At the Corner of Broadway and Babylon - 6

At the Corner of Broadway and Babylon - 6

Daniel 5:1-31

Introduction

In 2012 a scandal rocked the campus of the elite Harvard University. At least 125 students were suspected of collaborating in groups to come up with answers to questions on a take-home final exam, violating a no-collaboration policy that was printed on the exam itself.

Many of the students were shocked that they were implicated. Some even threatened to sue the school. Apparently, many students seem thoroughly confused about what constitutes plagiarism and cheating. Since then, Harvard requires courses for incoming students what is cheating and plagiarism. But an insightful author from the NY Times wrote, "Are we meant to assume that students who are smart enough to get into Harvard don't know what cheating is? Will the school later offer a course in why it is a bad idea to pour gasoline on a flaming toaster oven?"

The author noted, "I taught university classes for many years, and in my experience, students don't decide to cheat because they don't know better. They cheat … because they've imbibed the message—from parents, from peers, from schools—that looking successful is more important than being honest. They cheat because they have been taught, however unwittingly, that it is worth it."

TS – as we continue in Daniel, we find that the reigning King over Babylon has done this very thing. A tremendous scandal rocks Babylon…because the king believes that looking successful is more important than being honest.

About 25 years have passed between the events of chapter 4 and the opening of chapter 5. Daniel isn’t a teenager anymore. He is now an old man and a seasoned official in the empire. Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, now rules over Babylon. This chapter will refer multiple times to Nebuchadnezzar being Belshazzar’s father, but the word for ‘father’ means predecessor. Nebuchadnezzar’s family line is now in its third generation of reigning on the throne. But something tragic is about to take place that will end his line of kings and will end the Babylonian Empire.

The Persians have come into power, and just as the Babylonians before them, they have set their minds to rule the world. So, they have besieged Babylon. But what is the noble king of Babylon doing while his city is under siege?

Daniel 5:1 - King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.

The city is going down and the king is living it up. This is Nero fiddling while Rome burns. He’s eating, feasting, drinking wine…all while under active attack from the enemy. But, hey, at least he looks confident and successful to his lords! And if this isn’t bad enough, Belshazzar is about to do something even worse. He openly taunts the God of Israel.

Daniel 5:2-4 - 2 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

We’ve seen these vessels from the temple before.

Daniel 1:1-2 - In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.

Now the vessels finally reappear. Nebuchadnezzar never did anything with them, other than place them in the pagan temples in Babylon. This is where we got the idea that Daniel is a battle of the gods. This was never about Nebuchadnezzar and Jehoiakim. This was never about God and Nebuchadnezzar. This is a battle between the one, true God and the false gods of Babylon.

Over and over again, God has prevailed. Though it took much, Nebuchadnezzar finally saw the light and repented of his sin. Belshazzar though…he is young and foolish and takes this battle up a notch. Not only is Belshazzar drinking from the cups from God’s temple, he is using them to drink a toast to his false gods. This is not going to end well.

God sends Belshazzar a sign. Not in a dream like he had a couple of times for Nebuchadnezzar. This one is front and center, physically and literally, right in front of his face.

Daniel 5:5-7 - 5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7 The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

Imagine the scene…a great party with wine flowing freely. And then Thing from The Addams Family appears midair and writes on the wall. The original language here (Aramaic) indicates that the king was so scared by the sight that ‘the knots of his loins were loosened’ (his limbs gave way). It’s a phrase that could be a euphemism that he was so scared he had to go get a new pair of pants, if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down. But God sent the hand, not to scare the king, but to send a message.

While the king may be scared, he is also clueless. He can’t read it and has no idea what it means. So just like his grandfather before him, Belshazzar sends for all the wise men, enchanters, and magicians of the empire so they can interpret the writing. And just as had happened so many years before, none of them can help. But then, a voice comes from the back of the room. The Queen is reminded of an Israelite man who may be able to help. She tells him to go get Daniel.

So, the king did just that. And just like Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar called on Daniel when no one else could help him. And just as had happened so many years before, Daniel was once again able to help the king. And when Daniel gives to Belshazzar the interpretation of this writing on the wall, we are presented with a very compelling contrast…between Daniel’s character and Belshazzar’s character. The king was corrupt, initiating these scandals. But Daniel refused to be corrupted. We have seen it over and over so far. He faithfully follows the Lord, while swimming in the sea of corruption that is Babylon. While Belshazzar allowed the faith of his grandfather to be corrupted, Daniel was faithful to his Lord, no matter the context, no matter the consequence.

