There were great things going on in the city of Babylon. Mighty preparations had been on foot for some time. Regardless of God and His righteous claims over them, heedless of His judgment so soon to burst upon them, the giddy, thoughtless multitudes were about to abandon themselves to "lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries." They forgot that soon they would have to "give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." (1 Pet. 4:3-53For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 4Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: 5Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. (1 Peter 4:3‑5).)
But at length all was ready, the appointed day had come, "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords." The invitations had gone out, the guests had arrived. Not a little disappointment, jealousy, and envy were awakened in many breasts as their places were allotted to them, according to their respective rank, farther from or nearer to the king. Finally all were seated around the tables gorgeously decorated with gold and silver and laden with choicest viands. Soon the wine went around, and a loose rein was given to all the lusts and passions of the heart -the human heart, the heart estranged from God, and filled with sin—the heart that is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."
"Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein." Rash, foolish, and godless man! Think not that thy riches, thy rank, or thy human greatness and dignity can deliver thee from the hands of that God to whom thou must give an account!
Suddenly the loud hum of voices ceased; the pealing laughter was heard no more; the stillness of death reigned in that banqueting hall as breathless, panic-stricken, and dismayed, every eye was turned toward the king.
What was the matter? What could have happened to turn the laughter so suddenly into dismay, the feasting into fear? "Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him"-and well they might, for the God whom he had sought to obliterate from his mind had interposed, and was pronouncing the judgment that was to seal his doom.
But how did this all come about? Listen! "In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote."
The time for trifling was at an end; matters had grown intensely serious; a solemn feeling of uneasiness overspread that vast multitude as they gazed with alarm upon those words, unintelligible to them, but written indelibly upon the wall.
Belshazzar was in dead earnest now. He cried "aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers." But not one could help him in his difficulty. They could neither read nor explain the mysterious writing on the wall. And, dear reader, if you have never found this out, you will yet, that the world cannot help you in the hour of your soul anxiety. Companions that have shared your pleasures and helped you to while away your days in forgetfulness of God, cannot still your fears nor quiet your alarm when death and eternity stare you in the face.
But there stood those awe-inspiring words "over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace"—yes, and the king himself had seen "the part of the hand that wrote."
The alarm increased; it spread from the king to his lords, and men and women that but an hour ago joined with the king in his reckless impiety, were troubled in their thoughts, and trembling with terror and alarm.
At length the queen entered (not the wife, but the mother of the king), who it appears had not been present at the banquet. "There is a man," she said, "in thy kingdom."
But Daniel breathed another atmosphere than that which enveloped the banqueting hall of Belshazzar the king. He was a man of God, who walked with God, and lived for God; and this, dear Christian reader, is sure to make itself felt sooner or later.
"Then was Daniel brought in before the king." Rewards were offered, promotion was promised, but what did he care for inducements such as these? Conscious of the dignity of his position as the servant and messenger of the most high God, he said, "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king and make known to him the interpretation." Ah, yes! Daniel, who until now had been despised, forgotten, and ignored, was possessed of a secret which was hidden from all the wise men of Babylon.
Fellow-Christians, let us not hide our lights; let us not shun the cross; let us not shirk our responsibility to confess Christ; rather, let us not lose the priceless privilege! Wherever our lot is cast, let it be known that we are His, and His alone! Let us aim at being somewhat like Abraham of old, who lived a life of communion with God, apart from all the follies and pleasures of the guilty cities of the plain, and to whom was communicated the solemn tidings of the overwhelming judgment that was about to fall upon them. How different the case of Lot who chose them as his dwelling place, and was well-nigh overtaken in their downfall.
But Daniel boldly and fearlessly addressed himself to the king's conscience. He reminded him of warnings already received, but unheeded. "Thou,... 0 Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this." And have not you, dear reader, been warned times without number? Is it with you as it was with Belshazzar of old—"the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified"? Here was the secret of the king's distress—God had been left out—God had been forgotten. And that God was speaking to him in judgment.
"God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it." "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain."