Bible Talk - Daniel 5 - "The Writing on the Wall" (Gary Millar)

Sun, 13 May 2012 09:00:00 +1000

Introduction

There are some things I just don't like thinking about. In fact, I work very hard at ignoring, or even better, forgetting about these things completely. Things like living with three teenage girls. Things like dealing with three teenage girls who may think at some stage that it is acceptable for them to have boyfriends. I don't like thinking about the fact that sooner or later, I am going to have to face major health issues. I don't like thinking about the fact that one day I'll have to retire. I don't like thinking about the fact that my Dad and Fiona's Mum & Dad are getting older. I don't like thinking about the fact that the back fence needs painting, and I can only put it off for so long. In fact, if we are honest, we are all prone to denial - to just ignoring things we don't like thinking about in the vain hope that they will just go away. Sometimes we try to avoid trivial things, but sometimes we do the same thing when it comes to issues that are hugely important. Like judgment for example.

I have to be honest - I'm not sure I would ever choose to look at Daniel 5 - the story of the writing on the wall. Because there is no getting round it - it's a story about judgment. But that's why we do what we do - working steadily through books of the Bible without dodging the hard bits. Because avoiding tough issues, or denying that they are there, may be attractive, but, in the long run, it's never a good idea. God wants us to know about what's in this chapter, and he wants us to take it seriously, because it really does matter. This is terribly important - so let's not duck it, but get right into this chapter to see exactly what it is that God wants us to know.

What does Belshazzar do?

At the end of chapter 4, our writer hits fast forward and takes us beyond the 43 year reign of Nebuchadnezzar, skipping over the short reigns of some other family members, to the reign of Belshazzar. Not Belteshazzar (which was Daniel's Babylonian name) but Belshazzar, who was probably Nebuchadnezzar's great-grandson (the word 'father' is used in verse 2 because it can describe any of your ancestors).

You also might be interested to know that for many years, this chapter was held up as evidence that the Bible can't be trusted when it comes to actual historical detail. That's because no Babylonian king list ever mentions a king called Belshazzar. So some academics came to the conclusion that he must have been made up - a figment of the writer's imagination, or perhaps his historical ignorance. And then this was found.

It's called the Nabonidus Cylinder, it's 20cm long, and you can see it in the British Museum in London. It was written at the command of a well-known king of Babylon called Nabonidus. Nabonidus, it turns out was Belshazzar's dad. And while Belshazzar never got to rule in his own right, his Dad did let him look after the shop while he was off fighting Egyptians in the west. Unfortunately for Belshazzar, that's when the Persians chose to attack from the east. And as we pick up the story, the Persians are literally at the gates of Babylon. They are about to attack. Daddy is miles away. So what does Belshazzar do? He is a full-grown man, but he does what teenagers do when their parents are away. He throws a party. A big party. And we join the party just in time to see Belshazzar do three very stupid things:

(i) He Mocks God (5:1-4)

The first thing that Belshazzar does is mocks God. That much is clear from 5:2, which describes a deliberately provocative, drunken attempt to ridicule the God of the Exiles.

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 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.

Even by Babylonian standards, this was in pretty bad taste.

In the Ancient World, when you conquered another nation, it was widely accepted that your gods had beaten their gods, so one of two things happened. Either you just flattened their temple, or you took their sacred objects, and put them in the trophy cabinet of your god's temple, which was what Belshazzar's great grandfather had done. Now Nebuchadnezzar wasn't exactly famous for his sense of fair play and respect for other religions, but compared to his descendant, he was a real gentleman! Using the goblets for a party, and doing it while toasting other gods, was definitely not on. There is a line, and Belshazzar crossed it.

Last year, I was at an international soccer match. I have been going to soccer games for most of my life, but something happened that night which made me feel really sick. And it wasn't even on the pitch. Some of the people beside me booed the other team's national anthem. Now I have heard some fairly colourful chants over the years. I have heard some sledging that was pretty close to the line. But never that. Heckling another national anthem? That's crossing a line. And Belshazzar definitely crossed the line when he deliberately mocked the one and only God. But that was only the start.

(ii) He Ignores God (5:20-22)

When Daniel, slightly reluctantly, it must be said, starts to explain what the writing on the wall means in verse 18, he goes right back to Nebuchadnezzar's story, and in particular, the events we were looking at last week in chapter 4. Look with me at what Daniel says, vs. 18:

O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendour… 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.

What's the problem? Simple. Not only has Belshazzar mocked God, he has also ignored him.

That becomes even clearer when the queen (verse 10) has to remind him who Daniel is, and that he has the ability to interpret strange events that aren't listed in the Babylonian textbooks. Similarly, the patronizing way in which Belshazzar speaks to the man who served his forefather so well in verses 13-16, and Daniel's sharp response shows pretty clearly that this second-rate king had no time for God. He mocked him, and he ignored him.

I hope you can see the difference. Belshazzar's behaviour at the feast was pretty extreme. It's the kind of outright, outrageous hatred of God which is pretty rare, at least in polite society. But ignoring God? That's a different matter, and it's a little bit more common,

Do you know what the opening words of The Australian Constitution are?

Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established…

And so it goes on. It is a brilliant start, but what effect does it have on life in Australia today? Not a lot, as far as I can see. I haven't heard much talk about 'humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God' on TV recently! Most of us just ignore it. And more important, we ignore the God of which the Constitution speaks. So Belshazzar wasn't alone in that!

(iii) He Defies God (5:23)

So Belshazzar mocks God, ignores God, and then, in what is really the defining moment of the story, he defies God. Let me read again from verse 23:

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.

You set yourself up against God, refusing to honour the one who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Belshazzar mocks God, ignores God, and now he defies God.

In a way, Belshazzar goes through the normal strategies of any disobedient child. He is cheeky and disrespectful. He pretends not to listen. And then, most serious of all, he looks his parent in the eye and simply says 'NO'! The problem for Belshazzar, of course, is that he is playing a game he cannot possibly win, as this book of Daniel has already made so clear. Nebuchadnezzar had already tried it with disastrous results. Now his descendant is careering down the same dead end. Belshazzar doesn't seem to realize that mocking God is dangerous, ignoring God is terribly risky and defying God is both foolish and ultimately impossible, as the writing which appears on the wall makes terribly clear.

What's With the Writing on the Wall?

The Greek historians Xenophon and Herodotus both tell us that Cyrus the Persian conquered the city of Babylon in a night-time raid that took place during a great feast. This was that night. In fact, Belshazzar and his pals were probably drinking because they knew the Persians weren't far off, either in search of some dutch courage, or because they suspected that tomorrow they might die. So there they were, in the throne room, eating, drinking and getting merry.

In 1899, when a man called Koldewey excavated the throne room of the Kings of Babylon, he found that the walls were coated in white gypsum, providing an excellent surface for writing. And the message written on that wall that night? God says, Belshazzar, you sat my test, I have marked the test, and you have failed. Now you will lose your kingdom. That's what Daniel says from verse 25:

This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin "This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

It's likely that the message was written without vowels - so it simply said mnmntklprsn, like predictive text gone wrong. It would have been hard to decipher at the best of times, let alone after an evening's hard drinking. But Daniel made it clear. Tested. Failed. Deposed.

So what's the message of this chapter? It's not complicated. This chapter is just continuing to play out Nebuchadnezzar's dream in chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar was forced to face the fact that there is only one king. Now his great grandson is confronted with the same thing. Every king who lines up against God will eventually come crashing down. Every kingdom which is set up in opposition to God will come crashing down. Every individual who refuses to acknowledge that God is the King will go the same way. It is so clear in this chapter that God is our judge. We are answerable to him. We may mock him, ignore him, defy him - but we do it at our peril.

What are We Supposed to do with This?

Now I've got to be honest - I think we face two very attractive temptations when it comes to this part of the Bible, with its insistence that God is our judge. We can either ignore it, or we can dismiss it.

Most of the time, we just choose to ignore this idea of judgment. I mean how many songs can you think of that mention judgment? Don't spend the rest of the talk trying to compile a list, but the next time you can't sleep you might like to have a go! My guess is you will hardly be able to think up any. Even older hymns tends to dodge this one. Ignoring the idea of judgment has a very long pedigree!

The other tempting possibility is to dismiss this part of the Bible as the rantings of the big bad Old Testament God - you know the angry God who fills the pages of the Bible before Jesus turns up for the last third of the book and cheers everything up. There are, of course, several problems with this approach: (1) it doesn't actually fit with the book of Daniel, where God has been incredibly kind to the brutal dictator Nebuchadnezzar. We can't just dismiss chapter 5 as the rantings of a pre-Christian God (2) It doesn't fit with the rest of the Old Testament, which is packed with far more examples of God's tenderness and grace than his judgment (3) And for me, this is the clincher - we can't just dismiss this because of what we find in the New Testament.

What does the New Testament say about this idea of God being our judge? Turn with me, if you would to John 5, and let's look at verses 22-29, because I think we'll find something quite surprising:

Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son. … For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

When we get to the New Testament, we discover that the judge is… it's Jesus! When Jesus shows up, he takes over the role of being the judge from his Father.

This is so important. At the heart of Christianity is the fact that God is our judge - and then when Jesus, God the Son, begins his mission, one of the things that happens is that his Father delegates the work of judgment to him. And what criteria does Jesus use in judging people? Actually, we find that things, if anything, are clearer, simpler, sharper in the New Testament - Jesus judges on the basis of … well you can see it in verse 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. The big issue is whether or not we honour God (which come to think of it, is exactly the issue in Daniel 5 - what did Daniel say to Belshazzar? You did not honour the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.)

At one level, God is dealing with Belshazzar as the representative of a kingdom which is lining up against God. As God deals with Belshazzar, he deals with the pride of Babylon, And God certainly does that - we'll see plenty of that in chapters 7-12 of this book in the weeks ahead. But that isn't really the focus here. For now, Belshazzar the individual fills the frame. He is an upstart who refuses to honour God. And all through the Bible, that is a very bad idea.

