In this sermon, Dr. Andrew Davis takes us through Daniel chapter 5, which tells the story of Belshazzar's feast and the fall of Babylon. The central message of the book of Daniel is God's sovereign rule over the kingdoms of men. In this chapter, we see Belshazzar's pride and presumption, leading to his defiance against God. Belshazzar hosts a lavish banquet, using the sacred gold goblets taken from the temple in Jerusalem, praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. This act of defiance and blasphemy leads to God's judgment upon him and the fall of the Babylonian Empire. The chapter serves as a reminder that God's sovereignty and power cannot be mocked, and that those who defy Him will ultimately face the consequences.

All right, pick your Bibles and open to Daniel chapter 5. Give an example of an expositional sermon, and we're going to just immerse ourselves in this great chapter, an incredible book. I brought with me some pamphlets that I wrote on scripture memorization, memorizing extended passages of scripture, and I'll give them out today or tomorrow, they're in my black bag there. But I spent about well over a year, year and a half actually, doing scripture memorization in the book of Daniel. And Daniel's just an incredible book.

There's just so many things, rich themes, that flow from this book. The first six chapters really focus on Daniel and his court life in Babylon, his life with Nebuchadnezzar, and then Belshazzar. We're gonna focus on Belshazzar's feast here in Daniel 5. First six chapters. Then the last six chapters, seven through twelve, focus on Daniel's visions for the coming Christ and for his kingdom and for really the end of the world, prophecies that I think are not fully fulfilled.

And so really just an incredible book, but we're going to zero in on Daniel chapter five. I'm going to read the text and then we'll get into it. Daniel chapter five beginning at verse one. King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for 1, 000 of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote in the plaster of the wall near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.

The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners to be brought and said to these wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck. And he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. O king, live forever, she said. Don't be alarmed. Don't look so pale. There's a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him.

In the time of your father, he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, I say, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners. This man Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means. So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah?

I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.' Then Daniel answered the king, you may keep your gifts for yourself and give your awards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

Oh king, the most high God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave them, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death. Those he wanted to spare, he spared. Those he wanted to promote, he promoted.

And those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the most high God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes. But you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.

Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven You had the goblets from his temple brought to you and you and your nobles your wives and your concubines Drank wine from them You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore, he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is the inscription that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parson. This is what these words mean, Mene.

God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel, you've been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple. A gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the mead took over the kingdom at the age of 62. I want to begin with a somewhat mysterious ceremony that probably occurred about 70 years before the text that we're reading today. And it had to do with a messenger from the prophet Jeremiah. Messenger's name was Sariah. And Sariah was instructed to take the scroll of Jeremiah's prophecies about Babylon and read them to the exiles who were living in Babylon.

He was to stand beside the Euphrates River and he was to read the prophecies that Jeremiah had written concerning the destruction of Babylon. Prophecies which were minutely accurate and detailed and which were going to be fulfilled in God's time and in his providence. He was to read these prophecies on the scroll and then he was to tie up the scroll to a stone and throw them into the Euphrates River. And so the scroll was to sink like a stone tied to the stone to the bottom of the Euphrates River. I don't know exactly the order of the events, but history tells us that this night, the night of Daniel chapter five, the Euphrates River drained away little by little.

And it could be, I don't know, we can't prove it one way or another, but that that very stone was still there as a testimony to God's prediction of the destruction of Babylon. We would imagine the scroll had long since disintegrated, but you know, heaven and earth can pass away but God's words never pass away. And so the river was draining down, draining down, and getting ready for the fulfillment of the prediction that Jeremiah the prophet had made, which was to be fulfilled this very night concerning the fall of Babylon. Now as we look at Daniel chapter 5, we see a move from pride to presumption. Nebuchadnezzar had been a proud man, a proud king.

Daniel covers that in Daniel 5. He had been steeped with pride and God had humbled him, very graciously humbled him, by turning his mind into that of an animal and for seven years he was unable to rule and he ate grass like cattle and his body was changed. And he was drenched with the dew of heaven and he was humbled until he at last learned the lesson that God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he chooses. That is one of the central messages of the book of Daniel. God's sovereign rule over the kingdoms of men And it's a good thing for us to keep in mind, even as we are in an election year and people are concerned about who's going to be president of the United States and concerned about our position relative to other nations in the world.

It's good for Christians to remember the lesson of the book of Daniel, that God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he chooses. So Nebuchadnezzar had pride and for Nebuchadnezzar it was a curable disease. God cured him of it. At the end of that time his eyes looked up toward heaven and he very humbly sought the God of heaven and he was restored, his sanity was restored, and he praised the most high God. By the way, that's very powerful at the end of Daniel chapter 4.

His sanity was restored and he praised God. Put that together, right? Isn't our sin a form of insanity? Isn't it really insane to sin? It is really a lack of mental health to take on Almighty God and to do anything differently than what he's commanded us to do.

