The Book of Daniel, Belshazzer’s Last Hurrah, Daniel 5:1-4 - Lesson 21

Daniel 5:1-4, Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.  Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.  They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

As far as our study of the book of Daniel is concerned, the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar is over.

His history, according to Daniel, was told in Chapters one through four and was a history of God’s dealing with him as to his eternal destiny.

We learned little of his exploits, his victories, the wonderful kingdom that he had built, the hanging gardens that were one of the wonders of the ancient world, nor the power and glory of Babylon.

We learned little of that for Daniel’s concern was of a spiritual nature and he, under the direction of God’s spirit, told the spiritual story of the king.

It is not what exploits you do in life, it is not what power and grandeur that you have in life, what wealth you amass but it is what you do with God that matters.

None of those things will come to mind when you are near your last breath.

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

We now leave Nebuchadnezzar and we immediately are introduced in chapter five to another Babylonian king, a king with a name much like the Babylonian name of Daniel, a king named Belshazzar which means Bel’s prince.

Bel was or course the name of a Babylonian god, the same god who was named Marduk or Merodach at other times.

The name Bel is the Babylonian equivalent of Baal, which means lord.

Now we will see in chapter five Nebuchadnezzar is called Belshazzar’s father.

The scriptures on many occasions refer to one’s forebears or ancestors as fathers even though they were not directly their fathers.

Such is the case here for it is thought that Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar’s grandfather.

In the Bible the term father can refer to any male ancestor.

According to secular history the empire of Babylon lasted 73 years from 612 to 539 BC.

The 70 year prophesy of the exile of Israel runs from the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC (25 years after the beginning of Babylon) until 517 BC, (22 years after the fall of Babylon).

So the 70 year exile overlaps parts of two kingdom eras, the head of gold era and the silver breast and arms era.

Chapter five gives us an account of the ending of the Babylonian empire and the beginning of the Medo-Persian empire so this chapter takes place in the year 539 BC, the year when this change occurred.

According to secular sources Nebuchadnezzar reigned between 605 and 562 BC, about 43 years, and since the main exile began in 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler of the kingdom 17 years before capturing Jerusalem.

But according to chapter two Daniel was in Babylon in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign which would be some 11 or 12 years before the fall of Jerusalem.

But some scholars think that the reference to the second year of his reign refers to his reign over Israel.

If this is the case then Daniel would have been in Babylon some 48 years before the events of chapter five occur, perhaps being about 64 years old at the time of Belshazzar assuming he was sixteen at the beginning of his exile.

According to secular sources there were several kings between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.

A king named Evil-Merodach ("worshiper of Marduk) reigned for two years.

A king named Neriglissar, for four year, Larbashi-Marduk for just part of a year, and then the son of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus reigned as king from 556 BC until 541 BC when he shared the rule with his son Belshazzar until the kingdom fell in 539 BC.

We will see in verse 16 that Belshazzar offers Daniel the position of third ruler in the kingdom and the reason for that was that he was only the second ruler in the kingdom, his father Nabonidus being the first.

Kings have come and gone since Nebuchadnezzar left the scene some 23 years prior to what takes place in chapter five.

Daniel, no doubt, has been faithfully doing his duties under these various kings and has had a varying prominence during their reign.

It is evident that in chapter five he has not had a relationship with Belshazzar for we will see that Belshazzar’s mother is the one to bring him into memory as a seer and interpreter of dreams.

Chapter five is about judgment.

The fact that this is about judgment is not a surprise, for the dream of chapter two where Nebuchadnezzar dreamt of the great statue of various metals and clay is filled with impending judgment.

Every time the metals change a time of judgment occurs.

Of course the last judgment will take place when the stone made without hands crushes the nations and then fills the whole earth with God’s kingdom.

This chapter begins with Babylon as the head of gold but by the end of the chapter the head of gold became no more, replaced by Medo-Persia, symbolized by the breast and arms of silver.

The kingdom of silver arrives when Darius captures Babylon, and Belshazzar is put to death, thus fulfilling the first part of the prophecy revealed through Daniel.

Judgment occurs and this is what takes place in chapter five.

