Daniel 5:1-12--The Handwriting on the Wall

Daniel 5:1-12
English Standard Version

The Handwriting on the Wall
5 King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.

2 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7 The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” 8 Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. 9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.

10 The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. 11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, 12 because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”

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The reign of King Nebuchadnezzar has ended in this historic narrative portion of the book of Daniel , and his descendant, King Belshazzar, is now on the throne.  This context for what's going on here is that the Medo-Persian empire is beginning to rise and they are encamped around the capital city of Babylon.  The king wants to show his family, his government officials, and their families how sure he is that they will be safe and they will be victorious.  What better way than to throw a party in the face of what would naturally be a time of fear for the people.  They would ignore what was going on outside and they would drink to excess using the vessels of gold that they robbed from the Temple of the LORD and use them to praise the gods of gold, silver, iron, bronze, wood and stone in which they were putting their hope for their defense.  They were also making a statement that they intended to do to the Medo-Persian gods and their temples what they believed they did to the LORD and His Temple (they thought they had defeated Him and robbed Him of His place to live and His power).  They believed they would also take the Medes and the Persians captive as they had the Jewish people.  They were defiant against everything that the LORD had told them through the visions and dreams given to the various kings and the interpretations given by Daniel.

Immediately after they had toasted their false gods with the sacred objects from the LORD's Temple, a disembodied hand appears and writes a message on the plaster, directly across from the lampstand so that all could see it.  The king's face changes from one who wants to show he has no fear to being visibility afraid.  The color leaves is face, he can no longer stand, his knees knock (he's shaking in fear) and his thoughts alarmed him.  He calls for the aid of the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and "wise men" and makes a promise of anything they want, up to becoming the third highest ruler in the kingdom (probably indicating to us that he was only the second highest ruler in the kingdom and that he was ruling in place of the one was actually king at the time).  Where his "father" Nebuchadnezzar would have promised death to the men and their families and destruction of their property if they could not provide the answer he wanted, Belshazzar prefers the "carrot" to the "stick" and tries to bribe them to get the answers he needs.  No bribe was large enough though because the LORD had intentionally written the message in a language that none of the Babylonians would understand--only the Hebrew people who had refused to give up their language would know the words that were written, yet it would take a prophet of the LORD like Daniel to interpret the words and give the king their meaning.

The queen mother remembers Daniel (it has not been that long, and it appears she had first-hand or at least second-hand knowledge of Daniel being in charge of all the wise men and being able to give interpretations to dreams that none of the other king's men could).  She incorrectly ascribes Daniels wisdom as coming from the gods of Babylon.  She told the king the call for Daniel so that he could give the king the interpretation.

That's where we'll leave it for today.  We'll come back next time to see Daniel interpret the vision and the vision's meaning will become immediately clear as it will be immediately fulfilled.  This will set us up for the last portion of historical narrative where Daniel will serve another king and kingdom in the last years of his life.  He will start to see the dreams and visions that he had fulfilled, but he will not see them fully fulfilled, as even we are waiting for their total fulfillment to this day.