And so at the end of that time Nebuchadnezzar's sanity was restored and he praised the Most High. And when our sanity is finally completely restored, we will spend eternity praising the Most High God. So for Nebuchadnezzar it was a curable disease, but now we have presumption. And that was Belshazzar's deadly flaw. He presumed he was secure, arrogant even, concerning the things of God.

And the patience of God at last runs out towards Babylon. Now let's take some time to set this historical context. In Daniel chapter 2, we have Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the flow of human history. We have that great statue with the head of gold and the chest and arms of silver and the belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet partly iron and partly clay. And this statue is destroyed by a rock cut out but not by human hands, and the whole thing just crumbles down into dust on a threshing floor in the summer and the wind sweeps it away without leaving a trace.

And Nebuchadnezzar was that head of gold and the time has come for moving from the head of gold to the chest and arms of silver. The time has come for the King of Kings, Nebuchadnezzar, who has died for he to lose his kingdom and to move on. He was never able to find a successor, somebody who could take his place. And so he, the king of kings, so he is called, the human king of kings, goes the way of all the earth. He's dead and gone now, 562 BC.

Nebuchadnezzar's successors were characterized by incompetence, intrigue, and idolatry. His son, Evo-Maradac, was his successor. He's called Emo-Marduk in the Akkadian, the man of Marduk. He's mentioned in 2 Kings 25 as the one who released the Judean king Jehoiachin and allowed him to eat at his table. Two years later, however, the general, Neregleser, assassinated Evil Marduk and took his throne.

He had served with Nebuchadnezzar when he destroyed Jerusalem. Eventually he died and his son was placed on the throne for nine months. After that there was conspiracy. A man named Nabonidus was placed on the throne. Nebuchadnezzar's son was assassinated and Nabonidus took his place in Iran for 17 years.

He married a woman named Nitecris. She was a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. They had a son named Belshazzar. And so therefore, Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar's grandfather. Nabinites and Belshazzar reigned as co-regents side by side, as happened frequently in the ancient Near East.

Notice that Daniel later is offered to be the third ruler in the kingdom, or the third highest ruler. That's why there were two others. Now, Jeremiah had given a very clear timetable. In Jeremiah 27, 6 and 7, it says this, Now I'll hand over all your countries to my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I will make even the wild animals subject to him.

All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes. Then many nations and great kings will subjugate him." Notice how precisely this is set out. All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson. Belshazzar is his grandson. Everything's been measured out very, very carefully.

By the time we get to Daniel chapter 5, most of the Babylonian empire has been conquered by the Medes and the Persians. The Persians are literally at the gate of Babylon. It's all that's left is this great citadel city of Babylon. Cyrus the Great has moved out, he's defeated the Babylonian army. Nabonidus fled to Borsippa where he was captured.

Cyrus the Great then turned to the great fortress of Babylon itself. Now this great city had never been conquered and its inhabitants thought it never would be. So it was a good time for a feast, a little time for celebration. And so we have Belshazzar's defiant feast in verses one through four. Look at verse one, it says, King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.

That's a lot of people to feed, but that was no problem for an emperor like Belshazzar. As a matter of fact, this was pretty common. Persian monarchs frequently were known to dine daily with as many as 15, 000 people. They could feed them with no problem at all. One particular king gave a feast of 69, 574 guests while dedicated in the capital city of Kalman, 879 BC.

That's almost 70, 000 people that he could feed. In 485 BC, Persian King Darius held a lavish feast, listen to this, a thousand animals were slaughtered including oxen, zebras, gazelles, stags, Arabian ostriches, geese, gamecocks, and camel. Apparently smoked camel hump is a favorite Persian dish. I don't know what I'd want to eat it, but there it is. They also serve rice pilaf with meats, nuts, spices, and fruit, shish kebabs of mutton, fish, poultry, and vegetables, seasoned with special yogurt sauce.

The guests even enjoyed sugar brought by caravan from distant lands. Way too expensive to serve to anyone but royalty. That was a feast that Darius served in 45 B.C. So here it is. It's a lavish banquet for a thousand of his nobles.

Reminds me of the statement that Paul makes in Philippians concerning the pagans saying, their god is their stomach, Philippians 3.19. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. So that probably never more was spoken truly than of the people who are feasting with Belshazzar that night. Their destined destruction and their god, their stomach.

This is hedonism, pure and simple, a deep yearning for physical pleasure, earthly pleasure. And it actually, frankly, surprisingly becomes enhanced in times of immediate and imminent danger. It's really quite strange, but down in Hitler's bunker, in the very final waning weeks and days and even hours of the fall of Berlin, they were wining and dining and feasting, even after Hitler was dead, still partying and celebrating, knowing that very soon they would either be committing suicide or be captured by the Russians. But they continued to feast, squeezing the last amount of pleasure instead of repenting. Think about what Isaiah the prophet said in Isaiah 22, 12 through 14.

