Your Moments are Numbered

Introduction

In the Psalm of Moses (Psalm 90) Moses writes these words. Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.” James would write in the New Testament would write in James 4:14 “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Our lives are fleeting. They are here for a moment and then gone. For King Belshazzar and the Babylonian Empire their time was up. Last week Daniel was brought into the court after no one was able to tell the co-Regnant what the handwriting on the wall said or meant and Daniel told the King a bit of history. He told him of how Nebuchadnezzar had been given the Kingdom he had, and Nebuchadnezzar had messed up and humbled by God and had become a beast and had turned to the one true God. Then picking up in Daniel 5:22 we read.

Daniel 5:22–23 NKJV

“But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house 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, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.

He had not learned from the past and so he repeated the same mistakes and had compounded them. The very God who holds your very breath in His hand and owns all your ways, that is the same God whom the King has not glorified. God still hold our very breath in His hand and owns all our ways. Are we learning from our past? Daniel going to bring some worse news to Belshazzar as he turns his attention to the handwriting on the Wall and its meaning.

Handwriting on the Wall

Daniel 5:24–25 NKJV

Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. “And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN

God was the One who had sent the fingers down. The One who holds every breath in His hand was the One who wrote out this phrase. The phrase is MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN or MENE MENE TEKEL, PARSIN

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 5

The enigmatic message is “a mina, a mina, a shekel, and two halves” (either a half-mina or a half-shekel) and refers to units of measure.

The message to the King wasn’t that no one could read it. The words were simple enough. “The Aramaic words written on the wall were not foreign to King Belshazzar. They were quite ordinary words. The mystery lay in their brevity and the fact that they could be read either as nouns or as verbs.” (UBS)

MENE: Mina (a form of money around 60 shekels worth)

TEKEL: A Shekel

PARSIN: Half Shekel or Half Mina

Think of it this way if you had a phrase that said one hundred dollars, one hundred dollars, fifty dollars, twenty-five dollars.

Does that mean $275 dollars or does it mean something else? The thing is these had other meanings as not only the noun form of the words, but also a verb form.

A Handbook on the Book of Daniel 5:25

MENE may be translated “number,” “measure,” or “quantity.” TEKEL concerns a “weight” or a “load.” PARSIN has to do with “division,” “split,” “partition,” or “separation.”

So what do they all mean?

What does it mean?

Daniel 5:26–28 NKJV

This is the interpretation of each word. Mene: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; Tekel: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; Peres: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

So the words themselves are easy to understand, but what do they mean? That is the enigma. That is the riddle.

MENE: God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. (NET)

So right off the bat, Daniel gives Belshazzar very bad news. God has counted the days for the Babylonian Kingdom and it has come to the end.

2. TEKEL - You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

He is not fit to rule the Kingdom, he has desecrated the items in the temple. He has not learned from history.

3. PERES— His Kingdom has been divided. It will be split and it will be given to the Medes and the Persian Kingdoms.

So the news is your days are numbered and this Kingdom’s days are numbered. You are not fit to rule any longer and the Kingdom is going to be split going to foreign rulers.

This I don’t think is the message you want to be the bearer of, but Daniel as he had spoke truth to power before also did it here. Belshazzar’s response in the next verse is interesting.

All in Vain

Daniel 5:29 NKJV

Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

I am sure he was dumbstruck, but he honored his word even though Daniel had said he wanted none of these items.

Daniel 5:17 “Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.”

It is all in vain for King Belshazzar. His very moments were numbered. The God who held his very breath in His hands was about to take it from him.

The Medes and Persians are Coming…Fall of Babylonian Kingdom

Daniel 5:30–31 NKJV

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

That very night, he would die and the kingdom fall! The head of gold that Daniel had told to King Neb. in chapter 2 was transitioning to the arms and chest of silver. The Media-Persian empire was about to grow and take control.

King Saul Similar Prophecy

1 Samuel 28:3–25 NKJV

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land. Then the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor.” So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please conduct a séance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.” Then the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” So he said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down. Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do.” Then Samuel said: “So why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the Lord has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, and was dreadfully afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day or all night. And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was severely troubled, and said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice, and I have put my life in my hands and heeded the words which you spoke to me. Now therefore, please, heed also the voice of your maidservant, and let me set a piece of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.” But he refused and said, “I will not eat.” So his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he heeded their voice. Then he arose from the ground and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she hastened to kill it. And she took flour and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread from it. So she brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.

Conclusion

God has our very breath in His hand. Do you know Him? One day we will be judged. Do you have Jesus Christ on your side? Is He your Savior?