top 1000 officials to show the city and the enemies, he couldn’t care less about the
Medes and the Persians. They were just a bunch of pathetic wannabees to him. This party was a
really bad one. Woman were never allowed at feasts in those days unless it was ‘that kind of a party’
where there would be sexual immorality everywhere. The women and concubines were invited and
the gold cups that King Nebuchadnezzar, Balshazzar’s grand dad had stolen from the temple in
Jerusalem were bought in, to be used as beer jugs.
Once before in the bible the finger of God had been mentioned in Exodus 31:18 where it says that
the finger of God wrote the ten commandments on the stone tablets, i.e. thou shalt not tell lies,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not be greedy etc.
In our passage we see the finger of God appear again, once again writing this time in Aramaic, the
language of the Jews.
One evening, King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his highest officials, and he
drank wine with them. 2 He got drunk and ordered his servants to bring in the gold and silver cups
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his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Belshazzar wanted the cups,
so that he and all his wives and officials could drink from them.
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When the gold cups were brought in, everyone at the banquet drank from them and praised their
idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
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Suddenly a human hand was seen writing on the plaster wall of the palace. The hand was just
behind the lampstand, and the king could see it writing. 6 He was so frightened that his face turned
pale, his knees started shaking, and his legs became weak.
Commentators say that the king was so scared that he wet his pants in the Hebrew text.
King Belshazzar thinks he is as safe as houses. He is living in an impregnable city. He is only young
and no one expects to die when they are only in their twenties or thirties. Young people think they
are bullet proof and secure.
They are doing what people often do at wild parties, drinking too much, becoming immoral and then
saying and doing things that are blasphemous to God. Their standards drop, their language gets foul
and sinning comes easily.
While this is happening a hand starts writing on the wall some words in Aramaic. The king, as kings
do calls in his wise men, his spiritual guides and his star gazers and says if any of you can interpret
this writing Dad will be number one in the kingdom, I will be number 2 but the person who can
interpret this will be number 3, right after dad and me. Incidentally Babylon is described as the great
whore in the bible, the ultimate in evil cities and astrology and horoscopes trace their roots back to
this city and these people. The bible says have nothing to do with horoscopes. These star gazers
can’t work out what the writing means and so Belshazzar’s mum, who deliberately stayed away from
this party, who would have been influenced by her father King Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion and
experience of Daniel the prophet says to her son. Go and get Daniel.
Now here is an interesting aside. Since Nebuchadnezzar died 20 years earlier Daniel was out of the
public lime light. He was an advisor for sure, but between the age of 65 and now 85 he appears to
have done nothing dramatic for God. But when God needs him to interpret the writing, Daniel steps
up and fulfils his purpose. I get stressed if we go a couple of weeks without something supernatural
in this church. It doesn’t often happen but when it does I don’t like it and I potentially could get
discouraged. Daniel goes 20 years without interpreting a dream or prophesying something radical
and yet when God needs him, he is right there with the Lord and he can step up and be used by God.
Legend!!!
And so the king offers him rewards and position if he can interpret the writing.
Daniel in vs 17-24 basically says, “king you should have learnt lessons about life from your
grandfather, you should not be living this way and sinning openly like this, you should know better, I
will tell you what the writing means but you can keep your stuff and your positions, that is not why I
have this ministry.” Interesting to me is that Daniel told the king off for worshiping idols made of
gold, silver, bronze, iron and wood and stone and on the first reading you and I might think, what a
bunch of idiots. But then how often are kiwi’s too busy for church or prayer or time with God
because we need to polish the car, repaint that house, get that flat screen TV. All those things are
fine in themselves but sometimes people go to extreme lengths to get those things that they haven’t
got time for God and at that point I wonder is this generation really all that different.
The words written there are mene, which means “numbered,” tekel, which means “weighed,”
and parsin, which means “divided.” God has numbered the days of your kingdom and has brought
it to an end. He has weighed you on his balance scales, and you fall short of what it takes to be
king. So God has divided your kingdom between the Medes and the Persians.
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Belshazzar gave a command for Daniel to be made the third most powerful man in his kingdom
and to be given a purple robe and a gold chain.
King Belshazzar, your number’s up, God has examined what you have done with your life and you
have been found wanting and now your kingdom is going to be divided between the Medes and the
Persians.
This man thought he was so safe and secure, like we do when we are young, like we do at least for a
while when we get a new house or a new car or a new job but then God says to Belshazzar, your life
has been weighed, your numbers up, it’s time for you to die. He was a fool.
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That same night, the king was killed. 31 Then Darius the Mede, who was sixty-two years old, took
over his kingdom.
Now if you are into bible prophecy as I am what took place that night was amazing. The commander
of the combined armies that conquered Babylon in a night was a man called Cyrus. 200 years earlier
the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 44:24-45:4, over a hundred years before the Israelites were even
captured by the Babylonians, prophesied that God would use an unbelieving man called Cyrus to
come and conquer kingdoms and as a result the people would return home and rebuild Jerusalem
and the temple. This is exactly what happened.
