Judgment in Exile (Daniel 5:1-31)

The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.

Hi. Good morning church. You can go ahead, grab your Bibles and open up to Daniel chapter five. Daniel five as we continue in our series this morning, as you’re turning there, there’s a story from Greek history that you’re probably at least somewhat familiar with. King Hiero of Syracuse wanted a new crown, and so he gave a goldsmith in his kingdom a certain amount of gold to fashion this new crown for him. Only problem was that he didn’t really trust this Goldsmith, and so he was thinking to himself, how am I going to know if this guy, you know, took some the gold for himself and substituted a cheaper metal, like silver in its place. So asked his friend, the POLYMATH Archimedes, to solve this problem for him. Archimedes is stumped, and so he does what everyone does when they’re stumped, which is, he took a nice, hot bath. Only problem was he filled the bathtub too high, so he plopped himself in and all the water was displaced. Ran over the sides of the bathtub, and he exclaimed, quite famously, he Reika, or, as we tend to say, Eureka. This was the original moment. Means I have found it. Is what that means, I have found it. So he kind of realized certain weight, certain volume, density, all this stuff, displacement, great. Okay. You know, science is another time. All right. In our passage, this morning, King Belshazzar of Babylon has his spiritual eureka moment. And it is a similar issue in some ways, because he is like this crown being weighed tested. And the question is, will he be found wanting? So bit of background, because I mentioned King Belshazzar, and you all are sitting there thinking, I know what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, because no time has passed, at least in our you know the here’s Nebuchadnezzar and here’s Belshazzar, and we get this helpful title in our Bible, but that, of course, wasn’t there in the original. So we actually have jumped more than 20 years in that little blank space. Now, the author expected us to know our Babylonian history, probably because he was writing quite close to Babylonian history, and so kind of assumed all his contemporaries would know this. We’ve actually had three kings pass by that get no mention whatsoever here, at least between Nebuchadnezzar and the current king of Babylon, who is nebonidus, not Belshazzar, by the way, nebonis, who is Nebuchadnezzar grandson, most likely kind of a, you know, one of these things, because dynastic intrigues and all that. He is the last king of Babylon, which falls to a middle Persian empire in 539 BC, his son Belshazzar, served as CO regent, though, and was reigning in Babylon in particular. And so that’s where we are at this moment in 539 BC, kind of two important takeaways from what I just shared right there, and everything we missed in that. First of all, the Bible is not concerned with history the way we are. So when we think history, we think history textbooks. And so we got to get all the names and dates in place. Can you give me the chronology and all of that the Bible is concerned with God’s work in history? What are the theological lessons evident in history? And that’s where he’s going to draw our attention today. So that’s the first takeaway, but the second one even in saying that, I know some of you heard me say the Bible is not concerned with history, which is not what I said, by the way. But that is a common view, right? And the Bible is telling all these fun myths and fables to teach us theological lessons, and whether or not it’s accurate is no big deal? No. The other takeaway is that the Bible is shockingly accurate, considering it is not trying to write a history textbook. How shockingly accurate we have no extra biblical record of Belshazzar reigning as CO Regent in Babylon until the middle of the 19th century, the only place we knew this had happened was in the book of Daniel. So naturally enough, people began to think, oh, okay, that’s because it’s made up. That’s why Bible doesn’t know what it’s talking about, you know? And so it just again, creating characters as needed, written hundreds and hundreds of years after the fact, and just got their history wrong until archeologists unearth cuneiform tablets that confirmed absolutely everything that we read right here. And so that’s important. Belshazzar is a real person who really reigned as CO Regent in Babylon, reigning there, by the way, because his dad kind of upset the Babylonians, which is a weird thing to do when you’re king of Babylon. He decided on some different gods, and so he kind of went outside the city and reigned over there, plus he’s fighting the Medo Persian Empire and whatnot. But the important part in all this is the transition from four to five, which is abrupt historically and chronologically, has no abrupt, you know, break thematically, because where did we end last week? The very end of chapter four, verse 37 and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble King Belshazzar. Okay, now we know where we’re going, because once again, we’re going to see sins of pride, arrogance, godlessness, like we saw with Nebuchadnezzar in the last few weeks. And we’re going to see what it merits, which is final judgment, and it is a harrowing account. As a result. This is not a pleasant