Daniel 5:1-31
Historical Context
We ended chapter 4 with the amazing conversion of Nebuchadnezzar. God had humbled him in a remarkable way, and we saw him praise God out of his humbling. We are moving through history quite a bit beginning in chapter 5. We are in roughly 539 BC, which is just about 20 years since the end of chapter 4. We meet a king named Belshazzar. In those 20 years, it’s been quite the tumultuous change in leadership in Babylon.
After Nebuchadnezzar died, his son Evil-Merodach took over. He ruled for 2 years before his brother-in-law Neriglissar murdered him and took his place. He ruled for 4 years before dying himself, at which time his young son Labashi-Marduk took over. He was king for 2 months before a man named Nabonidus assassinated him and claimed the throne. Nabonidus reigned for 17 years, but spent most of his time outside of Babylon, and in order to maintain control of the empire, he left his son Belshazzar in charge as co-regent. It’s believed that this man is Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, and if that’s the case, in just 2 generations the pendulum has swung to disregard for and mockery of the Lord.
Chapter 5 is an interesting chapter in the grand scheme of the narrative of Daniel. What I believe the writer wants us to see is a comparison to the Nebuchadnezzar of chapter 4, the Nebuchadnezzar who was humbled, turned his face to the Lord, had his reason return to him, and responded in praise. And so along the way this morning we’ll draw comparisons between the 2 kings.
BIG IDEA: Living in defiance of the Lord leads to destruction.
Read Daniel 5:1-4
1. Sin Causes Us to Lose Our Reason (1-4)
King Belshazzar throws this massive party, and without having to read too much into it, it’s a party marked by extreme debauchery. In verse 2, the implication behind the king “tasting the wine” is that he was drunk. In this sinful drunken state, an even deeper form of sin was brought to the surface. By using the gold and silver vessels, he was showing a complete disregard for the Lord. In his drunken stupor he publicly and wildly mocked God. Not only him, but the nobles, his “lords,” his wives and his prostitutes, took something that was sacred and holy and used it for sinful pleasure. But it gets worse.
The gold and silver that belonged to the temple of the Lord, was held up in the air, and the people used them as an act of worship towards false idols. Belshazzar, the supposed grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, must have known his grandfather’s story, but how quickly sin corrupted and caused him to forget. Living in sinful pleasure caused Belshezzar to lose all sense of reason. He got drunk and made a mockery of the living God. And we see right away the comparison between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar begin to take shape:
Nebuchadnezzar kept the vessels of the temple safe. Belshazzar took them out and used them for debauchery.
Nebuchadnezzar turned his eyes to the Lord and his reason returned to him. Belshazzar got drunk and lost all sense of reason.
This is what sin does. Sin causes us to reject God. Sin is a rejection of the things of God. When we are living in sin, we lose all sense of reason. And over time, the longer we live in sin and allow sin to grip us, our hearts are hardened towards the Lord. Let’s keep reading and get some terrifying context for our 2nd point.
Read Daniel 5:5-23
Read verse 5 - Immediately…
I mean can you imagine. A physical, visible hand, like Thing from the Addam’s Family
Read verse 6 - He turned white as a ghost. His body became weak. And his knees knocked together. Even being sober this would have been terrifying, but in his drunken state he is freaking out.
Read verses 7-12
This is the 3rd time now we’ve met these wise men. They have already failed the monarchy twice in Daniel, failing to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, and here we go again. They show up to the party and have no clue what to make of this mysterious writing on the wall. Even with the promise of being 3rd in command, decorated with riches and honor, they were stumped. And at this, the king grew even more terrified.
Enter the queen. She is most likely not Belshazzar’s wife, because all his wives were at his party. Whoever this woman was, she was old enough to know who Daniel was, and smart enough to steer clear of the party. Some believe it was his mom, some even believe it may have been Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, his grandma, but whatever the case, she reminds Belshazzar of this man named Daniel.
A quick note on the language of “father” in referring to Nebuchadnezzar. Often in Scripture we see the word “father” referring to an ancestor. For instance in Luke 1:32 we see David being called the “father” of Jesus. One commentator adds that “in the Semitic languages there was no word for "grandfather" or "grandson." Just want to make sure there isn’t any confusion seeing this repeated.
So they call in Daniel, the man of God who is by now in his 80s. A man who into his old age continues to stand firm in truth, continues to be a man of integrity.
Read verses 13-23
2. Sin Hardens Our Hearts (22-23)
Look at the integrity of Daniel. He has no interest in the material things. He has no interest in being honored by a sinful king. He is only interested in the truth, even if it doesn’t favor the one who is receiving it. After recounting what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, he boldly calls out Belshazzar for his brash lifestyle of sin.
