Intro:

We have been making our way through the wonderful book of Daniel.

- In chapter 1 we saw the faith of young Daniel, along with his 3 friends (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah), who made the commitment not to defile themselves.

- In chapter 2 we saw Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the multi-metallic statue interpreted by Daniel. He prophesied the rise and fall of four world empires and the establishment of the all encompassing, everlasting, kingdom of Christ.

- In chapter 3 we observed the faith of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (more commonly known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) who stood up for All Mighty God, even though it meant they would be thrown into a fiery furnace.

- And then in Chapter 4 we saw Nebuchadnezzar’s second dream, along with its interpretation and fulfillment… Which ended with the amazing conversion of Nebuchadnezzar from a man of pride to a man of praise.

Today we are moving on in our study and will be opening up Chapter 5, in which we find “The Writing on the Wall”… That phrase has become synonymous with having a reality check. Someone will say, “Yeah, he saw the handwriting on the wall with that situation.”… This is where that analogy comes from… An entire empire is about to receive a reality check…

And the reality that they are going to see just so happens to be the theme of this whole study… … they are going to realize that God is Sovereign, He is in control and He can and will cause the rise and fall of nations and empires, no matter how powerful they think they might be.

As we go through this chapter we are going to see…

The Fall of an Empire - pt.1

In fact, the fall of the most glorious empire of the times of the Gentiles: the great Babylonian Empire. We are going to see the movement from the head of gold, as the image in chapter 2 indicated, to the breast and the arms of silver, which, as we looked at before, represents the Medo-Persians who followed the Babylonians.

Ezekiel 18:20 gives us a string warning… “20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

Daniel Chapter 5 is an example of the principles mentioned in this verse. Sin brings death in the life of an individual, in the life of a nation and an empire.

As your open your Bibles to Daniel Chapter 5 this morning, I want to read vv. 1-12, in order to get some context, but we will only get through the first few verses today.

(Read vv. 1-12).

Meat:

The events in this chapter happen about 70 years after Daniel was taken into captivity in chapter 1… And if Daniel was between 14 - 17 years old in Chapter 1, then he is in his mid to late 80’s here in chapter 5.

As we get into our study of this chapter, I believe the best way to describe the first few verses would be…

A Fatal Feast:

A banquet that ends in massacre… and every banquet usually has a host, someone that is throwing the party… and that is the first detail about this fatal feast that I want you to see....

1. The Host

v.1 introduces us to the host of this fatal feast…

Daniel 5:1 “Belshazzar the king made a great feast...”

The host’s name is…

1.1 Belshazzar

This chapter gives us the only glimpse we have of this man in the Bible. In fact for centuries the Bible was the ONLY known reference to this king. Critics of Scripture had a field day with this as there were no secular records of Belshazzar as king.

I am not sure what your approach to Scripture is… but for me, I approach Scripture with the mindset of… God said it, I believe it and that settles it!

The Bible does not need to be verified by secular sources, in order to be true… However, God has a tendency of taking the claims of these skeptics and very clearly proving them wrong.

The questions that the skeptics would ask were… Who is Belshazzar and where did he come from…?

Chapter 4 of Daniel ended with King N praising All Might God, and now Chapter 5 opens with this Belshazzar fella…

Historians and Bible Scholars agree that there is roughly a 25 year gap in between chapters 4 and 5. And there was a lot that took place during those 25 years and even though Daniel doesn’t mention anything about, other historical records do.

After Nebuchadnezzar died, the empire began to decline… N was succeeded by his son whose name was Amel-Marduk… A little side note here, as you do your own Bible studies… these kings have a couple of different names.

They seem change their names according to whatever gods they identified with at the time… But his name was Amel-Marduk… He is mentioned in in 2 Kings 25 and in Jeremiah 52… so he is part of the Biblical record.

Amel-Marduk only lasted two years… He was assassinated by his own brother-in-law, whose name was Neriglissar… He is mentioned in Jeremiah 39 as an official under Nebuchadnezzar, who apparently was involved in helping Jeremiah be released from prison.

