Belshazzar's Feast Goes Wrong (Daniel 5:4-21)

Kootenai Church

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So let's open in prayer. Father, as we study your word and see throughout the great sweep of history, your incredible sovereign hand in every action that happens on this planet, it gives us comfort today to know that there is nothing escaping your sight.

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You are in control of every single thing that happens today, tomorrow, and forever.

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And for that, we are so grateful and we love you. This morning, as we look at your handiwork in the book of Daniel, we want it to drive us to praise you, to drive us to honor you, to drive us to serve you with an even greater fervor in these days that seem so similar.

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And we thank you that your hand is upon your church and that your church will grow because of what you will do, not because of any action of men, but let us be about the business of honoring and glorifying the

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Lord Jesus Christ every day with our lives, with our actions, with our words. This morning, as we study, give us your insight and your illumination.

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And we appreciate it and are grateful for it and look in awe at you because you can do that in every heart here, in Jesus' name, amen.

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So as we continue to study the book of Daniel, any similarities between that time in history and today are purely coincidental.

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So ignore them, not. As we go farther and farther into this book, we are going to see more and more how men are too stupid, too wicked to honor the

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Lord Jesus Christ and to lift up God and to look at his edicts and understand them.

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Rather, we continue as a nation and as a world to walk the path to perdition.

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And that's what happened when we see, as we probably get all the way through, we may get through chapter five, who knows.

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Miracles have happened in this church. I mean, sometimes we get through an entire book in less than 10 years.

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So we are on chapter five and what I would like to do is to start, actually, we finished last time in early

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May in Daniel chapter five, verse three, was our last verse.

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So we're gonna read the whole chapter, all of chapter five, because this will give us local and book context as well.

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Chapter five, Daniel chapter five. Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.

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When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.

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Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God, which was in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.

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They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

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Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.

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And the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Then the king's face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together.

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The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners.

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The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me will be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.

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Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king.

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Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed. His face grew even paler and his nobles were perplexed.

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The queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles. The queen spoke and said, oh, king, live forever.

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Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit, is a spirit of the holy gods.

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And in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.

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And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers,

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Chaldeans, and diviners. This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in Daniel, whom the king named

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Belshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the interpretation. Then Daniel was brought in before the king.

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The king spoke and said to Daniel, are you the Daniel who was one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father, the king, brought from Judah?

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Now I have heard about you, that a spirit of the gods is in you and that illumination, insight, and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you.

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Just now, the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message.

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But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems.

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Now, if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

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Then Daniel answered and said before the king, keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else.

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However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.

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Oh, king, the most high God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father.

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And because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, and men of every language feared and trembled before him.

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Whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive, and whomever he wished, he elevated, and whomever he wished, he humbled.

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But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him.

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He was also driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys.

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He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the most high

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God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that he sets over it whomever he wishes.

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Yet you, his son, Belteshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.

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But you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines, have been drinking wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand.

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But the God in whose hand are your life, breath, and your ways, you have not glorified. Then the hand was sent from him, and this inscription was written out.

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Now, this is the inscription. This is the inscription that was written out. Many, many, tekel, ufarshin.

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This is the interpretation of the message. Many, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.

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Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians. Then Belteshazzar gave order that, and they clothed

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Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

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That same night, Belteshazzar the Chaldean king was slain, so Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62.

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A lot of ground covered in this chapter. And we're going to see that nothing has changed.

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Nothing has changed. Men see, doesn't the Psalm declare that the glory of God is revealed in the heavens and in the creation?

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And men don't see that because they choose not to see it. They choose to make up fairy tales about the creation and believe in those.

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And then they forget and long times pass and more and more is done and sin upon sin is heaped up until God is forced to judge a nation.

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This is what happened in Belteshazzar's time. And he was only maybe four, three or four kingships after Nebuchadnezzar when

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God had restored the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar and by Belteshazzar's time it had accumulated enough sin that God judged the nation.

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And the wonderful thing about this is we can learn from it.

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Right? And our nation will learn from it, right? Well, we can pray and we can hope.

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It's my dream too. It's my unicorn too. So let's just look at, kind of do a little bit of review.

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So chapter five, verse one, Belteshazzar held a feast for a thousand of his nobles. Remember we talked about the fact that it was just not uncommon for ancient kings to have gigantic feasts.

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There were feasts recorded where there were 65 ,000 guests present, 65 ,000. That's like the city, the population of Coeur d 'Alene

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Metro. Did you know Coeur d 'Alene had a Metro? What are we coming to?

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Verse two, so Belteshazzar had the giant feast. Verse two, he tasted the wine and he was probably getting pretty drunk by now.

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And then he declared he wanted all of his coterie to drink out of the sacred vessels of the temple of Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had captured.

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So he did that. They brought him in, his wives and his concubines drank through them, verse four, or excuse me, verse three.

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And so now that's where we left off a month ago when we were in chapter, beginning chapter five.

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They've brought the vessels in, they've drank from them. And so verse four says, they drank the wine and they praised the gods of gold and silver and of bronze fire, wood and stone.

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So his defiance, Belteshazzar's defiance shows clearly here as he not only desecrates the vessels by drinking from them during the revelry, but he praises outwardly loudly all the false gods of Babylon.

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His thinking would have been something along these lines. Babylon had conquered the

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Israelites and therefore their gods were superior to the Israelite God.

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Calvin points out that it was not necessarily the intoxication that caused them to praise their false gods, that was natural to them.

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But the addition of alcohol probably, especially with Belteshazzar caused him to be tremendously impious and defiant.

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And of course his nobles followed suit. So he called for these vessels to come in and they drank for them.

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It's hard for us to, we can kind of see how awful that is, but nothing like that has ever happened to us.

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And I was trying to come up with a modern day example of how that could be something that would be done to us that would just really disturb us.

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And it would be, think of something in your possession that's very precious to you. And you know, I know you know that things are just things, but there are still things in your possession that have sentimental and historical value to you and to your family.

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Imagine if someone broke into your home and took those and desecrated them. This would have been an entire national concern, is the entire nation of Israel would have been just devastated that these things had happened.

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And it was a direct affront to God. This wasn't just, we need more, we don't have enough cups.

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It was a direct affront to God that Belshazzar was committing here.

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And he did it on purpose. I think he knew full well what he was doing. He hated, it's just like today.

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Atheists don't believe in God and they hate him. Think about that.

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They refuse to believe in him and they hate him. Everyone knows there is a most high

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God. Belshazzar knew and he purposely shook his fist in God's face.

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Well, the same night something important is going to happen to him. Any comments about verse four?

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For those of you who have not been in the Sunday school before, generally what I do is I try to remember to go over a verse and then ask for comments or questions.

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Often I forget because I'm old. Verse five, suddenly, and we're gonna revisit this verse.

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We're gonna revisit this verse a bit later in the chapter and when we get to that section, we'll know.

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But suddenly it says, if you would go to the next slide, Peter, or a slide,

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Peter. Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.

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And the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Now, can you imagine?

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They're all sitting there getting drunk and a giant hand appears in the front of the temple. Throne room.

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And begins scratching on the wall, scratching into the plaster on the wall. Don't you think that's a little bit strange?

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Apparently it was strange. Emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.

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He saw the backside of the hand. It is important to remember at this juncture that much had already happened in the reign of Belshazzar.

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The book of Daniel is not exactly in chronological order. Chapter six, which has the story of the lion's den, occurs chronologically after chapter five.

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Chapter seven, however, which starts with the words, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed.

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Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. It happens in the first, that one happens in the first year of Belshazzar's reign.

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Before this, and it was the revelation of the four beasts. So the four beast revelation has already occurred.

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So Belshazzar knows a lot of this stuff that's going on. Chapter eight, Daniel's vision of a ram and a goat starts with the words, in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, the king of vision appeared to me,

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Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously, the four kingdoms, and occurs as noted in the third year of Belshazzar.

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These two visions took place in the 23 years between chapters four and five, and therefore were a part of history that Daniel understood and that Belshazzar was also aware of preceding the writing on the wall.

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So 23 years have happened. Conquering has been done and revelations have been given and Belshazzar is privy to all of these.

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He knows exactly what he's doing. This wasn't a mistake on his part or an accident or just a dumb thing.

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He was physically shaking his fist in the face of Jehovah God. Nabonidus assumed the throne in 556

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BC, and then it is likely that Belshazzar began his co -regency in about 553

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BC, three years later. So, and we'll probably go over this a couple of times, but Nabonidus was out of town all the time.

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He was down constructing a temple to the moon God, which got him in trouble with all of the other

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Babylonians who preferred Marduk and they didn't like his moon, yeah, sin, the moon

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God. And I lose track of all these gods. It's so fortunate that there really is only one.