“And you, Belshazzar, even though you knew all about how the Lord humbled Nebuchadnezzar; you knew about his shame, about his humility in the wilderness, you refused to believe. You refused to listen. You refused to stop and think about the consequences of his self-exaltation. But you, oh Belshazzar, you have taken it a step further. You lifted yourself up, exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You have lived in opposition to the Lord. Mocking his holiness by desecrating sacred vessels of His temple. You used them to praise false gods, gods that you cannot see or hear or possibly know. But the God who you mock, His hand you have seen. That hand has the ability to give you breath, and can take your breath from you. That hand has allowed you to have limited power, but has the ability to remove the kingdom from you.”
Over time, this is what sin does. It not only causes us to lose our ability to reason, but we become hardened towards the Lord. This is what we saw with Pharaoh back in Exodus with the plagues. Each time his sin was so strong that his heart was hardened, time and again. “Sure Moses, I’ll let your people go, just tell your God to stop this!” And then when the Lord stops the plague, Pharaoh's heart is hardened and he refuses.
Sin, when left unattended, will root itself deep into our hearts, and the more that we engage with it the less we engage with the Lord. When we live in sin, we become accustomed to it’s rule in our lives and complacency sets in. We become less concerned with the things of God and more concerned with self-satisfaction and pleasure.
His heart of sin led to a hardness that was opposed to the Lord. And the result of a lifestyle of sin is destruction.
Read Daniel 5:24-28
3. Sin Leads to Destruction (24-28)
These words are so interesting, and also confusing. It’s no wonder the wise men had such trouble determining their meaning. The 3 words are Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. Each of these words carry a monetary value:
Mene - Mina is 60 Shekels
Tekel is a form of the word Shekel
Parsin or Peres which means “half-piece” and equals a half Shekel
God revealed to Daniel that these monetary phrases were symbolic of something more.
Mene - sounds like the Aramaic word “manah” which means “numbered”
Tekel - comes from 2 root words - “teqal” meaning “to weigh”, and “qal” meaning “to be light or wanting”
Peres - also believed to come from 2 root words - “paras” which means “to divide”, and “Parac” which is the proper name for Persia.
God is so creative, isn’t He? Such incredible word play and meaning. But how tragic this is! Belshazzar had been living in such brokenness that the Lord was about to bring judgment upon him. In fact, his lifestyle would lead to the ultimate end of Babylon. Belshazzar’s life was about to be utterly destroyed. He would lose the kingdom, and ultimately lose his life.
Read Daniel 5:29-31
4. Sin Ultimately Leads to Death (30)
While Belshazzar was having the party of his life, God was orchestrating his demise at the same time. Babylon had a great wall built around the city to protect from invasion. The historian Herodotus tells us that the wall was 320 feet tall, 80 feet thick, and 56 miles in circumference. And while some believe this number to be slightly exaggerated, the point is that it was an impossible wall to breach. The Medes and Persians knew this, so they had come up with a plan. While the party was raging, listen to this from the ancient historian Xenophon:
““They diverted water from the Euphrates River (which ran under the walls of Babylon) into a marsh. WIth the level of the water lowered, the soldiers were able to wade the water under the walls and enter the city.”” He added that “the city was invaded while the Babylonians were feasting in a time of drunken revelry”…As a matter of fact, Xenophon cited the festival as the reason the Persians chose to attack Babylon on that particular night.”
This was the end of Belshazzar. This was the end of Babylon. The Lord looked upon the sin of Belshazzar, weighed it against his holiness, found him wanting, and issued the verdict of death. The application should be clear.
The Lord looks upon our sin, weighs it against his holiness, finds us wanting, and issues the verdict of death. BUT JESUS.
Application
WIthout Christ, like Belshazzar, we are enslaved to our sin. Our sin controls our hearts and minds and causes us to lose all sense of reason. Our sin is so deeply embedded in our nature that our identity is found in it. We are all sinners. Romans 3:23, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The longer we are gripped by a particular sin, the harder our hearts become. The sad reality is that our lives follow the same pattern as we see laid out in Daniel 5. Eventually our sin leads to destruction.
If I were to ask this question: “How many of you have seen the devastating and destructive effects of sin?”, I would believe that most hands would go up. In high school and college I had friendships fracture because of sin. I’ve been in ministry long enough to see marriages crumble because of sin. I had a close friend from high school, later in his life, die of asphyxiation because of drug and alcohol abuse. I’ve seen the destructive nature of sin, and maybe you have too. And while destruction is tragic and costly, there is hope. There is hope because of Jesus. Even though Romans 6:23 tells us that the payment for our sin is death, eternal separation from God, there is hope because life is found in Jesus.
In John 10:10, Jesus says “the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The good news for us is that Jesus provided a way to life, and life abundant. Jesus provided a way out of the destructive nature of our sin. Jesus provided a way to restoration and healing. Jesus provided all of that when He was willingly nailed to a cross, dying the death that we deserve, and being raised to life in resurrection, defeating both spiritual and physical death. Defeating death so that we might have life. Defeating sin so that we might have freedom!
