Daniel Chapter 5 Verse 1

• Who is this Belshazzar? What’s happened to Nebuchadnezzar? For centuries the only known reference to this king was the Bible and the critics went off man! That is until 1854 when references to him were found in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions.

• Around 562 BC Nebuchadnezzar kicked the bucket and left the throne of Babylon to his son Evil-Merodach, (that was actually his name), a transliteration of Amil-Marduk or Avel-Marduk in the Babylonian language, which means “man” or “servant, of Marduk.” (Sounds like “more duck” to me!) Marduk being a false deity of course and this guy only makes it for about a year. According to 2 Kings 25:27, this guy immediately releases king Johoiachin who had remained in captivity throughout Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and he elevates him above all other captive kings that were in Babylon. Invites him to his table and such.

• Well, apparently this doesn’t go over too well with folks and a coo of sorts begins in the shadows…plus the power of the throne man…what a temptation…so there were probably a bunch of folks making plans to somehow steal power…So in 560 B.C. he ends up murdered by his brother-in-law, Neriglassar who is mentioned also in Jeremiah 39:13 as one of Nebuchadnezzar’s high ranking officers. Maybe he wasn’t too happy with Avel-Marduk’s benevolence…

• Neriglassar lasted only about 4 years and in 556 B.C., his son Labashi-Marduk assumed the throne were he sat for a period of only two months before being murdered by a band of conspirators and the theory is that Neriglassar and his son were hated because they had no regent blood. Rich yes, powerful yes, but not primary kings and so he was very quickly over-thrown.

• One of the conspirators was a guy by the name of Nabonidas who was a son by marriage of Nebuchadnezzar…in other words he was his son-in-law, a bit more legit…and he had a son named…Belshazzar! (What a mess! Hooray that Nebuchadnezzar seemed to “get right” before he died but man his ridiculous life left a mess!)

• So, as all this is going on, who’s out there in Babylon just watching? You got it, Daniel! I mean all this happens in a span of only about 10 years and then in 539 B.C., just 23 years respectively after Nebuchadnezzar was in power and the place was thriving, it’s gone! The Medes and the Persians would come and wipe it out! Guess who knew that was coming? You got it! Daniel!

• How? He was a student of the Word! Specifically Jeremiah, a contemporary of Daniel! Jeremiah 51 tells us that Babylon would fall and it would fall to the Medes. That the city would be stocked with food and riches, that it would have enormous walls, towers and high gates. That it would be taken by strategy being “caught in a snare.” That that strategy would involve its water supply and ultimately that the drunkenness of the people would lead to its slaughter. All there in stunning detail in Jeremiah 51…

• And so while these idiots killed each other and plotted and schemed over a very temporary dynasty and pretty much eeeerbody died, Daniel was chilling in peace, not caring a bit about the power to be gained in a perishing palace! Man, that is powerful right? We have the scriptures, we know what is soon to come, we’re watching it unfold right in front of our eyes man…yet some of us get caught up in this frenzy…this frenzy of money and politics and even projects! “Let me get this project done…let me just accomplish this, achieve that…” while we should be working for the world to come…loving our families, serving them…furthering the cause of the King, Jesus Christ…

• While all this hating and back-biting and murdering is going on…that’s precisely what Daniel is doing…and so we encounter this Belshazzar throwing a party for thousands while most if not all are watching for an opportunity to gain power, maybe even kill him…in fact, it’s said that his hired servants to stand the door that night were the generals of the Medes and the Persians in disguise…enemy right in front of his face, and he sipping on that sizurp! (Getting drunk)

Daniel Chapter 5 Verse 2

• He claimed the power and the throne of Nebuchadnezzar and apparently was regarded as his son but we know his link because we’ve studied the history…he was his grandson-in-law…

• And so in his pride and arrogance, he calls for the temple treasures and says fill them with Bud-Light and give them to these dogs…these lords these partiers…and this will prompt a very immediate response from God…and let me tell you, He has given treasures to you and to me…our friends, our families, our faith and when we forsake them, God’s response is very often immediate…and we wonder why things have gotten so difficult and we shake our fists at God but all the while we are filling our God-given treasures with loss…neglect, abuse, because we want to do what we want to do…but God in his great love, protects His treasure, and brings correction…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 3 – 4

• Gasp! So quick to condemn but this is precisely what we do! Money comes first, then politics…the cares of the day represented by bronze and iron…then our stuff, wood and stone…all the while the treasures are forsaken…I see myself so much in this man…how wretched I am and how much my family and my friends and my Savior deserve all of me…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verse 5

• Crazy scene here. A hand appears, beings to write on the wall and notice what Daniel writes here, “the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” What part is that? We sometimes see this visually depicted as a hand and the way we see it is by seeing the back of the hand but not Belshazzar. Maybe that’s what the others saw, but not him. Daniel writes that the king saw the part of the hand that wrote…what part is that? The fingers man…the very fingertips and so the implication…it’s like the hand appears on the wall to the crowd but to the very face of the king!