The Lord, the Lord Almighty called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and to put on sackcloth. But behold, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat, and drinking of wine. Let us eat and drink you say, for tomorrow we die. But the Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing to a dying day this sin will not be atoned for, says the Lord, the Lord Almighty." So, there is that yearning for pleasure, that yearning for satisfaction. Central to all of this was free-flowing alcohol, the drinking of wine, drowning your sorrows, getting completely drunk with free-flowing wine, forgetting your troubles by drowning them in alcohol.

Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. The Babylonians, however, I don't think they believe that tomorrow they would die. I don't think so at all. They didn't have any problem getting drunk because they felt that their walls were secure. They were defying the Medo-Persians by this banquet.

Babylon was really awesome. They consider it to be the unconquerable city. There are three ways in a siege to conquer a besieged city. You can go over the wall, you can go through the wall, or you can go under the wall, or you can starve the inhabitants into submission eventually, so that eventually they just come out because there's nothing left to eat in the city. All of these options were considered to be impossible when it came to Babylon.

The ancient city of Babylon, according to Herodotus, was an architectural marvel. It was 14 miles square, 14 miles on a side square. It had huge outer walls, 87 feet thick, 350 feet high. That's a 35-story building, okay? So going over the wall isn't looking too good in the days before Orville and Wilbur.

Okay, at that point you're in trouble. It's going to be hard to get over the wall. At the top, Herodotus tells us it was thick enough that a four horse cherry could ride along easily at the top. So imagine how thick it was at the bottom. No way you're going through it.

It had a hundred great bronze gates in the walls. It had an inner and outer wall system with a moat in between made up of the freely flowing Euphrates River. The Euphrates River flowed right through the center of the city, as a matter of fact, under the walls. Within the walls, there were beautiful avenues, parks, and palaces. There was a great bridge spanning the Euphrates River, connecting the eastern and western portions of the city.

There were the famed hanging gardens of Babylon, large enough to support trees. And therefore, Babylon never had been conquered. The walls were too high to go over, too thick to go through. The Euphrates guaranteed a constant water supply. The walls were large enough to include small farmlands.

So the fact of the matter is you have to feed your besieging army too. And they were doing better inside the walls than you were doing outside of the walls. So, there was no way they were coming out. So, obviously they'd lost most of their empire, but they were safe so they believed within the walls of the city. The banquet therefore was especially shocking.

What kind of people in a besieged city are going to have some lavish banquet? In effect they're saying, we've got plenty to eat. We can be here for years. How about you? So they were defying the Medo-Persians.

They really were defying God. There was a total disregard for danger at this point. Feasting and drunkenness throughout the city, there was not even a watchman on the walls. All the soldiers were drunk. So in summary, the Babylonians considered their city completely safe.

They could stand on the walls and mock the Medes and the Persians. They could go inside for a drunken feast. The Babylonians were defying the besieging army, but ultimately, and quite directly, they were defying Almighty God. Note the arrogance. Look at verses 2 through 4.

While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar's father had taken to the temple in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. And as they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone." Now realize, by this time, the God of Israel, the God of the Jews, has established his reputation in Babylon. What happened with Daniel in Daniel chapter 2, how he was able to tell the king what his dream was and then interpret it for him. So overawed Nebuchadnezzar that he was on the ground in front of Daniel in awe and amazement and then afterwards made him ruler of all of Babylon.

A Jew, a foreigner, ruler I think of that district, the city of Babylon itself, not the whole empire, but of that district. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three Jewish friends, Hanani, Mishael, and Azariah that were serving with them, were directly under Daniel and also had great authority. And of course, you know what happened to them. When Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 3 made his great golden idol and commanded everyone to bow down to it And those three refused to do it because of their faith in the God of Israel and God's rescue of them God had established his reputation very very plainly and so also Nebuchadnezzar's Amazing healing of his insanity. It's really quite remarkable.

They didn't lose his throne during that time. There are all kinds of intrigues and assassinations after Nebuchadnezzar, but God basically held his throne for him, and then afterwards he praised the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He praised the God of heaven. And so I think these people knew who the Jewish God was. That's why they specifically called for these vessels to drink.

He was defying God, specifically defying the God who had done all those things in the previous 70 years. That's what he was doing. Goated on by wine. But understand, wine doesn't put things in your mind that wasn't already there. What it does is it removes restraints.

It's not like I never thought to have murderous thoughts or lustful or adulterous thoughts or whatever. They're already there, but you know enough to restrain yourself. But when the wine comes, then the restraint gets removed and out comes the idolatry and the wickedness, and that's what flowed that night. Blasphemy and idolatry wrapped up together in this defiant act. Sacred vessels were removed from storage, they were used to toast the Babylonian gods.

They were counting on military protection from their god Marduk. So we're going to see how powerful he is tonight because he was who they were trusting and to protect them. Note also the descending value of what is worshiped. Gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, stone. All right, just a descent down into the pit of idolatry, that's what's going on.

But God cannot be mocked. It's impossible to mock God. You may think that this is a mockery of God, but you're really just mocking your own soul. You're laughing at yourself is what's going on because the God in heaven cannot be mocked and all he does is he laughs at this kind of mockery and defiance. That's what's going on.

