“So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” Daniel 5:3-4 NLT
The statement ‘Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ is attributed to American philosopher George Santayana. To quote him in ‘The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense’ he wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The Babylonian empire had a rich history which was well-known within and outside the empire. But George Santayana’s statement rings true for King Belshazzar, he did not learn from history, and he was about to repeat it in a big way. Doom is sure to follow.
As we approach chapter 5 in the book of Daniel, we find a new king as head of the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 B.C. and the events of chapter 5 take place 23 years later in 539 B.C. Babylon had been under siege by the armies of Medo-Persia who were just outside the walls of the city. King Belshazzar, to boost morale for his nobles, gave a great feast for them to enjoy. During the feast he gave orders to bring in the cups of gold and silver that were captured from the temple in Jerusalem to be used to drink from. Perhaps a part of his strategy was to flout the destruction of Jerusalem years earlier presenting the cups as evidence of a mighty conquest. But his real objective was to use them to praise their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone in hopes of being delivered from the Medo-Persians. Belshazzar mocked the God of heaven as his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had done years earlier.
Living in Babylon today there are plenty of leaders who are mocking God praising and leaning on their idols of power, money, idealism, greed, military strength, the cultural revolution, and the three ‘isms’, fascism, socialism, and communism. These leaders fail to accept there is a God in heaven who is the ultimate authority, and He has entrusted them to governed in order that we may live peaceful lives. Even those who believe there is a God are far from governing in line with the pages of scripture. I’m afraid my own country, the United States, is sadly among them.
This gala event was in full swing, perhaps at the height of the party, when “Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote.” (Dan. 5:5 NLT) You’ve heard of ‘the handwriting on the wall’, well this is it right from the pages of the Bible. The mighty King Belshazzar turned white with fright. His knees knocked together and he nearly collapsed immediately calling for his wise men to read the writing and explain what it means. Again, as in Nebuchadnezzar’s Day they were of no help to him for they were deceivers themselves worshiping the same idols. “So the king grew even more alarmed, and his face turned pale. His nobles, too, were shaken.” (Dan. 5:9 NLT) It was time once again to call in Daniel, the only one who worshiped the God of heaven.
This may have been the first encounter the king had with Daniel. It appeared Belshazzar didn’t even know Daniel when the queen mother persuaded the king to call him based on her previous knowledge of Daniel’s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel wasted no time in responding to the king, but first gave him a history lesson. Daniel began by saying, “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, majesty, glory, and honor to your predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. But when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory.” (Dan. 5:18, 20 NLT) Daniel proceeded to tell the king in detail of Nebuchadnezzar’s demise and then let Belshazzar know, “O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself…..……you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!” (Dan. 5:22, 23b NLT) He didn’t learn from history the consequences of not giving the God of heaven praise for the kingdom He had given him or even for his own life.
What was written was straight to the point; ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.’ Mene means your days are numbered. Tekel means you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Parsin means your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. It happened quickly. “That very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed. And Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.” (Dan. 5:30-31 NLT)
The Lord God of heaven does not share His glory and He is not mocked. (Gal. 6:7) King Belshazzar found that out and world leaders today also will find it out for themselves if they do not change their ways. But this is not just a lesson for world leaders. It applies to each of us living in today’s Babylon. Being outnumbered as Daniel had been requires Christians to be on guard and faithful to the Lord God of heaven. We are to know all that we have is from God, and He is the one who receives all the glory and the praise!
Read: Daniel 5 NLT – The Writing on the Wall – Many years – Bible Gateway
Word for the Soul 