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Do you know how much trouble we have? I mean, I forget what I was supposed to do this afternoon.

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I have to look it up in my calendar. Which God did I forget? There is one God, Belshazzar has a whole bunch of them.

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So he began his co -regency in 553. So this puts the events of chapter seven in 553 and chapter eight in 550.

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The Aramaic here, by the way, this Aramaic that has been writing on the wall indicates that the fingers did the writing in a moment.

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It didn't take a whole bunch of time. It was very quickly done. It is translated in the new

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American standard as suddenly. The partiers, especially Belshazzar were stunned. It is likely that he became a bit more sober.

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Now, it's not true that coffee will make you sober, but I think terrifying events can have a sobering effect on even the drunkest person.

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I quit drinking alcohol almost 50 years ago because I was, so I don't know.

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And I was never much of one in the very beginning before Christ and before Christ entered my life. But I'm pretty sure that this would have sobered up just about anyone.

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I mean, it's almost science fictiony and it's happening. So the partiers were stunned.

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It was likely he became a bit more sober. It's hard to say what the language of the writing was. And we'll talk about that when we actually get to the later part of the chapter where Daniel translates it.

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It may have been Aramaic, but done in such a way that no one could quite make it out. Or it could have been done in another language.

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And to give you an example of this, how many of you have looked at really ornate, beautiful calligraphy and wondered what in the world it said?

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My wife can write. I mean, when she signs with her left hand, it looks better than when I sign with my right and take my time.

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But she can write in calligraphy. And sometimes when she does, I have to look at it. Duh. Oh yeah, duh.

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You know, because it's really ornate. Well, that could have been something that happened here. We don't really know. And so speculation is fun, but be careful with speculation.

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When we get to the section where he actually translated, we'll talk about some of the concerns that scholars have had over the centuries.

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So they're stunned by this hand appearing and all they can see is the back of the hand. So it's like you guys are out there and giant hand was writing on this wall over here.

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And I don't know, they always show it with a finger. I don't know how it was done, but that's probably most likely how it was done. So any comments or questions?

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Yes. Yeah. Just says hand.

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And I stuck in the word giant. I'm thinking it had to be big enough to write. This is my, okay, again, you gotta be really careful speculating.

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This is not to have doctrines built upon, okay, giant. But it was my thought that if there was a thousand people, they probably filled up a fairly good sized room.

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And you see the little writing on the bottom down there, Kootenai Community Church? That's not as easy to read as the bigger writing up there, is it?

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It was just my thought that the hand had to be big enough. Although God could, you know, he could use a little hand, doesn't matter.

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That's a good point, Pat. That's not important. The fact is something wrote on the wall. A hand wrote on the wall.

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Verse six, then the king's face grew pale, you think? And his thoughts alarmed him and his hip joints went out of slack and his knees began knocking together.

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I wonder if this is, I never looked it up, but I wonder if this is where we get that story and his knees were knocking together.

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I have been frightened before. And the reason your knees knock together is because you begin losing the ability to stand and your legs are vibrating, they're shaking.

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Your muscles are saying, we would like to either get out of here or lay down, you idiot. Anyway, his thoughts alarmed him, his hip joints went slack.

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The word translated pale simply means to alter, his face altered. It went from in your face to terrified.

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It went from merriment to something different. And the implication is that his face reflected terror.

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His mind began to race in terror. His fear caused his hip joints to feel weak or as the

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Aramaic says, to loosen. His knees began to knock together. These are the classic symptoms of nearly debilitating fear.

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Belshazzar knew he was in trouble. He may not yet have known what it was for, but I'll bet he had an idea.

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I think we all, when mom comes into the room and she uses your middle name first, you know the jig is up and you probably know why.

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Verse seven, the king called to bring in the conjurers, the

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Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple.

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That's kingly vestments and have a necklace of gold, very clearly an imputation of value, a necklace of gold around his neck and he will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

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We'll talk about that. Amid the raucous noises of the revelers, Belshazzar began to shout.

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So I would just imagine that there was all kinds of noise and talking as people saw this handwriting and what is it and what do you think it is and what's going on here?

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And imagine a thousand people trying to figure this out at once. So then Belshazzar, I believe would have shouted.

