Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Daniel 5 | Date: November 18, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Turn in your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to Daniel chapter 5. Daniel chapter 5, Belshazzar’s Feast. I’ll give you time to find it, and then I’ll read through the entire chapter.

Alright, beginning with verse 1. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords and wives and concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem. And the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone.

Immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace opposite the lampstand. The king saw the hand as it wrote. The king’s color changed. His thoughts alarmed him. His limbs gave way and his knees knocked together. The king called loudly to bring the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler of the kingdom.”

Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed. His color changed. His lords were perplexed. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever. Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. 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, and your father, the king, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”

And Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. I’ve heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O King, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty, and because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive. Whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind and his mind was made like that of a beast and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.

“And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this. But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you. And you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold and bronze and iron and wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know. But the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. Then from his presence, the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed, Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter. Mene: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel: you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Peres: your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”

Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, and a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler of the kingdom. That very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what an amazing event of history this was. What an amazing account. We pray that you would help us as it was intended for its original readers. Help us to learn from it the greatness of our God, and may we learn from it to be faithful to Him. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Context of the Kingdom

Well, to remind you of the context, you remember Israel is in exile in Babylon because of their disobedience to the covenant. God had sent Nebuchadnezzar’s troops to Jerusalem. They destroyed the city. They had plundered the temple, taking some of the vessels. We read this back in chapter 1—taking the vessels from the temple of Jerusalem back to Babylon, put in the temple there. Many exiles were brought back to Babylon to resettle there. Many of the nobility were brought in to serve the king in the court. That explains Daniel’s presence there all along.

And we saw that in all of this, Daniel writes to assure us of this wonderful theme of the sovereignty of God over all. In particular, it’s not just a statement of the sovereignty of God in a theoretical fashion; in particular, it is the sovereignty of God over the nations, the sovereignty of God over the kings of men. And Daniel illustrates this with prophecy, and he illustrates it with several concrete historical events as well. It’s summed up for us, I think, the best in chapter 2 and verse 21, where Daniel says in his interpretation of the vision, “God removes kings, he sets up kings.” That, you remember, was the confession of Nebuchadnezzar toward the end of chapter 4 and verses 34 and 35. Nebuchadnezzar, after his time out to pasture, learned that lesson and made that great confession of the sovereignty of God over all.

You may remember also in chapter 2, there was that dream of Nebuchadnezzar, of the great image. There was the head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, and so on. And those were, we saw, representing the succession of kingdoms that would come. The head of gold, Babylon; chest and arms of silver, Persia, the Medo-Persian kingdom that would come, and so on. Chapter 5 now records from the perspective of Babylon just how that first transition came about from Babylon being the chief kingdom of that area of the world to now Medo-Persia ruling.

It says for us that Belshazzar now is king. Nebuchadnezzar had died in 563 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Evil-merodach. You might remember reading of him briefly in 2 Kings chapter 25. He was a king in Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar. He was Nebuchadnezzar’s son and he actually treated King Jehoiachin of Judah with respect and dignity. Nebuchadnezzar had him put in prison. Now his son is king and he brings Jehoiachin out of prison and actually gives him a place of honor in the court and lets him sit at the king’s table daily. He ruled only a brief time, and then he was assassinated by his brother-in-law, and he ruled. And then his son ruled, but he only ruled for a brief time. And then there was another assassination of the king, and the leader of that revolt was a man by the name of Nabonidus. Nabonidus then, being the leader of that revolt, is now the king of Babylon.

Now, Nabonidus was not in the official royal line, but evidently Nabonidus had married the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, probably to legitimize his position. And after reigning here in Babylon for some time, he left for Arabia. It seems that he was not a terribly popular king in Babylon. He was pushing the wrong gods to be promoted, and it didn’t sit well with the people. But at any rate, he was gone then for about 10 years to Arabia where he’s establishing some trade routes and things like that. But he’s living in luxury off in Arabia and he has left his son Belshazzar now in charge in Babylon.

