God's Graffiti

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what we read about Daniel and his standing before kings, but also his relationship with you. We thank you for your word. And, Lord, as I bring some word about this word, as I preach now, Lord, I pray that your words, the words I speak, will be your words to your people.

Lord, give us all ears to hear and hearts to understand. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. I was surprised to find that so many phrases that we use in everyday language have their origin in the bible. We've picked it up and we use them in everyday language.

Here's some of the more interesting ones that I found. The first is a drop in the bucket. You know, that's something that's insignificant or negligible. Actually comes from Isaiah chapter 40 where we read, surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket. They're regarded as dust on the scales.

He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. That is a phrase that we use regularly. Here's another one, a fly in the ointment. Something that's small and irritating but spoils the lot. We find that in Ecclesiastes 10, verse one.

A dead fly gives perfume a bad smell. A little folly outweighs wisdom and honour. What about this one, the skin of my teeth? We use that saying, isn't it? You know, when we barely escaped disaster by the skin of my teeth.

Job uses that language. He said, I'm nothing but skin and bones. I've escaped only by the skin of my teeth. So there I found a website that has 122 phrases that we use that come out of the bible, mainly the King James version.

But you get what's going on here and one of the phrases that we're looking at today, we use quite regularly, isn't it? The writing on the wall. Something that's imminent, something that is definitely gonna happen, something that is ominous. Well, that's what happens here with Belshazzar. The writing on the wall for him and it comes out, it plays out as the way that it is written.

Just to give you the context of the passage, as I said, Nebuchadnezzar has taken Jerusalem and the people of Judah. He's ruling the greatest empire of its day, the Babylonian Empire, and he's ruling from Babylon, the city of Babylon, which was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. It had the hanging gardens of Babylon. It had city walls that were so high and so wide that they could actually have chariot races on top of the wall. They could do a circuit of the city with chariot races.

It was an incredibly powerful kingdom. It was at its height with Nebuchadnezzar as king. And one of Nebuchadnezzar's visions is of the gold head on the statue. The best kingdom there was. Well, we read that Nebuchadnezzar dies and what happens is that his son, Amel Marduk, takes over as king.

He comes out with a couple of different names. That's how he's known in the Babylonian times, but if you look, you can pick up that he exists actually in the books of the bible. So he comes under different names, Amel Marduk, but in the bible, he's also known as Evil Merodach. You find him in 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 32. They take the names and they adjust them as they move to different areas of the kingdom.

So actually relating to the gods of the kingdom and saying that they're not gods anymore, we're the gods of the kingdom. So they come under some slightly different names as you go through it. Anyway, he gets to rule for five years, but he's got this power hungry brother-in-law, Neri Glisser, who wants the kingdom. So he, after five years, has him assassinated and he sets himself up as king.

He's married to a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. Their son he reigns for seventeen years. His son, Labeshai Marduk, when Neri Glisser dies, he takes over. He's only an infant though. He's about two years old and he's set up as king.

Well, he gets to reign for about nine months as king and then he's beaten to death by a group of conspirators. One of the conspirators is this guy Nabonidus. Now, Nabonidus was appointed king, but he didn't have a right to the royal throne. He wasn't part of the royal line and that concerns him because it's gonna make it difficult for him to hold on to his position of power. So the best we can tell, in order to secure his position, he marries either a widow or one of the widows of Nebuchadnezzar, or one of his daughters, and then adopts her son, Belshazzar, as his son.

But he's still intimidated because everybody's dying around him if they're rulers. He sets some distance between himself and the city of Babylon and he sets up in an area known as Temna, which puts the Arabian Desert between him and the city of Babylon. And so for fourteen of his seventeen years that he reigns, he doesn't set foot in Babylon. Instead, he sets his stepson Belshazzar as a co-king to rule Babylon. So that's why we have Belshazzar in Babylon.

And for a long time there was no historical record of Belshazzar and it becomes the basis for the attack on the book of Daniel that it's not authentic, it's not real, it's a made up story. But in 1854, an archaeologist named J.

G. Taylor was exploring ruins in southern Iraq hunting for artefacts for the British Museum. He comes across several small cylinders and one of them contains a prayer for the long life and the good health of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, and his eldest son, Belshazzar, proving the authenticity of Belshazzar as king in Babylon. And this chapter then has Belshazzar as king and it opens with the Medes and the Persians, the silver empire in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, rising to power. So Babylon's on the decline.

The Medes and Persians are on the rise. Now, Nabonidus has taken the Babylonian army out to fight the Medes and he's thoroughly defeated. Now, Darius, who's leading the Medes and Persians, they capture every outpost in the Babylonian kingdom until only the city of Babylon is left. So they arrive, they lay siege to the city, but Belshazzar thinks, I'm not afraid of these Persians. I've got plenty of water.

