Belshazzar, the king, makes a feast for a thousand of
his lords featuring the drinking of wine (Daniel 5:1)
Belshazzar whose "father" is said to be Nebuchadnezzar
(Daniel 5:2) was actually the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and the son of Nabonidus
(Jeremiah 27:7)
The word "father" in Hebrew also means "ancestor"
as can be seen in reference to the physical lineage of Mephibosheth (II Samuel 9:6-7) who was the actual son of Jonathan, but whose "father" is
said to be both Jonathan (his actual father) and Saul (his "ancestral" father)
At the time of this feast, Belshazzar was co-ruler with
his father Nabonidus
His father was out warring with Cyrus while his son was
home feasting with his lords feeling secure and unaware of the danger that awaits him (Daniel 5:30-31), which were the exact conditions of Noah's day and will be again in
the Day of the Lord (Matthew 24:37-39)
The king invites to this feast - his princes, his wives,
and his concubines (his entire royal court) to share in the revelry (Daniel 5:2) and causes them all to become "inflamed" and "regarding
not the work of the Lord" (Isaiah 5:11-12) and to commit the grossest sacrilege of the Lord's holy things by
using those things to drunkenly praise their heathen gods (Daniel 5:3-4 cf. Daniel 1:1-2)
God responds that very night by "stirring up"
the Medes to conquer Babylon as the means to execute the "vengeance of His Temple" (Jeremiah 51:11 cf. Daniel 5:30-31)
In the midst of the revelry which defiled the Lord's holy
things of His Temple (Daniel 5:1-4) - "in the same hour" the king sees "fingers of a man's
hand" write upon the plaster of his palace wall (Daniel 5:5) and his countenance becomes as pale as the white plaster of his palace
wall and his bravado turns to fear such that his "knees smote one against another" (Daniel 5:6)
The Writer was God Himself - Who wrote "with His
finger" the "two tables of testimony in stone" (Exodus 31:18), Who has written in "His Book of Remembrance" the names of
them who "feared the Lord, and thought upon His Name" (Malachi 3:16), Who stooped and wrote on the ground "with His finger" the
names of the woman's hypocritical accusers (John 8:6-8 cf. Jeremiah 17:13), Who has recorded ALL things in the judgment "Books" yet
to be opened at the final accounting (Revelation 20:12 cf. Daniel 7:10),
The writing appeared on the wall "over against the
candlestick" (Daniel 5:5) - taken from the Lord's Tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-34),
The candlestick (lamp) with "seven" joined branches
represents restored Israel in her restored land (Isaiah 35), who will yet be the bearer of the "Light" of the "glory
of the Lord" to the Gentiles (Isaiah 60:1-3 cf. Exodus 27:20)
In the beginning of the "Day of the Lord" -
the Lord's earthly people (Israel) is shown to be a dispersed people outside her land as represented by the "seven"
SEPARATE "golden candlesticks" (Revelation 1:20 cf. Revelation 1:11)
As did his "father" Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:2,6)
- the king appeals to his wise men to "show the interpretation" of the writing and entices them with
great reward (Daniel 5:7)
A purple (royal) robe such as that worn by Mordecai (Esther 8:15)
A golden chain about the neck such as that worn by the
highest government officials, e.g. the one given by Pharaoh to Joseph (Genesis 41:41)
To be the third ruler in the kingdom after the king and
his father Nabonidus
As with his "father" Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:10)
- the king's appeal to his wise men is in vain - for they could neither "read" nor "interpret"
the writing (Daniel 5:8) and were "astonied" (astonished) by the "changed countenance"
of their "greatly troubled" king (Daniel 5:9)
In response to the king's desperate appeal to his wise
men (Daniel 5:7) and their vain reply (Daniel 5:8), the queen who had abstained from the royal revelry now enters the
banquet hall to assuage the king's troubled mind and perplexed face - "let not thy thoughts trouble thee,
nor let thy countenance be changed" (Daniel 5:10)
The "queen" is actually the queen mother as
is apparent from her eye witness account of an event early in the reign of the king's "father" Nebuchadnezzar
(Daniel 5:11 cf. Daniel 2:1,48)
The queen mother informs the king that there is a man
(now forgotten by Belshazzar), but previously honored by the king's "father" Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 5:11)
for possessing an "excellent spirit" in the "interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences,
dissolving of doubts" and, therefore, the perfect man to satisfy the king's request (Daniel 5:12)
The queen's counsel to consult Daniel rather than the
king's wise men was good and although she knew Daniel as a "man greatly beloved" of his God (Daniel 10:11,19)