A couple of times, in fact I think four or five times here in chapter 5, Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as Belshazzar’s father. That would not mean that Belshazzar was Nebuchadnezzar’s immediate son, but keep in mind that the word “father” is often used in the sense of predecessor or in the sense of ancestor. He might have been Nebuchadnezzar’s son through his daughter who was married to Nabonidus, or he might just mean that as in terms of his predecessor, he was his father in that sense. But now Nabonidus is away, Belshazzar is in charge in Babylon.

Interesting side note here: the critics in the 19th century in particular were particularly hard on Daniel. One of their most fierce attacks was here in chapter 5. Ancient records that we have know nothing about this man named Belshazzar. And of course, as critics do, they just assume that if they don’t have information about Belshazzar, whatever the Bible says about him must be mythological or mistaken in some way. And so that was a point of criticism against the Book of Daniel. Until the very late 19th century, the Nabonidus Chronicle was found, and there it was: Nabonidus was away, and quote, “he entrusted his kingship to Belshazzar.” Daniel knew what he was talking about after all. And in fact, there’s some indication of that in chapter 5 here as well. When Belshazzar offers to Daniel, “If you will interpret this vision for me, I’ll make you, not second, third ruler in the kingdom,” it is because Belshazzar himself was only the second. Well, there it is. We would have known that, but it’s kind of fun to see it.

The Introduction and Setting of the Event

Verses 1 to 9, we have the introduction and setting of this whole event, as we call it, Belshazzar’s Feast, 539 BC. This is about 30 years after the incident of chapter 4, when Nebuchadnezzar was put out to pasture. Babylon, you remember, was considered impregnable with these huge walls—wide enough, thick enough walls that several chariots could ride abreast across the top of them. So it was an impregnable fortress. Some of the ancient Greek writers like Herodotus and Xenophon, both writing much later, fill in some of the history for us. They tell us that the Persian troops had come to the city and had laid siege to the city of Babylon. But because Babylon was such an immense fortress and so impregnable, they weren’t afraid inside. They had years of food supply and there was no way they were going to be taken, and so they sat very confidently.

We see this here with Belshazzar with the troops outside the gates, which they surely knew about, and now they’re inside partying with great confidence. In fact, there’s some records of the soldiers shouting from the top of the wall to the Persian troops on the outside of the wall, jeering at them, saying, “You’ll never take this city. Till mules fall, you will never take this city. Just go on home,” and jeering at them like that.

Well, in verses 1 and following we have this party with all of its leading figures in the kingdom. Belshazzar obviously is presented as the big shot involved and in fact verses 1 and 2, I think, intentionally portray something of a revolting picture of ostentation and opulence. Twice it is mentioned in verse 1 that there are a thousand people there. If you have an NIV, the “thousand” is not repeated, but it is there in the original text. He gave a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of a thousand. I think the idea is just to press this—that he’s showing off, this is a big deal, this is a big banquet and he’s showing off his greatness, and that with Persian armies just outside the wall. If you think a thousand people is a lot for a banquet hall, this is not any exception, by the way, even in the ancient world. Alexander the Great had a banquet hall that seated 10,000 people. So the show-off thing goes on.

He’s showing off his greatness. He’s the big shot. He’s probably showing off his manliness. He’s a hard drinker. The mention of his harem here, the concubines, it’s probably an extended drunken orgy of some kind. But not just that. There’s also, specifically, sacrilege and blasphemy. He takes these holy vessels, verse 2, these holy vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had stored in the temple of his gods in Babylon, and now he brings them up and he shouts praises, verse 4, to the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Now each of those gods has a name. But I think they’re not named simply to point out that these are the kinds of gods they worship. And in fact, that will be picked up on later. As we saw, these neither hear nor speak nor know anything. It’s just wood, metal, and stone. But then they take up these holy vessels from the Jerusalem temple and use them in drinking in praise to these gods of metal and wood and stone, and very obviously it is intended to mock the God of Israel, clearly intended to subordinate the God of Israel to the gods of Babylon in the midst of all their revelry.