The weapons of Belshazz's destruction were surrounding the walls that very night. I'm reminded of, you know, this overweening pride, this presumption that I see in Belshazzar and his nobles, thinking that they were going to easily survive this onslaught by the Medo-Persians, that they would eventually give up and go home and that they could eventually win their whole empire back. That's what they were thinking. But they also didn't imagine that this night would be the last night of their lives on Earth, that that very night that they would die. They weren't thinking like that.

And I wonder how many people go off into eternity like that, thinking that they're going to live for years and years, and never imagining that this very night that they would die. I think about Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And he said this, There's no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.

He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel who has found means to fortify himself and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There's no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand joined in hand and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces.

What are we that we should think to stand before him at whose rebuke the earth trembles and before whom the rocks are thrown down? So there are the rebels within their citadel walls and they think that they can defy God, but they are not safe. So God gives a terrifying warning in verses 5 through 9, what we call the writing on the wall. Somewhat of an apparition, a hand suddenly appears. I want to give an archaeological note.

In the ruins of Babylon there was found a large room 56 feet wide, 173 feet long, decorated in blue glazed brick with white and yellow lions. This is probably the site of many a banquet and maybe even of this banquet. Midway in the long wall opposite the entrance there was a niche in front of which was the king's throne. Amazingly, the archaeologists discovered a wall near the niche that was covered in white plaster. So, this is all true and we know it's true because Daniel tells us that it was true.

A hand appears and begins to write in the plaster. The feast is progressing. There are loud laughs, perhaps crude jokes, and suddenly the fingers of a human hand appear and start to write silently on the plaster-covered wall. The room is lit by flickering lanterns and torches, probably an area over the king's head most brightly illuminated where everyone could see it and everyone could read it. Suddenly, of course, the music stopped.

Unlike the decks of the Titanic where they kept playing until it sank, The music stopped here. The laughter and the jokes were stilled. Perhaps maybe a handful of women screamed. Perhaps the only sound was the knocking of the king's knees. You know how we sometimes see on bumper stickers of pickup trucks the words, no fear.

Well, God can make us afraid. He has that kind of power. God is able to make us fear. And this king immediately went from presumption and arrogance and joking to terror. The mysterious letters appear And experts are called in to read them.

Heightening the suspense is the fact that he has no idea what they say, but clearly they must mean something. Belshazzar must know that they mean something. He's probably afraid they mean the very thing they do mean, that his life is forfeit and so also his kingdom. So he summons the same people that have always been summoned in the book of Daniel that never can do anything. Why they keep their jobs, I'll never know.

The soothsayers, the magicians, the Chaldeans, and they do what they usually do, which is nothing. They cannot understand. Let's face it, human wisdom is utterly incapable of discerning the mind of God. Even the lavish offers of rewards cannot produce a solution. By the way, would you really want to be the third highest ruler in a kingdom whose last night is that very night?

I'm not wanting to be found with that purple robe and that gold chain around my neck. Daniel was wise to say, no thank you. Daniel comes in to give a clear interpretation in verses 10 through 28 and the interpretation is plain, the end has come. This is the end and that's what it means. First, we have the Queen Mother's advice in verses 10 through 12.

This is Nabonidus' wife, almost certainly, Nidecris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, calls Nebuchadnezzar his father twice, says the standard greeting. Every time that you greet a monarch, you always say the same thing, O King, live forever. Well, that's the very point. He's not going to live forever. It takes on a certain irony in that this was the last night of his life.

She speaks to him not as a wife, but as a mother would. Reminds him of Daniel, who probably in semi-retirement at this point, It's interesting that he doesn't seem to know who Daniel is, doesn't know him well at all. And so Daniel has been removed from court life. He really is far removed from Belchezor at this point. And she praises Daniel, saying he has a keen mind, a knowledge, and understanding, and the ability to interpret dreams and explain riddles and solve difficult problems.

So call for Daniel and he'll be able to tell you what the writing means. So in comes Daniel. And as usual, Daniel refuses to be associated with the other counselors. He makes a dramatic entrance all by himself. And well, he should, because He's the only one who can give the answer.

His bearing at this point is regal. It's holy. It's contrasted with the wine flushed faces of the lords, the nobles, and their wives, and the concubines that are in the banquet hall. Belshazzar makes him an offer in verses 13 through 17, and that offer is spurned. He gives a quick recount of the evening's disturbing incident.

He retells the failure of his counselors. He offers power and wealth, the third highest rule in the kingdom, a purple robe and a gold chain. Again, note that Nabonidus is first and Belshazzar is second, and the offer is totally spurned by Daniel. Look at verse 17, if you're able. Daniel answered the king, you may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else.

From the very beginning of the book of Daniel, we see a man who's kept his desires, his earthly drives under control. Daniel resolved, Daniel 1, not to defile himself with the king's food. Once you control your diet, you control your appetites, you're not living for the things of this world. Daniel frequently spent a great deal of time fasting and praying and seeking the face of God. That's what mattered to him.