tale, by any means, but let’s look at that. See the sin, see the judgment that results three scenes we’re going to look at this morning, the writing, the rebuking, and then ultimately the ruling starting with the writing on the wall, chapter five, verses one to 12. I’ll read it for us now, King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for 1000 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 that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the temple in Jerusalem so that the kings 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 on 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 legs became weak and his knees were knocking. The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners, and he 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, May the king live forever. She said, Don’t be alarmed. Don’t look so pale. There is 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 your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. He did this because 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. All right, so where are we? Persia has just defeated Nabonidus, about 30 miles or so away from Babylon. So the Empire here is on the brink of collapse. And this scene, it’s like Nero fiddling as Rome burns, and the contrast between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar is stark. Nebuchadnezzar built an empire, and Belshazzar threw a rager like that’s the difference. He should be preparing for invasion. Instead, he is planning a party. And we wonder why, of course, is this a question of calming the nerves? Might as well eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow, we are literally going to die. This isn’t just existentialism. It’s actually the end of us, maybe more likely. He’s trying to unite all the factions, all the nobles in the empire, so that they can make their final stand. Here we see that, you know, Xerxes does this before he invades Greece, for example, a few decades later,
and while it was no doubt a surprise that the Empire was going to fall that very night, which we know to be true, by the way, Xenophon records that the the Empire fell in a night during a nighttime banquet, even it was a surprise that it happened so quickly, but it wasn’t unexpected that Persia was gonna be at the gates by morning, but they thought themselves secure within the city. They had stores of food to last for years, and so they figured they’d just wear the siege army out. In other words, Belshazzar thinks he’s more secure than he is, which has been a recurring theme in Daniel of course, were insecure and insufficient, as we know. This is probably some of why he then drinks from the temple goblets. These would have been some of the gold vessels that were there in the Most Holy Place in the temple of God in Jerusalem, that when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem, he brought with as. You know, booty, basically, to kind of say, see, our God is stronger than your God. The contrast is there again, though, because, yes, Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and took the holy vessels, but he still treated them as holy vessels. He didn’t add them to his, you know, regular dinnerware, or anything like that. But Belshazzar is profaning the vessels, which is odd, because it was Babylonian policy not to offend foreign deities, because that gets you into trouble. Sometimes it upsets the people who worship those gods. And if those gods are real, well that could cause problems for you too. So why is he doing it? Because it’s this reminder of the bygone glory of the Babylonian Empire. Like, yeah, we’ve got another nation here with their gods coming to sack us. But look what we’ve done before. Look at what happened to the other gods who came up against the might of Babylon, and in fact, he plays up the strength of his gods. You may notice in verse four, they actually toast their idols using God’s goblet. They’re toasting false and therefore powerless gods with the cup of the one true, living, powerful God. It takes us back to our Oscar trophy. If you were here a few weeks back when we had the props up front, because we had the king kids in the service. So this is the idolatry, again, of this thinking this little statue is going to help you, except that it’s even worse, because he’s mocking God with this statue. I can’t even think of a good example, because we don’t really do this kind of thing anymore, but you know, this would be like taking a cross and using that as the stand that you put your Oscar trophy on. Like, that’s sort of what’s happening. Like, I know which one is more important and which one is just serving the other. Here. The problem, of course, is that hunks of lifeless metal can’t save the city. We’ve been learning this lesson in Daniel and one of you is kind enough to send me a picture of it was a flood that was happening not down in the southeast, but in the Far East, and there were pictures of people wading through rivers of water, carrying their gods to make sure they rescued them, which is ironic to say the least. Your God is supposed to rescue you, not the other way around, but if it’s not a real God, that’s what this looks like. So that’s what’s happening here. And we see his sin, we see his arrogance, same arrogance that Nebuchadnezzar had, except even worse, of course, taking