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He called his conjurers, these would have been the astrologers. He called his Chaldeans, which would have been the learned men of the kingdom who had many skills and he called the diviners.

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These were also astrologers and were often called soothsayers. So just as Nebuchadnezzar, his grandfather before him had done, he offered to anyone who could translate the writing on the wall, purple clothing, which was given by royalty, a necklace of gold, which was only given by royalty and he offered to whoever translated the writing, the third position in the kingdom.

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And that's noteworthy because it also speaks to the co -regency that he had there that was lost in history for a time and that many false translators, false scholars mocked in the book of Daniel.

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Well, he wasn't even king. We know he wasn't king. His name's not even mentioned until we had the Babylonian chronicles.

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Now we believe scripture, but it's effective and helpful and cool, I guess

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I would say, when you find ancient documents that support scripture. By the way, they don't ever find ancient documents that malign scripture.

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They're always something that supports what scripture has said. So this, the Babylonian chronicles is where we discovered the co -regency of Belshazzar.

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So that's why he could only give him the third position. Nabonidus was king, Belshazzar was co -king, number two, and we can give you the third position.

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So that's why he offered that to whoever could translate this. Any questions about that, comments?

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Verse eight, then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription.

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So they couldn't read it, not only and, or make known its interpretation to the king.

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So if it was in Aramaic, there are a number of reasons that could have happened. God could have hidden it from their eyes, or it could have been in an inscription type that they didn't familiar with, but whatever the effect was,

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God was setting this up for Daniel to translate it. They couldn't read it. There are quite a few different conclusions.

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Some believe that the inscription was written in an unknown language, while others believe it was most likely written in one of the languages that Babylon used, but the translation was hidden.

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In any event, when Daniel finally came in, he is able to both read it and translate it.

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Of course, the understanding was given to him by Jehovah, but the words he speaks are in fact

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Aramaic words. So when we get to that section in this chapter where Daniel translates this verse, translates this saying, he will speak in Aramaic terms.

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That's what is recorded in the book of Daniel. Verse nine, then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed.

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His face grew even paler and his nobles were perplexed because they couldn't read it. They couldn't understand it.

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At this point, the action of the handwriting on the wall and not the words themselves was what most concerned

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Belshazzar. He couldn't read it, but he knew it probably wasn't good. It probably wasn't a menu.

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It probably wasn't a proverb of encouragement. He knew something bad had happened.

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He didn't know what the words meant, yet it must have been his conscience causing the alarm. It is notable that he did not threaten to kill the wise men when they were unable to translate the inscription.

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Remember all the previous, well, we didn't study all the previous, but Nebuchadnezzar, if you couldn't do what he wanted, well, furnace, lions, you're done.

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They would just kill him. He didn't do that. He didn't threaten them. He was so terrified that the only thing he could think of was to find out what the words meant for him.

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It was obvious to him that this whole scenario was meant to communicate something ominous to him.

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I think that's the human mind. We just automatically assume it's negative. Well, in this case, he was very right.

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Any questions or comments about verse nine? Verse 10, then the queen, the queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles.

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The queen spoke and said, oh, king, live forever. Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale. Most likely it was the pandemonium in the throne room which alerted the king to the problem, the queen to the problem.

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She was most likely not Belshazzar's wife. Verse two indicates that all his wives were present and drinking with him.

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More than likely, this was the queen mother, a woman who had great influence and power in the court.

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She may have even been a surviving wife of Nebuchadnezzar. As an older woman of influence, she would likely not have been present at the banquet for many reasons, but now she comes into the room and she basically tells her son, get ahold of yourself.

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You chicken and stop panicking. This is typical advice from mothers spanning the millennia.

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Is it not? And it's good advice. My mother, I can remember, get back in there with those cows, you chicken.

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Yeah, they're not trying to kill you, mom. Verse 11, there is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods.

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And in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.

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And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father, the king, she's reminding him twice, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers,

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Chaldeans, and diviners. The queen mother here repeats most likely what she had heard during Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

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Calvin points out in his commentary, it is not unusual for pagans to ascribe anything they don't understand to deities of some sort.

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There's a demon under every rock in some of these civilizations.

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Certainly, the story of Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream was part of Babylonian lore already.

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Would have been in their Encyclopedia Britannica or Encyclopedia Babylonica. Babylonica.

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She refers to Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar's father. This is most likely a reference to Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar's grandfather, as mentioned earlier, for the word for father was used both for father and for grandfather.