What does Jesus say about this? 25:

I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good [that is, those who have honoured God by trusting him] will rise to live, and those who have done evil [that is, refused to honour God] will rise to be condemned.

So what have we got? We've got the fact that the Old Testament says that the God who made us, the God who loves us, is also our judge. And in the New Testament? We've got the fact that the God who made us, the God who loves us, the God who became one of us is our judge, and that Jesus himself will judge every one of us. How will he do it? He'll do it on the basis of whether or not we have honoured him.

So what Difference Does this Make to Us?

But so what? What difference does it make if we suddenly start to take this on board, rather than doing what everyone else around us seems to be doing, living in denial of the stark reality that we are answerable to someone? Four things:

1. If we believe that Jesus is our judge, we will take life seriously.

Belshazzar is the classic example of someone who appears to think that life is just one big joke. He doesn't care about any rules or conventions. He doesn't even seem overly bothered by the fact that the Persians are about to invade and take over his kingdom. He is the embodiment of the 'eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die' approach to life. And yet this chapter shows how utterly foolish and empty that is. Because life is not meaningless. Life really is going somewhere.

When I was at school doing my A levels, the leaving certificate equivalent, my chemistry teacher in an effort to motivate a fairly laid back class would, every so often, open the door and stand in the corridor. He would stand silently for a few seconds, looking towards the art rooms. Then he would come back in - and say 'She's coming!' 'Who's coming, sir?' 'Big June' he would say - 'and when she comes, you'd better be ready!' The reality that a day of reckoning is coming, that we will one day have to face Jesus our judge should motivate us to take life seriously right now.

2. If we believe that Jesus is our judge, we will live thoughtfully.

It follows on from that, that if we take believe that one day, Jesus will hold us accountable, then we will live thoughtfully right now. If we are Christians, then we will think.

It's certainly true that most of the stupid things we do as children can be put down to not thinking. Why on earth did you put the milk right on the edge of the table? Because I didn't think it would fall. Why did you colour in your face blue? Because I didn't think I wouldn't be able to get it off. Why did you lock yourself in the toilet only discover that the key is too stiff to turn the other way? Because I didn't think that would happen. But actually, it's something we never really grow out of.

Living thoughtfully is one of our greatest challenges. To think about the way in which we speak to our parents, or partners, or children or colleagues. To think about how we spend money, about where we go on holiday, about where we live, about when we move and why… this is the moment to moment reality of living as a Christian. The problem is, of course, that even when we are Christians, our default remains to act without thinking - and generally, when we act without thinking, we act selfishly, we choose an easy life.

God had already taught Belshazzar's great grandfather all that he needed to know, and not many years before. Belshazzar had grown up knowing what had happened. He'd just never bothered to think through what that actually meant for him. He just drifted along, until the writing was on the wall. Knowing that we are answerable to Jesus our judge is a strong incentive to think.

3. If we believe that Jesus is our judge we will live with urgency.

If Jesus is our judge, and we are accountable to him, then it is a real encouragement not to waste time. If we believe that Jesus is our Judge, then we will live with a note of urgency.

It is every teenager's dream that their parents go on holiday leaving them unsupervised at home, and every teenager's nightmare that they they'll get a phone call saying that their beloved mum and dad have caught an earlier flight and will be home in 20 minutes, rather than next Tuesday as planned! If we know that we will have to answer to Jesus, then our lives should be more like the 20 minutes after the phone call, than the 2 weeks preceding it.

Now I'm not saying that we should live in a blind panic, afraid to rest, or to stop and think, or savour the joy of life. But if we examine our lives, there should be a note of urgency - that we do only have one life, and we are determined not to waste it. There should be a sense that we want to have those difficult conversations, to make those courageous decisions, to do what we know we have to do - perhaps not in the next ten minutes or even in the next ten days, but we certainly won't want to let months and years slip by without doing and saying what we know we have to do and say. Knowing that Jesus is our judge will encourage us to get on with it, right now.

4. If we believe that Jesus is our judge, we will be confident about the future.

And one more - if we believe that Jesus is our judge, not only will we will seriously, thoughtfully and with a sense of urgency, we will also live confidently. We will be confident about our future, and the future of our world. Not because we think we are perfect. Not because we are smug. But simply because our future and the future of our universe is in the hands of someone we know, someone who is utterly trustworthy, someone who loves us. Someone who has said that he has already paid for us.

I don't know if you've ever thought of it like this, but Jesus' own honour is now riding on the fact that we are declared not guilty, then made perfect and brought into his perfect kingdom to enjoy his forever happiness. He came to achieve this. He died instead of us. Hes ays he has already paid for us. He says that if we have trusted him, we have already crossed from death to life. So if he is to be a just judge, then he cannot condemn us. Jesus' reputation is riding on the fact that he finishes his work in us, and makes us part of his kingdom forever. And that should be an immense comfort to us. And give us real confidence. The judge is the one who has already died in our place. The one who has already rescued us.

When we put it like that, it's pretty clear there is no need to be scared of this judge. There is no need to try to avoid the subject of judgment. Not if we live to honour the one in whose hands are our life and all our ways.

Mitchelton Presbyterian Church