it a step further, because he added to arrogance blasphemy and of the idolatry as well. No wonder judgment comes. But before we get to that, especially when we’re condescending and sneering down our nose at Belshazzar. We need to pause for a moment and ask, is there any of that in us? Are there sins of arrogance, blasphemy and idolatry in us? The answer is, of course, we looked at the arrogance last week even, and how quickly we begin to think I did this. This is mine. I built this, whether it’s an empire like Nebuchadnezzar or a business or a ministry idolatry we talked about couple weeks back. That was the Oscar trophy, right? Yes, we know how quickly we worship, maybe not hunks of lifeless metal, but our achievement, or money or power or whatever else it might be. What about blasphemy? You’re like, I feel good about that one, at least. So you know I’m doing okay. You’re thinking like, Have I ever taken the Lord’s name in vain? That would be blasphemy. And you’re like, No, I don’t really do that. But blasphemy is so much more than just that. What makes blasphemy tricky for us today is that we don’t have a holy place with holy vessels any longer. There’s not a temple with golden vessels that we use. So, you know, sometimes people will talk about blasphemy because, you know, somebody vandalizes a church, and you’re like, well, first of all, it’s not a church. It’s the building where the church meets, and it’s just brick and mortar, so you’re not actually profaning anything holy there, except that that does help us out, doesn’t it? Because there is a holy place, and it is the gathered Church, which is the temple of God, the sanctuary where God dwells. Every Christian is a part of the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so now all of a sudden, actually really matters, because we could be blaspheming all the time based on how we treat people. So what Paul says in first Corinthians six, when it comes to sexual immorality in particular, he’s like, I mean, you are the most holy place if the Spirit of God dwells within you. So what happens if you go and visit a prostitute, how much have you desecrated the temple of God? Then you’re like, okay, but sexual immorality is not my problem. James makes it even worse for us. Unfortunately, James, chapter three, verse nine, he mentions the fact that with the same tongue, we praise God and curse human. Beings who are made in His likeness. We need to pay attention. In other words, all these sins are present within us. We need to pay attention. We need to do some self examination, especially when we see what comes next, because God takes this seriously. So we should take this seriously. What happens next? A disembodied hand appears and begins writing on one of the palace walls. You’ll notice it was right by a lampstand, so everybody can see it spotlights on the writing. And it’s actually interesting, because walls in palaces back then were used to put up the propaganda of the empire, of the kingdom, just finished reading a history of Persia in part preparation for this series, and they went into nauseating detail about all the reliefs carved into the different Persian palaces. And it was that arrogance, again, I did this. These are the lands I conquered. Well, so now God’s writing his history on the wall. You want to know, you know my evaluation of the Empire. Here it is, and it’s a terrifying moment, as you would expect. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a disembodied hand start writing things that would probably freak you out. It freaks Belshazzar out. Okay, so he’s plainly terrified. Color drains from his face. Says his knees were knocking. He’s shaking, right? And then it says that His legs gave way. That’s a really generous translation from the NIV, but I can’t understand why they’re doing it, because it’s a little euphemistic here. It says that the joints of his body were loosened. You want the way we’d say that euphemistically in English today, would be he lost control of his bodily functions the wet spot on the throne at this point, that’s how scared he is. And again, understandably. So. What does he do with his tear? He does what pagan kings always do. He begins offering rewards. You get, you know, purple robe and gold chain and interesting. What does he say you’ll be made third in the kingdom? This doesn’t seem very nice. Pharaoh said that Joseph be made second in the kingdom. So why third? Well, because Belshazzar is second in the kingdom. Just confirming the history that we’ve already learned, right? Nabonidus is first, then Belshazzar, you can be number three. In other words, calls the usual impotent advisors. It’s just getting amusing at this point. Every time we see this group of people call they can’t do anything yet again. So he gets even more scared, until the Queen Mother arrives. It’s called the queen here, almost certainly Queen Mother, in fact, most likely she’s the queen grandmother. This is almost certainly a Natacris, who was Nebuchadnezzar wife, and she was renowned for her wisdom. Again, even Greek historians tell us that. And so we have got an older, cooler head prevailing here. And what does she tell Belshazzar? You don’t need all these guys. They’re worthless. Trust me, we’ve seen this one before. You just need one guy. And you have them in your kingdom already you need one guy.
