Many years later, King Belshazzar (probably King Nebby’s grandson) reigned in Babylon. Chapter 5 tells of his encounter with God’s message written on a wall… (When King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah, not only did he take the Israelites back with him as captives– He also rummaged through their Temple, taking the gold and silver cups that were holy and used for worshiping and sacrifices.)
King Belshazzar was just as arrogant as King Nebby was before he was humbled; he gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles and he drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. The Bible says….
“When they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” Imagine that scene. They were partying, and making a mockery of God.
“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 them.
So the king shouted for the enchanters, astrologers, and fortune-tellers to be brought before him.”
Does this sound familiar? Sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But to be fair, the Bible doesn’t tell us that any lessons were learned from what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar. But we in the Twenty-first Century, are so blessed to have the Word of God to help us navigate and learn how to live, by seeing the examples of so many. I Think of 2 Timothy 16:
“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”
So the king offers honor, power, and the third highest royal ranking to the person who could translate the writing on the wall. None of the king’s men could translate the meaning (although the writing on the wall contained only three words in Aramaic, a language understood by the Babylonians, they alone could never determine its prophetic significance), and the Bible tells us that the king was more alarmed and his face grew even more pale.
The queen mother (the wife of one of the king’s predecessors, quite possibly one of King Nebby’s wives) came to the king and said,
“There is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods. During Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, this man was found to have insight, understanding, and wisdom like that of the gods. This man Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, has exceptional ability and is filled with divine knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.” Daniel 5: 12
God gave Daniel alone the ability to interpret the message of doom to Babylon (remember the statue … head was gold-symbolizing Babylon, chest and arms were silver-symbolizing Medo-Persia). The wise men of the kingdom were ignorant of God’s wisdom. Daniel didn’t rush into the banquet hall like the others. His loyalty was to God, not money.