The Writing on the Wall
Tom Shrader walks through Daniel 5, the historic fall of Babylon, showing how Belshazzar's pride and willful rejection of God's known truth led to divine judgment written on the wall. Drawing on Romans 1 and the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar, Shrader contrasts Belshazzar's hardness with Daniel's lifelong resolve to honor God regardless of personal cost. The lesson closes with a call for believers to resist cynicism and selfishness, trusting that God remains sovereign over nations and individuals alike.
“God is a patient God, God's a loving God, but God's not just patience and love — because God's a loving God, he's a God that hates sin.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Faithful
Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 1 min
Themes: pride, judgment, sovereignty, faithfulness, humility, repentance, cynicism, obedience, struggling with pride, feeling spiritually hardened, navigating cultural pressure, young adult, new believer, facing consequences of sin, questioning God's control, leader resisting accountability
Scripture: Daniel 1:2, Daniel 1:8, Daniel 2:39, Daniel 4, Daniel 5, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 12:2, Philippians 2, 1 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5:22-23, James 4:13-15, John 15:5
Theological Themes: divine judgment, hamartiology, general revelation, Romans 1, biblical prophecy, God's sovereignty, hardness of heart, sanctification
Full Transcript
Introduction and Context
If you have your Bibles, you can open them to the book of Daniel. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and the guys will bring you one. I think it's page 472, something like that, so raise your hand really high. This is week 11 of a 12-week study titled Faithful. We divided those 11 weeks into two parts. Part one was an examination of the life of Joseph. Part two is a study in the life of Daniel.
We broke it up by chapters — Daniel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We are in chapter 5 today, and we're looking at a historic event. The date on Daniel chapter 5, verse 1 is October 12, 539 B.C., and we are going to look at the fulfillment of a prophecy that Daniel interpreted back in Daniel chapter 2. If we go to the very beginning of the book, back to the first week, we set the context for this. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, he took captive the king, the royal family, and literally thousands of others. Daniel and his companions were among them.
When we talk about faithful, we're talking about Daniel's faithfulness — living in an adverse and adversarial culture and surviving in it. But then ultimately, always, it is the faithfulness of God. I've done a lot of reading and probably as much background and research for a lesson as I have in a long time. Having the time makes a big difference, and I've had a great deal of time to think.
Daniel's Resolve and the Key to the Book
One of the things that's happened to me — and this happens all the time — is that God will take a thought and I go back to it again and again. If you go back to chapter one, verse eight, there's a phrase that when we talked about it the first time, I said it was the key to the chapter. I've expanded that over the last few weeks to say it's the key to at least understanding the book, and I'm not sure it isn't really important to the entire Christian life.
Daniel is taken captive. The king tries to assimilate Daniel and the others into their culture. Chapter one, verse eight says Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself. Some translations say "resolved in his mind," or "Daniel determined." It seems to me that is a key — to resolve in our mind who God is, what this whole Christian life means, and how it begins to flesh itself out.
As far as we know, it doesn't seem like Daniel ever wavered, and he only grew deeper in that resolve. That's inspirational on one hand, but perhaps somewhat humbling on the other, because he simply seems like this determined young man. I think we have to put real weight on chapter one, verse eight — he determined in his mind, and his mind was relentless.
"Do not be conformed to this world," Romans 12 says, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I've been spending a great deal of time thinking about that idea of the mind. Have the mind in you that is also in Christ. It's the worldview, the mindset, the agenda — all that goes with it. Daniel, now at age 80 or more, appears to have remained determined that he will serve God, be faithful to God, and trust God.
Daniel was going to do what he was convinced God would have him do, based on God's Word — here is what He commands, here is what He admonishes, here is what He prohibits. For everything else, Daniel would take God's principles, apply them, and do what was right because it was right, letting the chips fall where they may. God is in control. God is sovereign. God is concerned not about our wins or losses but about our obedience. That seems to be Daniel.
Introducing Belshazzar
When we get to chapter 5, verse 1, the first word is Belshazzar. Belshazzar is a man we are introduced to here, and we are going to discover he is a historical figure. For a long time, historians didn't know anything about him, and therefore the book of Daniel came under a great deal of attack. There were whole different theories —
The Historical Gap Belshazzar Fills
One of the objections raised against the book of Daniel was that it wasn't even written until hundreds of years beyond where we would now date it, and that it has a fictitious nature to it. In 1854, a man by the name of J.G. Taylor was leading an archaeological expedition in southern Iraq, and they found a series of cylinders. Inside those cylinders were documents that dated back to the very time we are looking at — approximately 540 BC. For the first time, a significant historical gap was filled.
