A Voice of Truth Offers Hope

Daniel: In the Fire

“A Voice of Truth Offers Hope”

 Text: Daniel 5

 As we start Daniel 5, one of the main characters in the first four chapters of Daniel is no longer alive.

• The last words of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 are words of praise to God,

^37a “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven, for all his acts are just and true…”

• But he doesn’t stop there.
• This mighty King’s final thought focuses on a lesson he learned the hard way,

^37b “and God is able to humble the proud.” 

When we turn the page to Daniel 5, we meet a new king, Belshazzar; who is Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson.

• Unfortunately, Belshazzar hasn’t inherited any of Nebuchadnezzar’s hard-learned spiritual lessons.
• About the only trait Belshazzar has picked up, is his grandfather’s discarded pride, without a trace of the heart that was finally responsive to God at the end of his life.

• From Daniel 4 to Daniel 5, we move from a generation of revival to rebellion … from humility back to pride.
• After Nebuchadnezzar dies in 562 BC, his son, and then two of his son-in-laws each become King of Babylon in the span of just 6 years.
• After 3 years as king, son-in-law, Nabonidus, appoints his son, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Belshazzar as a co-king of Babylon in 553 BC.
  • Nabonidus spent most of his reign away from Babylon, securing the borders and strengthening the empire.
  • So he appointed his son, Belshazzar to be the stay-at-home ruler of Babylon.
• Babylon was heavily fortified, and with Nabonidus out securing the borders and fighting off any advancing threats, Belshazzar was quite comfortable lounging on his throne.
• No invader had been able to storm the city for over a thousand years.
• Belshazzar had every reason to think Babylon was impenetrable.
• But that was about to change.

Like Jeremiah and Daniel had forewarned, Cyrus, the Medo-Persian king and his army were coming southward toward Babylon.

• Seeing this threat, Nabonidus and his troops headed them off at the Tigris River.
• A great battle took place, but Nabonidus was forced to retreat… and Cyrus had an open road to Babylon.

Safe within the city, Belshazzar brushed away the news.

• What harm could Cyrus possibly do against Babylon’s massive stone walls and impassable moat?
• Even when Cyrus began his attack, Belshazzar paid no attention to the threat.
• Babylon had a 20-year supply of food in its granaries.
• Cyrus and his troops would run out of provisions long before Belshazzar would.
• So the arrogant king scoffed at the attack and decided that the perfect way to show his superiority wasn’t to fight back… but to throw a party!

Let’s pick up the arrogant festivities in progress… in Daniel 5 we read,

5 Many years later King Belshazzar gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.

• With his head spinning from the alcohol, Belshazzar feels a sense of invincibility welling up inside of him.
• He’s the greatest king of the world!
• Greater than Cyrus, Nabonidus, or Nebuchadnezzar!
• And in his drunken bravado, he performs an act of blasphemy that no other Babylonian king before him had dared to do.
  

² While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. ³ So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them. ⁴ While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 

King Nebuchadnezzar had stored Israel’s temple vessels, showing respect for their value as sacred treasures.

• By using them to toast his own gods, Belshazzar shows his contempt for both his grandfather and the God that Nebuchadnezzar eventually worshipped.
• Unlike inanimate idols that cannot respond to praise or desecration, the true God can respond…
• The true God does not tolerate arrogance and mockery…
• The true God, as we read in vs.5, has a response,

⁵ Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human handwriting on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, ⁶ and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him. 

Belshazzar must have realized deep down that the message spelt judgment.

• Sobered up, in vs.7 the king calls in the experts, “the enchanters, astrologers, fortune-tellers,” and promises that anyone who can interpret the inscription will become the 3^rd ruler (after King Nabonidus and himself) of Babylon.
• But just as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, God’s message confounds the Babylonian wise men.
• Seeing their helplessness, Belshazzar becomes more alarmed and turns more pale with fear.
• The queen, probably Nebuchadnezzar’s surviving wife and Belshazzar’s grandmother, is the only one in the king’s court who remembers that Daniel has done this before.
• In vs. 10 the queen mother calls for the prophet Daniel,

¹⁰ But when the queen mother heard what was happening, she hurried to the banquet hall. She said to Belshazzar, “Long live the king! Don’t be so pale and frightened. ¹¹  There is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods. During Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, this man was found to have insight, understanding, and wisdom like that of the gods. Your predecessor, the king—your predecessor King Nebuchadnezzar—made him chief over all the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and fortune-tellers of Babylon. ¹² This man Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, has exceptional ability and is filled with divine knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.” 

It's been a lot of years since Daniel was last called by a king.

• Now in his 80s, Daniel still carries himself with a steadiness born out of a lifetime of faith in God.
• Before the young and inexperienced king, Daniel stands wise and firmly rooted; his character and integrity are unchanged and unshakable.
• But the disdainful Belshazzar (v. 13) sees Daniel as a mere exile from Judah.
• He looks down his royal nose at Daniel and (v.16) offers him the same deal: riches and power for an interpretation.
• Daniel, however, cannot be bought (v. 17),

¹⁷ Daniel answered the king, “Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what the writing means.  

Before he reveals the meaning, Daniel gives the king a history lesson.

• He confronts Belshazzar and reminds him that all the power his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar ever had, came from God.
• He reminds him of how hard that lesson was for king Nebuchadnezzar to learn.
• But eventually, even the great King Nebuchadnezzar believed that all crowns of authority belong to God, who gives and takes them away for his purposes…
• So not even kings have a right to boast before God.
• And with that historical rebuke, Daniel confronts Belshazzar with God’s charges against him:

²² “You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. ²³ For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! ²⁴ So God has sent this hand to write this message. 

