Sermon - Daniel 5:1-9 - A New Chapter A New King - Littleby Baptist Church - May 9, 2020

A new chapter and a new king is in charge, but in some ways the story is still the same. Before we start in chapter 5, let’s look at a few verses back in chapter 1 as a way to set the stage a little.

Daniel 1:1-2

“1 In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.² The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god.”

When Nebuchadnezzar was a young king God used him to bring judgement against Jehoiakim and the Israelites which included taking the sacred temple vessels to Babylon.

Since then we have seen Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as king, mostly bad stuff, with some good sprinkled in. The events of Daniel 5 take place in the year of 539 BC, which is roughly 23 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s death. In only 23 years we have come to Belshazzar who is 5^th king after Nebuchadnezzar, and he is believed to be the maternal grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar ruled or managed Babylon for 10 years while his father, Nabonidus, was away for religious reasons. Nabonidus was more interested in re-establishing the dominance of the traditional Babylonian gods than he was with ruling the kingdom.

Daniel 5:1

“King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine in their presence.”

The feast was attended by all of the nobles in Babylon. Some say that this feast was an attempt to boost morale after the Babylonians had lost several battles against the Medes and Persians. Could have been to celebrate that Belshazzar was fully king if his father had passed, celebrate the New Year, or maybe the king suspected that he might as well have one last grand party before Babylon fell. The theory that seems to bubble to the top and fits with the king’s pride is that he was confident that no one could breach the walls of the great city of Babylon and that they had supplies that would outlast any invading army. This great feast may have been a way to show the people within the city that their king was confident that they would be just fine.

There could be many reasons for this great feast, but the Bible and History tell us that Belshazzar’s rule was about to come to an end.

Daniel 5:2-4

“² Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines could drink from them. ³ So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them. ⁴ They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.”

The king was under the influence of wine, which might lead some to think this was all a drunken mistake.

While drinking alcohol can easily lead to making bad decisions and there could be a part of this that might be influence by drinking too much, but this goes way beyond that.

The act of drinking from the holy vessels that had been taken from the house of the Hebrew God and worshipping all the manmade gods with them, takes this to a whole new level. This was not a simple bad choice made out of ignorance, short sidedness, or little too much wine. This was a blatant disregard for what was known to be holy vessels of the God of the Hebrews. It was an act of blasphemy by using them in worship of those man-made fake gods.

I wonder how arrogant Belshazzar must have been to think it was a good idea to hold a huge feast with an army surrounding the city and then to pull holy relics from another religion and treat it with absolute disregard?

Proverbs 18:12

“Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.”

You might say the apple has not fallen far from the tree. Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson seems to be following in his footsteps of Pride and Arrogance. Living this way brought judgement on Nebuchadnezzar, sadly his grandson’s Arrogance will bring about a similar result.

One of the theories about why Belshazzar pulled the temple vessels out and used them was to publicly proclaim that Babylon was successful against other people and their gods in the past, and that they will be once again. By treating the holy vessels this way, the king was declaring that the great nation of Babylon beat the God of the Hebrews and they will do it again, against the Medes and Persians.

The king was challenging Our God and like we saw a couple of times with Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar had no clue that the God of the Hebrews was real and nothing like the fake gods they ‘worshipped’.

Daniel 5:5-6

“⁵ At that moment the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the king’s palace wall next to the lampstand. As the king watched the hand that was writing, ⁶ his face turned pale, and his thoughts so terrified him that he soiled himself and his knees knocked together.”

One minute they are having a blast, partying it up, insulting some Hebrew God who meant nothing to them, and the next they are scared beyond belief.

As the hand first appeared, I would imagine the king spent the first few seconds just trying to figure out what he was seeing. Was he imagining something or was there really a hand floating in the air writing on the wall? While he obviously did not understand what was being written, I would expect he felt the presence of God in that moment and probably felt that God was not happy at all.

An arrogant king who was insulting God, became beyond terrified, collapsed, and soiled himself.

In the Book of Isaiah chapter 21, Isaiah prophesied about the fall of Babylon.

Isaiah 21:3-4

“³ Therefore I am filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor. I am too perplexed to hear, too dismayed to see. ⁴ My heart staggers; horror terrifies me. He has turned my last glimmer of hope into sheer terror.”

The prophesized judgement was happening, and the king was filled with absolute terror.

Daniel 5:7

“⁷ The king shouted to bring in the mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners. He said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this inscription and gives me its interpretation will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around his neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom.””

Belshazzar did what every good pagan king would do. He called out to the mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners. He called out to the wise men who probably fed him what he wanted to hear while they served him. He called out to those who said they spoke for the pagan gods his father stated they should listen to. He called out to a group of people who could not help him.

With what we have looked at so far over the last few chapters, it is beginning to seem a little repetitive. A king is confronted by something that is from the One and Only God. He has no clue what it means, so he calls on a group of people who cannot help him. Might almost think we are talking about Nebuchadnezzar again.

Belshazzar was so desperate to understand what the floating hand wrote and how it impacted him, that he was willing to give whoever interpreted the writing one of the highest positions in the kingdom and treat them like royalty.

Daniel 5:8

“⁸ So all the king’s wise men came in, but none could read the inscription or make its interpretation known to him.”

The king’s wise men came in looking to get rich quick and hoped they knew something that the last guy did not. They were probably tripping over themselves trying to be the first one to solve the puzzle, but none of them could understand what had been written on the wall. None of them were able with all their knowledge and wisdom to help the king.

Once again, we see human knowledge and wisdom fall short.

Daniel 5:9

“⁹ Then King Belshazzar became even more terrified, his face turned pale, and his nobles were bewildered.”

When none of his trusted advisors could read or interpret the writing on the wall, all hope was lost. The king was terrified and those around him were confused.

Man challenged God, God responded, and man is completely lost.

If all we depend on in this world is our own knowledge and wisdom, we too will be lost. The smartest and wisest people around cannot even begin to understand who God is and what He is doing on their own.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16

“¹⁰ Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. ¹³ We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. ¹⁴ But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. ¹⁵ The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. ¹⁶ For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

For those without the Holy Spirit, when they open up the Bible it is no more than a history book.

As followers of Christ we have the Holy Spirit living in us and with His guidance we can begin to understand what God wants for us. Through the work of God’s Spirit, we can understand what the Bible teaches us. We can begin to grasp that it guides, encourages us, refreshes us, and equips us to be a child of God and to do what we were created to do.

As followers of Christ our eyes our opened to the message that the Lord has for us. I encourage you to continue to ask the Lord to open your eyes to the truth found in the Word of God. By doing so, you will continue to grow in your faith, knowledge, and wisdom to help you in this world.

Ask for the Holy Spirit to give you the faith, knowledge, and wisdom you need for the life before you.

If you are not a follower of Christ, if you have not repented of your sins, I encourage you to change that today.

All of us are sinners and are doomed for an eternity in hell. We are in need of a Savior, and it is only through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection on the third day that we have Hope. If we repent of our sins and give our lives to Jesus, then we will be saved. If you would like to start that journey, if you want to give you life to Jesus, please repeat after me.

Jesus, I am a sinner. I believe that you died on the cross to pay for my sins. I believe that you rose from the dead to give me new life. Jesus, I repent of my sins and ask for you to come into my life. I put my trust in you. Thank You Jesus, Amen.