Through those records, we can trace the genealogy from Nebuchadnezzar forward. Nebuchadnezzar had a son who reigned for two years before being assassinated. He was replaced by his brother-in-law, who was also killed. That man's son became king and was killed by conspirators, and then a man by the name of Nabonidus — spelled N-A-B-O-N-I-D-S — reigned for 17 years. There was then a gap between him and Cyrus that secular literature could not account for — until the discovery of these cylinders introduced us to a figure named Belshazzar.
Scripture had already filled in that gap with Belshazzar, but secular history had not. The words translated "father" and "relative" in the text can cause some confusion, but here is what we believe happened. Nabonidus became king, though he was not related to Nebuchadnezzar by blood. He most likely took Nebuchadnezzar's widow and adopted her son, Belshazzar. So Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as Belshazzar's father in the text, but in all likelihood he was his grandfather.
Nabonidus was reigning at this time while Cyrus, leading the Medes and the Persians, was stampeding through the world and conquering nation after nation. When Cyrus came toward Babylon, Nabonidus went out to meet him, and roughly 50 miles southwest of the city, a great battle took place. Nabonidus was conquered. In essence, he had already set Belshazzar up as the remaining authority in Babylon, so that the two of them functioned as co-kings. That is the setting we find ourselves in.
The Fall of Babylon Foretold
This moment is literally the fulfillment of what we saw back in Daniel chapter 2, verse 39. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and Daniel interpreted it. Part of that interpretation was: "After you there will arise a kingdom inferior to you, another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over the earth." What we are going to see today is the fall of the Babylonian empire. The Medes and the Persians are surrounding the city — and depending on which historian you read, they had been camped there for perhaps one, two, three, or four months. They are sitting and waiting to destroy it.
Babylon had degenerated morally, politically, economically, and militarily — in every way. The event we are looking at can be dated to October 12, 539 BC. The city of Babylon covered about 15 square miles and was surrounded by a fortress wall 350 feet high and 87 feet thick — wide enough that chariots were raced around the top of it. Towers protruded at various points, ranging from 100 to 450 feet in height, and the city had 100 huge bronze doors. A river ran through the city, providing the water necessary for agriculture and thus sustaining life. By every measure, Babylon was considered impenetrable — safe and secure.
Belshazzar's Feast
In chapter 5, verse 1, Belshazzar is king, and he throws a party — a party that really becomes an orgy. He has a thousand of his nobles present, and they are drinking wine together. Belshazzar, having tasted the wine, gives orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels. These are the very vessels we saw back in chapter 1, verse 2 — the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem.
Nebuchadnezzar had taken those vessels to demonstrate two things that were really one and the same: the weakness of the God of Israel, and the superiority of the gods of Babylon. As best we can tell, however, once those vessels were taken, they were put away and not used for common purposes. Belshazzar changes that. Anyone who has ever had too much to drink knows that people sometimes do things in that state that they would not do sober, and this may well be one of those moments.
Notice who Belshazzar has with him at the end of verse 2 — his wives and his concubines. That itself was unusual for this kind of gathering. So here is this party, the wine is flowing, and Belshazzar brings out the sacred goblets and vessels. In doing so, he desecrates them and blasphemes the one true God all at once. And then, in verse 4 — and I say this with a smile — "they drank wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone." In all my days, having toasted many things, I never once toasted the god of wood. It strikes me as a remarkable thing to do.
The Hand Appears
Let me paint the scene for you. The room we believe this took place in was approximately 55 feet wide and 169 feet long — not terribly different in size from the room we are in right now. Carved into the wall was a niche, roughly where that screen is up there, where the king and his entourage would sit and preside over the gathering. So picture it: a thousand people, drunk, in the middle of an orgy and a celebration — and then comes the party stopper of verse 5.
"Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing." The king is looking out over the room. He cannot necessarily see what is being written — he only sees the hand that appears. This is where the phrase "the handwriting on the wall" originates. He sees this hand writing, he does not know what it says, and then all at once — whether he can see it but cannot understand it, or whether he understands it but cannot bear what it means — everything changes.
God's Patience Has Limits
Verse 6 tells us that Belshazzar's face grew pale, his thoughts alarmed him, his hip joints went slack, and his knees began to knock together. One paraphrase says his knees knocked and his legs gave way. He senses that God is moving, that something extraordinary is happening. Apparently everyone saw this, though as we will see, not everyone necessarily understood exactly what was happening. It stopped everything and became a teachable moment.
Remember the setting: the king is surrounded by the armies that are going to conquer and destroy him. Yet either he feels safe behind the city walls or he simply has not been concerned — until now. Whatever the case, he gets the sense that God is beginning to move.