Neriglissar died and was succeeded by his young son… Labashi-Marduk… Labashi reigned for just a few short months before being murdered a group of conspirators who then appointed Nabonidus as King.

And this is where the skeptics say that Daniel’s claim of Belshazzar being King is incorrect. Because according to the historical record, Nabonidus was the King of Babylon when King Cyrus of the Medo-Persian army defeated Babylon and there is no mention of anyone, much less a King, named Belshazzar… Therefore the skeptics say that the book of Daniel cannot be trusted…

Again… The Bible does not need to be verified by secular sources, in order to be true… However, God has a tendency of taking the claims of these skeptics and very clearly proving them wrong.

In 1854, J.G. Taylor found four cuneiform cylinders in the foundation of a ziggurat… Here is a picture of one of the cylinders they found…

(Picture Slide)

Carved into the cylinders were the words of a Babylonian King named Nabonidus. These cylinders are know as as “The Cylinders of Nabonidus” and on these cylinders is the inscription… “As for me, Nabonidus, king of Babylon, save me from sinning against your great godhead and grant me as a present a life long of days, and as for Belshazzar, the eldest son -my offspring- instill reverence for your great godhead in his heart and may he not commit any cultic mistake, may he be sated with a life of plenitude.”

Nabonidus was married to one of N daughters and was the last ruler of the Babylonian empire. But historical records indicate that he spent much of his time away from the kingdom on foreign expeditions, and Belshazzar his son remained at Babylon as his co–ruler… His second in command.

This would make Belshazzar…

1.2 Nebuchadnezzar’s Grandson

Which is also serves as proof to God’s Sovereignty, God’s Omniscience (fancy way of saying that God knows everything, past present and future) and it is also proof that God’s Word is true and can be trusted… The prophet Jeremiah records this…

Jeremiah 27:6–7 NASB95

6 “Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. 7 “All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant.

...In other words, the Babylonian kingdom would last through the reign of a son (Amel-Marduk) and a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar (Belshazzar), and then the reign of the Babylonian kingdom as the head of gold would end… which is exactly what we are seeing in this chapter.

One last thing that I want to mention about Belshazzar,… … he took after his grandfather, N… in the fact that… He was…

1.3 Arrogant

The Medes and the Persians are literally surrounding the entire city of Babylon… They’re everywhere… And depending on which historian you take, they had already been besieging the city of Babylon, anywhere from 2-4 months.

And yet, in his arrogance Belshazzar throws a party… Perhaps he thought the city could never be broken into… Nebuchadnezzar had built it to withstand any siege… The city walls were huge, we talked about that in a previous message, the supply houses could store enough grain that would last for years. They had a canal, channeled off the Euphrates river, that ran through the city, this would provide all the water they needed.

Belshazzar was confident in himself and in his achievements… …

Sounds very much like the world today… I’m safe in my house, I am safe in my job, I am safe in my lifestyle, nothing is going to hurt me… There is no thought of eternity. People are confident that they are ok and that they have no need of God. They are having the time of their lives with as many parties as they can fit in.

But the time is coming 1 Thessalonians says… “when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction will come upon them...”

Just as God dealt with the pride and arrogance of King N… He deals with the pride and arrogance of Belshazzar… and He will deal with the pride and arrogance of our World today as well.

The second detail of this Fatal Feast that I want to mention is…

2. The Guest List

v.1 gives us the main guest list… Daniel 5:1 “1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords...” The NASB says “Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles… ”

This feast was thrown for…

2.1 The Nobles

...The rounded number of 1,000 nobles symbolically represents all surviving high officials in Babylon.

This would consist of both officials of the government and influential and wealthy people in the land… hmmm… sound like a type of banquet that might be held today?? (government officials and rich guys)

In order to keep the officials from rioting and overthrowing the government, the king provided them with a great banquet (a party). Also to keep his bank account full, parties for these rich citizens helped to loosen their purse strings and aid the government, in this case, the king… again, sound like something that might go on today??

vv.2&3 mention…

Belshazzar’s Wives and Concubines

Normally, in those days, females were not part of the partying but when wine started to take over the feeble brains of the men, they wanted women and they got them.

