(Read Dan. 5.)
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.
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 12:2020But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (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 6:55And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5); Zechariah 7:1212Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 7:12); Jeremiah 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9); Romans 3:10, 2310As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10)
23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). 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 12:2626If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:26); 1 Sam. 2:3030Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. (1 Samuel 2:30)); position (Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17); 1 Cor. 3:21, 2321Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; (1 Corinthians 3:21)
23And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. (1 Corinthians 3:23); Eph. 2:4-64But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:4‑6)); prospects (2 Cor. 5:11For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1); Phil. 3:20, 2120For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:20‑21); 1 Thess. 4:15,1815For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:15)
18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:18); Rev. 21:1,41And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. (Revelation 21:1)
4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)). 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. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9); Matt. 13:44, 4644Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (Matthew 13:44)
46Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:46)).
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. 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 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. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28); Dan. 12:33And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)), and that He is coming quickly? (Rev. 22:7, 12, 207Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. (Revelation 22:7)
12And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. (Revelation 22:12)
20He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20).)
G. F. E.