God is a patient God. Tim taught last week from Daniel 4, and there is that scene where Nebuchadnezzar has flaunted himself before God. He has had two, three, four occasions where he was exposed to the true God and even acknowledged Him — not necessarily worshipping Him, but acknowledging Him. Finally, in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar is walking around the palace saying, "Look what I did, and I did, and I did," and God says, "That's enough." Nebuchadnezzar then spends essentially seven years living like a cow until he comes to his senses.
It is important for us to understand, in terms of application, that while God is a patient God, He is not a God of endless patience. I remember being in a prayer group seated next to a man whose prayer began, "Father, thank you for your infinite patience." I had not been a Christian very long, but I grabbed onto that and thought, "That doesn't sound right." Is God a patient God? Certainly. But God's patience is not endless, nor does there appear to be any guaranteed prescription for how long it lasts.
We are going to see today that what ultimately happens is that while Nebuchadnezzar's story was one of grace, Belshazzar's story is one of justice. God is a patient God, God is a loving God, but God is not only patience and love. Because He is a loving God, He is also a God who hates — He loves righteousness and hates sin. He instructs, He waits, but He does not wait forever. God has reached a point here where He has decided to move.
The Wise Men Cannot Help
The handwriting is on the wall, and Belshazzar, following a pattern we have already seen with Nebuchadnezzar, does not know what to do. So in verse 7, he calls together the best and the brightest — his brain trust, his cabinet, his advisors. He tells them that any man who can read the inscription and explain its interpretation will receive three things: he will be clothed in purple, have a necklace of gold around his neck, and be granted authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.
Consider those rewards in reverse. Third ruler in the kingdom — why third? Because Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar hold the first two positions, so this man would be granted real authority and rule. The gold chain represents the most valuable of commodities and is a picture of honor. The purple robe, as you know, is a robe of royalty. In essence, the king is saying, "I don't know if you need incentive, but here it is — tell me what this means."
Verse 8 tells us that all the wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation. We do not know whether they could see it but could not understand it, or whether something blocked it out entirely. We do not know whether they had been drinking all day and simply dismissed it. Whatever the case, they saw it, they could not figure it out, and they were left in the dark.
Then Belshazzar, who was already alarmed, became greatly alarmed. His face grew even paler, and his noblemen were perplexed. One translation says King Belshazzar became even more terrified. He senses now that something is beyond his control. The blood drains from his face, there is confusion — perhaps a stampede of panic, people saying to one another, if you play it out in your own mind, "What is going on?"
The Illusion of Control
That moment, as frightening as it is, is in one way a wonderful moment — and if we can live in it, it is a great moment. It is the moment of understanding that life is beyond our control. We see it all around us. We generally agree that the most powerful man in the country is the President of the United States, and yet he will regularly say, "But I can't get this done through Congress." And when one of those men gets a cold, you realize: this is the most powerful man in the country, and he has a cold. There is an illusion we periodically carry in life that somehow we are the ones who call the shots, that we are the ones who truly determine our direction.
I believe the Bible teaches that you are going to live to a certain date. I do not know what it is — we all have one, an expiration date. I do not think you can shorten it, I do not think you can extend it, though I do think you can affect the quality of your life. The idea that I am fully in control is an illusion.
Sandy and I have been spending a lot of time together, talking about the future — what we do, what that looks like — and those are exciting conversations. I do well in them in that I enjoy the conversation, but I am not a strategic thinker, not a great planner. The Bible teaches us to plan, but to paraphrase the book of James, it teaches us to write our plans in pencil and give God the eraser.
The Queen's Intervention
Now the queen enters in verse 10. In all likelihood this is Belshazzar's mother. She enters because of the words of the king and the nobles, and she speaks, saying, "O king, live forever." That formality is out of the way. Then she says, don't let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale, because you have a resource you didn't know you had: Belshazzar. She says, I'm going to give you a history lesson.
"There is a man in your kingdom in whom a spirit of the holy gods dwells. In the days of your father he had illumination and insights and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods that are found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father — again, in all likelihood his grandfather — your father the king appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers of the Chaldeans, and diviners. This was because of an extraordinary spirit and knowledge and insight and interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems that are found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar."
She says his name is Daniel, but you may not remember that. Do you remember hearing about a Belshazzar? We're going to find out that he had. "Let Daniel now be summoned and let him declare what will happen."
Daniel's Legendary Reputation
The queen describes this man as legendary — someone whose stories are all over the kingdom. There were probably times when Belshazzar was at his grandfather's house late at night and said, "Grandfather, tell us a story." And Nebuchadnezzar would say, there was this man, and there was this fire, and his friends went in and came out. Then, as Belshazzar got older, the stories would have grown in sophistication — how Daniel came in and interpreted dreams and was a man of legendary proportion.