It is safe to say that if Belshazzar’s women folk were there, than the women folk of the Nobles probably attended as well…

Which adds to the nature of this feast… John MacArthur describes it as an event “filled with desecration, blasphemy, and other evil acts of debauchery that a room full of drunken men and women would indulge in”.

I think you may get the picture of what types of things were going on here… So, lets move on…

The third detail of this fatal feast is…

3. The Drinkware

Daniel 5:2–3 “While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.”

These cups that Belshazzar wanted to drink from were…

3.1 Sacred Vessels

These particular cups were the sacred vessels of the living and true God. They were holy, they were set apart for the use of the Lord and his service alone. So, when the King and his guests began to drink from these holy cups, they were committing blasphemy against the Lord and they were profaning the very name of God.

It says that Belshazzar gave the command to bring out these sacred vessels “While he tasted the wine”…

This may indicate that he was still sober when he made this command, while he could still “taste the wine”. Which would mean that he arrogantly knew what he was doing. Purposely defying God’s sacred vessels.

By drinking from these sacred vessels, Belshazzar was basically stating “I can do whatever I want to do and I am not afraid of the God of Israel”

The last detail of this Fatal feast that I want to look at today is…

4. The Profaned Worship

Daniel 5:4 “4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.”

If there was ever a place considered to be the capitol of Idol worship, it would be Babylon.

Nabonidus (Belshazzar’s Dad) had taken every idol from the surrounding towns around Babylon and had brought them to the capital. He thought that these idols would defend them from the Medo-Persian threat. It is very likely that Belshazzar had these idols set up in his banqueting hall for all of his guests to see… … But when it came to the God of Israel, Belshazzar, treated Him with arrogant disrespect.

As the wine made its rounds, the more drunk they became, the more they ridiculed and mocked God and the more hoarse they made themselves as they shouted their profanities.

Belshazzar meant the gesture to be proof that the gods of Babylon were greater than the God of Israel. The great hall of Babylon rang with the cheers and profane worship of Belshazzar, along with all of his nobles and their women.

As they use the sacred vessels of God to profanely worship the false gods of Babylon, Belshazzar treated the one true God as if He were nothing.

Closing:

There are several different applications that we can take away from these first few verses…

1. We can use this as a warning to stay away from wild parties and alcohol. Alcohol obviously dulls the senses and weakens our morals, leaving the door wide open for irrational thinking and bad decisions that we might soon regret.

People think they are invincible when they're drunk. Apparently, King Belshazzar and all his invited guests thought the same…

2. We can look at this event and realize that we shouldn’t be prideful and arrogant… that we shouldn’t put our faith in our houses, our jobs, our bank accounts…

3. We shouldn’t worship other things, because any worship other than the worship of All Mighty God is considered profaned or perverted worship.

All of these are good applications and yes, should be applied to our lives… but here is what really stuck out to me…

The cups… … the sacred vessels that were used to dishonor God instead of worship Him… They treated them as if they are nothing…

Many still do this today. They take the things of God and treat them like they are nothing. The Bible is just another book, The Church is just another social hang out, Sunday is just another day, God’s Name is just another curse word…

We talk about; Our Money… Our time… Our Gifts… Our Talents… Our Lives!

We so easily forget that Scripture says that we are to be…

“14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,” 1 Peter 1:14–15

We are to be holy in all of our conduct… that means that everything about us is to be considered sacred, used for only what honors and glorifies God…

Its not Our money, its God’s money, use it to glorify Him.

Its not our time, its God’s time, use it to glorify Him.

Its not our gifts and talents, its the gifts and talents that God has given to us, use them to glorify Him.

Its not our life, its the blessing that God has allowed us to wake up and live this morning,… we are to use our lives to glorify Him.

When we don’t… we are no better than Belshazzar using the sacred vessels of God to worship pagan idols… In fact, we are worse than Belshazzar, because we do it at the same time we are claiming to followers and imitators of Christ.

Folks, as soon as you accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are set apart as a sacred vessel that is to be used to honor, glorify and worship All Mighty God… make sure you are doing just that…

“as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in ALL your conduct,”

Prayer: