The Writing on the Wall | What Belshazzar's Feast Teaches Us | Daniel 5:1-31

Show Notes

Episode 680:
In this episode, we delve into the story of King Belshazzar from the book of Daniel. We discuss the significance of the phrase "the writing on the wall," which originates from this passage. As we read through Daniel chapter 5, we explore the themes of pride, judgment, and the consequences of defying God. Belshazzar's feast, where he uses sacred vessels from the temple, serves as a backdrop for God's message of impending judgment delivered through Daniel.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, good morning. We are the Bible Guys. We're glad to be here. Absolutely. And it's Friday. It is Friday. And who doesn't love a good Friday. I love good Fridays. Yeah, well, good Friday was good. Yes, but we're not talking about that all the good Fridays. All the Fridays are good. We're saying. We're saying every Friday. This is a particularly fine Friday. Yes, it's a fine Friday. Here we go. There you go. Hey, listen TGIF on the whole idea of everybody with weekends. Uh, people love weekends, big fan of weekends. And I always make a comment and say, we've lived our lives a little backwards. All of our. Friends that we've made over the years would always say stuff like, hey, let's get together and let's take a trip up north and. Let's leave for the weekend. And I would always say, well, I can get away during the week you know, I can go on like a Wednesday Thursday. And they're like, what are you talking about? We work. I'm like, well, Okay, I just can't. We work on Weekndays, we work on Sundays. So but nevertheless, that still doesn't mean that we don't love the weekends. That's correct, we do. We love the weekends, love the weekends. So we are moving into a segment that's uh, I'm going to read it because it's it's technically about you. Here's oh, here's what I love segments about me. Here's what it says. Great, let's do it says Tomorrow is Jeff's birthday. Woo, yes it is wo Actually, mation Mark, Well, today is Friday. Let's have Jeff pick the segment today. He can either tell us what made him happy this week, where you can ask Chris what made him mad this week? Happy early birthday. Jeff, Happy early birthday? How nice? Thank you? Yeah, and thank you for reading that, Chris. And you're gonna be fine. Job, You're going to be super old fifty four. I'll finally catch up to you. Wow, I've been fifty four for weeks now. Yeah, weeks so long, so long, three weeks kind of falling apart. Yeah, so uh okay, so my birthday I get to choose. It's my party. I can laugh if I want to choose, choose if I want to. Yeah, so let's do a happy one instead of what made Chris mad this week? And I don't like talking about myself. You know that I'm such a humble person. Yes, I hate. I hate bringing the focus on me. Nobody is more humble than you. I don't think it hardly ever, not that I've met. Let me say it that way. Not that I've met. I haven't met there. Maybe somebody out there, maybe I don't know. I doubt it. I doubt it. I've been a lot of places, I've meant a lot of people. I haven't met anybody humble as. I've been around the world. Nobody as humble as me. Remember the Brian Reagan thigures like I'm driving on the Automa and it was a multi multinational corporation. Yeah. So uh, anyways, let's not make it about me. Let's make it. I like making it about you, but let's make it be a happy Chris to Okay, So what made Chris happy this week? Well, I don't even think twice. Oh so, my daughter got engaged to be married and it was a surprise to her and and. Our fans love her because she loves dad jokes. Yes, well she's she's been they know her. She's been a guest on this show. She's been featured a couple of times. Yes, yes, So anyway, toy, she's been dating our future son law Christo's christ Los Levy and she's been dating him since high school for seven years. And so I told the story for the few that know. This to way to finally get moving christs right. Yeah, so he is a rocket engineer. Literally, he's a rocket scientist, rocket scientist. He's a rocket scientist. Cory married a rocket scientist. Yes, and he's great. He's Greek. Does he does he tell good dad jokes? Seems like that's a priority in her life. No, so she have to call into the show. To get she's different than him. Okay, so she's a big movie person like me, and he is not a movie person, right, Like you're like, what do you mean, I've never seen Star Wars? You know that kind of guy? Oh my gosh, you're letting you. He's like Trey wow. And so she's been introducing him to the zar Ba culture and he's loved it. And so anyway, he's come afar away just. Like just like mother son in law. Brandon's now sort of crossed over to the Zarba culture. They say that usually daddy's girls married guys that are just like their dads, and both of your daughters are married to somebody exactly the opposite. For me, actually, that's not true Brandon. Other than the movie thing, Brandon is almost exactly. Like Mer Yeah, exactly. Really that surprises me because I really like that really. So anyway, bottom line is, here's what happened. So about seven years ago, one of the very first dates, he's a pilot also, so they went on this big, long date. They didn't want it to end. He's like, hey, can I fly you around? They get a lot of stars in the sky because he's a pilot, So get in a plane. They fly up to an airport that's just north of here, and they land and there's like the you know those steps that they wheel up to the airplane. They sit on the steps, she sees a shooting star. He says, what did you wish for? She said, I don't want to tell you what you wish for? And she says, I wish that this would last forever. So he remembered that hang on, hung on to her for seven years and somehow, through a thousand deceitful scenarios, we had to keep the truth from her for this surprise, and finally she thinks she's there by