So much so that, by the end of it all, Nebuchadnezzar himself had to acknowledge that Daniel's God was the one true God. Daniel would say that anything you see in me — any interpretation of dreams, any value or wisdom — that's not me. That's what God gave me. And as we saw two weeks ago, God didn't give it to him because of something in Daniel that earned it, but because God decided to give it to him.
Belshazzar's Response to What He Already Knew
Verse 13: "Then Daniel was brought before the king, and the king spoke to Daniel: 'Are you that Daniel who is one of the exiles of Judah whom my father the king brought?'" What Belshazzar says next is, to me, remarkable. He says: I've heard about you. I've heard about that king of Israel. I know your history with Nebuchadnezzar. I know Nebuchadnezzar's story — that he was like a madman for seven years. I know you interpret dreams. I know that you are a revealer of dreams, and that God has revealed these things to you, and that you are His servant.
And yet, even knowing all of that, Belshazzar essentially says: I'm not going to worship that God.
The Pattern in Romans 1
Keep your finger there in Daniel and turn to the book of Romans, chapter 1. The pattern we see in Belshazzar's life is not particularly unusual. Paul has been talking about the power of God for salvation found in the gospel, and then in verse 18 he says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. In verses 19 and 20 he turns to creation.
Sandy and I were staying recently in a place that was very dark — almost no lights. We were out one night, around 9:15 or 9:20, walking along near a little putting green just behind where we were staying. I said, let's look up. And when you look up into the sky, it looks almost bright — what appears to be clouds are really galaxies, stars, billions and billions of them. That is what Paul is writing about here in Romans 1.
He is saying: you look around, and what you see points you to something. I watched a great interview with Ben Stein the other day — not a born-again Christian — and he was talking about creation. He said there is something simply foolish about looking around at all of this and saying it somehow came from nothing. There has to be an origin. To me that is simple logic: there has to be something, at least something that is eternal in its existence and capable of creating something from void or nothing.
That word "void" reminds me of Jonathan Edwards, whom I periodically read — not because I fully understand him, but it makes me feel smart to say I've read him. Jonathan Edwards has a wonderful definition of nothing. He says nothing is what a rock dreams about when it sleeps. You can't even perceive true nothingness, because if I say, "Think of nothing," you immediately think of something. And to me it just makes sense: there has to be something. That is what Paul is saying. You look at the stars, and the stars point you to something.
The Exchange: Suppressing the Truth
There is a wide group of people who, as Romans 1:21 describes, know God — they understand the evidence is there — but they do not honor Him and they do not give thanks to Him. As a result of that, they become foolish in their speculation, coming up with wild theories, and their hearts are hardened. Romans 1:22 puts it plainly: "they profess to be wise but they become foolish." I have many discussions with men who are far smarter than I am, yet they say some of the most foolish things when they try to explain how we got something from nothing — jumping through all those hoops rather than accepting the simple explanation.
Here is what God does with that group in verse 23: they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of the form of a corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creatures. Then God gives them over to their lusts. It is not that God intervenes and pushes them that direction — rather, He says, "Is that what you want? You want to continue to push Me away?" That could easily be someone here today. You have heard about God, heard about Him, heard about Him again — yet in your mind, God has never truly become God.
They are given over to the lusts of their hearts and to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. Verse 25 tells us what they do next: "they exchange the truth of God for a lie, and they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator." All of a sudden they are worshiping dolphins, animals, and the world itself. Even as Christians we can be pulled this way — loving the gift more than the Gift-Giver, loving the blessing more than the Blesser.
When I see a massive tree down in the street, as I did driving to dinner last night, I think it is a terrible thing. But I do not worship the tree. When you see the intense passion some people have for certain animals or the natural world, I think it is because they have decided to worship the creation rather than the Creator. God simply says, "Is that what you want to do?"
In verse 26, He gives them over to degrading passions. Women exchange natural functions for unnatural ones, and in the same way men abandon the natural function and burn in desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts. Verse 28 continues: just as they do not see fit to acknowledge God, God gives them over. God is not pushing — He is saying, "That is what you want? Then go."
The World Romans 1 Describes
Look at what the result sounds like, and see if it does not sound like the world we live in today. It is being filled with unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil — full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil. Have we ever lived in a time like this? You can take the most creative person in the world, and he is Walt Disney when it comes to inventing new forms of sin. Disobedient to parents, without understanding, confused — the basic things of life no longer make any sense to them.
They are unloving and unmerciful. Although they know the ordinance of God — that those who practice these things are worthy of death — they not only do the same, but they also give hearty approval to those who practice them. It is not just that they are satisfied ruining their own lives; they want others to ruin their lives too.
