I remember being overjoyed with a handful of my own money as I entered the discount store to buy "whatever I wanted" according to my grandmother! I sat there in silence looking at all the lovely jewelry and I was dazzled by some gold-colored chains. They were sparkley... so I purchased one and went on with my day.
But only a few weeks later I looked with sad and tearful eyes at my beloved chain. Its gold color had disappeared, leaving only a dull, unattractive, worthless piece of metal... I remember feeling so riped off! I learned a valuable lesson that day...outward appearances are not always representative of the actual worth.
I think this is an accurate appraisal of Babylon at the time the events of Daniel chapter 5 occurred. Ahthough there was an outward appearance of prosperity and security, the armies of the Medo-Persians were beating at the city gates, and great Babylon was soon to fall in fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy in chapter 2.
Part 1 (Daniel 5: 1-16)
For hundreds of years Daniel 5 was the only literary source for the fact of Belshazzar's reign. No other document of antiquity mentioned Belshazzar. The ancient records seemed to contradict Daniel by stating Nabonidus was the last king of the Babylonian empire. Naturally the destructive critics made much of this apparent discrepancy and pointed to Daniel as a first-class example of unreliability.
In more recent years; however, the accuracy of Daniel has been verified by archaeological discoveries. Belshazzar's name was appeared on Babylonian inscriptions, and we now know he reigned in Babylon while Nabonidus was absent from the city.
Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonidus, and reigned concurrently with him. On October 29, 539 B.C., Belshazzar entertained the aristocracy of Babylon at a most unusual feast. it was unparalleled for the presence and numbers of dignitaries, for drunkenness, for desecration, and for defiance. In all the annals of Biblical history, Belshazzar's banquet is unrivaled for debauchery, blasphemy, revelry, and profanity.
He provided a menu of wine, women, and wantonness. The presence of women (wives and concubines) added to the unexampled character of the occasion, for women were rarely invited to this kind of feast (Esther 1:10-12).
But Belshazzar was not satisfied until he committed a terrible sacrilege. Inflamed with wine, he decided to do something daring and sensational. He would mock the living God by defiling the sacred utensils which his grandfather had removed from the Temple at Jerusalem. To show the superiority of the Babylonian gods, he commanded the golden and silver vessels be filled with wine and distributed to his intoxicated guests. (The Tabernacle furnishings were not to be defiled by unsuitable hands according to scripture 1 Sam. 5:8-12 and 2 Sam. 6: 6, 7).
One other motive may have sparked the feast and suggested the profanation of the holy vessels. For weeks the armies of Medo-Persia, under the command of Cyrus and Darius, had been engaged in a campaign against Babylon...with no results.
The Babylonians were entrenched behind the impregnable walls of the city with rations to last them almost indefinitely. Belshazzar believed his heathen deities had secured him against the siege of Cyrus and the eastern army, and so the king arranged a feast to honor his gods and to show his contempt for the Medes and Persians.
I think Belshazzar should have been fasting instead of feasting... he rested in false confidence and it led to his ruin. He felt so invulnerable inside his mighty fortifacations he gave vent to an utter reckless abandon.
In the grim watches of the night when the feast reached its dizzy height, the fingers of a man's hand, writing on the palace wall, brought the wicked merrimakers to a sudden and sober halt. The king was so affected by the mysterious interuption his face turned to a ghastly pallor, his min reeled under the force of it, and his knees trembled uncontrollably (vs. 6).
His own guilty conscience told him he couldn't expect anything but bad news from Heaven.
Charlatans filled the palace, and although Nebuchadnezzar had thoroughly exposed their incompetence and fraudulence, Belshazzar had learned nothing from the past. So he summoned the wise men to interpret the cryptogram with a promise to elevate anyone who succeeded to the third place in the kingdom.
But the efforts of the wise men proved as futile as they were in Nebuchadnezzar's day, and the king despaired of solving the riddle.
Then Nebuchadnezzar's widow came to the banquet hall, counseling her grandson to appeal to Daniel. She gave a resume of Daniel's character, position, and superhuman knowledge (vs. 10-12).
Daniel, now an old man, must have been rudely awakened from his peaceful slumber and brought before the king with all haste. Belshazzar commenced his interview with Daniel by the confirmation of his pedigree, continued with a presentation of the problem, and concluded with a promise to reward Daniel with prestige, power, and a princedom (vs. 16).
Part 2 (Daniel 5: 17-30)
Daniel's first response was to refuse the gifts of the profligate king. He could not be bribed or bought, and he did not read the divine inscription for money. Daniel knew the treasures and glory of Babylon were no longer Belshazzar's to give soon they would be the possessions of Cyrus.
Thereupon, Daniel recounted to Belshazzar God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. In his providence God had raised Nebuchadnezzar up to irresistibility, might, and authority; He had delegated to him absolutely control over the affairs of nations (vs. 18, 19).
But Nebuchadnezzar abused his power and acted toward God in insolence and obstinacy, resulting in the Lord denying him his reason, dethroning him, and debasing him (vs. 20, 21).
Then, before Daniel deciphered the enigma and declared the doom of the young king, he commented on Belshazzar's crime. Stating clearly Belshazzar's impudence was worse even than Nebuchadnezzar's. He had insulted God Himself by profaning the consecrated instruments of His sanctuary, by exalting himself above God, by refusing to acknowledge his dependence upon God, by denying God's supremacy, and by robbing God of the glory due His name.
Man's first responsibility is to glorify God, but Belshazzar glorified the gods of Babylon and defied the God of Heaven (vs. 22, 23).
God's patience exhausted, righteous judgment must be executed. The day of reckoning had dawned, and Daniel pronounced the sentence of doom in the interpretation of the writing.
"Mene"--the allotted number of days for the duration of the Babylonian empire ahd been determined by God, and they had run their course.
"Tekel"--Belshazzar had been eighed in the scale of God's standard and been found too light to qualify.
"Upharsin"-- The kingdom had already been taken from him and given to the Medes and Persians (vs. 24-28).
Belshazzar kept his word to Daniel and promoted him to become the third ruler in the kingdom, but the king did not live long enough to see Daniel installed. Before the light of morning had broken across the easter skies, Cyrus' soldiers entered the city by marching under the walls in the muddy river-bed of the Euphrates, and Belshazzar came to an ignominious end.
Daniel 5 involves more than what merely meets eye. It's on the surface, a history of the collapse of the Babylonian empire of the past, but it's also a forecast of the destruction of great Babylon of the future. The whole book of Daniel was written with the times of the Gentiles in view--their commencement, course, characteristics, culmination, and collapse.
Everything which is truth of the early stages of the Gentile period of world politics is also true of the final stage of Gentile history. The initial stage and the ultimate stage are both marked by the prominence of ruling classes, commerce, covetousness, concubines, carousals, contept for God, consternation, and condemnation.
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