And then, verse 5, just when the revelry is at its height, God crashes the party. Now when Jewish and Christian readers read “fingers appeared,” “a hand appeared,” “the finger appeared to write,” you’re probably going to think back to Sinai. Sounds like God is doing something. Clearly it’s something supernatural. What is this? And in fact, the text indicates it starts out “immediately” or “suddenly”—this hand appears and starts writing on the wall, and it says, “the king watched.” Well, I imagine so. Imagine in the midst of all this revelry, he sobers up really fast, and he sees this hand etching words on the wall.

And Belshazzar now sobers up quick, and he’s so terrified, verse 6, that he completely loses it. The king’s color changed. His thoughts alarmed him. That’s a neat way to put it, isn’t it? His thoughts alarmed him, and his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. Well, you get the idea. He’s scared. That phrase in verse 6, “his limbs gave way,” obviously indicates that he collapsed, but literally—let me read how it reads literally—”the joints of his loins were loosed.” Now if you think that sounds like a polite way to say that he lost control of his bowels, you’re probably right. In fact, I think it’s an intended pun that he both collapsed and totally lost control. The point is, this big shot show-off king now has been utterly humiliated. He has no idea what this handwriting on the wall means, but he’s pretty sure that whatever it is, it’s not good. It’s a very ominous feeling that he has. It feels like judgment day has come, but it just hasn’t happened yet.

And then verse 7 says, he called loudly to bring in the wise men. Now, again, if you have the NIV, the word “loudly” is not there, but it is there in the original. The idea is that—and I think even with the tense of the participle there—the idea is that he kept on screaming loudly. “Get the wise men, get the wise, where are the wise men? I asked for the wise, where are they? Get them in here.” It’s that kind of thing. He’s panicking, he’s afraid, and he’s calling for someone to come and read this for him. And they come in verses 7 and 8, and they’re not able to read it. They’re not able to interpret it. And that really wasn’t very encouraging either.

Now, there’s been a lot of discussion here as to why they couldn’t read it. There have been several guesses. They are just guesses. When Daniel comes and reads it, he reads it in Aramaic, but perhaps it was written in some other script. We don’t know. Perhaps it was written instead of right to left—Aramaic is not written left to right like English, but right to left. And rather than being right to left, it’s written up and down like that. You see that in Rembrandt’s famous portrait of Belshazzar’s Feast, written up and down from top to bottom like that. Could be the problem, but then even making out the letters, parsing out the words, for whatever reason, they’re not able to make sense of whatever this was that was written on the wall. And verse 9, whatever the problem was in reading it, that only makes the king still more terrified. Whatever this is, it doesn’t look good. And that, of course, not to mention his other humiliation as well.

Verses 10 to 12, then, the queen hears what has happened, and she comes in to talk to the king. This is probably Belshazzar’s mother, daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. We don’t know for sure, but could well be. And she comes in and says, “O king, live forever.” That’s the common greeting for the king, but it’s really ironic that she would say that on this occasion, isn’t it? The guy’s only got a few minutes left or a few hours left. I suspect that the Queen herself was afraid that Belshazzar had gone too far in offending Israel’s God. She had seen what this God is able to do through Daniel’s work in the court previously. And so she recommends Daniel that he be called in to help with Belshazzar. He’s a man with an excellent spirit. She reminds him of what has happened in Nebuchadnezzar’s administration. He’s an old man at this point. Maybe in retirement, we don’t know, but for some reason evidently not active in the king’s court as he had been because she has to tell him, tell Belshazzar about him, although I’m sure he had heard. But she has to remind him of Daniel.

And so in verses 13 to 16 then, Belshazzar summons Daniel. Daniel, the prophet of the God he has just been mocking, keep in mind. And when Daniel is brought in, the king speaks, and his speech to Daniel is a mix of condescending superiority, resentment, skepticism, but I think desperation as well. He’s not really happy to be speaking of an exiled Jew and looking to him for help with a matter. After all, he’s just been mocking that Jew’s God. And so, verse 13, he immediately puts Daniel in his place. “You are one of those exiles of Judah, princess whose God I’ve just been mocking.” Verses 14 and 16, the phrase, “I have heard, I have heard,” is repeated. Verses 14 and 16, “I’ve heard, I’ve heard about you.” And I think we might read between the lines, “I have heard,” he said with condescending tone, as though the great Daniel had been forgotten. And Belshazzar is not all that convinced, but he needs help. And so he’ll ask even an exile Jew, Daniel. But he is desperate. “I’ve got to know what it says.” And he offers Daniel the same reward.