Now if you are into military strategy Cyrus the commander was brilliant. Just over a kilometre up the
river from the city he and his men diverted the river Euphrates into a lake, when the water levels
drained around the moat, an attachment of soldiers walked into the city through the now drained
water ways, opened the city gates and took the city killing Belshazzar all in one night. Cyrus, the
pagan general was used of God and thought way out of the box.
In the gospel of Luke Jesus, tells a modern parable which is a very similar story.
A Rich Fool
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A man in a crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of what our father
left us when he died.”
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Jesus answered, “Who gave me the right to settle arguments between you and your brother?”
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Then he said to the crowd, “Don’t be greedy! Owning a lot of things won’t make your life safe.”
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So Jesus told them this story:
A rich man’s farm produced a big crop, 17 and he said to himself, “What can I do? I don’t have a
place large enough to store everything.”
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Later, he said, “Now I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I
can store all my grain and other goods. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, ‘You have stored up enough good
things to last for years to come. Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.’”
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But God said to him, “You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored
up?”
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“This is what happens to people who store up everything for themselves, but are poor in the sight
of God.”
This parable starts off with a brother wanting Jesus to mediate between him and his brother over
their dispute over their inheritance. Jesus didn’t primarily come to settle disputes, His priority is to
see people forgiven and added to God’s family, His priority is to prepare people for eternity.
And he says to this man, ‘don’t be greedy’ i.e. don’t break one of the ten commandments that is
right up there with murder and lying and theft. Don’t just strive after a better car and a better house
and more stuff even though those things are OK in themselves. The priority is the kingdom. There is
nothing wrong with a nice TV or a new car. They are good things but if you have to borrow money to
get them, if you have to work long hours so you can’t look after your family or go to church then
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something is very wrong, that striving for that thing then becomes greed or the old fashioned word,
covetousness and that is a major sin. I think in today’s culture we read the bible and we read don’t
murder, don’t lie, don’t sleep with someone you are not married to etc and we go oh yes fair
enough, that stuff is serious, and yet those scriptures that challenge us to not be greedy we fail to
read them as clearly or to see what they are really saying.
This man was a hard working farmer, not a criminal, not on drugs, a really good man by our
standards. In fact we would say he was a good asset manager, and good business man and yet Jesus
said he was poor in the sight of God, they probably would say some glowing things about him at his
funeral and write something profound on his head stone but God Himself would say of this
Belshazzar type man ‘fool’ he was poor in my sight, he didn’t seek me, he didn’t obey me, he didn’t
walk with me, he found his security in stuff, then when his number was up suddenly, I weighed his
life and found him wanting; a fool.
Are you and I rich or poor in God’s sight? Is our security in Him or in other things?
Three times in the bible God writes with his finger, in the ten commandments, on the wall in
Balshazzar’s party and then in the New testament.
Many people wanted to discredit Jesus. They wanted to trap him. So one day when He was in town
they caught a woman in the act of adultery. The Old Testament says that adulterers are to be stoned
to death. These twisted men drag her to Jesus confident that they will discredit him.
“The law says she should be stoned to death Rabbi, what say you?”
If Jesus says yes He will no longer be regarded as a friend of sinners.
If Jesus says don’t stone her He will be labelled a law breaker.
Jesus says let him who is without sin cast the first stone and then God the Son, with the same hand I
believe that wrote twice previously bends down and starts writing words in the dust. Personally
because Jesus moved so powerfully in Words of Knowledge I think He wrote the names of her
accusers and what they did and maybe even when and where, and as these guys see their sin in the
sand, they suddenly remember that they have other urgent business, beginning with the oldest.
He turns to the woman and says “where are your accusers?”
She replies that there isn’t any.
Neither do I accuse you, go your way and sin no more. I am empowering you, you don’t have to live
this lifestyle anymore, go and sin no more.
The same hand writes on those stone tablets the ten commandments, including don’t be greedy.
The same hand writes on the wall of the party in the palace, your time is up, you have wasted your
life, you are going to die. The same hand now with a huge hole pierced through it says, I know your
sins, I have seen it all but if you put your faith in me, your sins will be forgiven and you can sin no
more and live in freedom.
Friends, I believe that the only security that really lasts is to live in the grace of God daily. I believe
also that in our generation, possibly more than any other, the sin of covetousness or greed is so
common we don’t even notice it.
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I want us to be rich in God’s eyes. That may involve worldly wealth or it may not but being rich in His
eyes means that we put His kingdom first. We make sure that our wives and children get quality time
rather than just chasing the extra work and money, we ensure that we are content people who live
within our means, we ensure that we work hard and do well in life but never at the expense of
worship and prayer and living connected to the Lord.
God called Belshazzar a loser. He called the hard working farmer a fool. I pray when you and I face
Him one day and everyone will whether they believe or not, I pray that on that day He will say well
done, you good and faithful servant, you stayed close to me and were available to me like Daniel,
you put our relationship and the things of the kingdom first. You didn’t get caught up in the greed of
your generation but lived a life of purpose and contentment.
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