Daniel 5:1-31 | A Secret Hope

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I love that hymn.

It's a very, very, very good hymn.

Many of you have received it from me at times when I've wanted to encourage you.

Other times I whisper it to myself when I realize God has ordained some light and momentary affliction for me.

But next time we sing it together, or tomorrow when weeds and thistles sprout at work, or when death's shadow grows long over your life as sin and sorrow or suffering grab at your ankles.

Try this.

Meditate through the life of Christ with that hymn.

Let me show you.

I've got it here for us on the screens.

The hymn begins: Whatever my God ordains is right, his holy will abideth.

I will be still whatever he does and follow, where he guideth think of the birth of Christ.

As eternal God clothes himself in humanity for your sake.

The book of Hebrews tells us to think of Christ as saying, Behold, I have come to do your will to the Father.

But the hymn goes on.

He holds me that I shall not fall, and so to him I leave it all, and so to him I leave it all.

They weren't only Mary's arms that held the babe, were they?

Look then to the wilderness, as the word made flesh conquers the tempter by the very words of Deuteronomy.

Whatever my God ordains is right, he never will deceive me.

That's the snake's lie from the beginning, right?

He never will deceive me.

He leads me by the proper path.

I know he will not leave me.

I take content what he has sent.

Christ lived by more than bread alone.

His hand can turn my griefs away, and patiently I wait his day.

Patiently I wait his day.

Satan flees.

Angels come to minister to him.

And from the temptation in the wilderness to the garden of Gethsemane, this hymn could also describe the posture of the true and better Adam's bloodied brow as he sweat great drops of blood.

Whatever my God ordains is right.

Though now this cup and drinking, Father, if it be your will, may this cup pass from me, right?

Though now this cup and drinking may bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all unshrinking.

My God is true each morning anew.

Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, and pain and sorrow shall depart.

Pain and sorrow shall depart.

Can you hear the suffering servant?

Can you hear?

Crucified at Calvary, Christ surely believed that pain and sorrow would depart.

Remember, your Savior foretold not only his death, but his resurrection and his homegoing as well.

He knew as the nails went into his hands that he would rise again.

Thus he could sing hypothetically.

Each morn anew, as he waited that coming day.

And then as your heart swells with love for this man who triumphed where you fail in a world of fallen sin and curse, turn to the final verse and unite your heart to his by faith.

Whatever my God ordains is right, here shall my stand be taken.

Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, yet I am not forsaken.

My father's care is round me there.

He holds me that I shall not fall.

And so to him I leave it all.

And so to him I leave it all.

We sang that yesterday at the women's conference.

I don't know if you noticed, but suddenly there were like 75% more female voices when that song began.

It was beautiful.

It really was.

It was a great conference and much was done.

But this hymn simply expounds, I think, what faith in a good and sovereign God looks like.

So wherever God's people trust in his name, I think it's fair to say there's just this sweet and precious echo of Jesus who remains faithful to the end of the end, and then forevermore.

That then is the point for today's service.

Ps, hymns, and sermon included, where there is such faith in God, there is hope for a future.

No matter how bad it seems, or how lost the cause, I'll say that again.

Where there is such faith in God, there is hope for a future.

No matter how bad it seems, or how lost the cause, hope.

Like buds on the treetops and snow still covers the ground.

Could you take your Bibles with me?

Turn to the book of Daniel.

Daniel chapter 5.

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

A major theme in Daniel's book is that God is the revealer of mysteries, the giver and interpreter of wisdom, the unveiler of secret things.

And for that reason, I've titled today's message, A Secret Hope.

Daniel's God at Belshazzar's feast.

We're in Daniel chapter 5, verse 1.

Daniel 5:1

We'll begin right there with the feast.

Follow along with me as I read for us.

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.

Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.

Verse 3.

Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.

They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

God's people are in exile.

They're broken, scattered.

God promised a place and a people to Abraham, a nation to Moses, and a kingdom to David, upon whose throne would sit in Jerusalem next to the temple that God instructed David and Solomon to build.

1 Chronicles 28, 15 through 19 tells us that the vessels of that temple, the bowls, the weight of each silver and gold cup and bowl and censure was made clear to David in writing from the hand of God, just like it was to Moses concerning the tabernacle.