And so he has no interest in this kingdom. He knows very well. I wonder if while he was waiting to be brought into the banquet hall he looked through a window and saw what was going on outside the walls. We'll get to that in a moment. He saw the waters of the Euphrates drying up, the dry riverbed, the muddy riverbed, and he knew what was going to happen.

He had read Jeremiah, he read it very carefully. All you have to do is look at Daniel 9 and knew exactly what was going to happen. It had been 70 years, the time had come. And so he knew what was happening that night. So he has no interest in the king's offer of a purple robe and gold chain and being proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

So Daniel begins by teaching a little bit of a history lesson. It's a history Belshazzar should have known very well. This was not done in a corner. What happened in Nebuchadnezzar should have been famous. Seven years of insanity.

And then restored and became even greater than before. And clearly giving testimony to the power of Almighty God. They must have thought to some degree he was crazier after than before. He was worshipping a Jewish god. But this was the truth that Nebuchadnezzar told at the end of Daniel chapter 4.

So God gave Nebuchadnezzar his kingdom and his glory, said Daniel. It all comes from God. No one from the east or the west can exalt a man, but only God can. Every position of power, it's always established by the hand of the sovereign god. Nebuchadnezzar had extraordinary sovereign powers, perhaps the greatest the world had ever seen.

It wasn't just the head of gold represented the Babylonian empire. It represented him, Nebuchadnezzar, him. He was the empire. He was, in some sense, the King of Kings. He had extraordinary pride, and we know of his downfall.

But he also repented, and he was restored. The basic idea in recounting this history in Daniel 5, Belshazzar, is You should have learned from your grandfather's experience. You should have known what happened to him and that God still sits on his throne and he does not take this kind of sin and wickedness lightly. His judgment should have humbled you. Now this is an important lesson for us who read the Bible today.

God doesn't need to do the Exodus crossing ever again. It has happened once, it's been written about, it's done. He doesn't need to redo the miracles of Jesus or the apostles. I'm not saying God can't do miracles today, I'm just saying It's been established that God can do this. He never needs to have someone walk on water or feed the 5, 000 again.

It's been done. And it's a matter of record. He doesn't need to establish it again and again and again. It's been done. And this is a very important biblical principle.

Belshazzar, you should have known this. You should have learned from the past and now you're held accountable and so are we all. We're held accountable for what's happened in the past. For everything written in the past was written to instruct us, says the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 10, he talks about the warnings from Israel's history.

And he said, these things happen as warnings to us to keep us from being arrogant and prideful. Belshazzar, you should have known, you should have learned what happened from your father. We also should learn from the experiences that come before us. And so Daniel preaches judgment, but you, El Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, even though you knew all this. Prophetic power.

Daniel levels severe charges at Belshazzar. He has no interest in Belshazzar's prizes and awards. He has a prophetic message of courage to give him, a message that only God can speak, amazing boldness. And notice also, I think, a difference in the way that Daniel deals with Belshazzar from the way he had dealt with Nebuchadnezzar. There's always a tenderness between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar.

I wish that it were happening to your enemies, O king, he said to Nebuchadnezzar. I wish it weren't happening to you. He said, now, O king, be pleased to take my advice. Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed, it may be that then your prosperity will continue, he says. To Nebuchadnezzar, he doesn't do any of that to Belshazzar.

He has no respect for Belshazzar at all as a man. And so look at Daniel's theology. Verse 24, he said, you praise the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Do you not hear Centuries before sinners in the hands of an angry God.

You are living in God's hand and you are defying him. What folly, what foolishness. All God has to do is turn his hand over and you're sent to hell. It's a terrifying statement. And it frequently brings me to tears as I go over this.

You did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. What about you, brothers? What about me? Am I honoring the God who holds in his hand my life in all my ways? It's no less true of me than it was of Belshazzar.

It's so easy to see the sinner out there. What about the sinner here? Do we live for the honor and the glory of God? For in him we live and move and have our being, says the Apostle Paul, and it's still true today. It's true of every person we see on the face of the earth.

In him they live and move and have their being. We must witness to them, we must evangelize them and speak boldly to them and tell them the truth. Are you honoring the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways? As James puts it, now listen you say today or tomorrow go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Well, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow.

What is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live. Just stop there and ponder that one. If the Lord wills, I will live.

What are you going to do tomorrow? Well, if the Lord wills, I'll live. And then I'll see what he wants me to do and do it, I hope, by his strength. If the Lord wills, we will live. For Belshazzar, his time has run out.

The basic idea of Edwards' sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is that God upholds our lives at every moment. Every breath we inhale is a gift from him. If we openly defy him, we should not be surprised if that very night our lives come to an end. And if you were to ask any damn person in hell, did you think you would end up here? They would all answer no.