Daniel’s Response to the King

And then in verses 17 and following, Daniel responds. And it’s a new Daniel. Daniel responds in a way here that we have not seen of Daniel before. You remember when Daniel gives interpretation of dreams to Nebuchadnezzar? He’s very respectful. He’s even sympathetic. He even seems to have affection for the king. He’s a loyal servant of the king, wants him to prosper. We come now to Belshazzar, and it’s very different. And Daniel now is every stereotype of Old Testament fearless, bold prophet that you’ve ever thought of rolled into one. And he’s even blunt. He’s terse. And in fact, Daniel doesn’t even offer repentance. Just this stinging rebuke. And he starts off with, “Keep your rewards, give it to somebody else. I don’t want it. I won’t be bought.” This is the epitome of what we would call righteous indignation. He’s angry with what the king has done. He’s angry at the blasphemy that he’s seen from this king. And he’s done with it.

Verses 18 to 21, before giving the interpretation of the handwriting that was on the wall, he proceeds to read off this stinging indictment against the king, and he reminds him who rules. He reminds him of some family history. God gave Nebuchadnezzar—notice that “gave.” God gave Nebuchadnezzar his authority, and God gave him such dominion that everybody around bowed before him, and God gave him such authority that whom he will he killed, and whom he would he kept alive. But when his heart was lifted up, God had a way to humble him, and he put him out to pasture, and Nebuchadnezzar learned to bow. He strutted, but he learned to bow.

And now, verse 22, he makes it very personal and condemns Belshazzar for his pride and blasphemy, reminds him of his accountability, and you see it with the pronouns: “you have lifted up,” “you have praised the gods,” all this that you have done. And notice verse 23, he gives this contrast. The Lord of heaven, he speaks of, and that in contrast to the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, do not hear, do not know. And this is a page from Isaiah the prophet. You remember how he used to mock the prophets of the nations, mock the gods of the nations around him? You make a god of stone, or of wood, and it falls over, so you gotta get a chain and strap it up so it stands there, and then you worship it. What kind of sense does that make? And that’s the point that Daniel is making here. There’s the Lord of heaven on the one hand, and there are these gods that you worship, and they’re made of metal and wood and stone. What sense does that make? Well, we’ll see. And in fact, the contrast is even further. The king’s gods are made of the same stuff that the goblets from Yahweh’s temple are made of.

And finally then the last part of verse 23, this is just stinging. “The God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.” Who do you think you are? You may be superior to these gods of metal and stone. Well, I suppose so. They can’t hear, they can’t see, they can’t speak, they don’t know a thing. But you have trifled with the God of heaven. And so in verse 24, he identifies the hand. It is the God of heaven whom you have blasphemed who has sent this hand.

The Interpretation of the Matter

And then he gives the interpretation. He reads it in verse 25 and then gives the interpretation in verses 26 through 28. This is the third time now that Daniel was able to interpret something that the wise men of Babylon were not able to. And so he reads it off.

Mene, Mene. I suppose repeated for emphasis. This is related to the Hebrew minna that you’ve seen before. It’s a monetary weight. And Daniel here gives it a verbal sense. God has numbered your days. He’s counted it out. Your time is up.

Tekel. This is related to the Hebrew shekel, which again is a monetary weight. But again, he gives it a verbal sense, and here it’s a passive sense. God has weighed you out. You don’t measure up. So if Mene means God has numbered your days, your time is up; Tekel now is God has measured you, and he’s weighed you, and you’re too light.

And then Parsin. Some of you have in your translation “Upharsin.” The “U” on the front is just the conjunction “and.” The “in” on the end is just the plural ending. In contemporary versions we have it with just the word itself, peres. And again, this comes from a root that means to divide. It may have been a monetary weight as well, a half a shekel. The idea of the root of the verbal root is to divide or to separate. And so again, he gives it a passive sense. Your kingdom has been divided. It’s been separated from you. It’s been given to Medo-Persia.