Where is he? That’s probably one of the questions we’ve had, like, when you need something interpreted, you call Daniel. We’ve learned this lesson, haven’t we, but Belshazzar has demoted Daniel in the same way that he’s downgraded Daniel’s God, which we saw in the blasphemy and the profanation of the temple vessels reminded of Hegel’s famous dictum, the only thing we’ve learned from history is that we’ve learned absolutely nothing from history. That’s what Belshazzar is doing right here. Well, NATO Chris is trying to remedy that. She says she wants Belshazzar to be like his father, Nebuchadnezzar, Father, by the way, being used here as just ancestor. We see that throughout the Old Testament, even it talks about your father, David, even though you’re eight generations removed, just means the guy who was on the throne at some point before you. So she wants Belshazzar to be like Nebuchadnezzar, to restore Daniel to his place of prominence in the kingdom, and with him, the one true God who is actually able to help Babylon in this time of need, there is this reminder in her appeal to history that we must not presume upon The grace God has shown to others, especially parents, your ancestors. We do not inherit Grace like it’s a spiritual trust fund that gets passed down to us. God has to show it anew to each generation. Don’t assume that God will do for you what he has done for others in the past, as soon as you assume grace, you’re on the verge of losing grace, so seek him wholeheartedly instead. And that is what Natacris is counseling here. Let’s see how it goes. Takes us to Scene two, the rebuking. Let me keep reading verses 13 to 24 and 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’ll be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you’ll be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom. And Daniel answered, the king, you may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for The King and tell him what it means, Your Majesty, the most high God gave your father, Nebuchadnezzar, sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor because of the high position he gave him all the nations and peoples 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 wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the most high God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes. But you Belshazzar, his son, 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. So Belshazzar agrees to let Daniel come. How magnanimous of him, and immediately treats him condescendingly. Your Daniel, one of the exiles that my father, Nebuchadnezzar brought from Judah. In other words, remember your place. I am the captor. You are the captive. That’s how he treats him. Calvin says it like this that he doesn’t acknowledge his negligence. There’s no sense of I’m in trouble here, and I’ve heard you could actually help that would be amazing. He doesn’t acknowledge his negligence, but interrogates Daniel without shame. Interrogates him like he was a prisoner. Of course, he is a prisoner of war. Now you may be looking at this going, I don’t know. It seems like he treats him pretty well. Here, he says some nice things about him. He gives him some honorifics, yes, but at a distance, you’ll notice, in both cases, he says, I have heard that you’ve got the spirit of the holy God. I’ve heard that you’ve got some wisdom. People are saying, but I’m reserving judgment, at least for now, that is so different, again, from Nebuchadnezzar, who says in chapter four, verse nine, I know that the spirit of the holy Gods lives in you. So there’s the difference once more, and that leads him to be conditional in his request. If you can interpret the writing, then I’ll do these things for you again. Nebuchadnezzar just goes interpret the dream because