pretation by recounting the history of God’s
dealings with Nebuchadnezzar as it related to
his stubborn pride, which we heard about last
week.
The end of verse 21 should sound familiar. It
abbreviates Daniel 2:19b-22, which says,
“19Then Daniel praised the God of heaven
20and said: “Praise be to the name of God for
ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.
21He changes times and seasons; he sets up
kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to
the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
22He reveals deep and hidden things; he
knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells
with him.” Daniel reminds Belshazzar that his
God is sovereign over all the rulers of the earth
and all their kingdoms and that he exalts who
He wants to exalt and puts out to pasture anyone He wants to put out to pasture. And all of
that applies to Belshazzar as much as it applies
to Nebuchadnezzar.
The Interpretation (vv. 22-31)
22But
you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. 23Instead, you have set yourself up against the
Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his
temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank
wine from them. You praised the gods of silver
and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone,
which cannot see or hear or understand. But
you did not honor the God who holds in his
hand your life and all your ways. 24Therefore
he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
25“This is the inscription that was written: MENE,
MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN 26“This is what these words
mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of
your reign and brought it to an end. 27Tekel:
You have been weighed on the scales and
found wanting. 28Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
29Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was
clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed
around his neck, and he was proclaimed the
third highest ruler in the kingdom. 30That very
night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was
slain, 31and Darius the Mede took over the
kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
Here’s the bottom line: Belshazzar saw what
happened to Nebuchadnezzar and he knew
why it happened and yet he failed or refused
to humble himself, as though his own arrogance was somehow different than the arrogance of the king before him, as though the
Most High God was less offended by his pride
than He was by Nebuchadnezzar’s. Daniel
then pointed out the obvious: not only did
Belshazzar use the sacred vessels from the
temple for his party, he praised the gods of
gold, silver, and the like, even though he
knew that the Most High God ruled over everything.
Here’s what Daniel said: God has numbered
the days of your reign, you have been
weighed and found wanting, and your kingdom will be given to Darius the Mede, who
was just outside the gate at that moment.
Just as God weighed Nebuchadnezzar and
judged his arrogance, so he weighed Belshazzar and judged his arrogance as well.
However, Belshazzar’s judgment was a sudden death and the loss of his kingdom. History
tells us that the Persians temporarily diverted
the course of the Euphrates river into a marsh
and sent soldiers in under the wall along the
river bed. They found and killed Belshazzar,
whose name ironically, means, “Bel, save the
king!” And so came to an end the pride and
the king of Babylon. Truly the King of Heaven
is able to humble those who walk in pride. So
how do we apply this to our lives here and
now?
Application
The primary response to this passage, like the
passage last week, is to humble ourselves before the Lord because God will not leave
pride unjudged. Now, while the application is
similar to last week’s, there are some nuances
that we pick up in chapter five. First, one of
the clearest expressions of spiritual pride is for
us to continue in our sin when we know how
God feels about sin and we see His judgment
in the lives of others for the very same sins we
continue to commit. Belshazzar seemed to
think that his pride was somehow different
than Nebuchadnezzar’s. Spiritual pride tells us
that our sin is different than the sins of other
people. Spiritual pride tells us that what God
hates in the lives others, He tolerates and understands in our lives. Living in continual sin is
the height of spiritual arrogance and is dangerous to our souls.
Sometimes as God’s people, we’re tempted
to think that God is more lenient on our sin
than on the sin of those who are not followers
of Jesus, and He’s not. Jesus paid the price
for our sin—the full, excruciating price—which
demonstrates how seriously God takes our sin.
In fact, the prophets told the Israelites that it
was because of their pride, which was expressed by their sin, that He sent them to Babylon in the first place. In Romans 6:1-2, Paul
asks, “1What shall we say, then? Shall we go
on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By
no means! We died to sin; how can we live in
it any longer (Romans 6:1-2)?” John says it this
way: “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either
seen him or known him (1John 3:6).” Jesus
didn’t come to earth and die so that we
could continue in our favorite sins; he came
so that we could be free from sin and its devastating effects in our lives. Spiritual pride
keeps us comfortable in our sin.
I understand that we’re all struggling with sin
to some extent. I understand that some struggle with addictions and there are times that
as God is working in our lives, we still give in to
familiar sins. However, if no one else knows
about our sin or addiction and we’re not
making progress and there’s no accountability for what we do, we’re just living in sin, not
struggling against it. We’re just presuming on
God’s grace and that’s a danger
Daniel 5
April 2, 2017
Pastor Jared Stoner
WWW.WCAG.ORG
Greetings From Babylon
April 2, 2017
Pastor Jared Stoner
This morning we’re going to make our way
through Daniel chapter five, which in many
ways is a counterpart to Daniel chapter four,
which we’ll see throughout this chapter. In
particular, the pride of Belshazzar reminds us
of his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. However, Belshazzar didn’t humble himself, in spite of
being fully aware of Nebuchadnezzar’s time
in the pasture. Let’s jump into the text and
we’ll see how that plays out.