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There was no word for grandfather in their language. And so you would say your father, and it could mean your dad, your grandfather, or even your great -grandfather.

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Sometimes they would go to the care of saying your father's father, and then you would know, theoretically.

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Daniel would be about 80 years old right now, and he was probably in semi -retirement for one reason or another.

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Belshazzar may not have appointed him to any position. I don't know that, I was thinking about this, and I don't know that Belshazzar would have wanted a man like Daniel around him, because he would be the kind of man who would call you on the things you were doing.

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And we don't wanna, when we wanna have fun, we want people to put their stamp of approval on our fun. We don't want them spoiling the party.

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So that's just a guess. Again, that's just a guess. That's one reason it might've been. The queen urges

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Belshazzar to call upon Daniel for help in the situation. She remembers what Daniel was able to do with Nebuchadnezzar, and she remembers the outcome.

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And I believe Belshazzar remembers too. He was probably an early teen when that happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

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So I'm thinking we've got, well, these aren't early teens, but there's a couple of teens back here.

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I'll bet in 60, 40 years, they'll remember stuff that happened today, how their grandfather was teaching

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Sunday school and made dumb jokes. Their father's father, yeah, there, there we go.

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So the queen urges him to call upon Daniel for help. So, and then she says, this was because, here's her finishing verse 11.

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This was because, here's why I want you to call on Daniel, because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this

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Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar, just in case you don't remember who I'm talking about, Belshazzar.

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Let Daniel now be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation. She had no doubt. She had complete confidence that he would be able to declare the interpretation.

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So the queen's description of Daniel leaves little doubt that Belshazzar was not familiar with him, or to reword that, confirms that Belshazzar was familiar with Daniel.

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She gives both of Daniel's names, and she reminds him of the history that Daniel had with his grandfather.

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She reminds him of the great insight that Daniel had in bad situations and in other, there were probably many other situations that are not recorded.

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Remember in the end of the book of John, it says that if everything that Jesus had been done, had done, had been recorded, the books would just, there'd be a lot of books.

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Same thing, if everything that has been done in someone in here who's 50 years old, everything you did, and the backstory, and the explanation, and the dialogue, and the details were written in books, that'd be a lot of books, wouldn't it?

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None of us has really led a very boring life if it was all written out. Think about that. So same thing here.

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There's a lot of history here. She reminds him of the great insight that Daniel had in situations where Nebuchadnezzar required

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Daniel's help, specifically this particular one. She makes it clear to Belshazzar that Daniel is superior to all of the so -called wise men that he has in his court.

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And that would have been no small thing to say. And I'm thinking all those wise men were in that court going, yeah, bring

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Daniel. Yeah, bring Daniel. We know what kings usually do when we can't do what they want. And so far, he has forgotten about that.

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He's not gonna kill us. We're gonna live. Call Daniel. Verse 13. Then Daniel was brought in before the king.

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The king spoke and said to Daniel. I'm still trying to figure this one out. Are you the

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Daniel who was one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?

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I think he just wanted to make sure that he was talking to the guy. It is clear in this verse that Belshazzar knew more than was provided to him by his mother.

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He knew, for example, that Daniel was one of the exiles taken by Nebuchadnezzar approximately 70 years earlier, and he knew that Daniel was a

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Jew. Verse 14. I, now I have heard about you, that a spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight, and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you.

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It's hard to say whether his statement here reflects the fact that he knew previously about Daniel's brilliance, or if he discovered it when his mother described it, when his mother described

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Daniel. The general consensus is that Belshazzar knew all these things because he was brought up in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and he would have been privy to the stories.

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It's likely that Daniel was demoted by Belshazzar himself, or one of the previous administrations since Nebuchadnezzar.

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It's also possible that he had just gone into retirement. Belshazzar's alcohol -induced stupor probably prevented him from being able to think clearly about how to deal with the emergency at hand.

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So, and that's another providential occurrence that God had her call in Daniel, had his mother call in Daniel.

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Any questions, comments? Verse 15. Just now, the wise men of the conjures were brought in before me, he's saying to Daniel, that they might read this inscription and make his interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message.

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So Belshazzar explains to Daniel the reason for bringing him into the room. There is another crisis in Babylon, and the resources of the kingdom were not up to handling it, so they had to call a man of God.