And if you ask them why not, they will answer, they always thought that they had more time, that they would have more time to set matters straight. Belshazzar's time has run out. And so Daniel interprets the writing. Mene, repeated, mene, mene, means numbered, numbered. God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Teach us to number our days because you know what, they're already numbered. They're already numbered. Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. And so also the days of your life on earth. All the days ordained from me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

And so it's good, Psalm 90, for us to number our days to gain a heart of wisdom, calculate it out. Now, we don't know that we'll be alive tomorrow, but the idea is for Moses 70 or maybe 80 years if we have the strength, not 700 or 800 friends. So let's be wise and realize how quickly it goes past. Teach us to number our days. Many, many, numbered, numbered.

God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Techle, like a shekel, it has to do with a weight. Wade. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. You are lightweight.

Now I think here about the word for glory. Kavod means weight, massiveness. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're lightweights. We haven't taken in his glory.

And so we blow away like chaff on the threshing floor in the summer when the wind blows them and they're gone and they and their place remembers them no more You're a lightweight you have no glory of God in you You've been weighed on the scales and found wanting Perez Divided but it's also related to the word for the Persians. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Amazing symmetry. When Belshazzar's grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, was besieging the holy city of Jerusalem, there was a prophet in downtown Jerusalem proclaiming that the time for that city had come to an end. His name was Jeremiah.

And that prophet Jeremiah was sent to proclaim the conquest of the city to the Jews. Now 70 years later Daniel plays the exact same role in Babylon. Your city, your empire is handed over to the Medes and the Persians. The final section 29 through 31, Daniel is exalted and Belshazzar is destroyed. First Daniel exalted, verse 29, then at Belshazzar's command Daniel was clothed in purple.

A gold chain was placed around his neck and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. Oh, the vanity, the emptiness of the world's baubles, they mean nothing. These things that we pursue, that we seek, that we yearn for, career goals and money and position and esteem of men, they don't mean anything. It's so hard for us as men to believe that, but it really is true. Daniel knew it.

A one-day rule over a doomed city. Okay? And When the Medo-Persian soldiers are running with blood-stained swords through the city looking for anybody of significance to kill, you want to be wearing that purple robe and that gold chain that night. You'd be found hiding under your bed, but not Daniel. My guess is as soon as he left the presence of the king, he took that hated purple robe and gold chain off, not because he was afraid, but because he utterly disdained them.

They made nothing to him. That's why he took them off. Anyway, his life was in God's hands and he wouldn't be able to be killed until God said so. So how useless are the world's baubles when the day of judgment comes? Amazing, Babylon's last official act, this is true, the last official act of the empire of Babylon was honoring a Jewish refugee and making him the third highest ruler of the kingdom.

It's the last official act of the Babylonian empire. Belshazzar is destroyed, however. Verse 30 and 31, that very night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of 62. The judgment came suddenly. It reminds me very much of Luke 1220, but God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul will be required of you and then who will get all the things you have prepared for yourself?

The rich fool is Belshazzar. The kingdom is stripped away and given to the Medes and Persians. Now how did it happen? Well, we don't get this just from the Bible, but also from history. Let's talk about world history first, and then I'll give it to you from a prophetic perspective because it had been prophesied in detail before it happened.

But let's get the historian's take on it first. The famous story is from the ancient world, both Herodotus and Xenophon recorded. The date was October 11th and 12th, the night of October 11th, 12th, 539 BC. Cyrus the Great of Persia advanced against the walls. A brilliant Persian general saw a forgotten canal.

His name was Ugbaru. He was governor of a region of Cyrus's empire, and he was Cyrus's commander in chief. He noticed an old abandoned canal previously dug by Queen Nidecris, the same one that came in and said, oh, you ought to get Daniel, that same one. They diverted the water of the Euphrates into that old abandoned canal, and little by little, the water of the Euphrates dried up. And then the Persians snuck under the walls.

Now obviously, if you're going to design walls that allow a river to flow through, you're going to think, well, maybe some men can get under the wall. So what are you going to do? You're going to put some grates and some other things to make it difficult. And you're going to surround it with a bunch of places where you can shoot with arrows anybody trying to do it. So you need the water of the river, and you need the men with the bows and arrows standing on the walls.

You had neither one that night. The water was gone. It had been diverted by the canal. And the men could painfully and with some difficulty make their way under the vast wall system and open up the city gates and let the army in. And that's precisely what happened.

If the Babylonians had been watching the walls as they should have been, and not arrogant, and certainly not drunk, they would have manned the walls, and the Persians would never have gotten in. But instead, they were drunk. And so Belshazzar was slain, and so also were his nobles, and the empire fell that night. Babylon the Great. Babylon the Great has fallen.

Isaiah 21, 9. Babylon has fallen, has fallen. All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground. The image seen by Nebuchadnezzar at the end of his empire has now come true. Someday a greater Babylon is going to fall.