The kingdom of Nabonidis and Belshazzar was placed on the scale of God’s justice and found wanting.

It is God’s business with nations to weigh them on His scale of justice.

My father was a butcher in his later days and in those days ladies would watch the butcher weighing their purchase, lest the butcher add his finger to the weight of the meat being purchased.

Nowadays you don’t know what you are getting unless you weigh it at home.

But in those days if she ordered a pound of hamburger from a dishonest butcher she may have been taking home only 7/8 of a pound and 1/8 pound of the butcher’s finger.

But God never puts his finger on his scale of justice with the nations.

He continually places the nations on his scale to see if they give a fair balance and there will eventually come an occasion where they are found wanting.

They do not measure up to what his will is and judgment must take place.

Babylon lasted 73 years, 23 years after Nebuchadnezzar left the scene, more than 23 years after God had saved the king but the kingdom under subsequent kings had failed to show a fair balance on the scale of God’s justice.

Belshazzar was in power along with his father Nabonidus and had not ruled the kingdom with justice and mercy.

We read about Nebuchadnezzar’s day with hope, but in this chapter there is no hope.

There is only helplessness for when God’s judgment falls nothing can help the wicked.

The chapter begins with merriment.

Eat, drink, and be merry is the toast of the evening and at every opportunity vessels of wine were raised, most likely accompanied by the saying "Long live the king."

Little do the merrymakers know of their fate for when God’s judgment falls it comes quickly and without appeal.

Their wish for Belshazzar to be long lived was not granted as we soon see Belshazzar’s quick demise.

Let us read Daniel 5:1-4 again,  Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.  Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.  Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.  They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

Notice the repetition of phrases in this passage: drank wine, tasted the wine, drink therein, drank in them, drank wine.

This was clearly a drunken orgy centered around wine.

Wine was the principal thing for wine was what drove this feast.

There is no mention of food, although I’m sure there was food for this was a feast, but the merrymakers did not come for the food.

They came to let their guard down, they came to free their inhibitions for that is what wine does.

The invitation list included the king’s lords, his wives, his princes, and his concubines.

Concubines are women who are not quite wives in the legal sense but enjoy some legally established benefits that a mistress does not have.

King Solomon, contrary to God’s instruction had 300 concubines who turned his heart to their gods.

Hagar was a concubine to Abraham so this was not a rare practice among the society of those day.

But this banquet was filled with immorality and caused Belshazzar to go over the top with God.

God’s hand of judgment was demanded as all immorality demands for God loves his creation but immorality tends toward the destruction of his creation.

During the course of the feast the king remembered the gold and silver vessels that his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

What better thing to do than to impress his guests by calling for them to be brought to the gala and using them to toast the very gods that the God of the Jews condemned.

Pride was not subdued by the wine but instead pride was enhanced by the wine.

Wine always amplifies the fault and we see it amplified in Belshazzar’s idol worship and boldness, by his call for the sacred vessels.

Using them in this drunken orgy was one thing but the ultimate blasphemy occurred when toasts were raised to the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone.

God’s loving hand will not permit sin to go further lest it destroy man.

God has a limit as to how far He will allow men to go in their sin.

We know from personal experience that God is long-suffering and full of mercy and God will allow men to only sin for a season.

But it is only for a season and Babylon had just come to the end of its season for we will see that the king and his guests had crossed the line during that night of merriment

God has a limit as to how far He will allow men to go in their sin.

In His longsuffering and mercy, God may allow men to continue in their sin for a time.

But there is always a time for judgment.

The king and his Babylonian dinner guests crossed the line that fateful night in the hall of wine in Babylon.

This was the day of judgment that God spoke of to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream.

The golden statue was not to be for the silver breast and arms awaited offstage.

The news was to arrive by God’s hand writing on the wall.

Judgment day had come, and the writing on the wall announced its arrival.

This phrase is part of our language used to signify an omen of doom, the end of a thing, the end of an organization, or the end of an activity for this is what takes place in Babylon.

Mighty Babylon will fall for God has weighed it in his balance and it was found wanting and there was no one to provide its lack.