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These wise men, identical to those in Nebuchadnezzar's court, were unable to deal with a message from the true

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God. Do you know we have a message from the true God as an aside here?

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Right here. We have a message from the true God. We don't need signs and wonders.

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We have the words of God. Back into Daniel. But I personally, where was

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I? So then you do that and you get lost. You see what happens? You didn't have to say that.

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I'm not repeating that. So, but I personally, Belshazzar says, have heard about you that you are able to give interpretations, in verse 16, and solve difficult problems.

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This doesn't sound like a drunk man talking to me. Now, if you are able to read the inscription and make his interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

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So now, Belshazzar cites personal knowledge of Daniel, and he's hopingly,

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I'm thinking, hoping to gain Daniel's favor by citing this information. He makes his same promise to Daniel that he made to the supposed wise men.

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He would be clothed in kingly garments, he would wear a gold necklace, and he would be third in authority in the kingdom.

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This would place him directly under Nabonidus and Belshazzar. He would be the third most important man in the kingdom.

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Who wouldn't want that? Well, you know, in our particular form of government, it doesn't quite translate, but in monarchies, it would be an immense honor.

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It would be an ego booster. It would be unbelievable. It would be wealth -inducing. It would be fabulous to be third in charge in the whole kingdom.

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And this was the richest kingdom at the time in history. And here's what

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Daniel says to the offer. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, now, you can hear,

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I don't know if it would be a sneer, but the dismissal in Daniel's voice. Keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else.

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However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.

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Here Daniel begins what has properly been called a sermon to Belshazzar.

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He commences by first refusing the gifts, which might've been seen as an inducement for him to temper what he was going to say to Belshazzar.

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Can you say something nice to me if I give you all this stuff? Daniel was not going to be influenced by anything.

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Oh, that we had men and women like that in every generation. Oh, wait, there are some.

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There are some, they're just few and far between, much as the situation in Babylonia, apparently one.

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Daniel was not going to be influenced by anything. He was going to give Belshazzar the harsh truth.

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Not that Daniel was a friend of Belshazzar, but here he lives out Proverbs 27 .6.

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Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. We need to be the kind of people who will tell our friends the truth they need to hear.

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Now, we don't have to say it in a way that slays them. We can temper how we say it.

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We can say it in kind words, but we need to be willing to tell the truth in every situation.

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Daniel knew what Babylonian kings did to people that offended them. He knew that.

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He'd been in this kingdom for 80 years. Well, no, 67, 65, 66, 67 years, somewhere in there.

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So he knew, but he was going to give the truth to Belshazzar.

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He states plainly that he will read the inscription that the other wise men were unable to read, and he will give the correct, the proper, the important interpretation to Belshazzar.

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So verse 18, O king, here's where the sermon starts.

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O king, the most high God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father.

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So he starts out first with reminding Belshazzar where the power comes from.

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You didn't do this yourself. This was granted to you by Jehovah. Appealing in this pagan society to the true

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God, Daniel continues his sermon. He reminds Belshazzar that it was Jehovah that granted

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Nebuchadnezzar his sovereignty, his grandeur, his glory, and his majesty. All things that are supposedly the province of a king.

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This is a pointed reminder to Belshazzar that everything his grandfather had was given to him by the most high

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God, not by his pagan deities, the numerous pagan deities of the day. Verse 19, because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, and men of every language feared and trembled before him.

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Whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive, and whomever he wished, he elevated, and whomever he wished, he humbled.

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Nebuchadnezzar's power, unlike Belshazzar's power, remember, he's second in the kingdom. He doesn't have complete power.

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He's not even the vice president. He's kind of like the vice president, something like the vice president. Unlike Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's power was complete.

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He had control over everyone in his kingdom and every life dependent upon his goodwill. By the way, that's not a good form of government to live under.

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Any questions about that? It's a dictatorship, yep, and what could be considered a tyrannical, harsh dictatorship, especially

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Babylonians. Belshazzar, as second in power, did not enjoy that kind of sovereignty.

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This may or may not have been a subtle reminder from Daniel that Belshazzar was impotent compared to both Nebuchadnezzar and to God.

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Your power, you're not that powerful, dude. It could have been, I'm speculating here.

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Verse 20, speaking again, Daniel continues his sermon, and then I'll ask, a few minutes here, I'll ask if there's any questions.

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But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him.