TS – by looking at Daniel’s words to the king here, and by seeing his faithful example, we find two keys to avoiding character corruption:

1. RECOGNIZE GOD’S HOLINESS

Belshazzar’s big problem throughout this whole text is the fact that he did not recognize the God of Israel as the holy, righteous, pure, and magnificent God that He is. Rather than calling out to God in his time of need, Belshazzar cursed God and defiled His name by drinking from the cups that had been set aside for use in God’s temple. Rather than praising God for all of the majesty and splendor of Babylon, as Nebuchadnezzar had finally learned to do, Belshazzar turned towards the idols of wood, gold, and silver. The faith that Nebuchadnezzar had proclaimed only 25 years before had become corrupted by Belshazzar’s refusal to recognize God’s holiness.

In contrast, Daniel had spent his entire life recognizing the holiness of God. From the time he had entered the king’s service, as a young man serving Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel had proven himself to be a person who understood the righteousness and holiness of God. He remembered God’s holiness as he kept God’s dietary laws. He remembered God’s holiness when he refused to bow to the pagan idols of his day, choosing instead to serve the one true God. He remembered God’s holiness when he proclaimed the truth to Nebuchadnezzar, calling the king to repentance and to faith in God.

Sadly, I think one of the main reasons for spiritual corruption is that we don’t recognize the holiness of God. Yet, just flipping through the Bible, it should become immensely clear to us that while God is a loving, powerful, merciful and wise God, his defining characteristic is His holiness.

Psalm 99:3-5 - 3 Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he! 4 The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. 5 Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!

Yet, the Biblical concept of holiness is not limited simply to God. In fact, the Biblical concept of holiness applies to us as well, as God’s children. His holiness should lead us to holiness.

Leviticus 20:8 - Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord who makes you holy.

1 Peter 1:15-16 - “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy because I am holy.’”

If we are going to avoid the corruption that defined Belshazzar’s life, then we must always keep God’s holiness at the forefront of our mind.

2. REMEMBER THE PAST

If you were to read through the first section of Daniel’s reply to the king, it’s a history lesson. He tells the king about all the terrible things that happened to Nebuchadnezzar. How he was driven away from his people, stripped of his mind and his kingdom. But he also tells him the good news…Nebuchadnezzar was returned to power when he finally recognized that v. 21 – the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.

But over the years, Nebuchadnezzar’s legacy of faith had been forgotten. Belshazzar had completely forgotten the past, ignoring the warnings God gave through his ancestors.

Daniel 5:22-23: 22 And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.

Did you happen to notice just how much this story seems to parallel the ones before it? The king has a vision; the king is perplexed. He sends for his wise men, enchanters, astrologists, zoologists, and magicians and asks them to interpret the sign for him. None of them can. Then, someone remembers Daniel and they finally talk to him, and Daniel tells them what they need to know. This is the pattern for chapters 2, 4 and 5. “Those who don’t learn from the past are bound to repeat it.” The same is true for us today, just as it was true for Belshazzar.

Like Belshazzar, we fall into many of the same traps as our predecessors in the faith, as we struggle with many of the same issues, sins, and distractions that they did. Truth be told, not much has changed in the 2500 years since Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar walked the earth. We still struggle with the same problems of pride and complacency, like Nebuchadnezzar did. We still struggle with honoring God properly, like Belshazzar failed to do. And, like Daniel, we find ourselves in the middle of a Godless culture. We face the temptation to compromise our faith day in and day out. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The events recorded in our Bibles were put there to tell us something. Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 10:6,11, where, after looking back on all of the terrible things that happened to the Israelites during their time in the desert, he wrote these words: 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.… 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

One of the reasons that personal Bible study is so important is that it gives us the opportunity to see the examples, both good and bad, of those who have gone before. The Bible speaks to our lives in the present because it speaks through their lives in the past. We can avoid corruption by remembering the past and looking to those who have gone before.

Conclusion

As you can imagine, character corruption doesn’t work out well. It didn’t for Belshazzar. There may be no worse judgment in the Bible than the one that was leveled against Belshazzar.

Daniel 5:25-28 - 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Not only will his kingdom come to an end…and not only will it be taken over by the Medo-Persian Empire…he has been weighed and found wanting. Belshazzar’s soul had been put on the scales and its contents were found to be empty. As this text quite literally says, he had been weighed and been found weightless.

We cannot, we must not ever let this be said of us today. We want to avoid the emptiness of character corruption at all cost. So, we remember God’s holiness, setting him before our eyes, and trusting him to move us to a place of personal holiness. We remember the past, looking to our Bibles and to our predecessors, to the examples set before us, both good and bad, and asking the Lord to make us faithful.