Belshazzar Reaches the Point of No Return
If you go back to Daniel, that is exactly what you see in Belshazzar. He has reached the point where he has said, "I know, I know, I know," and God has finally said, "Okay — that is enough."
In verse 14 of Daniel 5, Belshazzar says he has heard about Daniel and the spirit of the gods and the illumination within him — all the things we discussed back in chapter two. Verse 15 notes that the wise men were brought before him but could not declare the meaning of the inscription. He says it yet again in verse 16: "I personally have heard about you and you are able to give interpretations. Now, if you are able to read the inscription and make the interpretation known to me, I will give you those three things — the purple robe, the gold necklace — and you can have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom."
Daniel's Fearless Response
At this point Daniel is, let us say arbitrarily, about 85 years old. There is something about people as they get older where the filter is perhaps gone — they are no longer as measured. Daniel is not concerned about building a career path or establishing a resume. He stands before God. He was not intimidated at age 15, and he is certainly not intimidated at age 85. He is courageous.
In verse 17, he says: keep your gifts. He does not want the rewards. He is not for sale. I was going through some files recently and found a quote from Jerry Colangelo that speaks to exactly this kind of integrity. He said: "I'll tell you categorically that as the stakes have increased in sports, more opportunities have popped up for people in every area of the industry to bend the rules, to take shortcuts. The ethics of business have deteriorated. The business seemed not only more innocent in earlier days, but more ethical."
I watched a great deal of discussion a couple of weeks ago surrounding the Joe Paterno situation. Without getting in the middle of all of that, as the full picture unfolded it became something of an indictment. Matt Millen, who played for Paterno and then went on to
Keep Your Robe
Detroit Lions. Matt Millen was saying that Paterno failed to do what was right for the institution. No — Paterno failed to do what is right. Very subtle. On the surface, it appears his obsession was to protect the institution, the final score, recruiting, and the bottom line. This man who really was an icon ultimately isn't much different from some of the other men who tripped through there.
Daniel is eighty-five years old. It was not a time to compromise. It was not a time to feather your nest. It never is, but there is something particular about age.
When I began speaking, young guys would come to me and ask how I do it. There are all sorts of techniques, but ultimately you just have to do it — that's how you do it. So I would go wherever they invited me.
I was in Sun City one night with a group of about seventy women, the youngest of whom was probably around sixty. It was an annual event, and I said to them, "Most of you — some of you, probably you — aren't going to be here next year." There is a freedom in a group like that.
So I'm teaching, and there is a lady in the small group who presumes, because she can't hear well, that no one else can either. I said something, everyone laughed, and she said, "What did he say?" The lady next to her whispered, "That's not funny." I said to myself, okay, I can handle it. So I moved to stand near her and make my points, and as I turned to walk away she said, "He reminds me of my son-in-law. That man put my daughter through hell." No apprehension about it whatsoever. Every time I taught at Westchester, every time I taught with older people, there has been some version of that.
A Godly Old Age
The flip side is this. The other night I was on YouTube — and there can't be many people doing this, trust me — watching film clips of Corrie ten Boom and listening to her talk about facing Nazi persecution and the faithfulness of God. She talked about being in a prison where the lice were so bad, the germs so bad, the filth and disease so severe, that the guards wouldn't come in. And Corrie said, "What a blessing from God, because they didn't come in, we could have church."
There is something about a bitter old person that is frankly pretty ugly to watch, and something about a godly old person who can say, "My God is a great God." That is Daniel. Keep your robe and your chain — I don't have time to be ruling. I added all that.
Nebuchadnezzar's Testimony
"Oh King, the Most High God granted sovereignty and grandeur and glory and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar." Daniel begins to deliver Nebuchadnezzar's testimony. Nebuchadnezzar was a man of power who could kill whom he wanted, save whom he wanted, and elevate whom he wanted. He could do whatever he wanted to do.
But there was a moment, verse 20, where he was so proud and so arrogant that God came along and reduced him to where he lived like a beast — until he came to his senses. At the end of verse 21, he recognized the Most High God as the ruler over the realm of all mankind. That is the testimony.
You Should Have Known Better
You know it, don't you, Belshazzar? You heard all of this. How many times do you have to see it?
Here is the problem, verse 22: "You, his son, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this." You should have known better. That is an indictment grounded in the knowledge of who God is.
I was going back through some books, really plowing through a lot of material. I picked up this morning *Knowing God*, which I have read who knows how many times, but it has been a while. I remember a line where J.I. Packer says something to the effect that once you understand who God is, the rest of life falls into a kind of purpose of its own accord — it fits together. Years ago someone asked me what books they should read, and out of my mouth came *Knowing God*, *Loving God*, *The Pursuit of God*, and *Chosen by God*. I realized that getting God is a very big deal.
