BELSHAZZAR’S days seem to me peculiarly to foreshadow the present days of Christendom.
These are days of the world’s feasting and merriment; the captivity of the people of God is forgotten, and the vessels of God’s Temple are as it were again brought into the world’s banqueting houses, to minister to their raveling’s and earthly joys. But if my reader is in the midst of such scenes, be sure of this, already God’s finger is writing on the walls of the temples of earth’s glory, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Tekel;” and if not visibly there, yet in the pages of God’s Word are written the words, “Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.” God’s servants are sounding out the cry; the midnight hour is already past, the day of the Lord is close at hand, and every witness that God sends, is a savor of death unto death to those who reject Christ’s salvation, and are reveling in the World’s banqueting, halls.
Nebuchadnezzar’s days are passed in the history of Christendom. We have no longer either a proud. Roman Emperor ruling the world, who would have everybody bow down to his image pagan idolatry and force them, under the penalty of death, to worship it. (See Daniel 2 and 3) Neither does Babylon now rule spiritually (at least amongst us Protestants), and make every soul bow down to her image under pain of torture, death, and the Inquisition.
By the mercy of God we have been delivered from the reign of the harlot church of Rome, which was once joined with the Kings and Princes of Christendom in the middle ages, oppressing and trampling down the people of God, like a second Jezebel with King Ahab reproduced in the history of modem times. No, my reader, these days are passed in the history of Christendom.
We are now moving in the days of easygoing life. “There is no danger,” they say, “there is plenty of time yet. Others say Christ is coming, but we see no change since the beginning of the creation. The earth is solid, the mountains and rocks firm, the seasons go on; let us build houses, plant vineyards, make ourselves happy, and a few little innocent pleasures will do us no harm.”
But, my reader, where are you trying to make yourself happy? Shall I tell you? In a world that was once so wicked that God had to destroy it with a deluge. In a world where God manifest in the flesh was born, and was crucified, and Who, in consequence, having been rejected, is now in heaven, and is quickly coming again to judge it. Ah, sinner, a greater than Cyrus is coming. He is standing at the door. Men are erecting their palaces, their centennial exhibitions, their temples of fame, but the people of God are despised, though perhaps not violently persecuted, and as I said before, the vessels of God’s sanctuary are now ministering to the world’s banqueting’s and feasts.
No doubt Belshazzar at his Cable would tell his guests about the history of those vessels; would talk slightingly of the God of Israel, His Temple, and His people. But Daniel was an-unknown person in those days, and was marked as God’s servant and child by entice separation from Belshazzar’s feast. There sat the proud King, no doubt, utterly forgetful of God’s dealings with his father Nebuchadnezzar, boasting of Babylon’s glory, her high walls, her illustrious personages, her generals and her victories. There sat the proud men and statesmen of Babylon, with lofty looks and lifted up hearts, quaffing vine with one another, and doing the civil with Babylon’s ladies. There sat the grand ladies of the same empire, haughty and looking with wanton eyes at the young men, dressed from, head to foot with gorgeous apparel and fine linen; the mothers seeking for good marriages for their daughters, the daughters riveting the young gallants with their charms. As for Cyrus and his armies, they were the subject of ridicule. What could they do against the high thick walls of Babylon and the great river Euphrates that flowed through the city, which was closed on each side by its brazen gates?
But suddenly there is a pause; Belshazzar the King looks up from his cup of wine and sees the fingers of a handwriting on the corner of the King’s palace. His countenance changes, his knees knock together, he cries aloud to the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and wise men of Babylon, to come and explain to him this wondrous phenomenon. No one was able to explain it, but there the hand was, there the finger, there the writing, and the conscience of the King bore witness that it was a presage of his doom. There is a gloom now on every face in the feast: the wine, the revelry, the fine young men, the beautiful women, are all forgotten. Every face is directed up to the wall. Some faces are hid in terror, but every heart is occupied with the strange handwriting of judgment.
The news spreads through the palace, the Queen-mother hears of it, and knowing that there was one man in Babylon that could convoy the secret to the King, runs to tell him. Daniel is sent for, and is brought hastily into the banqueting hall, and the King asks him with loud premises of reward the meaning of this hidden writing. The man of God, the only one there who had peace in his heart, stands forth and addresses the King. He refuses Babylon’s gifts and rewards, and then recounts to Belshazzar and his lords, God’s dealings with his father. He reminds him how all the glory of his kingdom had its source in the Most High God. It was He who established Nebuchadnezzar in his kingdom, and gave him all his power so that all the nations trembled before him. He reminds Belshazzar again how when his father’s heart was lifted up with pride, that God drove him from his kingly throne and gave him a beast’s heart, so that he was driven from amongst men, and dwelt with the oxen for seven years, till he confessed that the God of heaven ruled in the kingdom of men, and gave it to whom he would. All this had been done, and yet Belshazzar had been forgetful of it, and had not humbled himself, though he knew it all.
On the contrary he was lifting himself up against the God of heaven, and had brought the vessels of God’s house before his lords, and had drunk out of them, and had praised the gods of gold and silver, which could neither see nor hear. He then interprets the handwriting. “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Mene: God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. Peres: Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Thus Daniel speaks. Proclamation is made, to make him the third ruler of the kingdom, but as the herald goas round, louder shouts of victory and despair are heard. Cries of, “The brazen leaved gates are open, and the Persians have taken one end of Babylon,” sound forth in the midnight air. The short history of judgment is over. On that same night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius, the Median, took the, kingdom.