• I love that. God doesn’t mess around and this was indeed written on the wall of the room but also on the very heart of the king! Notice what this does to him…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 6 – 7

• Now understand there is no evidence outside of the Bible that Belshazzar was actually the king. Why is that? Because pops is still alive. Nebonidus had not died but was rarely home…he was continually at war…expanding the empire and he would leave his son Belshazzar in his place to govern the empire and so Belshazzar says here that anyone that can explain this ghostly scene to him would become the third ruler!

• Here, a hand, out of thin air…appears and writes…something happens to Belshazzar! I mean why would he not see this, in his palace, filled by his gods, while he defiled the God of the Jews, why would he not see this as an acclamation from his gods! I wonder if this hand had a hole in the palm of it…because at the presence of the Lord, the unclean tremble man…he saw something here…understood something…it’s like God was rushed to the forefront of his attention and his knees knocked!

• What’s worse, the hand writes and then vanishes into the atmosphere and the writing left…they can’t read it…its right in front of their faces, the writing is literally on the wall, yet they are blind to it…precisely the effect of sin man! And so he cries out. No more music, no more gulping, the dancing is done, the harlotry is halted and their leader screams! Get me a palm reader, a pshycic, Dr. Phil, Dr. Ruth and two aspirins! But none of that will help man…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 8 – 9

• Not only could they not give the meaning, mysteriously they could not even read it! It’s right there! Read it! Can’t do it captain…I don’t have the poweerrrrrr! Why? 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned!” It’s amazing, astounding, heart pounding the things that you see, receive and understand when you give your life to the Lord! The writing on the wall that has been there for years maybe, is finally legible!

• And man look I ain’t got it right but I’m working on it and have been working on it in a manner of quite seriousness for years and I know when I’m dealing with a natural man…a man that is wasting time, drinking out of his or her forsaken personal treasures given by God Himself and I know when I’m dealing with someone filled with the Spirit of God…because spiritual discernment is present…

• It’s not always “what must I do” but it’s a heart desire to above all else honor the king…no excuses no argument…I hear what’s going on, I see it, I bring the word…immediate acceptance…as the things of the Spirit of God are received because they are already known…being spiritually discerned…but not this crew…they come in and they’re like, “nope, can’t do it…” So Belshazzar gets desperate…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 10 – 12

• Why does she keep calling him king and calling Nebuchadnezzar his father? Kissing up…she is not his wife, she is most likely a wife of Nebunidas or even someone else…there have been plenty of kings in the past couple of years…at any rate she’s not named but here is a clue that she is afraid for her life…

• And so she comes in, unannounced and uncalled for and she says “let me comfort you oh king, mighty king, rightful king, legit king…there is one in your kingdom whom you do not know…living quietly among us and in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, stuff like this happened, and Daniel gave the correct interpretation…”

• Notice she doesn’t say what the interpretations were…they were never good for the king were they? She is pretty slick here…because what we’ll see next time is that they are not good for this king either…why? Because he has fallen into the same junk as those that came before him…

• You know what, not me. My father, ghost…not there. My mother, ghost…there in the physical but gone in the mind…constantly numbed by booze…and she was the aggressive type…not the blithering sap happy drunk…she was loud, belligerent and very sad. When she wasn’t drunk, she was simply lost. Taught to be proud and so she taught us to be proud. To be better than those around us…to walk taller, to speak with perfect grammar and enunciation (HA, I know perfect grammar…it’s just not me) so that all would see our supremacy…so that we would see it…

• I was taught how to use people…how to secure my own standing and then defend it…that folks were primarily going to use me and so I was to use them first…use ‘em all the way up so that they had no strength left to come for me…and I grew powerful in that…but when I realized truth and called upon God to save me from the drowning life that I had built…it all changed. It stops with me.

• My children and my family will not honor self. We will honor God. We will cherish people, even those who are not like us, who irk us man and crawl under our skin…we will serve them. My kids will know the love of their father and they will be secured not by pride but by grace…I wonder what you are continuing in tonight that you yourself would write on the walls of your own heart…STOP…God can free you from all that…He’ll overthrow the entire kingdom that wastes His treasure and enslaves His prophets…and He will restore the glorious land…the child-like wonder that you once had…the innocence and the peace…in one night…