Yet the children of Abraham, Moses, and David all sinned.

They all broke faith with Yahweh.

Look at Abraham's great-grandchildren selling their brother Joseph into slavery and sending him away from the land of promise.

Look to Moses' grandson, fostering idolatry in the land of judges.

We could say many about David's children, but in 2 Chronicles 28, Ahaz is particularly foolish.

He made sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him in battle, saying, Because they helped my enemies, maybe they can help me.

Foolish.

He broke faith.

For their sins and their idolatry, God cast the people off into exile.

Their sins had risen up until God said through Jeremiah, Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?

Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert.

The day a leopard could change his spots is the day the people of Israel would learn to do good.

No sooner pigs fly or hell freeze over than Israel ceased from evil, and so God flung them away, scattered them abroad, and tossed them out.

The children of Abraham were kicked out of Abraham's promised land, just like God kicked Adam out of his garden.

The Lord continues in that same passage in Jeremiah: this is your lot.

The portion I have measured out to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten in me and trusted in lies.

Just like Adam, right?

Driven from their home, chased away from their God, the psalmist laments.

How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange and foreign land?

It's not that easy to sing whatever my God ordains is right in exile anymore, is it?

And yet Daniel was one of those Israelites carried off into exile for idolatry.

Like Joseph, before him, Daniel receives wisdom and insight from God that endears the favor of a pagan king.

He rises to prominence under Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king in Babylon, who, I think I have it for you here.

Yes.

This is in 2 Chronicles, near the end.

Nebuchadnezzar is that king.

Therefore, the Lord brought up against Judah the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, had no compassion on young men or virgin, old man or aged.

He gave them all into his hand, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon, and they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels.

He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia.

And now here we are, in Daniel chapter 5, verse 1.

Daniel 5:1

And Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar.

The text will call him his father, but they would have understood that word loosely to mean something like our word for forefather.

You'll see it in the notes in the ESV, predecessor.

I believe the CSB actually translates it as predecessor to make that clear.

But Belshazzar here is Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, and we have every reason to believe the two of them met.

Belshazzar held office in Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

And so if you're a Jew living in exile, every day is a painful reminder of your nation's broken faith with Yahweh, the consequences of that idolatry.

Remember, Pastor Jason told us last week how when the old men saw the laid foundation of the new temple, they wept.

They wept so loud you could hear it for miles because they remembered the glorious temple Solomon built, and the second one was puny and meager in comparison.

Imagine those same old men, I don't know, 20 years younger, maybe.

Hearing that Belshazzar sloshed wine in the cups of the house of God.

What a great slap in the face this is.

What a terrible boast.

Belshazzar gathers his noble party, goes around, slurs his speech, and says, hey y'all, watch this, right?

Do you remember Judah?

How pathetic.

Can you hear the crowd?

The drunken crowd.

Belshazzar! Belshazzar! What a clown this is.

What a rich and entitled punk showing off for a bunch of sycophants.

You know, this text included we have every reason to believe that the army of the Medes and Persians was camped outside the gates.

They'd surrounded the city.

Belshazzar's dad had been defeated in battle and routed.

He fled.

That world power that would eventually conquer mighty Babylon was there.

And so Belshazzar is either throwing himself one last bash before the end comes, or maybe he's trying to appease his false gods by celebrating their past victories.

Verse 4 makes me think it's the latter.

No reason it couldn't be both, though.

But they drank their wine and praised their false gods.

This seems like we're looking at the drunken revelry of pagans who think they can please their fake gods by partying before them.

Notice, you who are wise, how Belshazzar brought all of his wives and concubines to the feast to share in the festivities and help the nobles enjoy themselves.

He had the gall to drag the holy vessels of God into the smut of all that.

God Almighty, who created men and women to be united in marriage one to another in righteous propriety and wholeness, Belshazzar took his vessels there.

Belshazzar thus blasphemes all righteousness.

He spits in the face of Yahweh and he mocks the worship of David and his children.

Don't let self-righteousness rise in you, friends.

Is the marriage bed held in perfect honor in your heart?

What of the worship of Yahweh?

Do you hold the vessels of your worship in such high esteem?

No.

Friends, when we take communion in an unworthy manner, or maybe when we sing half-heartedly, we commit the same sin as Belshazzar.