That is what Daniel is saying to Belshazzar. We could point out how bad you are, but let's do it differently — let's point to God and who He is. He is the sovereign, the absolute, the One who is in control. Nebuchadnezzar had to go through all sorts of suffering before he finally received it through the grace and mercy of God. You, on the other hand, have had all of these privileges.
That connects to one of my great concerns for my own daughters. My girls never knew me as an unbeliever — Sarah was three months old when I became a Christian. One of my great fears was whether, being around so much church, so many good people, so much faith, so much religion, and so much Bible, they would never develop a sense of their own sin. What I finally rested in is this: if they truly are around people and they see God and who He is, that perspective alone will give them a sense of their sin, because we understand that no matter how good we are, we don't come close to measuring up.
And that is precisely the charge here. You should have known you don't measure up.
The Writing Explained
Verse 23: you exalted yourself against the Lord, you dishonored God, you desecrated His instruments, you blasphemed against Him — and now you are in very serious trouble.
God sent His hand, and here is what it wrote, and here is what it means. Verse 25: "The inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." The interpretation is this — *Mene*: God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. *Tekel*: you have been
The Writing on the Wall
"You have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. Your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and the Persians." God said to Belshazzar, "You should have known all this. You should have known better, but now we are at the end." There is a finiteness to it. Part of what I plan to read about in the first week of August is a little more about heaven — understanding that I don't know how close I am to it, but I am a day closer than I was yesterday, that my days here are numbered, that this is temporary.
This seems so self-evident, and yet everything in our fiber seems to fight against it and even make decisions against it. It is so self-evident that this is all passing away, and there is a sense in which a lot of this just does not matter much.
Weighed Against the Standard
God says, "You have been weighed." Let me illustrate what that means. I have a scale at home — unforgiving, merciless. It does everything but mock you. You step on it, and in big, bold numbers it shows you immediately. In Belshazzar's day, the scales were different — balanced scales. They would have prescribed weights on one side, and then place something like grapes on the other side until they balanced, and that is how things were measured and weighed.
Here is what God is saying to Belshazzar: you have been weighed against the standard of perfection, and you come up way short. You may be better than everyone else at this feast. You may be a great man, the king of the world. But I am telling you, you are way, way short. The problem is you do not think you are.
I played golf three times in the last two weeks, having not played in about a year, and I am reminded of something true of almost every golfer — and really of every person. Ninety percent of Americans think they are above average. I think I am a far better golfer than I really am. God is saying to Belshazzar: you think you are something, but it is because you are hanging around with the wrong crowd and measuring yourself by the wrong standard. Compared to My standard, you are found short.
The Kingdom Divided
And now here is the consequence. Humanly, politically, militarily, Belshazzar's kingdom is about to be divided. We can take that in its grand scope, and we can bring it down to the individual level as well. There is that day for all of us when we will experience something like it.
The whole Christian life begins with the opposite of Belshazzar's attitude. His attitude is one of pride. I want to make a statement that may seem obvious, but I am genuinely convinced that in terms of living the Christian life, humility and love are the key. The mind of Christ is the key. If you take the mind of Christ in Philippians 2, the key element there is that He humbled Himself. If you take the essence of love in 1 Corinthians 13, it is to not seek your own.
So much of my life, even as a follower of Christ, is still about pushing my agenda, my way, and me — lots of singular personal pronouns not typically followed by "I'm sorry." But when I understand that I am absolutely incapable of saving myself — and therefore Christ came, lived, and died — and I embrace that, I have salvation. And I embrace it not just for that moment, but for my whole life.
The Spirit's Fruit, Not Performance
Jesus tells me, even as a follower of His, that I can do nothing apart from Him. He does it through me. He is the strength. He is the power source. I am to love God and love my neighbor. If I love Him, I will keep His commandments. And all of that is going to be done by the Holy Spirit in my life.
Sandy and I had a long conversation the other day — really more me talking than her listening, though she was great about it. I was struck by this: the fruit of the Spirit is not a deed. Paul does not say the fruit of the Spirit is Bible study, prayer, and fasting — and I am not demeaning those things. He says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, and all of these manifest themselves in different behaviors. So my life begins to look different, and it is motivated by something different — not by performance and acceptance, because God has already accepted me. He cannot love me more. He cannot love me less.
What is true for Belshazzar and his nation becomes something we must apply to ourselves as well.
Belshazzar's Response and His End
Then Belshazzar gave orders, as recorded in verse 29. And I have to say, for me personally, I found this remarkable — he followed through. That was not the interpretation he was looking for, but he clothed Daniel in purple, put a necklace around his neck, issued a proclamation, and established him as the third highest authority in the kingdom. He kept his word.
