The Writing is on the Wall   Ps 145 Rom 15:14-21; Matt 14:17-25; Dan 5:1-31

Introduction https://youtu.be/kt36eEFp9HA

After hearing so much about Nebuchadnezzar, his son Belshazzar is introduced without any biographical or historical detail whatsoever[1]. This is a sign that as abruptly as he arrives in the story, he will be terminated, according to the wise judgement of God. The Lord dealt with him according to the proverb, “calamity will come upon “a wicked man/” him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing” (Prov 6:15). It is a danger to presume upon the grace and long-suffering patience which God has shown to others, in this case to Belshazzar’s ancestor Nebuchadnezzar!

Exposition

As the end of the story will indicate, at the time Babylon was under siege by Persian invaders. But given its huge walls[2] ample water and food supply[3], the inhabitants believed the city was impregnable. The prophet Isaiah spoke to its arrogance, “You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”” (Isa 47:10). This is a boast repeated throughout history[4] and it is always recorded as preceding a cataclysmic destruction by God[5].  Australians in general, and prosperous West Australians in particular, must be careful lest we suffer the fate of the rich fool whom Jesus quoted, “he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”” (Luke 12:18-21).

vv.1-4

At the start of our story , we find the hard drinking king showing off before a 1000 of his nobles and their women, but this self-aggrandisement wasn’t enough for his insatiable ego, he is driven to call for drinking vessels, the containers of gold and silver plundered from the Jerusalem temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and he “praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” (5:4). Within the framework of ancient times, Belshazzar was triumphing in the superiority of the deities of triumphant Babylon over the God of Israel. He was mocking the true God; something his father would never have dared to do![6] At the heart of the matter these issues never go away. In rebuking the Corinthian Christians Paul warns, “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (1 Cor 10:20-22), Paul is warning that those who follow spiritually dead things/idols become conformed to their likeness, become blind and deaf to the wisdom and word of the living God (Ps 115:4-8; 135:15-18)[7]. Whoever is profoundly attracted to anything so that it becomes a “delight to their eyes” has already fallen under the spell of the devil (Gen 3:6; 1 John 2:16).

vv. 5-12

“Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace… And the king saw the hand as it wrote.” This is a very scary supernatural event, no wonder the king turned pale, couldn’t remain standing and his knees knocked together. In panic he does what the heathen kings of Babylon always did, call for a panel of experts and them offer a substantial reward if their labours are successful. And, as always in this book, where interpreting the work of God is concerned, the ministers of the power of darkness[8] know nothing! Finally, with the help of the queen, and using all the same vocabulary from earlier chapters, about “magicians” “holy gods” and the like, Daniel is called in based on his reputation. This is all practical, but no godly wisdom is on display anywhere. Why, because the group are totally devoid, as are most of our civic leaders are today, of “the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom ” (Ps 111:10; Prov 9:10).

vv. 13-16

The king talks up his own culture’s superiority over Daniel and his people by reminding him that, “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah.” (v.13). He goes on to minimise the possibilities of Daniels’ gifting, “I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation,” and then treats him as an unholy man[9] by offering gifts that would negate God’s grace, “you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”[10]  As if God could be induced to show kindness in the same way that flesh and blood can be manipulated by gifts. This reminds me of an occasion some years ago when I was asked to do a teaching series at a Perth church, and the pastor inquired about my “fee”. This sent me into shock, since Jesus said, “You received without paying; give without pay.””, how I could never charge a “fee”[11].

vv.17-23

Daniel of course will have none of it. He lovingly replies rather directly, ““Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.” (v.17). He has yet to see the writing on the wall, but with full assurance of faith he knows he can interpret it. He goes on to give the necessary historical background to where things are up to in the divine programme of salvation by recounting the episode we spoke about last week, the humiliation and return of Nebuchadnezzar. Then he adds strong words of indictment, “though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honoured.” According to Jesus, responsibility is related to knowledge, “the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating.” (Luke 12:48)[12]. And Paul says of idol worshippers, they “did not like to retain God in their knowledge… though they know God’s righteous judgement that those who practice such [sinful] things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Rom 1:28, 32). It is clear then that the words on the wall, if they are from the Lord of heaven, must be words of judgment.

vv.24-31

These are the words sent directly from the Lord’s heavenly “presence”, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin”[13], “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;” “you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;” “your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.””[14] [15] What could Belshazzar do in such a circumstance when the judgement of God on the spiritual and moral state of the kingdom sounds so inevitable? As with his predecessor, this king’s body was shattered, but there was no sign that his heart was changed. He went on to keep his promises to Daniel, but “that very night”[16] he was slain and his kingdom was “received” (v.30) by the King of Persia from the hand of God. This “had” to happen because it had been prophesied about by Isaiah 150 years before Cyrus’ victory in Babylon that he would be the one to release the Jewish captives (Isa 44:28; 45:1). The centre of God’s purposes was never the pagan empires, ancient or modern, but his covenant people.

Was Belteshazzar then utterly helpless? Not at all, if he had heard the voice of Daniel in the same way the king of the Assyrians had long before heard the warnings of Jonah (2 Kings 14:25), ““Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”” (Jonah 3:4), and led his people into repentance with sackcloth and ashes and mighty crying out to God (Jonah 3:6-10) as soon as he heard the divine decree, the Lord could have “changed his mind” and showed mercy, Babylon would still have fallen, but he and his people could have been saved. But apparently this would have been too much of a “loss of face”. Why is it that some repent and others harden their hearts at the preaching of the gospel[17]? Here is one suggestion that challenges us and is born out in the witness of scripture and church history.

A famous scholar (Abraham Heschel) once profoundly suggested that “For man, anger brings pain, for God, anger is pain (x2).”[18]. If this idea that God’s own wrath against sinners brings pain to himself seems far-fetched, remember that in ancient times when God was moving towards sending the catastrophe of the Flood, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” (Gen 6:5-6). Ultimately, this has to be the meaning of the cross, that the Son of God takes into himself all the wrath and anguish of both humanity and a Father who alone can honestly say of his punishing transgressors, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”  I am reminded of a story, how at the end of one of his sermons, a young ruffian approached the 18^th century evangelist George Whitfield and confessed, “I came with rocks in my pocket to break your head, but your tears broke my heart”

Conclusion

Babylon must fall if God’s kingdom is to finally triumph. In Revelation’s vision John hears a great angel cry out with a mighty voice, ““Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (Rev 18:2), and throughout scriptures the people of God, that is, us, are repeatedly exhorted to come out of Babylon “lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues” (Rev 18:4 cf. Isa 48:20; 2 Cor 6:17). Babylon is a complex of structures that always try to direct our devotion towards themselves and away for Christ. I have met devout believers over the years who testify to their “coming out” of Babylon. Sometimes they mean that they needed to step outside of treating a denomination, [whether Anglicanism, Catholicism or Pentecostalism], as though it were the kingdom of God! Have you “come out of Babylon”? I have, more than once. After my conversion I gradually realised the errors in the Pentecostalism I deeply appreciated, then as a young theological type searching for my Christian identity, I was attracted to a very “deterministic” from of the teachings of the Reformer John Calvin[19], which means whatever God has decided, that’s it, it’s final, I later came to see that I was trapped in this Babylon[20]. But as the Father by the Spirit has revealed to me more and more of the excellence and love of Jesus, I have come more and more out of “Babylon”[21]. Brother and sister, “come out of Babylon”, come give your whole heart, soul mind and strength to Jesus (Matt 22:37)!