When we mishandle scripture and twist it to suit our purposes, we commit the sin of Belshazzar.

When we mock the worship of God's people, oh, they sing out of tune.

They sing too emotionally.

Their singing is so old and boring.

Or their sermons are too stuffy.

Can you believe how weird and dated the foyer is at Trinity Baptist Church?

Before you Google it, there is no Trinity Baptist Church in Grand Forks.

I checked.

Do we put other genuine churches down to build ourselves up?

If we do, we commit the sin of Belshazzar.

And when Belshazzar wanted to make fun of Israel's God, Yahweh rises up to make a fool out of Belshazzar.

Verse 5.

Look then at Belshazzar's humiliation.

Immediately, immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace opposite the lampstand.

And the king saw the hand as it wrote, and the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him.

His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.

The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers.

The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads this writing and shows its interpretation shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold around his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation.

Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.

Immediately, the ESV says, At that moment, or suddenly, it's as though the cup is still to his lips, and he freezes to stare.

And wine runs down his beard and he doesn't even notice that his face goes pale, he starts to panic, and his limbs give way.

Some commentators think the king collapsed back into his chair, trembling.

Others interpret that phrase to indicate the knots of his loins were loosed, including the knots of his colon.

Thus, the CSB Bible translates that he soiled himself.

The same God, thus, who sends confusion into the camps of the Canaanites and gives idolaters over to the futility of their thinking, uses the simple vision of a hand, writing a simple message to make the mighty, boastful king of Babylon an absolute fool of himself before a thousand of his noble lords and ladies.

What's more, Belshazzar's best advisors can't crack the code.

Well, the time we get to the end, Daniel will show us that it's actually really simple.

It's not that hard.

Many commentators try to explain the difficulty of it by guessing at some complexity that's there, but consider with me how in the book of Daniel, the enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers just get progressively thwacked by Daniel's insight and Daniel's God.

In chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar refuses to tell anybody the dream he had, but demands they give him the interpretation.

In verse 11, his advisors say, The thing the king asked is too difficult.

No one can show it to the king except the gods.

Here comes Daniel.

Then in chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar goes, Okay, I'll tell you the vision this time.

He details the dream, and then in verse 18 he says, All the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation.

But Daniel can.

And that's why I think here in chapter 5, it's just three words written on a wall, plain as day.

And they can't even read it, let alone interpret it.

But as you'll see, Daniel can.

What a triumph this is.

What humiliation.

Notice how God just triumphs over the whole thing.

He causes Belshazzar to panic at the sight of the back of a hand.

And the same God who confused the language of ancient Babel now confuses the mind of these Babylonian stargazers, and they can't even read three simple words.

But Belshazzar's humiliation gets even worse.

He sits there, trembling for no good reason.

All his counselors baffled at a simple puzzle.

Verse 9 tells us he's even more afraid when nobody can figure it out.

And all the while, a thousand of his nobles watch on.

It's worse than not being able to solve a technical issue in the sound system in front of 300 of you.

It just gets worse the longer it takes to figure it out.

It just builds, right?

And then in verse 10, Belshazzar's mom walks in.

You'll see there in many of your ES Bibles, the footnote marks her the queen mother.

Makes sense, right?

These titles are a little bit flexible with father for predecessor.

But even more detail, if you look at verse 2, Belshazzar's wives are already there.

So who then is this queen?

But his mom.

Or maybe even his grandmother.

And notice she's not at the party with all of his friends.

So take in the scene with me, right?

There's this great party, this loud reveling, drinking and carrying on, and one of two things happened, one of two things.

Either the sounds of merry-making and laughter turn to shrieks and screams.

The CSB takes this option when they say, because of the outcry of the king and his nobles, or, I like this one, but I don't think we can pick them.

I think they could be either way.

Or somebody has to run to mom for help.

Hey, mom, mom, here's the thing.

Um, Belshazzar was having a party, you know, little belly.

And um something really weird happened.

You better come quick.

It's pretty embarrassing if you're Belshazzar, right?

Here's the second highest ranking official in the whole nation.

You see how he offers the third place in the kingdom.

He couldn't offer the second.

