(Read Dan. 5.)
THE city of Babel or Babylon, where the scene of this graphic picture is laid, was built more than two thousand years before Christ by Nimrod, the first monarch spoken of in Scripture (Gen. 10:8, 9).
It was rebuilt and remodeled by Nebuchadnezzar about 600 B.C. History records of this magnificent city, that two million builders were employed to build it, it was sixty miles in circumference, and had twenty-five gates on each side of the city, and between every two gates a tower of defense, springing up into the skies. From each gate on the one side, a street ran straight through to the corresponding gate on the other side, so that there were fifty streets fifteen miles long. Through the city ran a branch of the river Euphrates. On either end of the bridge that spanned the river, was a palace, the one; one and a half miles round, and the other seven and a half miles round.
Nebuchadnezzar erected in the midst of the city a mound 400 feet high. It was built out into terraces, supported by arches, on the top of these arches was a layer of flat stones, on the top of that a layer of reeds and bitumen, on the top of that two layers of bricks closely cemented together, next to that a heavy sheet of lead, and on the top of that the soil was placed. The soil was so deep that a Lebanon cedar had room to anchor its roots There was also in the city a temple of Belus, the god of the Babylonians, with many towers, one of which was an eighth of a mile high, where the astronomers consulted the stars. In that temple was a magnificent image, the cost of which alone would be in our money over ten million pounds.
Such was Babylon, the queen of cities, and, amid such surroundings, we can well conceive Belshazzar’s banquet to have been a royal one, and worthy of such a city and such an empire.
“Belshazzar drank wine before the thousand” (vs. 1). It was a great feast, with a sumptuous table, decked with choicest dainties, sparkling wine cups, brilliant goblets, and golden vessels. Youth, beauty, royalty, fashion, and music, all combined to make a fascinating scene of enjoyment for the natural heart.
Fill high the chalices, pour out the ruby wine, drink to the health of the king, drink to the glory of Babylon, was the word; and king, and lords, and wives, and concubines were all as merry as heart could wish.
But hush! what means that deadly pallor on Belshazzar’s face, that look of terror in his eye? Why is he trembling like an aspen leaf, and whence that writing “upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace”? (vs. 5.) Ah! Belshazzar, GOD SPEAKS TO THEE― “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” Thy kingdom is numbered, divided, and given to another, thyself weighed in GOD’S balances, and found WANTING.
Dear reader, this is one of God’s true pictures, and I ask you to look at it steadily. It has been painted by a divine hand for you and for me (Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:16).
The scene is laid in Babylon’s marble palace, but it points on to eternity. “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain” (vs. 30). What a sequel to that gorgeous banquet. Swiftly the judgment came. That night his soul was required of him (Luke 12:20); through the portals of time he passed into the ocean of eternity, and the curtain falls on Belshazzar. Centuries have rolled away; empires and thrones, kingdoms and dynasties, have risen and fallen; great kings, conquerors, and mighty men have played their part, and passed of the scene, and still “Belshazzar’s feast” speaks to you and to me, dear reader. You may be young, just entering on life’s course; a golden future rises up before you in which wealth, fame, honor, position have no small place. You are just being introduced into a new circle of acquaintances, new associations, and surroundings, and your heart beats high, with brilliant hopes and expectations. Your character may be beyond reproach; you may be highly esteemed by your friends for your morality, your uprightness, and your religious tendencies, but have you learned, dear young friend, what Belshazzar had to learn was too late, that YOU have been weighed in Jehovah’s balances, and that YOU, too, have been found WANTING?
But, you say, surely there is an immense difference between those barbaric times and the enlightened days we live in, and you would never draw a comparison between an idolatrous king’s drunken orgies, and the refinement, the moral culture, the highly intellectual taste of the polite society of the nineteenth century. Let God’s balances settle that question. See them swung across this vast universe from Adam to YOU. None are left out (read Genesis 6:5; Zechariah 7:12; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10, 23). Are you willing to own that the scriptures quoted are true of YOU, as most surely they are, for God has said it, and, oh, dear unsaved one, let His unchangeable and eternal word sink deep down into your heart. If you have been led to take this true place we can tell you of good views, glorious, blessed tidings, far surpassing all your golden dreams, compared with which your sunniest visions are but glittering fables. You thought of wealth, God offers you freely―honor (John 12:26; 1 Sam. 2:30); position (Rom. 8:17; 1 Cor. 3:21, 23; Eph. 2:4-6); prospects (2 Cor. 5:1; Phil. 3:20, 21; 1 Thess. 4:15,18; Rev. 21:1,4). Think you the present possession and enjoyment of these living realities will not far more than compensate you for refusing earth’s gilded dross? And, friend, remember it costs YOU nothing, but it cost the Son of God everything (2 Cor. 8:9; Matt. 13:44, 46).
Because of your sins and mine He had to take the place of abandonment. Can you recall that heaven-absorbing scene, and fail to be moved to your heart’s center? (Matt. 27:46; John 19; Psa. 22) Where is He now? “Crowned with glory and honor,” as the answer to Calvary’s woes; enthroned in the highest heavens, as the result of His perfectly finished work. Do you know Him there? Soon the only worthy One shall wield the scepter of the universe, the once despised and still rejected Nazarene will presently take His rightful place and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. And you will be with Him, dear young fellow-believer, you who have refused earth’s glittering bubbles and chosen wisdom’s unfading treasures. But you are still left for a little while in the wilderness, and He who gave up ALL for you that He might have you in glory with Himself, desires your company along the thorny road. Shall the force of His constraining love, so dearly proved, be enough to make this the highest privilege on earth to you? Others around you are weary and heavy laden, as you were. They need the Saviour, will you point the way to Him? Bruised and breaking hearts desire to see Jesus, will you let them know that He is seeking THEM (John 1:46, 4:29; Matt. 11:28; Dan. 12:3), and that He is coming quickly? (Rev. 22:7, 12, 20.)
G. F. E.