happenstance, they pull into the airport and he had taken those same steps and put flowers on them, balloons, everything, and she's so clueless that. This is going to happen. She literally looks at him and says, hey, somebody left a bunch of stuff on that step. She has no clue. And then he goes, well, let's go see, and they. Get out of the car, and then he took off his jacket because he was just really nice because it was Easter Sunday, and he takes off his jacket, and then she understood what was happening. And of course, you know, it's Easter Sunday, so our family is over his family's house. When they came back, we had a big Greek celebration. We even learned how to Greek dance Greek. Yeah, you had to take classes. We took little little classes for some friends, so we danced Greek. We celebrated. It was wonderful, great celebration. She was clueless, and I had shared with a bunch of staff that it was going to happen. You announced it, not with a bunch of staff. Well, anybody who was present, which was about thirty people that day, okay, so which we called it an all staff, So it was supposed to be the all staff. But how many people on our staf like fifty? Yeah, well sixty, we have sixty people in the staff. Okay, okay, so it was only like thirty there that day. But yes, I I don't know what I was thinking. Yes, but it was my secret to share, and I viewed it as it would it be cool to share this wonderful family moment, like people. Would be like oh, And in my mind, I was. Actually thinking, there's no way anybody in this room is going to talk to Tory in the next week and a half. So I just shared it, not realizing that. Toy I thought, oh no, yes, not realizing that Tory was scheduled to come with us to that Financial Freedom seminar like three days later. And then I'm thinking, is she congratulations? Right? And then uh? And then for Easter services right, which would have been like the day before it happened. But so she was scheduled to be at the church twice, and so we had to finagle uh you know, Brendan, Oh, I. Got a stomach ache. Hurry, let's run out to the car. Hey, are you sure you want to go backstage and see all the workers and say hi and hug Trey's neck. No, my stomach hurts, literally, that's the kind of stuff we had to pull. But wow, but she was clueless. That's awesome, totally surprised. Well, I'm so happy for you guys. So that made you happy? Oh, it made you wonderful, happy, wonderful. Dad proud. Yes, having a young man proposed to your daughter and we love him. You're happy because that's one more that you're not going to have to feed up in just a short month. That's right, Get out of my house. No, just kidding, but we love him, we love their family. It was wonderful. We could not be happier. Wow. Good, Yeah, well that's fantastic. Congratulations to the family, Yes, and congratulations to Tory. Yes, we're so happy for you. Yes, I feel like we should have looked up a dead joke about proposals. Really yeah? Yeah all right, well maybe maybe as you prepare to the transition, say the transition. Uh, so you know she was a little oblivious because even though the writing was on the wall, she couldn't see it. Oh that's pretty darn God. And then tell people why that's well, because. In the Book of Daniel, that's where that phrase, the writing is on the wall came from, right in Daniel chapter five. Yes, was that good? Was that a good transition? That was terrible? Okay, well, let me read it to you anyways, I'm gonna read Daniel chapter five. This is amazing story. It says, many years later, King Belshazzar gave a great feast. Okay, so this is many years after nebie Kinezer's big engagement with God and all that kind of stuff. Right, there's King Belshazzar now, and he gave a great feast for one thousand of nobles. Before go ahead, please. Before you get into the scripture, which you're already one sentence in, let me put this to rest. I said to chat GPT, tell me a good dad joke about a proposal. Sure, here's a good jad joke. I proposed to my girlfriend at the gym. I guess you could say it didn't work out. Okay, pretty good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's kretty good well, good news. Christos didn't propose at the gym. It did work out. Yeah, is that a terrible transition? There you go, all right? Back King scripture, so it says many years later, King Belshazzar gave a great feast for one thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. While Belchazzar was drinking the wine, he gave to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebukinezer had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. And so they brought these gold cups taken from the temple the House of God, Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. While they drank from them, they praised their idols, made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stones. Suddenly they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king's palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear, and his legs gave way beneath him. The king shouted for the enchanters and astrologers and fortune tellers to be brought before him, and he said, to these wise men of Babylon, whoever can read this writing and tell me what it means, will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor, and will have a gold chain placed around his neck. He will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom. But when all the king's wise men had come in, none of them could read the writing or tell him what it meant. So the king grew even more alarmed, and his face turned pale. His nobles too were shaken. But when the queen mother heard what it was happening, she hurried to the banquet hall. She said to bel Shazar, long live the king. Don't be so pale and frightened. There is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods. During Nebuconezer's reign, this man was found to have insight understanding a wisdom like that of the