I think it’s impossible that Daniel had not heard that Cyrus was king of the Medo-Persian kingdom. And if so, I’m sure also that Daniel had been reminded of Isaiah’s famous prophecies given 200 years earlier. For instance, in Isaiah chapter 44, God says of Cyrus—even names him 200 years before—God says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose, saying of Jerusalem, ‘she shall be built,’ and of the temple ‘your foundation shall be laid.'” He does the same in chapter 45 of his prophecy. But Isaiah makes this famous prophecy that this one, Cyrus, will come. This is 200 years ahead. Cyrus isn’t around yet. His dad’s not around. His granddad’s not around yet. God makes this promise that Cyrus will come and he will head up the Persian army and he will set Israel free to go back to her land. I’m sure Daniel was familiar with Isaiah’s prophecy. He had heard that Cyrus was king in Persia. I imagine he’d put it all together. And in fact, we’ll find in chapter 8 that Daniel had another vision, and there Persia is named specifically as well. Well, I’m sure he had put all that together, but whether he had or not, he can sure read the vision, or this writing on the wall, and he can give the interpretation. And so he does. “You want me to read it? Here it is. Your time is up. You don’t measure up. And your kingdom is taken away.”

Verse 29, then, amazingly, Belshazzar keeps his promise. And he honors Daniel, gives him the reward, promotes him to third ruler in the kingdom. I imagine it would be the instinctive response of a tyrant king like this to kill on the spot anyone who would dare talk to him like this. Maybe it has something to do with Daniel’s excellent spirit, a demeanor that was compelling and authoritative and confident. I suspect, though, that it has something to do with the prophecy itself that Daniel has just given, that maybe he’d better treat this prophet of Israel’s God well. Maybe it will stave off the prophecy. But at any rate, he’s promoting Daniel.

And then in verse 30, in very short shrift, it records for us that the prophecy is fulfilled. Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed. Verse 31, Darius the Mede received the kingdom. Now again, this is one of those cases where we don’t have any external, in the ancient sources, any knowledge of who this Darius is. Some people have actually guessed that this might be another name for Cyrus himself. Others, and I think probably a better guess, is that Darius is just the man that Cyrus has placed there in Babylon to be over the kingdom there. But whoever he is, he’s now in charge.

We can read an account of this again in the Nabonidus Chronicle, and again in some of the ancient Greek writers. The Persians had diverted the Euphrates River just enough to allow their soldiers to wade in under the river gates and to make their way in for this takeover of the kingdom. There was evidently help on the inside. Belshazzar was not a popular king to begin with. The soldiers come in, they kill some guards and some of the other big shots there at the party. But the people at large in Babylon were not molested. In fact, they basically said this is good to have a new leader. We’re glad to have him.

So Belshazzar had felt secure. And I suppose that if Belshazzar had heard the prophecy of Isaiah, he wouldn’t have heeded it anyway. But Isaiah chapter 47 tells us of Babylon, “You felt secure in your wickedness. You said, ‘no one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one beside me,’ but evil will come upon you which you will not know how to charm away. Disaster shall fall upon you for which you will not be able to atone, and ruin shall come upon you suddenly of which you know nothing.” And so the Babylonian kingdom comes to an end.

God Rules Over the Nations

Daniel chapter 5 complements Daniel chapter 4 in some interesting ways. On the one hand, there’s a contrast, and that is that Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4 was humbled by the action of God and repented. In chapter 5, Belshazzar is stubborn and he is destroyed. But in both cases, we have underlined the very same truth, and that is: despite appearances, despite appearances, God rules over the nations. And that’s the lesson. The God of heaven rules over the kings of the earth.