That same night, however, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain, and Darius of the Medes and the Persians moved in and took control. The city was thought to be impenetrable. Here is what the Medes and Persians actually did — and it was not elaborate at all. They brought in their core engineers, dried up the river, walked in, and never fired a shot.
The Fall of Babylon and the Limits of Self-Protection
They took over the city. What comes to my mind is that a person can sit there and say, "I'm pretty well protected." And God said, "Really? Boom, done." My takeaway from this is there is a sense in which you are immortal as long as God is working in your life, and once He is done with you, nothing will keep you here. You can fasten your seat belt, sit in the car, and never move out of the garage, and the garage will fall on you. Something is going to happen once He is done.
That is the story. When we pick it up next week, we will look at Daniel in the service of Darius, so there will be yet another boss, and we will see a pattern that we have already seen in Daniel's life and Joseph's life.
Scholars Draw a Parallel to America
I had a lot of time to research, and I went to a lot of different authorities on Daniel — all of Daniel, but especially Daniel chapter five. Every one of them, going back to Donald Gray Barnhouse in the 1950s, moving forward through Ray Stedman and John MacArthur, all of them try to draw a parallel between Babylon and its vulnerability and the United States of America. I am not demeaning that at all, because you can see it, but it is not just true of the United States — it is true of every nation.
As scholars study great nations and civilizations, they tend on average to survive around 250 years, some shorter, some longer. If you take that 250 years, that puts the United States right in the sweet spot.
The Ten Stages of Civilizational Decline
There are different ways people evaluate the falls and rises of nations, and there is a lot of emphasis in Christian circles on the spiritual dimension. One historian compiled a list with this setup: each of the great civilizations of the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to decline to their death. Here are the ten stages.
The progression runs from bondage to spiritual faith, faith to courage, courage to liberty — and you think of all of these things when you consider the founding era — liberty to abundance, abundance to selfishness, selfishness to complacency, complacency to apathy, apathy to moral decay, moral decay to dependency, and dependency back to bondage.
I have been reading versions of this list for the last sixty years, and everybody wants to plot where we are on the line. I do not know where we are. What I do know is it is historic fact that the incident we looked at today took place on October 12th, 539 BC. These nations, at their most powerful, had no one predicting their demise — everyone assumed they would last forever — and yet they did not. Winston Churchill said the one thing we have learned from history is that we do not learn from history. The philosopher Hegel said that what experience and history teach us is that people and governments never learn anything from history or act on the principles deduced from it.
The Decline of the Family in Ancient Greece and Rome
Years ago, my mentor Larry Wright introduced me to a book called *Our Dance Has Turned to Death* by Carl Wilson. In that book, Wilson traces the decline of the family as it took place in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. These stages feel like they can speak to us today and should resonate.
The first stage is that men cease to lead their families in worship. Spiritual and moral development becomes secondary, and their view of God becomes naturalistic, mechanical, and mathematical. One of the things I have always loved about the early days of East Valley Bible Church is that when you went into children's ministry, there was always a man in the room. I think there is something serious when a third-grade boy comes into his class and all he sees are women. Somehow the message becomes: we will get you back when you are in college.
The second stage is that men selfishly neglect their wives and children and pursue material wealth, political power, military power, and cultural development. Material values begin to dominate thought. To achieve great things requires great sacrifice, and very often that sacrifice is made on the backs of the family. Even when the family comes along, they are fairly neglected. Every so often you will see a headline: "I am stepping down as head coach so I can devote more time to my family" — and then a year later they take another job. It is very hard to be successful in the world and equally successful at home. As a man, I will tell you it is much easier in the workplace than it is at home. At the office you say ship it to Singapore, get it to Dayton, get this done now — and it happens. You go home and say clean your room, and you hear "yeah, yeah, yeah." It just is.
The third stage involves men changing their sexual values. Preoccupied with business and war, they neglect their wives and become involved with other women or homosexuality. The fourth stage is a double standard, and the women say that is enough of that. The role of women at home and with their children loses value and status. Women are neglected and their roles are devalued.
The Collapse of the Family
No one can have it all. Men cannot. Women cannot. Millions of moms and dads have outsourced their parenting roles to the schools, to friends, to neighborhoods, to churches. That is not sustainable.
Husbands and wives compete against each other for money, leadership, and affection. The result is hostility and frustration. Many marriages end in separation. Children are unwanted, aborted, abandoned, molested, and undisciplined. The more undisciplined children became, the more social pressure there was not to have children at all. The breakdown of the home produced anarchy — "You're not going to tell me what to do." Look at what is happening in Spain and Greece and places like them.