The Babylon, the spirit of which is around us all the time the world and All of its empires all of its gonna fall and all that will be left is the kingdom of Jesus Christ Hallelujah for that and praise be to his holy name. But in the meantime this Babylon as a symbol fell that night Now let's look at it in prophetic perspective, and the details are astonishing. It really just takes your breath away. Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah, all three of these prophets combined to tell us beforehand what would happen. It was a clear prophetic light that was fulfilled.

Let's start with Isaiah. Isaiah 21 and verse 5. Speaking of the Babylonians, about the night that Babylon fell, this is what Isaiah said 200 years before it happened, friends. They set the tables. They spread the rugs.

They eat. They drink. Get up, you officers. Oil the shields. That's just a single line.

What is Isaiah saying? They're having a banquet with them when they should be preparing for battle. That sound familiar? Get up, you officers. Get ready for a battle.

Don't be setting the table and spreading the rugs and eating and drinking. Then there's Habakkuk 2. Habakkuk 2 is an astonishing chapter. You have to read it. It's just an incredible thing.

You Remember Habakkuk the prophet? And Habakkuk is greatly troubled by all the corruption and wickedness he sees among the Jews before the Babylonians came. And he's all distressed. And he says, your eyes are too pure to look on evil. How can you tolerate wrong?

What are you going to do? He says, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring the Babylonians. And they're going to wipe this place out. Well, Habakkuk's in even greater distress.

How in the world can you bring this wicked pagan people to come and destroy your own people? I know we're evil, but they're worse. And Habakkuk too is God's incredible answer to that deep question. You know how Habakkuk says, I'll station myself on the wall and I'll wait until you give me an answer. Because I don't understand human history.

I don't get what you're doing, God. Like Isaiah had said, his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. We don't get what he does in history. And so Habakkuk is saying, I don't understand. God gives him a multifaceted answer to the problem of history.

First of all, he says at the individual level, he first deals with the individual because God's eye is on the individual. He says the righteous will live by faith. Does that sound familiar? Did not Paul quote it in Romans 1.17? Did not Martin Luther read it and find out how his soul could be saved?

The individual person will be saved, will be justified by faith. So through all the ebbs and flows of human history, individual people will be justified by faith. That's the first answer, okay? Keep your eye on that one. Because we are like so much flotsam and jetsam on the tidal wave of history.

We don't control history. It flows over us. But God has his eye on individual people. And if we just simply repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the one who shed his blood for our sins, we will be saved. The righteous will be justified or saved by faith.

But he also says, let's talk about the rise and fall of the empires of the world. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime. Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What is he saying?

There's two competing empires going on. There's the empire of man, the rise and fall of the world, and then there's the empire of God, the kingdom of God. And which of those two is going to win? God's is. The earth is going to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Jesus' kingdom will reign from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more. Jesus' kingdom will rise. The human empires, they will fall one after the other. And then what else does Habakkuk 2 says? Woe to him who gives a cup of drink to his neighbor and says, drink and be exposed.

Now it is your turn. Drink and you be exposed. You see, that's basically the answer. The measure you use is the measure that you receive. The cup you give to your neighbor, it's coming around to you.

And so it's a kind of a dual image here. The cup of drunkenness is a picture of human conquest. The cup is given to a neighbor, and he drinks, and he gets drunk and lies stripped and exposed. What happens is, let's say you're a peaceful farmer in an unwalled village living in some fertile valley, and over the hill comes the cavalry of the next emperor. Okay?

They could be Persian, they could be Babylonian, they could be Assyrian, they could be Greek, they could be Roman, they could be Spanish, they could be anybody, right? They come over and they take your stuff. And there's been a rumor about it, but now they come. And what do you get? You got a hoe in your hand.

And you start running around like you're crazy drunk. And they strip you and they leave you dead and exposed. You see, it's a little bit like drunkenness. That's the image that Habakkuk 2 uses. The image of conquest is one of getting drunk.

But isn't it ironic that in effect, the answer to the Babylonians is, now it's your turn, drink, and be conquered. It's not just metaphor, is it? It's literal. Go ahead and drink, and then you'll be exposed. Do you see the irony, God sitting up in heaven laughing and orchestrating history for his own glory?

But the clearest prophecies of all are in Jeremiah. Jeremiah was even More specific. Concerning the time, we already have it. In the third generation, Nebuchadnezzar, his son, his grandson, that's Belshazzar. Okay?

So his son and his grandson, Belshazzar. Concerning the enemy, it's going to be the Medes and the Persians. Jeremiah 51, 11, listen to this. Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields. The Lord has stirred up the king of the Medes because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.

The Lord will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple. That's Jeremiah 51, 11, 70 years ahead of time. He names the country. The Medes are coming. Concerning the method, drunken soldiers and a dried up river.

That specific? Yep, that specific. This is Jeremiah 51, 36 through 39. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. See, I will defend your cause and avenge you.

