The Life of Daniel (9)

Nebuchadnezzar gave a public testimony of the God of Israel. The Lord will be glorified in His righteous judgments upon those who are disobedient to Him, who provoke Him, but He will also be honored in His mercy and love to those who fear Him. This we can also read in the chapter that speaks about Belshazzar and Daniel, the old servant of the Lord. We read in Psalm 37:37, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” He may be led through sorrows, griefs, riddles, strife, and the hatred of his enemies, but the end of that man is peace. Thus, it was once in the life of Jacob. However, the end of the ungodly is as Asaph described in Psalm 73:18, “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castest them down into destruction.” What is described in Daniel 5 took place about thirty years after what is mentioned in chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar died and had several successors. Now Belshazzar is mentioned as the king. He probably was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and reigned over a small portion of the Babylonian country.

A terrible feast

Although the enemies, the Medes and Persians, were near and threatened the overturn of his country, Belshazzar made a feast “to a thousand of his lords.” What carelessness and indifference were shown in this event; the king was feasting while the enemy was besieging the city. However, this is also the spirit of many in our days. “Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we will die.” Daniel had been forgotten, which indicates that the Word of God had no authority in Belshazzar’s dominion. It is also a picture of our days. God’s Word is placed aside, and sin breaks through and may not even be called sin anymore. This is rather a time to listen to what the Lord says in Joel 2:17, “Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, spare Thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God?”

The feast was held in a large room about nearly two hundred feet long and sixty feet wide as has been discovered by archeologists. In this large banquet hall, the king and his most renowned men of state were settled in an elevated place. They drank much wine; the young king, being over courageous, lifted his glass, and the others joined in the honor of their king. Then Belshazzar even dared to command the vessels of gold and silver which were taken out of the temple of the house of God in Jerusalem to be brought to the banquet hall. This was plainly an act of open defiance, calculated to insult the God of Israel. No, not the vessels of the idols of Syria or Egypt, but God was blasphemed by the feasting company. They drank wine and praised the manmade items of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. These are six different materials, but six is the number of the world which is destined for judgment and hostile to God. What foolishness is evident in this open provocation of the Lord.

The Persians were before the city. Belshazzar just reigned over a little piece of his nation. The enemy soldiers were already digging tunnels under the walls of the city while Belshazzar, in the last night of his life, mocked the living God. Being in the greatest danger, this feasting company acted merry as though they would never die and there was no enemy before the gate, but how is our life? Also, for us, any moment, the messenger of death may come, yet we live as though we will not die. How many are seeking the pleasures of the world with its vanities while God’s judgments are near and His heavy hand is upon the nation?

God’s people also know a feast, but it is different. Therein God is honored and praised and true joy experienced. Psalm 4:7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” Sometimes, God’s child may taste joy even before the gates of death. We read in Psalm 36:8, “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.” How terrible is the sin of Belshazzar and his men in misusing the holy vessels in their feast to the honor of their gods. You might say, we will never do so, but how is it at our weddings or other gatherings? Do we then honor our God? In that respect, the heathens put us to shame. They openly confess who their gods are. The feast of Belshazzar will be of short duration. God is omniscient, and He will manifest His displeasure with what is happening in this ungodly company.

Fear

We read in verse 5, “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” It was so unexpected; their feast was interrupted. When the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, “the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” He was extremely frightened; he saw the finger of God, just the finger. What is it, then, when the Lord manifests His mighty arm? He comes with His judgments upon those who provoke Him to anger. That is what we all do, day by day; we continue to sin in spite of all the warnings and callings that come to us. We are not better than Belshazzar and his lords.

The finger of God is evident in disasters, earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, famines, wars, and deaths. It is also evident in the results of the coronavirus. How many have lived, or are still living in fear? Yes, we may well be afraid. However, it is not the tender fear of God but a slavish fear of death and misery that makes many people troubled. Who of us is asking, what is God saying with this? This is but a finger of God. What will it be when we stand before the countenance of the living God? This finger only writes; it does not even touch the king, but what will it be if we have to appear before God while we are still unconverted? May this finger point to us, as it once did to David, with the message of the prophet, “Thou art the man.” May we learn to read this writing and flee unto the Lord before it is forever too late.

Seeking the interpretation

Nobody understood this writing. The wisemen of the nation were called. Everyone waited in silence for the scholars who had to now explain the few letters, the word of God. However, they were unable. Human wisdom was unable to give the right interpretation of the word of God. Thus it is also today. The Lord Jesus, after He had thanked the Father, said that He “had hid these things from the wise and the prudent, but revealed them unto babes.” No, we may not despise knowledge, if it only may be knowledge with an inheritance, that is, with the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, our knowledge is but foolishness. Psalm 2:4, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” God alone has the key of the house of David. He opens and none can shut, He shuts and none will open.

While there was great fear in this banquet hall, the queen, daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, came into the banquet house. Perhaps, she had not been present at the banquet as a protest against the foolishness and indifference of her son. She spoke about a man “in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him.” The queen seemed to have a suitable remedy for the precarious situation. She brought to mind a man who had been forgotten, who had been highly respected in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Now in this time of great need, he had to come; he had the wisdom of God. Of this man the queen said, “Now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.”

We can imagine that holy anger and indignation filled Daniel when he was brought into the banquet hall and viewed the mockery with the holy things. Daniel spoke with freedom. He would make himself free by speaking of the history of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and how the Lord had humbled him. You knew that, Belshazzar, yet you did not humble your heart. Oh, what will it be to have known the way, but to not have walked in it? We must say again, we are not better than Belshazzar. It is a blessing if God’s servants of old, also our forefathers, are not forgotten although we may fear that by many they are forgotten. Yet, even if we remember them and we know the truth, do we walk in it? The Lord says to us so urgently, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” There is but one way in which the judgments of the Lord can be turned away from a nation, a church, and ourselves—that is, when we humble ourselves before Him, confess our sins in truth, and repent of them—when we believe His Word and learn to flee from the wrath to come.

The enemy was at the gate of Babylon, yet we do not know how near the messenger of death may be for us. We also reject the Word of the living God when He so earnestly beseeches us to be reconciled with Him. The sin of Belshazzar was that he did not glorify God. This is a sin of omission. He cannot be excused; he knew it. Has the honor and glory of God ever become our concern and desire? There is One who has glorified God most perfectly. He never sought His own honor. He has a people that by His renewing grace, may again yearn to know Him, serve Him, and glorify Him. “Whosoever honoreth me, him will I honor.” That will be the blessed portion of all those who bow before this gracious, faithful King to serve Him.

(To be continued)

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