Fragmentation and the Weakening of Society
Selfish individualism grew and carried itself into society, fragmenting us into smaller and smaller loyalties. The nation is weakened by internal conflict. A decrease in the birth rate produces an older population with less ability to defend itself. There is somebody lobbying for everyone. Is the leadership in this country good? No, it is bad, it is awful, it is gutless, by and large. But what is worse is this: you are poor followers. You cannot lead 400 million people who each have their own agenda.
Unbelief in God becomes more complete. Parental authority is diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappear. They affect the economy and the government, and thus the eternal weakening and fragmenting of society causes it to come apart. I understand the appeal of pointing to drugs and sex as the cause. They had plenty of that back in the old West — shooting, prostitutes, all of it. But something is different now. When we were kids, we knew we were screwed up. We knew we were wrong, and when we did things, we hid them. Today, that sense of being in the wrong is gone.
A Referendum on the American People
This presidential election is not about healthcare. It is not about the economy. If it were about the economy, one candidate would be ahead by twenty points. It is not really about either candidate. This is a referendum on the American people. This is my eleventh presidential election, and every one of them has been called the most important of all time. Trust me — not like this one. This one is a big deal.
We are on a course that is unsustainable. Though it is Sunday, we will still borrow 4.5 billion dollars today to fuel the government — forty cents out of every dollar spent. In 1960, it took eighteen people to support one person receiving a check from the government. Today it is 2.2 people. In the last three years, 3.1 million people went on full-time disability while only 2.6 million people got jobs.
Victims Without Villains
This country has for a long time been told that its people are victims and never villains, and they have begun to believe it. They have come to a point where they believe the Declaration of Independence does not speak of a pursuit of happiness but a guarantee of happiness. Once that starts, I do not know if you can stop it. I am fairly certain you cannot reverse it.
Every twenty-six seconds, a child drops out of high school. The percentage of nineteen-year-olds in the United States with a driver's license dropped from 87.3% in 1983 to 69.5% in 2012. That is incomprehensible to me. When I was young, I could not wait to drive. You are telling me that three in ten young people do not even want a driver's license? Something is wrong. You have already lost any sort of drive. Further reading suggests this reflects an increased use of the Internet — the virtual contact made possible through electronics reduces the actual physical need for contact among young friends. So you have a young person on a social media platform with 2,400 friends and nobody to talk to, nobody to call. The society becomes more fragmented and more selfish.
Skin in the Game
There is a whole discussion about paying your fair share. I do not know anything about the top one percent. But if you are making $40,000 a year, what is your fair share? I know it is not zero, yet that is effectively what almost everyone at that level pays in federal tax. If you are on unemployment, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, I think you have a fair share to contribute. People skip lunch Monday through Friday all the time to save for cars, college, and the future. Get some skin in the game. But no one wants skin in the game — they want more and more and more, and you cannot stop it.
To the greatest generation, to all the older folks here: tell them you will give back five percent of your Social Security. Get a little skin in the game. Show what fair share looks like. The news is, it is not going to happen. The leaders are gutless, by and large, and unless the people say they will lead and promise to follow, those leaders are not going to act. They are going to run this straight into the ground.
God Is Still Sovereign
Now I come full circle to the lesson. God is in control. God is sovereign. Do not get angry — I can get there. Do not get cynical — I can get there. Do not
Remember What God Has Done
Do not get discouraged. This is a big deal — this is serious. These are not small issues. These are huge issues with huge ramifications, and you are going to have to lead the way.
I cannot fathom the world that Brayden is going to live in when he is my age, but that is all right. What did I just learn in Daniel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6? God is in control. Who is going to win the 2012 presidential election? Whoever God wants. Our call is to be salt and light in the midst of this.
No matter how much I can work myself into these things, the bottom line is: He is God. He loves me more than I love myself. He knows what perfect love is, He knows what we need, and He knows that at one point in our lives what we need more than anything else is Jesus.
It is like Daniel — you resolve in your mind, and then God acts. Many in this room have understood the truth of that and have come to that point. That is why the cross is so important.
Responding to His Love at the Table
Remember — something is powerful about going back and remembering, especially remembering what Jesus has done for you. We come now not to try to pay Him back, but in response to His love, driven by His love, compelled by His love. We come to the cross, and we come to a time of communion.
Father, thank You that You are a sovereign, holy God. When we look around, it seems really clear what is going on — we are losing sight not just of You, but we have become selfish. God, let us be driven by one thing: the gospel and Your truth. Do not let us grow cynical and sour, do not let us withdraw, but let us be the men, women, and students You would have us be in this world. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.