Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Last month we considered the patience that God had with Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s refusal to humble himself, Nebuchadnezzar’s eventual and inevitable humiliation, and finally Nebuchadnezzar’s humility that resulted in praise to God.

Belshazzar appears in and his role is to serve as an illustration of the sovereignty of God and His absolute authority to place kings on their thrones and to pull down kings from their thrones.

This illustration is made even more dramatic by the fact fact that Belshazzar both appears and disappears from the narrative within a single chapter.

He is portrayed to us as if he instantly rose to power, and then, due to his foolish actions, quickly fell to ruin.

In the literature of Daniel, Belshazzar is the contrast to Nebuchadnezzar.

In contrast to God’s great patience with Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar’s destruction was quick and the kingdom was dramatically taken from him.

The Writing on the Wall

Read Daniel 5:1-12

We have all heard the expression from the philosopher G.W.E Wells when he said that the only thing that we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.

Although it would be deeply pessimistic to blanket all of humanity with that statement it is definitely true when it comes to the life of Belshazzar.

describes Nebuchadnezzar as the father of Belshazzar.

We know from history that Belshazzar was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar, but the description as such agrees with the use of language in the Middle East that Nebuchadnezzar was a close enough ancestor to Belshazzar that Belshazzar should have been familiar with and heeded the warnings of Nebuchadnezzar’s life.

Belshazzar was a fool.

This is the record of Belshazzar’s last hours of power.

During his last hours while his city was surely already under attack, he “made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.”

In all his extravagance, Belshazzar seems to have the same attitude of the rich fool of .

Belshazzar had all he could desire and even more, but yet he called a thousand lords to him, showed off his wives and his concubines, and together they drank and praised the gods of gold, silver, iron, bronze, wood, and stone.

Belshazzar was blinded by his lust for more, and in the security of all that he had and all the preparations he had made he did not even consider that “this night [his] soul [would be] required of [him].”

Meanwhile, the city was under attack, and despite the fact that the ancient author Xenophon records that the city was so well stocked they should have been able to withstand a siege that would last for years, in that same hour the fingers of a man’s hand wrote the judgment of Belshazzar on the wall of the king’s palace.

Troubled by this development Belshazzar calls for all the astrologers, all the Chaldeans, and all the soothsayers and offers the third highest position in the kingdom to whomever could read and interpret the writing, but none of them could and this troubled Belshazzar even more.

The queen, however, reminds him of the days of Nebuchadnezzar and the great prophet Daniel and suggests that he seek counsel from the man whom Nebuchadnezzar had made the chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

Read Daniel 5:13-31

Belshazzar then sends for Daniel and offers him the same dazzling gifts and position of power that he had offered to the other supposedly wise men of the kingdom.

Daniel rejects these gifts [which places Daniel in the same camp as all other true prophets who are not motivated by gain but rather by a desire to be faithful to God] and instead offers Belshazzar historical context for the writing that appeared on the wall.

Daniel recalls the history of Nebuchadnezzar and how God was the one who had exalted him with majesty and all peoples, languages, and nations trembled and feared the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar, as king, was given the power to both let live as well as to execute, to set up and to put down, but the problem with Nebuchadnezzar was his pride and he was eventually humbled before God by being driven from men to live out the reality of the state of his heart and he became like a beast.

Eventually Nebuchadnezzar came to know and recognize the Most High God who is the true ruler of the kingdom of men.

Surely Belshazzar was familiar with the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, but, instead of embracing the wisdom of what Nebuchadnezzar had learned, he turned away from the wisdom that he should have taken to heart.

Again, Belshazzar was a fool, and now he faced Divine judgment.

Like a machine gun rattling off its rounds Daniel pronounces the foolishness of Belshazzar.

You have not humbled your heart, although you knew the lesson of Nebuchadnezzar

You have lifted yourself up against God

You have defiled the vessels of the Lord’s house, you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines

You have rejected God in favor of the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone

You have not glorified God who holds your breath and owns all your ways

With each use of the word you the guilt of Belshazzar was brought into shocking clarity.

Belshazzar is responsible for all this.

There is no shifting the blame.

Daniel then turns to the writing itself which was not a pronouncement of man, it was not even written by a prophet.

The judgment had been delivered by God Himself.

Belshazzar had been weighed in the balances of God and had been found wanting.

MENE - God has numbered your kingdom

TEKEL - You have been weighed in the balances.

PERES - Your kingdom has been divided and will fall into the hands of the Medes and the Persians

In other words, Belshazzar, God has weighed the kingdom’s moral and spiritual shallowness, and since it has been found lacking it will be given to the Medes and the Persians.

The party was obviously over.

It was too late for Belshazzar. the judgment had been pronounced and was already in motion.

There is no attempt for repentance.

Belshazzar was finished.

Belshazzar did keep his word, however, and Daniel became the third ruler in a kingdom that ended that very night.

As suddenly as he appeared, Belshazzar disappears.

Daniel writes, “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.”

The Message for Us

One question we might have is, “Why was God so patient with Nebuchadnezzar but so seemingly abrupt with Belshazzar?”

Belshazzar blatantly disregarded his responsibilities as a ruler.

The feast was a display of Belshazzar’s inflated ego.

He calls to himself a thousand lords and drinks in their presence.

Belshazzar desired for all eyes to be on him.

Belshazzar expressed his pride in specific and pointed blasphemy

There was absolutely no tactical reason for Belshazzar to have the golden vessels of the temple of God to be brought and used at this party.

The Jews at this time posed no threat to Belshazzar or the kingdom.

The only reason Belshazzar would have taken the sacred vessels from the temple of God and use them as a showpiece at his feast was that they symbolized the power and presence of God.

What Nebuchadnezzar had never dared to do, even in his worst moments, Belshazzar openly did before a thousand of his lords.

Belshazzar had allowed his heart to become so deceived and blinded by sin that he lost touch with reality

He had allowed wealth and the security of his well-fortified city to lead him to believe that he could live independently from God.

So out of touch was Belshazzar that he did not even anticipate the judgment of God nor the judgment of others.

And so for mankind it is possible, just like Belshazzar, to disregard one’s responsibilities before God and by trying to live independently from God blaspheme His name and by doing so plunge one’s heart into deception and blindness.

Belshazzar’s story is a warning that mankind ought not dare presume upon the patience and grace of God.

To know that God is gracious and to consciously not turn from sin in light of that grace is to fall under the judgment of God.

May we not be like Belshazzar.

Belshazzar refused to learn from the experience of Nebuchadnezzar but may we learn from them both.