gods, your predecessor of the king, your predecessor, King nebucan Ezzer made him chief over all the magicians and enchanters and astrologers and fortune tellers of Babylon. This man, Daniel, whom the king named Belta Shazar, has exceptional ability and is filled with the divine knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel and he'll tell you what the writing means. So Daniel was brought in before the king. The king asked him, are you Daniel, one of the exiles brought from Judah by my predecessor, King Nebucanezzer. I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you, and that you are filled with insight, understanding in wisdom. My wise men and chanters have tried to read the words on the wall and tell me their meaning, but they cannot. I am told that you can give interpretations and solve difficult problems. If you can read these words and tell me their meaning, you will be clothed in purple robes of royal honor, and you will have a gold chain place around your neck. I guess they dressed like rappers. You would become the third highest ruler in the kingdom. Daniel answered the king. Keep your gifts or give them to someone else. But I will tell you what the writing means, your majesty, The Most High God gave sovereignty, majesty, glory, and honor to your predecessor, King Nebukedzer. He made him so great that people of all races and nations and language tremble, trembled before him in fear. He killed those he wanted to kill, and spared those he wanted to spare. He honored those he wanted to honor, and disgrace those he wanted to disgrace. But when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven from human society. He was given the mind of a wild animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys. He ate grassed like a cow when he was trench with the duo Heaven, until he learned that the Most I God rules over the kingdoms of the world and appoints anyone he desires to rule over them. You are his successor, O Belshazar, and you knew all this. Yet you have not humbled yourself, for you have proudly defied the Lord of Heaven and have had these cups from his temple brought before you. You and your nobles, and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them, while prising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, gods that neither see, nor hear, nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny. So God has sent his hand to write this message. This is the message that was written. Mene, Mene, tekel, and parson. This is what these words mean. Mane means numbered. God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end. Tekel means weighed. You have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. And Parson means divided. Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Means and the Persians. Then, at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was dressed in purple robes, a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. That very night, bel Shazar, the Babylonian king, was killed, and Darius the Mead took over the kingdom at the age of sixty. Two, Yeahough, that is unbelievable. Isn't that amazing? Many many Teckley Parson. Wow, So. I'm trying to think of the name of the movie. Of course, my mind's gonna go right to the movie. Yep, oh, A Night's Tale. I don't even have to look it up. It just came to me. Oh, that phrase you have been weighed and you have been found wanting was the phrase in The Nights Tale? Did you see that movie? It came from this passage. It came from that passage. Yet And wasn't it the guy who played Joker. Yes, yeah, he Ledger yet so so, although that's not the guy who said it, was the antagonist in the story that said it. But anyway, the bottom line is is, yeah. It comes from this passage, and it is an unbelievable thing anybody's talking about. He's talking about the scales, right, the scales of how they would you know, trade, in trade and in commerce, they would have scales that would determine the worth of things, right, and so you've been weighed and found wanting, meaning they put you on the scales and you have been measured, you have been determined, and you know you you're not worth as much as you think you are, right, right, So you're he's not saying you're worthless, but he's saying you're not worth very much. Yeah, you're not worth what you thought you were. Yeah, and so what an unbelievable picture. By the way, First of all, Second of all is I will bet you that if you took all of our listeners that are listening to this, So what do we have, like a thousand a day on YouTube or something like that. Yeah, well we'll have in a month, we'll have several thousand, many many thousands of unique listeners. It's thirteen thousand or fifteen something of that. But on this particular day, who listens to this? Yeah, just on YouTube, it'll be over a thousand, and on the others it'll be thousands. Okay, yeah, so okay, out of the thousands that are listening to this, I will bet you the majority probably don't realize they've heard this saying in their lifetime, hey have you seen the writing on the wall, or he saw the writing on the wall, or hey there was writing on the wall. Whatever context is used, then it comes from this passage. And so for you know, for centuries, we have repeated this it has become a part of our culture, and it's really now used to say, hey, I saw the future before it was here, right because I read the writing on the wall, meaning like I was able to interpret, you know, before it came, and here it is right here. So do you remember, was it yesterday when I mentioned Nabinitis? Yeah? Yeah, So Nabinitis was the king at this time. Belshazar was the co regent. He was like the co king. Belshazzar was the son of Nabonitis, and for a long time in modern archaeology, we had a hard time with Belshazzar. So everybody knew about Nabonidas. We had a hard time knowing about Belshazar except from biblical things. But it says