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These are all words of direct action upon someone by someone else. Someone deposed a

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Nebuchadnezzar. Someone took his power. He reminds Belshazzar that pride brings a fall.

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How often? Most of the time? Every time. We don't know how long that will take.

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We're not in the position of knowing the future, but we do know what the scripture says. Pride brings a fall.

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Pride goes before a fall. Daniel continues his narrative and reminds him that pride brings a fall.

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All of the power that Nebuchadnezzar had attained could not prevent God from taking away that power when he would not be humble, when he would not recognize

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God's hand in his life. This was, in fact, the position Belshazzar was in that very night.

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He had lifted himself up and magnified Babylon and the gods of gold and silver and stone and bronze and all those other fake deities.

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He had done that while the conquering armies were right outside the gates. Right outside, well,

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I don't have the picture up there, but right outside those gates was a gigantic army that had already subdued the entire countryside around the city of Babylon.

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The provinces of Babylon had already been subdued. The counties around Bonner County had already fallen, all of them, even

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Boundary County. And one county actually would even be worse than that. Everything around Sandpoint was taken, everything.

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It was occupied by a foreign army who had a habit of killing captives and making sport with them.

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And only in this city was there apparent freedom. They had desecrated the temple elements and in his arrogant show of God -hating power, pride had caused

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Nebuchadnezzar's fall. And here, Daniel is implicating to him that pride was precipitating his fall.

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Verse 21, he was also driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of beasts and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys.

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He was given grass to eat like cattle and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized, until he recognized that the most high

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God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that he sets over it whomever he wish. We're going to probably finish up here because I have a lot to go to get to the end of this chapter, but this is not a bad closing place.

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Surely, Belshazzar would have been told the stories that Daniel continues his narrative with.

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The history was necessary in order for Daniel to set up his translation of the writing on the wall.

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And we will see that. All of this history about pride, about ignorance, about arrogance, about hatred of the true

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God was used as a backdrop for when Daniel gets to the point where he will translate.

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I'm sure Daniel had already looked up at the wall and went, oh yeah, this guy's history. So he knew, again, this is speculation.

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He knew what the words meant, I think, already. And so he's giving this backdrop to the king.

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He needed to be made to understand that his heart was just like Nebuchadnezzar's before his fall, in that he had not repented of his wickedness, but had become arrogant, irresponsible, and thoroughly degenerate.

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And what does that say for us today? What do you think would have happened here if Belshazzar had repented?

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I don't know. But the potential for Jehovah to have restored him, do you think

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God could stop those conquering armies out there? Maybe. No, not maybe.

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Of course he could. He could have slain them with a lightning bolt. I don't know. You can make up all kinds of scenarios here, and I don't want to do that.

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We know what happens. Those of you who have read the book of Daniel and those of, I'm sure probably everybody in here has.

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But the fact is, when one repents, what happened when you repented? All of your previous

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Belshazzarian deeds were swept away. And the righteousness of Jesus Christ was given to you.

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Belshazzar could have repented. He didn't. He doesn't. He does keep his word to Daniel.

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We will see that. But this is, to me, as I've studied through this section of Daniel, it's a mirror to our civilization today, what is going on today.

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We don't necessarily have their kind of pagan deities. We have our own kind of pagan deities, whether they be scientists or abortionists or Supreme Court robed justices.

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We all worship some kind of deity. And Belshazzar is being told that there is only one true

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God and you have affronted him, and you have purposely affronted him tonight by desecrating his implements.

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I think Belshazzar could have repented, but he didn't. The sovereignty of God determined that he would not repent here.

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This is a message to all of us, to anyone who has not trusted Christ. Repentance can come at any time.

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And repentance, it may not, it won't fix the misdeeds of the past, but it will remove the sin that keeps you from entering heaven.

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Before I close, are there any comments or questions about this section? Next time we're together, we'll take up at verse 22, where Daniel says, yet, you might read this section, yet you, his son,

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Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. And the people of today, they know.

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God has put it in their hearts. They know the heavens declare the glory of God. Repentance can change everything.

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Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this story. It's not a story, for this history, for this remarkable documentation of what happened in an ancient civilization that pictures what happens in the hearts of men and pictures what happens in nations throughout time.

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Lord, we seek you for your glory. We wanna lift you up and honor you.

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We recognize that repentance is needed. Help us to be the kind of people that properly demonstrate to others what repentance has done in our lives and that you receive all the glory for that.