The Party (vv 1-4)
1King
Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a
thousand of his nobles and drank wine with
them. 2While Belshazzar was drinking his wine,
he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver
goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had
taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that
the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3So they
brought in the gold goblets that had been
taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem,
and the king and his nobles, his wives and his
concubines drank from them. 4As they drank
the wine, they praised the gods of gold and
silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
What the text doesn’t say but makes Belshazzar’s arrogance particularly spectacular is
this: Belshazzar threw this party for his nobles
while the city of Babylon was under siege by
the Medes. In fact, the city had been under
siege for more than two years at this time, but
because Babylon was so big, they thought
they could outlast the siege. In fact, the city
was so big that they could grow their own
crops and raise their own animals inside its
walls, and because the Euphrates river flowed
under the wall and through the city, they had
a never-ending source of water. Unlike most
ancient cities, Babylon couldn’t be starved
out.
So as the Persian war machine ground away
at the city, Belshazzar threw a monster party
for a thousand of his nobles, wives, concubines, and the like, and they drank the night
away. Not only so, but he brought out the
gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar
had taken from the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem and he used them for this debauched
party. As if that were not enough, Belshazzar
and his guests then praised the gods of gold,
silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone as they
drank from the cups that had been dedicated to the God who created all of those
things. Belshazzar’s arrogance truly rivaled
Nebuchadnezzar’s, and in some ways surpassed it, as we will see.
The Disembodied Hand (vv 5-9)
5Suddenly
the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall,
near the lampstand in the royal palace. The
king watched the hand as it wrote. 6His face
turned pale and he was so frightened that his
knees knocked together and his legs gave
way. 7The king called out for the enchanters,
astrologers and diviners to be brought and
said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever
reads this writing and tells me what it means
will be clothed in purple and have a gold
chain placed around his neck, and he will be
made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
8Then all the king’s wise men came in, but
they could not read the writing or tell the king
what it meant. 9So King Belshazzar became
even more terrified and his face grew more
pale. His nobles were baffled.
In the middle of all the revelry, a disembodied
hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of
the wall in full view of everyone at the party.
Belshazzar knew this wasn’t the wine talking,
but he didn’t know the meaning of the hand
or of the writing itself. What happens next
harkens back to chapter two: the king calls in
all of the astrologers and the like and offers
them treasure and fame if they could interpret this sign, but none of them could. How-
ever, rather than becoming furious like Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar was terrified. He knew
something serious was going on, but he didn’t
know what it meant and he didn’t know what
to do.
you can read this writing and tell me what it
means, you will be clothed in purple and
have a gold chain placed around your neck,
and you will be made the third highest ruler in
the kingdom.
Good Advice (vv 10-12)
After confirming that this Daniel was that Daniel, Belshazzar gives him the spiel: these worthless magicians couldn’t interpret the disembodied hand or what the hand wrote, but if
you can, then you’ll get a purple robe, a gold
chain, and the privilege of being third in the
kingdom. Daniel’s response is as funny as it is
understandable.
10The
queen, hearing the voices of the king
and his nobles, came into the banquet hall.
“O king, live forever!” she said. “Don’t be
alarmed! Don’t look so pale! 11There is a man
in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy
gods in him. In the time of your father he was
found to have insight and intelligence and
wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your father—your father the king, I
say—appointed him chief of the magicians,
enchanters, astrologers and diviners. 12This
man Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and
knowledge and understanding, and also the
ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and
solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and
he will tell you what the writing means.
The queen came to talk to Belshazzar, not
because she had been invited to do so, but
because she knew he didn’t know what to
do. It turns out that the queen was a worth a
thousand clueless men. The queen knew
about Daniel and knew that “the spirit of the
holy gods” was in him, again a throw-back to
previous descriptions of Daniel. That leads us
to verse 13.
Daniel’s Invitation (vv. 13-16)
13So
Daniel was brought before the king, and
the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of
the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? 14I have heard that the spirit of the gods
is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. 15The wise
men and enchanters were brought before
me to read this writing and tell me what it
means, but they could not explain it. 16Now I
have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If
Daniel’s Response (vv. 17-21)
17Then
Daniel answered the king, “You may
keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will
read the writing for the king and tell him what
it means. 18“O king, the Most High God gave
your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and
greatness and glory and splendor. 19Because
of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language
dreaded and feared him. Those the king
wanted to put to death, he put to death;
those he wanted to spare, he spared; those
he wanted to promote, he promoted; and
those he wanted to humble, he humbled.
20But when his heart became arrogant and
hardened with pride, he was deposed from
his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21He
was driven away from people and given the
mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body
was drenched with the dew of heaven, until
he acknowledged that the Most High God is
sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets
over them anyone he wishes.
Daniel says, “thanks for the offer, but I’m
good; you can keep your stuff.” Who would
want to be third in the kingdom of Babylon
and work for such a king? Daniel wasn’t on a
power trip; he knew that his position wasn’t
about him, but about what God wanted to
do through him. Daniel then begins his inter-