He's talking about his own people in Jerusalem. I'm going to defend your cause and avenge you. He's talking about his own people in Jerusalem. I'm going to defend your cause and I will avenge you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. Her people will all roar like young lions and growl like lion cubs. But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk so that they will shout with laughter, then sleep forever and never wake up." How specific do you want it, friends? He said exactly what would happen 70 years in advance. Jeremiah 51, 57, I will make her officials and her wise men drunk, her governors, officers, and warriors as well.

They will sleep forever and never wake up, declares the King whose name is the Lord Almighty. Very specific on this prophecy. Amazing, accurate. Now why did God do this? You may ask that.

Why did God give this specific prophecy? Well if you look at Deuteronomy 32 and verse 27, don't look there now, but it says very plainly in the Song of Moses, he said, I'm going to allow my people to be conquered by a foreign nation. But I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest they think their own strength did it. So he's going to destroy them in such a way they will know that God did it. Now, that's a fascinating verse.

Look it up, Deuteronomy 32, 27, I dreaded the taunt. This is God speaking. And you're thinking, God dreading something? That's just anthropomorphic language. He's not afraid of anything, but he's telling you what his intense concern is.

He does not want any confusion in the minds of the historians of the world. It wasn't an accident that Jerusalem fell. It wasn't a tragedy of some sorts that the temple was destroyed. He did it to his own people because he is holy and his people were sinning and breaking the covenant. But he did not want it misunderstood.

And so he's going to work in some way among the conquering people so that everyone knows God is still sovereign. And so there's all kinds of miracles and stuff that happens in the time of Daniel to let people know God is still on his throne. He is still powerful. He is still mighty. And so he tells Jeremiah specifically what's going to happen.

A dried up river, drunken soldiers, counselors drunk lying in their beds, slaughtered in their beds, going to sleep and they never wake up. What lessons and applications can we take from this? Well, first of all, What do you boast about? What is your security? Is judgment coming?

Is God's writing on the wall for you and for me? I tell you it is. All right? Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed unto men to die once, and after that to face judgment. That's the writing on the wall for you and me.

Do we know when it's going to come? I don't. Are you ready for it? On what are you basing your confidence? What is your walled city, your walled fortress?

Book of Proverbs says a rich man imagines it's his wealth. The wealth of the rich man is a walled fortress. He imagines it to be a secure refuge. Is it your wealth? Is it your intellect, your knowledge?

What is it? Now, I know that you brothers are Christians. You claim to be Christians. I would hope your answer is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Imputed to you by simple faith is your fortress.

And when judgment comes, you will survive the judgment. You will survive the close scrutiny of the one whose eyes are too pure to look on evil. You will survive. As the hymn writer put it, with salvation's walls surrounded, thou may a smile at all thy foes. Is Jesus Christ, his imputed righteousness, Is that your secure fortress?

Anything else is going to come down before the powers of omnipotence, before the power of Almighty God, before Judgment Day, it will not survive. But if it is the righteousness of Jesus, you are completely secure. And the rains come down, and the streams rise, and the winds blow and beat against you but you will not fall because you have your Foundation on the rock and that is Jesus Christ has finished work on the cross. Is that your security because judgment is coming Says in Galatians 6 7 do not be deceived God cannot be mocked a man reaps what he sows Also know this We live in the age of Babylon. I'm not talking about Saddam Hussein's future plans and how they were cut off by the American army or anything like that.

I've still got a book about the rise of Babylon's written in the 1980s and all that when Saddam Hussein was doing all this building You got to hold on to these eschatological speculation books. They're worth their weight in gold after all this stuff doesn't work out Okay, so I mean get all the stuff you can from Tim LaHaye and all that stuff. Just gather it up Just like late great planet Earth. You want to collect them 88 reasons. The Lord's gonna return 88 1988, whatever just collect them There are lots of fun.

Okay, but the Lord will return someday He's going to come back. So don't be a scoffer and a mocker. He is coming back. Get ready as the Bible tells you to get ready. Jesus gave how many parables about being watchful, being ready.

You don't know when the Lord is going to come. Be ready for the day. Be prepared. The day is coming. And God has judgment planned for the ultimate Babylon.

In Revelation 18 it says, whoa, whoa, oh great city of Babylon. Oh Babylon, the city of power. In one hour your doom has come. 1 John 2, 15 through 17, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God, lives forever. Is that your security? Because Babylon's going to fall. It's going to fall.

Revelation 18 says so. 1 John 2 says so. Do not love the things in the world. But be bold like Daniel. Preach the truth to your friends, to your neighbors, to your co-workers, to your family, to your unsaved people in your life.

Let them know that judgment is coming and that Jesus' finished work on the cross is a solid and secure refuge for you. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things we've learned tonight, today in the study in the book of Daniel. I thank you, oh Lord, for the way that we're able to overcome the physical difficulties. And Lord, perhaps remember even more acutely the message of Daniel 5, a message of great judgment on the city of Babylon, a message of warning for us.

Lest we be presumptuous and think that we can sin with impunity, O Lord, help us instead to look at the righteousness of Christ as not just that protection, protecting us from our own sin, but also that pattern of life by which we should walk by the power of the Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you