The Handwriting on the Wall
Dan. 5; 1-9
I remember watching a TV show where all the partners and executives of a company were all called for a special meeting. So everyone jammed into the board room paranoid about what was about to happen to their jobs. Some were optimistically trying to easy the tension in the room, seeing that everyone had a hand on their forehead or their stomach in dismay. Yet, while some were finding hope, someone piped up that they had seen the “handwriting on the wall” and it doesn’t look good for everyone, in fact it looked very bad. And so it was for those on the TV show!
Isn’t it funny that the world does all it can do to deny God and everything that has to do with him; yet once a while some bit of the bible comes out of their own mouths! That phase “handwriting on the wall” which maybe you have heard in a similar situation (I hope not) in your life is from the fifth chapter of Daniel.
Some where in their checked past; maybe there was a Sunday school teacher or a godly parent that read to them this chapter and the usualness of the situation fixed itself in their minds; and even though they would say that they didn’t know God or even believe the things of the bible; they sure believe that phrase has a purpose or they would use it! Sometimes I step back in my mind and say to myself; friend you probably don’t have the foggiest idea about what you just said!
I would bet that some who have used this phrase don’t even know it is in the bible to beginning with!
However, this phrase has a greater purpose than to be used as a catch phase for life’s unexpected dilemmas. It is at the center of a situation where God had enough of man’s pride and stupidity.
Let’s acquaint ourselves with the background here in ch. 5.
There’s a new king in town and his name is Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar has passed off the scene as being king and now his grandson Belshazzar is ruling; or at least seems to be!
Historians have had a field day at this point in Daniel Chapter 5; for they have no record of the last king of Babylon being a Belshazzar. In fact, the critics of Daniel say that the last king to rule before the fall of Babylon was Nabonidus. Who’s Right? (Give out handout)
The fact of the matter is that Nabonidus and Belshazzar were co-regents; meaning they were ruling at the same time; much like the Medo-Persians (Cyrus and Darius). At this time of Chapter 5; while Belshazzar is in inside the kingdom drinking himself drunk, his father Nabonidus was outside the city walls fighting the invading Medes and Persians; who as secular history records were encamped as far as the eye could see and was steadily besieging the city for two full years!
Another thing to remember here; is that some 70 years have passed for Daniel and the rest of the captives from Judah. Daniel is not a teenager like he was in Chapter 1 as he stood against the decree of Belshazzar’s grandfather Nebuchadnezzar. As Daniel comes in before king Belshazzar; in comes an old yet faithful man of God!
Now let’s get into the chapter.
I. V1-4 The Folly of Drink
As his father was fighting for his kingdom outside the walls Belshazzar was feasting inside the walls. Some think that this feast was held to boost morale of the people. Yet, I think it was just indicative of the times and person of Belshazzar. Now there is no harm in making a feast, yet that is right where the devil begins! The devil always begins where there is no harm! Please don’t forget that the devil is subtle, meaning that he is tricky, slay, sneaky. He will start you to thinking with nothing but the best intentions in mind for God and yourself and then before you know you are outside of God’s will looking in! The devil tricked you to leave God’s will and you are right where the devil wants you so he can have his way with you!
In Belshazzar’s case it starts going down hill right after the first toast is said. That’s right, drink! What started out as mere protocol in their eyes; ends in debauchery and destruction. Here are a thousands lords, all with there assorted females slaves and wicked friends and the only thing that is needed is a loosening of their minds, and that’s exactly what alcohol does!
Is alcohol really that bad, some would say. After all just think about all those tax dollars, and stadiums, coulmsims and such that have been donated or build by liquor money.
Let’s look at things in perspective shall we, how many died at one time on 9/11 4000-6000 persons? But every 11 seconds someone dies in an alcohol related incident!
That’s roughly 5 persons every minute; that’s 300 every hour! At the close of this day some 7,200 people will have stepped off into eternity because someone decided to drink!
Then factor in that some of these persons did not drink themselves but were in the other lane, or walking the street, or at the other end of the gun or knife while being held by that drunken person! These persons were mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, loved ones, people who probably never drank themselves!
You won’t hear about this on the evening news? Because alcohol is America’s scared cow! It’s sin that has been refined to the point that it is ok now, as long as you drink responsibly and don’t get inside of the car! If there ever lived a hypocritical society, it is this present society that we are in! We pride ourselves about stopping the flow of illegal drugs and educating the public about the dangers of drug abuse; yet we are the same people who don’t mind taking the tax dollars from the liquor crowd to quite our conscience and build our roads, our buildings, and ball parks.
There are those who try to reconcile drinking with their idea of Christianity. They say, “It’s ok to drink as long as you don’t get drunk. That’s like saying you can have sex with whomever as long as you don’t get pregnant. “After all,” they say, “Jesus turned water into wine!” If you think that the Jesus who lived the life of a poor beggar and then shed every drop of his blood to save your hide; is the same person who would pot the top off the champagne bottle for you, your seriously confused. And you have a bigger problem than with drinking; you don’t know God or God doesn’t know you! Have you ever read, Pro 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Or Pro 23:29-35 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
I don’t want to prove God right, do you?