he knows Daniel will be able to, because God is with him. Belshazzar wants to lead unshackled by the past. That’s what the temple vessels are about. That’s why he’s dismissed. Nebuchadnezzar’s trusted advisor, but it’s the unshackling from the past that has made his future so grim. And so Daniel teaches him some history. First, he rejects the king’s gifts because his gifts are not for sale. That’s really important. Reminds me of Elisha with Naaman, another pagan leader, who comes to Elisha to be healed, and says, I’ll, you know, give you all this stuff if you heal me. And Elisha is like, look, I obey God, right? He’s the one who brings healing. He’s the one who interprets dreams. That’s on him. I’ll do what He asks of me. You can keep your money in both cases. That’s what’s being said here. So he says, you know, keep your gifts. I’ll interpret the writing. And then, interestingly, he doesn’t interpret the writing. Instead, he rebukes Belshazzar boldly, exactly like we saw last week. He’s not speaking from a position of power. He’s speaking on the margins of power, but he is speaking truth to a power that has rejected the truth himself, God Almighty. It’s almost like he says to Belshazzar, hey, you brought up Nebuchadnezzar. So let’s go there. Let’s talk about him like, what did he learn? Nebuchadnezzar learned from God that His. Empire was a gift God gives and, by the way, also takes away kingdoms. That’s what Nebuchadnezzar learned, and that’s the reminder that Belshazzar needs, especially because Daniel knows something that Belshazzar definitely doesn’t know. Daniel is familiar with the writings of Jeremiah, Prophet who’s more or less a contemporary of his, especially at the beginning. We know this because he’s going to quote Jeremiah later. We’ll get to chapter nine. I want to say so makes sense. Jeremiah was writing to the to the exiles in Babylon. Sent the prophecies to them. Well, who’s the most prominent Jew in Babylon? Daniel would have gotten the message. Would have read the prophecies, studied them. He would have read this Jeremiah, 27 six and seven. This is God speaking to Zedekiah, who was king of Judah at the time, right as they’re about to be conquered by Babylon. Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 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. So Daniel knows this prophecy, which means he knows that time is running out for the Babylonian Empire, because we got Nebuchadnezzar and his son, Hamil Marduk and then his grandson, Nabonidus, and then it’s time, then it’s over, then somebody else comes in and subjugates them. So he knows time is running out, which means that he knows that Belshazzar will not humble himself before God Almighty, which is why he’s so bold with him. There’s a little bit of an irony in this, of course, also because Nebuchadnezzar had reason to be proud from a worldly perspective, he did, you know, kind of conquer the known world at that time. So he had reason to be proud, but was humbled. Belshazzar has no reason to be proud, and yet he refuses to be humbled, which is why he profanes the temple vessels. And here’s what makes it so bad. It’s in verse 22 I think his most important verse in this passage, Daniel says to him, You have not humbled yourself though you knew all this. You knew because you were taught Babylonian history, because that’s what kings in waiting get taught. Of course, you should have learned the lesson. Again, good reminder for us. We can learn God’s truths vicariously. We don’t have to make every mistake for ourselves. We can look around. We can learn from history, even again, whether that’s your family history or history writ large, we can learn, but Belshazzar didn’t learn, and in his arrogant idolatry, he blasphemed the Holy One of Israel.