- she did NOT know Daniel's God for to her He was just one of many gods - she described Daniel as a "man in
whom is the spirit of the holy gods" (Daniel 5:11)
Nebuchadnezzar while respecting Daniel also showed that
he did NOT have a true knowledge of Daniel's God for his knowledge of Daniel's God was the same as that of the
queen mother - he described Daniel as a man possessing "the spirit of the holy gods" (Daniel 4:8-9)
The king immediately acts upon the advice of the queen
mother and Daniel is brought in before the king and inquires of Daniel if he is the one that his "father"
Nebuchadnezzar brought into his court out of the captive Jewish people (Daniel 5:13)
The king addresses Daniel by his Hebrew birth name of
Daniel (Daniel 5:13), whereas the king's "father" Nebuchadnezzar addresses Daniel
by his Babylonian given name of Belteshazzar (Daniel 4:8-9 cf. Daniel 1:7)
This manner of address is significant, because Daniel's
God is about to judge Babylon (Jeremiah 51:11) and her god called "Bel" (Jeremiah 50:2)
Daniel's Hebrew name means "God is my Judge"
Daniel's Babylonian name means "prince of Bel"
The king condescends to the testimony of the queen mother
(Daniel 5:10-12) - "I have even heard of thee" (Daniel 5:14) and is also made to acknowledge the utter failure of ALL his wise
men to satisfy his request (Daniel 5:15) - for "the natural man receiveth NOT the things of the Spirit
of God" (I Corinthians 2:14)
The king reiterates having heard of Daniel ("and
I have heard of thee") and offers him the SAME rich reward (Daniel 5:16), which he previously offered his wise men (Daniel 5:7)
In being offered to be the "third ruler" in
the kingdom - Daniel is a type of the "third Person" of the Triune Godhead - being consistently associated
with "the spirit of the holy gods" (Daniel 4:8-9,18; Daniel 5:11)
Daniel refuses the king's gifts, but grants the king's
request (Daniel 5:17)
Like his "father" Abraham who refused to be
made rich by the wicked king of Sodom (Genesis 14:22-23)
- so Daniel refuses the recognition of the blasphemous king of Babylon (Daniel 5:17)
Daniel reminds the king of the Divine honor and majesty
and power bestowed upon the king's "father" Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 5:18-19 cf. Jeremiah 27:5-11; Jeremiah 28:14) and the Divine judgment which fell upon Nebuchadnezzar in response to his prideful self exaltation
and which judgment lasted until Nebuchadnezzar learned that God alone rules and delegates authority to whom He
will (Daniel 5:20-21)
Daniel now accuses the king that he knew ALL that had
transpired between God and Nebuchadnezzar and in spite of ALL this knowledge - he persisted in praising his false
gods and mocking the True God (Daniel 5:22-23)
His foolish behavior was the SAME as that of those who
after the Flood did NOT glorify the True God with thanksgiving (Romans 1:21-22) for His celestial revelation to them (Romans 1:19-20 cf. Psalms 19:1-3) and which revelation they perverted (Romans 1:23)
So will be the same foolish behavior of those who will
worship the "man of sin" and "son of perdition" (II Thessalonians 2:3-4 cf. John 17:12) instead of the True God and Creator (Revelation 14:6-7)
After the Divine accusation was brought forth by Daniel
against Belshazzar for blaspheming the True God (Daniel 5:23) in spite of the knowledge he had concerning how the True God humbled
his "father" Nebuchadnezzar for exalting himself above the True God (Daniel 5:18-22) - the "hand"
comes forth to write the decree of judgment (Daniel 5:24-25)
The decree of judgment contains these four Chaldee words:
Mene Mene (Daniel 5:26) means "numbered"
and is repeated twice for double emphasis concerning the fact that the time of the Babylonian kingdom is up - it's
length of time was Divinely decreed to be 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:1-2), which corresponded to the number of times Israel violated her land's
sabbath years (II Chronicles 36:20-21)
God measured the time duration of the Amorite kingdom
(Genesis 15:16) and kept Israel in Egypt
for that SAME length of time (Genesis 15:13)
God has measured the length of time (Romans 11:25) for this present dispensation
of grace (Ephesians 3:2) before He will pour out
His wrath during the Tribulation (Romans 2:3-10)
Tekel (Daniel 5:27) means "weighed"
and, therefore, "found wanting"
It is God Who weighs us (Job 31:6) and finds us "wanting"
concerning our righteousness (Isaiah 64:6)
Peres (Daniel 5:28) is the singular form of
Upharsin and means to "break up", i.e. the Babylonian kingdom is to be "divided" between the
Medes and the Persians
FIRST was Darius the "Median" (Daniel 5:31) and THEN was Cyrus the
"Persian" (Daniel 6:28)
Belshazzar's command to give his promised reward to Daniel
and to proclaim Daniel as the "third ruler" in the kingdom after he and his father evidenced his unbelief
in the pronounced decree that his kingdom was finished (Daniel 5:29)