Oh, my reader, and what now shall I say unto you? Is not the history and the glory of the nations of Christendom somewhat set forth in Babylon’s history? Has not God allowed a spiritual Babylon to hold dominion over the people of God ever since the first few centuries of the church’s history? And was not that a history of worldly tyrannizing glory, over God’s people, until God, as it were, forced conviction on the worldly rulers of Christendom at the time of the Reformation, that He was the Savior God?
And since the Reformation what has been the history of Christendom over again but the history of Belshazzar? There has been an utter forgetfulness of what has preceded, and the nations are giving themselves over to feasting and revelry, despising God’s people; and praising their institutions, as they call them, and their religious systems, but utterly forgetful and ignorant of the God who has made Christ head of His body―the Church―and has given into His hands all things in heaven and earth.
Reader, I was once (as, perhaps, you are now) in the midst of all the world’s glory, its feastings and revelry. But I saw in the light of God’s Word, God’s fingers writing the mystic letter of judgment on the walls of this world’s palaces. I have heard the cry, “Behold the bridegroom cometh.” I have seen the world’s judgment already written, 1800 years ago and more, on the cross of the Savior. In that cross, under His blood, my soul has found refuge, and then I understood that the long suffering of God was salvation. Yes, dear reader, believe me, the reason why this world’s judgment is not already executed is, that God is waiting, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But, oh, think of the solemn words, “Mene, Tekel!” Already has the verdict gone forth on the nations in their present shape; “Mene,” “thy kingdom is numbered and is finished.” To each individual soul who has rejected Christ is the word repeated.
“Tekel!” “Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.” Ah, dear reader, such is man. Tried without law he was lawless, under law he was a lawbreaker; tried under grace when Christ came, he proved himself the enemy of God. What has God done? He has exalted His Son; and on the ground of His sacrifice He is still pleading with a world that rejected Him.
Be ye reconciled to God. Afresh from the glory, the gospel is presented to a Christ rejecting world, as the only way of salvation. To thee, sinner, God offers afresh His forgiveness. Only repent of your awful neglect of His salvation, take the place of having been actually tried and found wanting, and you will find immediate forgiveness, and a complete righteousness in which to stand in the glorified Christ.
Seek not any longer the favor of the proud men of the world whose looks are lofty, and whose hearts are lifted up. Look up into the glory of God, and see a man seated on the Father’s throne, rejected by the proud men of the world, but honored and glorified by God, and say which will you choose? Look not any more on the institutions of men, their centennial exhibitions to show off the world’s glory, their high towers, fenced walls, armored ships and picture galleries. There is a day coming, yea, it is close at hand, when all these things shall be destroyed by the coming of the Lord from heaven. Oh, cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils, wherein is he to be accounted of. (Isa. 2:10-2210Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. 11The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 12For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: 13And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 18And the idols he shall utterly abolish. 19And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 20In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; 21To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 22Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2:10‑22).) What will all these things profit in the day of the Lord’s glory?
The day of the Lord cometh, the proud man and the vain woman that now figure together in the world’s banqueting halls, ballrooms, and palaces, will then have to stand naked in their sins before the Lord of glory. Everything in that day will be judged according to Christ’s standard, and woe betide any that stand before that throne of judgment in their sins.
Again, I sound the cry, “Behold the bridegroom cometh.” (Matt. 25) That day will be a day of joy and delight for those who have had their sins washed away by the blood of Christ, that possess eternal life and Divine righteousness in a glorified Christ. But, oh, it will be a death-knell to this poor world. When God’s people are gone, Satan will reign supreme; the strong delusion to believe a lie will set in; the antichrist will reign on the earth, soon to give place to Christ returning with His angels, who, in flaming fire, will take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And believe not, dear reader, Satan’s last lies before the end, that there is no such thing as eternal punishment. Believe not any silly professing Christian, led astray by the serpent to beguile you in such a thing as this. God does not deceive people when he says three times in succession, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43-4843And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43‑48).)
And again, “Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
And again, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” (Matt. 25:41-4641Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:41‑46).) Think you that the eternal God, who created an immortal creature for his glory, can support this creature, independently of Himself, all the days of his life; and prostituting all his time, talents, and mind, to sin and wickedness, in which he has lived and died, and, after all, save him? Tell me not you cannot help living in sin for you were born in it. I answer it is the very reason for your turning back to that God who made you, and who has now revealed Himself in giving His Son to die for you to save you.
As a Savior God, He is revealed in the gospel. His word is, Turn unto me; come unto me; look unto me. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).) Oh, reader, may this may be your happy part. It is true that you are weighed in the balances and found wanting; but God is revealed to you as a Savior; through His glorified Son whom He gave to die for you, He offers you free forgiveness and eternal life and salvation as His present gift, as well as the certain hope of glory in the future. These glad tidings the word of God brings you. The Holy Ghost strives with you. Oh, open your ear and hear. Listen to His gentle but determined pleadings. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
A. P. C.