here. Archaeologists have recently discovered Belshazzar's name on several documents. He ruled with his father Nabanitas, staying home to administer the affairs of the kingdom. All his father tried to reopen trade routes taken over by Cyrus and the Persians. Belchazzar was in charge of the city of Babylon when it was captured. Isn't it interesting? So we've recently found his name written and because everybodyknew about Nabaitis. But Nabonitis had left to go and try to re establish trade routes, left his son in charge of Babylon. And his son was just drinking and having a party in the palace, you know, profaning God. And God goes, yeah, let me write on the wall and tell you was about to idea happen to you, buddy. Yeah. And then so do you remember when when God had told in the dream, had told nebu Keinezer, you're the gold head in the stream. Yes, and then you're going to be replaced. Your kingdom is going to be replaced with a silver that's the Meads in the Persians right here. So there's this there's this window of time where sixty six years from the last strike against Jerusalem, so that was six oh five BC, and then he dies in six five sixty two BC, so he reigned for forty three years. Then there's this instability in the leadership of Babylon for a while, and that's why it kind of weakened a little bit. They lost a lot of their trade routes. The Meads and the Persians were starting to take over a lot of them and making money and then Nabinitis comes in re establishes things pretty strongly, and his son, Belshazzar is an idiot, and so then Darius comes rolling in, and Darius was just about as ruthless and powerful as nebuk Cainiser was and wipes them out. So it's a pretty pretty amazing moment. I don't think it's gonna tell us here. It doesn't. They snuck in to Jrusalm. Did you know this. They snuck into Jerusalem through sewage tunnels. No, yeah, that's how they got into the city and wiped them out. It's pretty pretty amazing. So anyways, it's a whole other thing. But yeah, it's a really astounding thing when God's word comes to be true, right right right these people, And I love Daniel's accusation. Daniel doesn't pull any punches with Belshazzar. It's interesting, you know how incredibly diplomatic he was with Nebukinizer. He's not diplomatic at all. Well with he. Knows be Shazar is dying to night right, and so he he wants to disassociate himself from anything he says. He says, you can keep your gifts. Yeah, I don't need to gets. I don't want your gifts. I only want to be a part of this, right because I'm about to tell you something you're not going to want to hear. And I don't want a gold chain because of it. Right. He says that you knew these stories about Nebu Kinizzer, right, you are his successor Obel Shazzar, and you knew all this, Yet you have not humbled yourself right right? I mean he called him out, Yeah, I mean right in front of everybody. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny. So God has sent this hand to write this message. You've been weighed and found wanting. You've been weighed and found. Wanting, and the kingdom is going to be divided. Yeah. So there's a there's a little note here that actually shows the writing. How do they know what the writing is? But it's an Ameic script. Aramic, but probably wasn't written in Aramic when you think it'd be like something that nobody can interpret. Right, But anyway, here's what it says. It says, uh many many techol Parson written in airmax script. Is what you're seeing here is literally. Mina, mina shekel, half mina or half shekel, and mina we're minas were units of measurements for gold and silver, and a mina weight about fifty shekels or five hundred grams shekels were units of weight. So basically, what it's doing is it's sort of attributing that all of these things are what people would have understood exactly what that meant. Right right, right, Well, so when it finally comes and says Parson, it's it's saying you only are half of what the measurement was. That that's what it means. There, So the the many men of many many mini mini or minamina and then tekel is half and then parson is you're the half, right right, That's that's what it's telling them. There's pretty pretty crazy. Yeah, And and by the way, what what a what a thing to hear? So here you are sitting on the throne, loving your authority, loving your power, abusing it, obviously doing blasphemous things to drink from, you know, the cups that were in the temple, and then as you're doing it, you're you're worshiping all the other gods and saying all these things and then for and then for it to be called out and say, hey, you are not measuring up at all. You're half the man of your predecessor. You're you're you're not even close. You've been found wanting means uh, your character, your your choices, your faith, your demeanor, your value, all these. Things to be called out like that. And so it's amazing that he actually still promotes Daniel, doesn't it. It's amazing, Well he kept his word. Yeah, and probably because he was too fearful to uh to you know, Jerem Limb from Limb. Right, he's also drunk, so he's unreasonable at this point. Yeah, probably, so yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a note here that says the writing on the wall was a message for all of those who defy God. Although Belshazzar had power and wealth, his kingdom was totally corrupt and he could not withstand the judgment of God. God's time of judgment comes for all people. If you've forgotten God and slept into a sinful way of life, turn away from your sin now before he removes any opportunities to repent. Ask God to forgive you and begin to live by his standards of justice. Right and amazing, that's great, that's a great lesson for this scripture. And we're going to pick up on Monday with the famous story of Daniel and the Lions then, which I can't wait, and so hopefully we will see you then on the Bible. Gosh,