This is the point that Daniel stresses with Belshazzar when he gives him that family history in verse 21. And all this happened to Nebuchadnezzar until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men and sets over it whom he will. It’s underlined again in verse 31 in an interesting way. It’s more of these passives that we’ve seen elsewhere in Daniel that are so significant. It says—Daniel does not say here who killed Belshazzar. It just says he was killed. Of course, it was one of the soldiers that came in. But he was killed. That is, just as God said, he was killed. Behind it, God made sure of it. And then again, when it says, “Darius received the kingdom,” again it’s passive. Darius received the kingdom. Understood from God, he received the kingdom. Just as God had given the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar, now he gave it to Darius. And Darius’ future is the same as Nebuchadnezzar’s and everybody else’s. He’ll have the kingdom until God gives it to someone else.

Well, this is the point of Daniel’s book. This is the point of this passage, that God changes times and seasons. He is the one that removes kings and sets up kings. This is Daniel’s prophecy overall, that God is God overall. And he impresses that on us with not only prophecies, but with concrete contemporary events. And this was the last lesson that Belshazzar learned, even if it was too late.

I’ve tried to mention this along the way, and we’ll see it further in the later studies, I think, as well. But you can easily imagine the Jewish exiles in Babylon hearing of all of this, wondering about their circumstances, first of all. “How could all this happen to us? What does it say about God? I thought he was the God who ruled over all, and he’s the God who made promises to us. How could this happen to us that we’d be cleared out of our home, the temple itself could fall, and we could be taken away to this other land? How could all of this happen? It seems that God has made promises that can’t be fulfilled. It seems that God has failed.”

And then they hear that the prophet Daniel has made prophecies about this kingdom of Babylon, and God brought them about. And you can just see the hope welling up inside that our God was not a tribal deity left defeated in Jerusalem, but our God is in fact king over the nations, and he rules over them all. And so the stage is set for the return of Israel from exile, just as God has promised in Isaiah. And in fact, we read then later in 2 Chronicles 36, the decree of Cyrus, the king of Persia: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord, his God, be with him and let him go up.”

And, of course, we read of that return in Ezra and Nehemiah. And that, of course, then entails the prophecies of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi with the post-exilic times back in Jerusalem. So Israel is back in her land. She eventually comes under Greek control, then Roman control, the fourth of those steps of that image that had been prophesied. And during that fourth kingdom, Jesus is born in Bethlehem. In the words of chapter 2, that stone is cut out of the side of the mountain. The kingdom is born. And Jesus comes and he begins preaching, “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He goes to the cross and he takes the sin of all of his people, bears the punishment of God in their place, and establishes the kingdom of God. God raises him from the dead, he ascends to heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, where the Father says, “Sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool.”

Meanwhile, all the kingdoms of this world continue to threaten, they continue to rebel, and they continue to blaspheme. In a very real sense, they blaspheme the holy vessels of the temple. And you wonder, “Will they win? How long will this go on? Can it continue? Is the threat real? Will the kingdom of God ever, ever really happen?” And Daniel is written to remind us that God gave the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar, God gave the kingdom to Darius, and they may all blaspheme and do their thing in the meantime, but you may be sure that God finally will not be mocked. His kingdom will prevail. God will in his time bring down all other kingdoms and he will reign from shore to shore.

And it’s interesting as well—we don’t have time to trace it out—but it’s interesting that since these days Babylon then became a symbol of the opponents of God’s people. Babylon, the world system in its opposition to God. And that’s picked up, as you know, in the book of Revelation, where the whole world system is pictured in its age-long revolt against God. It becomes something of a tale of two cities, the tale of Babylon against the Holy City drawn out for us in graphic kind of imagery in the book of Revelation until finally in Revelation chapter 18 we read: “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was made bright with his glory and he called out with a mighty voice, ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.'”

And then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and will be found no more.” And we turn the page and we have the return of Jesus Christ in glory where he establishes his kingdom and establishes an entire new world order. And the point of it all is the same that it was in Daniel: People of God, don’t lose heart. Remain faithful. Our God reigns, and in his time, his kingdom will prevail. Amen.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we praise you that you are this God who rules over the nations. We thank you for giving us this revelation of your great works in history, that we may be assured by them of the certainty of the work yet to come. Help us as exiles in this world to live faithfully until then, assured that our God reigns. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.