So the God, who holds his very life in his hand, sends a hand to write on the wall. Now just to be clear, because some of you are going to wonder about this, God doesn’t have this, God doesn’t have a body. He is spirit, so he doesn’t actually have a hand. We’re using anthropomorphic language, just figurative, metaphorical description of God’s activity in the world. We see it a lot, right? It’s the arm of the Lord too short to, you know, reach out and impact this situation. Or we have the 10 Commandments, which are written by God’s finger on stone tablets, Exodus, 31, verse 18, and that’s what we have here, right? This is written by God’s very finger. Again, the judgment is sure because the judge himself is writing the ruling on the wall. And it even reads like a sentencing. It’s like machine gun fire list of charges against him. If you looked at just verses 23 and 24 you can count them up. I promise you the words you or your show up 12 times like this is just going you did this, you did this, you did this, you did this, you did this. There are the charges against you. No excuses, no way to duck this, no way to hide. Judgment is sure, and judgment is deserved. And so Daniel moves then from the rebuke to the interpretation of the writing on the wall, which is when he reads the judge’s ruling. Let’s read it together now. Scene three, the ruling. The rest of the chapter, verses 25 to 31 this is the inscription that was written many, many. Tekke parsin, here’s what these words mean. Many, 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. Paris, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then at Belshazzar his 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 Mede, took over the kingdom at the age of 62 well, at long last, we get to read. The writing on the wall. So that’s exciting. We get to know what the hand wrote. It is this cryptic series of three words. These are actually all coins that are written down. So it’s Mina. Mina shekel and a half is basically what it would be. And you think to yourself, Well, why did this confuse the advisors so much? Then? Were they like, illiterate or something, not at all. It’s not that the words were too hard to read. It’s that their meaning was inscrutable. So if you saw a disembodied hand writing on the wall behind me, nickel, nickel quarter and a half, you wouldn’t be confused about the phonemes themselves, but you sure would be wondering why there’s a disembodied hand writing a bunch of coins on the wall behind me. That’s what’s happening here, too. Why would a divine hand write something like this? And God, as he’s done throughout the book of Daniel, gives Daniel the interpretation. He’s not reading the words, he’s explaining the hidden meanings that careful study wouldn’t give you. And so in this, he is truly acting as Prophet speaking God’s truth. It’s really interesting, too, when you think about this, when did Babylon first arrive on the scene? Really, biblically speaking, it was called Babel back then, if that helps you, Genesis, chapter 11 and all the same. Sins are there right, arrogance and idolatry and blasphemy. They’re trying to make their name great. There’s no humility or anything like that. What is the punishment for the sin of the Tower of Babel God confuses their language the hour of Babylon’s birth, their language is confused and at the hour of Babylon’s death, the language is confused yet again. So Daniel makes sense of it. These are not coins. He takes them as passive verbs. They’re all word play, right? This is just kind of similar sounds. So what is it? Many sounds like a mana, which is the word for numbered, like was numbered. Tekkel was weighed. Peres, which is the singular of parsin, was divided. And of course, also sounds an awful lot like Persia. So the idea is simple enough. God has put Belshazzar in the scales, and he didn’t weigh enough. He didn’t have the stuff. We could put it that way. This is a very Hebrew idea. Of course, when we talk about God’s glory in the Old Testament, the word for glory is actually weight heavy. In other words, he is filled with the most stuff. So you look around, you go, okay, you know, Brandon, he’s got 1.7 units of wisdom, and Kyle’s got, you know, 1.3 units of goodness. Okay, well, God has got infinite wisdom, infinite goodness, infinite mercy. So, of course, he weighs the most. That’s the idea. By contrast, Belshazzar doesn’t have any weight at all. He lacks wisdom, lacks goodness, lacks humility, so he’s been placed on the judge’s scales and found wanting, and so the ruling is offered. His days are numbered, and so the kingdom will be divided, separated from him, and given to the Medo-Persians, the ones who had just defeated Nabonidus a few days earlier. You know, 30 miles away. What’s odd is that Belshazzar is response doesn’t seem to fit, because he doesn’t panic, he doesn’t grieve, certainly doesn’t repent. Well, he does keep his word, though, interestingly, even though Daniel told him to keep his stuff, he’s given his reward and he’s made third in the kingdom. Except who cares, right? Because after all that very night, the Persians sack Babylon and Belshazzar is slain, so he is now third in a kingdom that no longer exists. Except the Persians had a policy of keeping the local leaders in place to smooth with the transition and probably subdue revolt as well. In other words, Daniel has been providentially placed at third in the kingdom right as a new kingdom comes in. So that Darius the Mede, whom we’ll talk quite a bit about next week, Chapter Six keeps Daniel on. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. You’re thinking Darius the Mede, we all know that it was Cyrus the Great who conquered Babylon. So help me out here another one of those massive historical inaccuracies in the Bible, to which I will tell you come back next week. Okay, we’re gonna talk about them then. So just hang it on until then. But what does all this have to do with us? Like, I know some of you were like, there were too many names that were too hard to say. You. And this was a long time ago in a kingdom Far, far away, like I don’t understand the connection, you know, I get it. Belshazzar was a bad dude, and he got what he deserved, the arrogant little punk. And that’s the takeaway from this story, right? Well, unfortunately, has quite a bit to do with us, because we’re also arrogant little punks. And it all goes back to verse 22 you knew all this. And here’s the truth of the matter, we know so much more than Belshazzar did. So this is the big idea. We’re gonna unpack it as we go here. But here’s the big idea right up front. You know all this, so respond. You know all this. We’ll get to all this in a moment. So respond even now, like we don’t want Belshazzar weird response of all, right, here’s a new road before you like, what should the response actually be? Because here’s the thing, you sit under the Word of God every week. Like, you know all this is your heart getting harder or softer under the teaching of God’s word, because it’s doing one or the other. The Puritans love to say the same. Sun hardens the clay and melts the butter, and that’s what it does to human hearts as well. Of course, even that image is interesting, because, you know, what did the clay do to get hard? It’s just what it is. What does the butter does what it is. There’s this tension even in that, and certainly the tension we see in this story between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Because look at what’s happened in the last few chapters. Look at how patient God is with Nebuchadnezzar and how much mercy he shows him three times he teaches him, I’m the true God, until Nebuchadnezzar is finally brought to his knees before Him, Belshazzar is judged after one time. Why is that? Is it because Belshazzar was so much worse? Well, he drank from the golden goblets. You know, do you remember what Nebuchadnezzar did? He burned the temple to the ground while murdering God’s people in Judah and then carrying them off into exile. Yeah, he took the gold cups too. He didn’t drink from them. Does that sound better to you? It reminds me a little bit of Paul, right? Like, why would God save Paul, who was murdering Christians at the time, and yet God humbled him
so that he bowed before the living God. There is no such mercy for Belshazzar. He is humble, but not to the point of repentance and humility, true humility. He is humbled to the point of death and judgment. What we see in this story is exactly what Paul says in Romans nine, verse 18, just a few verses after the passage Jimmy read for us earlier, God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy and He hardens whom He wants to harden, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Right there, we’ve seen that. That is a hard truth, certainly. And there is a great mystery in there. You want to ask me a bunch of questions about this. I’m going to go. We’ll find out when we get there. We can ask God directly. I don’t think we’ll have that question at that point, but we could ask him, I suppose. But the takeaway from that truth that God wants will have mercy on whom He has mercy will harden whom he hardens. A takeaway from that truth for those of us who are in Christ should be such immense gratitude and humility, of course, like our response to that truth and our response to this story even should be two things simultaneously. First of all, I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve this. I should not have God’s favor in my life, because right along with it, the other truth is he is not worse than I am. Belshazzar is not any worse than I am, and that’s going to really help us out when we talk about judgment in exile, which is the name of the the sermon today, judgment in exile doesn’t like the we get to watch as as judgment happens to the people who are being mean to us. Like, how do we judge in exile? We are not the ones who weigh people and find them wanting. That’s not our job, our default, barring some sort of divine revelation, like a hand writing something on the wall next to you, barring divine revelation. Our default mode should be Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar pleading with him even now turn and trust God in. Calling you right. He was he was terrified. I wish these prophecies were about somebody else. He loved Nebuchadnezzar. That’s what we should look like as well. This is a needed reminder, even this week, because there was a hurricane that hit that not, not that long ago. And if you went into the cesspool that is social media, the usual suspects said, what about that hurricane. What they always say? You know, why Asheville got hit? Right? Because it’s filled with Democrats. I wish I were joking. I wish that were funny. It’s not or North Carolina, the rest of it actually the