In fact, the whole Euphrates River runs right through the city. I've got tons of grain stored up. I can survive for twenty years at least. We'll wait them out. And perhaps he has something to boast about because the city was thought impenetrable with its double wide walls.

They could live it out, but it's a foolish thought. He shouldn't have been so proud. He shouldn't have been so self-confident. He should have remembered the stories of his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. Because it's Daniel who says to Nebuchadnezzar in chapter two, he, God, changes times and seasons.

He deposes kings and raises others up. It was a warning there to Nebuchadnezzar. It should have also been a warning to Belshazzar, who totally ignores it. And that's actually what the book of Daniel is about. The theme of the book of Daniel: who's in control?

Who's in control? You see, the God of the Israelites has been destroyed, really, because the nation is no more. So their God is no more. But right through Daniel, this God of the Israelites shows that He's in control. That He is sovereign.

Not Nebuchadnezzar, not Belshazzar, not you, not me. Psalm 33, I started with Psalm 33. It has in there, the Lord foils the plans of the nations. He thwarts the purposes of peoples, but the plans of the Lord stand forever. The purposes of His heart through all generations.

And no king is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his great strength. You know, it's good to remember those verses in our day and age, that our God is sovereign, that our God rules, our God reigns. We've sung it in a couple of our songs that He sets up kings. He sets up rulers, because we can lament about our society and the way that it's treading.

Where the promotion of rights and freedoms, the changes in our laws that are taking us further and further away from God, an actual growing hatred of God and of the people of God. Yet we're reminded that God is still in control. He is sovereign. And so we look to Him for faith and for life despite what goes on around us. But Belshazzar wants nothing of that.

He hasn't learned anything from Nebuchadnezzar's life, about his spiritual journey and the place where he came to acknowledge who God is. In fact, the only trait that Nebuchadnezzar has passed on is that he's taken on his pride. Pride in his ability. Pride in his strength. Pride in what he has built around him.

And so he shows no lack of fear for the army that's besieging the city. And so to boost morale, Belshazzar throws an incredibly big party for a thousand of his rulers, of his leaders. Archaeologists can help us and set the date at about October. They're having this massive party, a drinking party, but drinking is not all that they're doing. Daniel uses fairly restrained language to tell us that what's going on here is more than a banquet.

It's more like an orgy because it's considered improper for women to come to banquets and yet we read that they're there together, the wives and the concubines. There's more going on here than just a banquet where there's eating and drinking. It's going to the extreme. And Daniel's making it clear that Belshazzar is telling his guests to indulge in any way they want. Anything you want to do is available for you.

And as they're having this party, this orgy, they're pushing the boundaries even further and further. It just reminds us that sin is never static. It always follows this path of diminishing returns. It's always a slippery slope downwards. One sin can lead to another sin which leads to a worse sin which takes us further and further from God.

That's what's happening here. There's this downward spiral as we go into the story, because in verse 2, Belshazzar gives the order to get the goblets that Nebuchadnezzar has taken from Jerusalem, the temple in Jerusalem, when he conquered it sixty-five years earlier. Now, these gold and silver goblets are extremely valuable. But more than just being valuable, they're sacred objects because they haven't been used for anything else other than the worship of the God of Israel. And Belshazzar decides it'd be fun to take these goblets.

These cups that are an expression of devotion and holiness to the God of the people that he has conquered, that he rules over. He's using it to mock their God. That kingdom was supposedly a kingdom that was under this sovereign God, and yet here we are using cups that were dedicated to Him to worship our gods. And his proud heart leads him to make a very serious mistake, which is treating the holy as unholy. We need to think about what it means if something is called holy.

It literally means set apart for a special purpose. And in Chronicles, we read that God Himself consecrates Solomon's temple and everything in it, which includes these goblets. God declares them holy. He said they are set apart exclusively for His purpose. They're not just any goblets, they belong to God and they're only to be used in worship to Him in His temple.

And so there's a warning for us. There's a warning for us. We can do the same thing. We can take what is holy and use it for unholy purposes. As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we've been set apart for the purposes of God.

That set apart idea is being holy. Peter calls us a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. In the New Testament, the followers of God, the people of God are called saints, which means set apart, holy people. But does my life reflect this? Do I live according to God's purposes?

Am I treating myself as a holy person, a saint? Or are there times when I use myself in unholy ways or to do unholy things? You see, Satan has no greater agenda than attempting to get us to desecrate what God has consecrated. To make unholy what God has declared holy. He wants us to do with ourselves what Belshazzar did with those goblets.

