Pastor Jason
July 5, 2023
Daniel Chapter 5 1-12 (NIV)
1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.
2 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.
3 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.
4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
5 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.
6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
7 The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant.
9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.
10 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale!
11 (NKJV) There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.
12 He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”
Exodus 8:19 (NKJV)
Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.
Exodus 31:18 (NKJV)
And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
Luke 11:20 (NKJV)
But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Daniel 5:6 (NIV)
His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN
- Mene, Mene translates to “
- Tekel translates to “
- And Upharsin translates to “
26 This is the interpretation of each word.
MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it;
27 TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting;
28 PERES,”Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.
31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.
- The Babylonian empire fell in
Job 31:5-6 (NIV)
5 “If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit—
6 let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—
Proverbs 16:2 (NIV)
All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.
Proverbs 21:2 (NIV)
A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Daniel 5:18-25 (NKJV)
18 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor.
19 And because of the majesty that He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down.
20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.
21 Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses.
22 “But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this.
23 And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.
24 Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written.
25 “And this is the inscription that was written:
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN
4 areas that Belshazzar was found lacking in:
1-
“The more you know, the more
2 Peter 2:21 (NIV)
It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
2-
2 Peter 2:22 (NIV)
“But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.
James 4:10 (NLT)
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Proverbs 29:23 (NKJV)
A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.
3-
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5,7 (NKJV)
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
4-