Drinking leads other sins, and that’s just were the devil snagged Belshazzar; v2-4. That was too much for God to take! You don’t take something that is scared unto God and praise some false gods with it! What started out of Stupidity ended in Sacrilege, right where the devil desired.
II. v5-6 The Handwriting on the Wall
God had enough of man’s pride and stupidity was bringing this party to an end! And it would be their end indeed!
Why did God do this usual thing in their sight! For it scared Belshazzar so that that his knees started to knocked together, his countenance his expression changed! No more drunken laughs, but his face was probably white as a sheet of paper and his hair was standing up on the back of his neck! He was scared stiff except for his knees which were knocking together!
Why did God allow them to see the hand as it wrote out this judgment! Maybe because God wanted to put some fear into these people. Maybe God wanted them to know that he wasn’t like the rest of there other gods, he could actually do something!
I have heard some say that we shouldn’t preach hell hot, because that scares people. What’s it going to do? Scare them from hell # 1 to hell #2? If it scares people then they would figure out how to escape it!
God came writing on the wall; the judgment that he was about to drop on these group! By the way God is still writing on walls tonight! The walls of your conscience that is! The HS writes the judgment of God on your conscience and you shudder and quake before him and wonder what it all means and hope that it all pass and everything will be as it was before yet, it won’t be! God has had enough! The spirit of God will not always strive with man! For some the handwriting of judgment has been on the walls of their lives for so long that dust has settled on it! They think that they have gotten away with it, yet the only reason why God delays judgment is simply because he loves us and desires our repentance more than our destruction!
When God writes on your wall, that’s it! The time of honoring yourself has come to an end! The party’s over!
Belshazzar wasn’t familiar with the wording on his wall, so he sends for the handwriting expert; who is the aged Daniel! So enters Daniel! V13-16.
Daniel reads the writing on the wall and it isn’t good news after all!
Across those whitewashed walls were sprawled the words in Aramaic: “mene, mene, tekel, parsin.” The meaning of that phrase seals the fate of Babylon.
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
It’s all over, Belshazzar; God has called your number. Behind the magnificent walls of Babylon, the king laughed at the approach of Cyrus, but that night the Medo-Persian armies were creeping in under the city, ready for the kill.
Tekel: You have been weighed in the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.[1]
God had his number! By the way, God knows your number! God knew the number on your birth certificate, God knows your phone number, and God knows the number on your death certificate; so what are you placing in that category in your head, labeled “No answers, no Hope, so no trying”. Can I say that we couldn’t imagine a problem too big that God could see his way through! Life and sin can not present problems to you that are so big and so complex that you just throw your hands up at and give up thinking there is no answer, no hope so I won’t try. God knows the answer before you even know what the real question is!
The real problem is us when we think we know more than God does and we try to prove him wrong, with our marriages, with our kids, our finances, with our lives. The real issue is that we really don’t want to know the truth to our problems because that would mean that we are wrong, and we are Americans and we are never wrong! The truth will mean us getting right with God; realizing that He does know everything about everything and that we or the experts on TV just don’t have it!
Until you are ready to do what God says no matter what; then you truly aren’t ready for truth! My time is too precious and my life too dear than to waste it looking for answers elsewhere but in God!
Daniel reads the writing on the wall because he can see what God is about to do in Belshazzar’s life; because God did the same in Nebuchadnezzar’s life years ago. Don’t think it strange if you stand where Daniel stood; in front of someone that doesn’t have a clue about what God is doing in their lives and you see judgment is coming if they persist in their sin, what do you tell them!
You tell them the truth, if you love them!
What if I see what God has wrote on your wall before you do; do you have enough fortitude to handle it?
III. The Handwriting Expert
Daniel was forgotten about until he was needed. No one else could understand what God was about to do; so they bring in Daniel who has walked with God for many years. And Daniel reads the writing apparently with no problems at all!
Oh, to be that close to God so to know which way God is going in this life! By the way, God is moving in a certain direction, not just anyway, but a certain way!
The only way to get as good as Daniel in knowing what the Lord is about to do; is too have a real relationship with Him!
To be used to him so; that when it does happen it doesn’t surprise you in the least when it does happen! That doesn’t come from a five minute prayer meeting, which comes from a continued, unbroken walk with God through the trials and joys of life!
God has no favorites with his children! You could know what the Lord was trying to do in your life, if you but started living your with Him included.
Closing:
All what Daniel told Belshazzar came to pass that very night! The Medes and Persians diverted the Euphrates River and walked in the river bed right under the Babylon’s walls and took control the very night!
So that old preacher did know a thing or two after all, yet it was too late for those like Belshazzar. God gave them a window to repent but that window finally closed up forever!
Has God written on your wall lately? Or has the dust settled on what was there before! If God takes the time to tell you something or show your something; then don’t be surprised if God does something the awake you out of your indifference! You need to wake up and start living instead of just existing!
Run your hand down the wall of your conscience tonight and wipe away the dust and spider webs to see what God has wrote for you to do! And then just do what God has written why there is still time for you!
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[1]Jeremiah, D., & Carlson, C. C. (1992). The handwriting on the wall. "Secrets from the prophecies of Daniel"--Cover. (Page 110). Dallas: Word Pub.