He wants us to take what God has declared holy and set apart and use it in unholy ways for unholy behaviour. And there's a challenge there. How well am I doing in that area of being set apart for God? What does my consecrated life to God look like? Where are the areas where I'm doing things that I know I shouldn't be doing?

And so dishonoring God. It's a challenge. But here, Belshazzar doesn't care. The goblets are brought in. The wine is poured.

The toasts are proposed. The impenetrable city is here. We have the gods of our city to protect us. And as they do, something amazing happens. We read there, 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, he was so foreign to, his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. That's a pretty terrified king. His knees are knocking and this is the finger of God. The finger of God is a powerful thing. In Exodus 8, the advisers to Pharaoh say, this is the finger of God at work through the plagues.

The finger of God is destroying Egypt. It's the finger of God that writes the ten commandments on the tablets of stone. In Luke 11, Jesus says, if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. The finger of God. Here's the finger of God writing a terrifying message.

Belshazzar's so terrified that he turns pale and his knees knock. And at this point in the story, history repeats itself. Because for the third time, a Babylonian ruler calls on the wise men to interpret something. For the third time, they fail in this task, and for the third time, Daniel's called in to bring an interpretation, brought in to advise the king. So Daniel comes in and he surveys the banquet hall and sees everything that's going on.

He sees the scantily clad women. He sees the results of the wine that's flowed. He sees the holy goblets from the temple of Jerusalem. Now he probably hasn't seen them since he was a boy, but he knows what they are. He knows their purpose.

He knows that God has set them apart for a holy purpose. And so in disgust, it's almost in disgust that Daniel says, I'll interpret the writing, but you keep your gifts. You can't buy your way out of this sin, Belshazzar. God's judgment is coming on you and all the gold in your treasury, all the power you give me, won't stop it. And Daniel goes on to interpret the writing on the wall.

But notice what he does first. He spends a lot of time talking about other things before he actually gets to the interpretation of the writing. First, he reminds Belshazzar of what pride had cost Nebuchadnezzar. He reminds him of Nebuchadnezzar's animal years where God humbles him. He reminds him of Nebuchadnezzar's change of heart where he turns to worship the one true God. He reminds Belshazzar that this is not news to him.

In verse 22 he says, but you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself though you knew all this. You knew. It's bad enough that you do these things. It's made worse because you knew. You knew about the dreams and interpretations of Nebuchadnezzar.

You knew about the fiery furnace. You knew about your grandfather's testimony. You knew, but you've still set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. And that's a second warning for us. Before we judge Belshazzar too harshly, there are times when we know the truth.

We know the truth. We choose to ignore it. We choose to do our own thing. I was just driving down the freeway to get here and you've got many speed signs telling you what speed to go. And so thankfully, the car I've got now has cruise control.

I can set it on cruise control. But there are so many people going past me thinking that they're in a hurry. They know the speed limit but they choose to break it. That's a minor example of Belshazzar's sin here. It's a minor example of what we do from time to time.

We have the bible. We have the Spirit of God living in us. We know better, but we still choose different paths. We still sin every day. We do what we wanna do.

There are times when we know it to be wrong. You know, we avoid thinking about it. We avoid reading about it. We avoid talking about it or dwelling on it. We don't wanna do that because it might convict us.

It might call us to change. So we don't think about it. But we should. Is there an area in your life where you know better but you're closing your eyes to it? Maybe it's work.

You've made an idol of work. You know. You know that your family needs you. You know that they want to spend more time with you, you avoid thinking about that reality because you've made work and I can provide for them. Maybe it's study, particularly this time of year, that you know that you should be doing things differently or it's the way you, the focus you have on a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

Maybe you've got a problem with anger. Your words drip with sarcasm and contempt. But you avoid looking at the person when you say these words because you know the hurt it causes. Maybe there's a neighbour in need, you know, you could help them. But it would require sacrifice. It would require time, so you ignore it.

You look the other way. Maybe you're spending too much time watching or doing things you know you shouldn't. You know it's wrong, but you don't want to dwell on it. So you look the other way and you continue to do what you're doing. Maybe there's someone here who's not a Christian.

You know who Jesus is. You know you need Jesus. The gospel has been shared with you many times. You know you should ask Jesus to be Lord and Saviour. But you know what that would mean to you, so you don't.

You avoid it. Don't close your eyes if you know better. Don't pull a Belshazzar. Don't ignore what you know. Humble yourself before God.

Follow His leading. So Daniel spends a lot of time warning Belshazzar before he actually gets to the writing on the wall. It's not until verse 25 that he pronounces judgment against Belshazzar. Basically, it means numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided. Your kingdom has been numbered.

You've been weighed in the balance and you've been found lacking. So the kingdom is now gonna be divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The judgment of God is pronounced. There is no more discussion. The writing on the wall.

It couldn't be washed away. Daniel realises that God has weighed the kingdom's moral and spiritual state and decided, God has decided that it's gonna be handed over to the Medes and Persians. That's a shocking indictment against Belshazzar. But he seems totally unmoved. He even insists on giving Daniel the reward that Daniel doesn't want.

Daniel's not thrown into prison for challenging the king. Belshazzar doesn't humble himself before God begging for mercy. Instead he goes right back to the party. He almost treats this as a joke showing more contempt for the words and the warning of God. And one of the greatest empires in existence is gonna crumble that very night.

You see, for two years now, the Medes and the Persians have been working upstream on the Tigris River, digging a canal to divert the course of the river and dump it into a swamp. On this very night, they finish. They divert the water. The river level drops and the army marches into the impenetrable city on the riverbed. The Babylonians surrender without a fight and the only one who dies that night is Belshazzar.

Everyone else is spared and that explains how Daniel goes on to continue to serve God and another king another day. And Belshazzar died as he lived, without God and without hope. He had all the wealth and the power that man could dream of. He had the opportunity given by God that very night to confess his sin and to seek God's mercy, but he doesn't. So let no one presume that they're gonna receive an opportunity like that.

And there's a final warning to us all, whether we're a Christian or not. We know many passages that tell us that God scrutinises every human heart. He doesn't just look at our outward actions. He also inspects our inner motivations, our thoughts, our dreams, our secrets. Everything is exposed before God.

Nothing is hidden from Him. And I find this a solemn and challenging thought. Mene, mene, tekel, parsin. The writing is on the wall for each and every one of us. You might say, gee, it'd be great if God gave me a message on the wall like that.

Well, He has. He has. It's the same one given to Belshazzar: numbered, numbered, weighed and divided. Your days are numbered. One day, each of you are going to have to stand before God.

And I know many people who think that God's gonna weigh their good deeds versus their bad deeds and if the good outweighs the bad, they're gonna be admitted to heaven. It's a nice thought, but it fails on one crucial point. If you dare to stand before God on your own merit, claiming your own goodness, presuming to offer God your own righteousness, you, if you offer that as weight in your favour, you're making a huge mistake. Because that day you're gonna discover that your supposed good deeds are dwarfed by just one sin you've committed. You need someone else to stand in your place on the scales of judgment, the scales of justice.

You need Jesus Christ to take your place. On the scales of God, Jesus never sinned, not in thought, word, or deed. By His righteousness He fulfilled the law of God perfectly and He succeeded where you and I failed. Yet on the cross, Jesus was weighed down with the weight of our sin and our guilt. On the cross, it says there in Isaiah, He was numbered with the transgressors.

He was weighed. He was divided. He was forsaken by His Father. Why? So that we can come to God.

So that He could take us back to Himself. So that He could love us with a love that will never let us go. Jesus stands in our place. The writing on the wall. How does your life measure up?

How does your life weigh up? It's a fearful thing that each one of us needs to answer to God for our lives. How can you do that? How can you stand before the most holy God? You need someone to stand in your place.

Someone who has stood in your place. And then you'll be found fully qualified to enter into the presence of God. And the choice is simple. You can represent yourself and end up away from God in hell. Or you can have Jesus take your place and you'll be welcomed into heaven.

There is no other option. Let's pray. Lord, as we humble ourselves in prayer before You, we acknowledge that You are the sovereign God. That You hold all things in Your hand, that You set up kings and rulers. Lord, that You know all things that are happening.

And Lord, we acknowledge that our lives don't weigh up. There are times when we treat that which is holy as unholy. Lord, that there are times when we know we should do different but we choose to ignore it. And Lord, we know that if those things are brought before You and weighed on the scales, we'll be found wanting. We'll be found in deep need. But Lord, we thank You for Jesus.

We thank You that as He hung on the cross, He was weighed down with our sin and our guilt and our shame. Lord, that when He was numbered among the transgressors, when He was forsaken by You, He did that for us. Lord, we thank You for Jesus. And we know that we can only stand before You with Jesus by our side. With Jesus having taken our sin and guilt.

That our we can stand before You with thankful hearts, with confidence that we are right with You because of Jesus. And Lord, we pray for those who don't know that yet, who still stand in their own good works and their own righteousness. Lord, may You, through the words of scripture, convict them with the things that they know so that they might humble themselves before You and acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Lord, we thank You for the amazing grace that You've extended, which gives us this opportunity. We wanna accept this with grateful hearts.

Not because we're good, but because of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.