Belshazzar knew his grandfather’s legacy and yet he didn’t apply it in any way to his life or rule as a king.

• Instead of worshiping the living God, Belshazzar chose to worship lifeless objects.
• And now, the living God is about take everything that Belshazzar boasted about, away from him: his throne, his kingdom, even his life.
• Daniel reads the inscription like a head-juror reading a verdict:
• “This is the message that was written: Mene, mene, tekel, and Parsin. 

Literally, the translation is “a mina, a mina, a shekel, and half shekels.”

• To interpret, Daniel uses the root-meanings of the words:
  • Mene comes from the verb “to number, to reckon” … and is used twice to indicate the reckoning is coming soon.
  • Tekel comes from the verb “to weigh” … worth, worthiness
  • Parsin come from the verb “to divide”

²⁶ This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end. ²⁷ Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. ²⁸ Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 

• Belshazzar listens, but amazingly, seems unchanged by the devastating prediction.

²⁹ Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was dressed in purple robes, a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. 

Daniel is made the 3^rd highest ruler in the Babylonian empire.

• And Belshazzar appoints Daniel as if the empire is just going to keep on going as is.
• Belshazzar truly doesn’t believe that God has spoken and that the party is over.
• But unknown to the king, Cyrus has managed to lower the level of the water running through the moat around Babylon, which now allows access to the city under the river gates.
• The Medes take the city by surprise, and we read in v.30,

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed. ³¹ And Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two. 

And with that, one of the most powerful empires in history begins to fade away.

• So friends, what lessons can we take from that ancient world and apply within our current world?
• Let me share two key truths that are timeless:

1. First, God’s judgment may seem slow, but it is thorough.

• Starting in 1859 BC, the Babylonian empire reigned supreme until 539 BC … that is over 1300 years of governing!
• In less than half that time, this great world power became completely obsolete… not a citizen left.
• For over 1320 years, it ruled the known world… and during that time, it took God’s nation of Israel into captivity.
• But the truth is, just as it always, God was in control all along and God was/is accomplishing his purposes.

• As powerful and endless as its own rulers in Babylon believed they were; the records say otherwise.
• Today, Babylon is mere history because it refused to turn to God and so, the living God declared his judgment on it.
• Today, Babylon is no more and our God continues to rule over all kings, nations, superpowers … all of creation.

Friends, we don’t need to wonder if God will do something about the evil that goes on in this world … no matter how rampant or powerful it may be.

• The prophet Habakkuk questioned the same thing during the beginning of the Babylonian rule when he wrote in his book,

How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. ³ Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. ⁴ The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted. 

• But listen to the answer Habakkuk received in the face of injustice,

⁵ The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. ⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people… 

• Again, Habakkuk questions what is going on,

¹² O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. ¹³ But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

^2:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly … it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.

And in the rest of Habakkuk 2, it lays out the eventual fall and destruction of the Babylonians at the hand of God.

• In other words, God does see what’s going on in our world, both the holy and the evil.
• God has always seen “evil’s” beginning and he has determined its end.
• It may seem like nothing is happening, or it may seem like it’s happening to slowly, but we can rest-assured that God’s judgment on everything that is against him, is happening and it will be complete! (repeat)
• History has proven this … and it’s true for our time, and it will be true for all future generations as well.

So whatever injustice you see… whatever power may seem outside of God’s control… for anyone abusing power or scoffing at God…

• God sees it all and is at work accomplishing his purposes.
• His judgment over all that is holy and evil is transpiring this very moment and it will be completed.

2. The second truth we can take from Daniel 5 into our world is one that we have seen repeated throughout the book of Daniel … never underestimate the power of one godly life.
   • Against the bleak backdrop of judgment, stood an available, reassuring and steady voice: Daniel.
   • Daniel understood the writing on the wall because he knew the Author intimately.
   • Daniel endured in a hostile environment because he courageously spoke God’s truth and refused to compromise his character… God used him and honored him for that!
   • Friends, are we following Daniel’s example today?

Our lives may be the only witness some people hear or see.

• Belshazzar was given that ray of redemptive hope, but he quickly disregarded it.
• Daniel comes in, takes the hard truth of God seriously, and speaks into Belshazzar’s life.
• But he decided to throw a party to escape reality and ignore the warning signs of God.
• Had he listened to that one godly voice, Belshazzar could have lived and prospered under God’s hand.
• Daniel was that godly voice offering redemption before judgment.
  • He did the same for Nebuchadnezzar, who eventually received eternal life.
  • Belshazzar, on the other hand, chose to reject God and received his judgment.
• In both cases, Daniel was the servant of God, ready to communicate between God and the world.
• Friends, we are called to do the same … God is at work today … and our role is to speak this truth into our world.

Sending/Benediction

The words of the prophet Habakkuk 3:2, 17-19,

 ² I have heard all about you, Lord.
    I am filled with awe by your amazing works.
In this time of our deep need,
    help us again as you did in years gone by.

¹⁷ Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
    and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
    and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
    and the cattle barns are empty,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
    I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
¹⁹ The Sovereign Lord is my strength! 

Friends, as we consider our world, both holy and evil, let us be a people in this world who live…

…assured that God is ruling and judging,

…assured that God is loving and redeeming.

 Let us be voices of God’s truth and God’s praise in all circumstances.