hardest counties that got hit, where the Maga people live. So we know what happened there didn’t this is the judgment of God on wicked people who aren’t like me, same nonsense we saw after Katrina and 911 and all the rest. Does God ever judge people and bring disaster into the world as a result? Absolutely, do we know when it’s happening? No, not unless there is divine revelation. I’m not talking about Pat Robertson. I got a word from the Lord false prophet nonsense. I’m talking actual divine revelation. Who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind, and what does Jesus say? Nope, nope. Something else entirely is happening. We don’t know what God is doing. God might have brought suffering into somebody’s life for redemptive purposes, like what he’s doing with Nebuchadnezzar. And by the way, how could we say otherwise? Because which one of you wants to stand up right now before the living God and say, weigh me, I’m good. Yeah, I didn’t think so. No one got up, right? Because there’s only one who has ever weighed and found glorious, heavy, perfect, Jesus of Nazareth, the word become flesh. You’ve made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory, His weight has come from the Father, full of grace and truth. He’s the only one who lived a life so perfect that he was not only to able to satisfy the demands of God’s holiness for himself, but his life was so perfect he was able to satisfy God’s demands of a holiness for all who would enter in him as well, even people like Nebuchadnezzar, who was again, a really wicked person, and Paul, and also you and me, who are really wicked people. Because I know that some of you are sitting there going, I get that God is merciful, but he couldn’t possibly show it to me. Don’t let your past hold you back. Our question isn’t whether your sin is great. The question is whether Jesus is greater. And the answer is yes, he is. He is enough for you Come in, come into the kingdom, and if we come to God through Christ, what awaits us, by the way, a feast. A feast, but not one like Belshazzar involves blasphemy and hedonism. More importantly, though, one that is temporary. The feast that’s coming for us is in God’s forever kingdom. You remember that rock and toppled all the human kingdoms and that nothing else could ever topple. That’s the banquet that we’re invited to. You know all this. So respond, respond how, just briefly, well as exiles, we respond by loving those around us who are under judgment still because they have not yet come to Christ. Like Daniel, we engage in the hard but necessary work of sharing Christ’s worth and our unworthiness. We are God’s ambassadors sent to proclaim reconciliation in Christ to those who need to hear it. We also respond by living like we know all this, hearing the Word and responding in imperfect Yes until glory, imperfect, but grace infused growth in godliness, just growing day by day in godliness, because the Spirit is at work in us. So I would invite you to do a heart check even now. Like, is that true of you? Are you softening under the Ministry of the Word? Like, what are your finances? Tell you about yourself in sins of arrogance. For example, I earned this. This is my money or idolatry. What about your schedule, which shows you what you worship for sure, your desire for transformative community, your willingness to enter into it. Or how about this one? I really want you to think hard about this one you’re going to talk about in community groups. By the way, when was the last time? And you heard God’s word, whether in a sermon or journey group or your time of private worship, whatever it was, you heard God’s word. We’re convicted and changed as a result. We can look back and go, I heard this, and I knew I shouldn’t do this anymore, so I, by God’s grace, stopped doing it. Was that like yesterday or last week, or has it been a little while? We have been saved by grace, grace through faith, through no merit of our own. That’s Ephesians. Two, right, eight and nine. Is by grace. You have been saved by grace through faith. This is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast his sovereign mercy. But it doesn’t end there. The very next verse in Ephesians, two is For we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. We’re not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works, to do good works. And you know all this, even if today is your very first time in church, your first time hearing the Word of God. You know that much at least now so respond, and respond especially to his offer of grace and mercy. Let’s pray together now, Lord, we pray once more that you would humble us before you, and especially humble us under your word, how you are speaking to us even now, and may you God, by your sovereign grace and mercy, soften our hearts, may they melt like butter under the light of Your Word, so that we can respond in worshipful, joyful, loving, grateful, humble, obedience to what you’ve called us to do, especially Lord, to share this good news and the offer of mercy with those around us, because we know that none of us will be weighed and found sufficient in ourselves. We needed mercy also to help us to preach mercy and grace to everyone around us, even those we don’t necessarily care for, who would be our enemies in the world’s eyes, like Babylon would have been in Daniel’s eyes. And do this, Lord, we ask for your name’s sake, amen.