Here he sits, the second, the guy is second only to the seat of Nebuchadnezzar the great king, and his mom has to come clean up the mess when his party gets a little out of hand.

Picture it: a room of a thousand nobles, and an old woman walks in, cuts the music, flips on the lights, and shouts over the chaos.

What's going on in here?

Right?

And Belshazzar, this party boy king who mocks Yahweh, must have just slid down in his chair and mumbled, Mom, you're embarrassing me in front of my friends.

And she says, Why haven't you called Daniel?

It's like when the punk kid from the IT department walks in and says, Have you turned it on and off yet?

Be nice to me next time I do that to you, huh?

But it's a bit humiliating if you're Belshazzar, right?

Why haven't you done the obvious thing, Belshazzar?

Look how low.

Look how low God has brought Belshazzar.

And now he has to face the prophet, the famous prophet of the God he just mocked.

He has to look Daniel in the eye.

Verse 13.

We'll take now Daniel's and Daniel's interpretation.

Then Daniel was brought in before the king.

And the king answered and said to Daniel, You were that Daniel.

Notice he uses the Hebrew name, not the Babylonian Beltishazar.

You're one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king, my father, brought from Judah.

I've heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation.

But they could not show the interpretation of the matter.

But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems.

So now, if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

It's hard to imagine Belshazzar's.

He very well might just be oblivious to how foolish he looks.

That happens to drunken men sometimes.

Such stupidity often accompanies that.

You don't know you're acting the fool, and you just blubber on.

Take yourself so very seriously, but everybody's laughing at you.

Maybe he looks like a whipped puppy.

I don't know.

It's hard to say.

But either way, this foolish king with the wet britches has to speak to Daniel while the vessels from the house of Daniel's God are still passed out among the room.

In the hands of drunken pagan partygoers.

Can you see him hide it behind his back, maybe?

Dale Ralph Davies comments at this point in the story, and it blew my mind this week.

There we go.

Well.

There it is.

Now, it is precisely here, in the overlap of the Queen's Council and the King's offer, that we see the writer's irony, he writes.

The name Daniel occurs five times in two verses.

He's Belshazzar's sure help, and yet he's one of the captives from Judah.

A servant of the god Belshazzar has defied.

The king has despised Daniel's God and demeaned Daniel's status, and yet Daniel is the only one who can help.

Normally Belshazzar would dismiss such a loser.

But the only help for Belshazzar was a cast-off Jew whose God Belshazzar despised.

The same is true for you.

You're not so different from Belshazzar.

A cast-off Jew of the God you have despised is your only hope.

What a comment, right?

You and I have given ourselves over to idols and scorned the living God just like this foolish king, just like Belshazzar.

Our only hope is a Jew like Daniel from Nazareth of all places, because nothing, nothing, and no one else can help you when you face God's judgment, which could come for you as swiftly as it came for Belshazzar.

That very night, no one can help you but Jesus Christ.

If you fear death because of your sins, don't cry out to therapists or pastors, enchanters, and astrologers.

Don't bet your life on a systematic theology or some way of doing church.

Bet it all on Jesus.

And only Jesus.

He's your only hope.

But back to the story, though.

Belshazzar makes the same promise he made everybody else.

Let's see what Daniel has to say.

There we go.

In verse 17, his reminder.

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself.

All right, let's go, Daniel, right?

And give your rewards to another.

But nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.

Verse 18, O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty.

And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him.

Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive, whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled.

But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened, so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him.

He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys.

He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he wills.

You have to love this, right?

Daniel says, Keep your gifts.

I'll read it and interpret it, no sweat.

But first, I've got something to say to you.

You're nothing like your dad.

That much is clear to us, right?

But what's more, even Nebuchadnezzar, a king of such power, he could do whatever he wanted, was brought down from his kingly throne and humbled by the God of heaven.

Daniel just recounts the story of chapter four here.

And the final verse of chapter four, frankly, could be the theme of this whole chapter.

Look at it.

Look at verse 37.

Nebuchadnezzar says, the king actually worthy of the title, has thus been humbled by God, and he says, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he's able to humble.

And what's the next word Daniel writes?

Ignore the section header, ignore the chapter, break.

Those who walk in pride, the king of heaven is able to humble King Belshazzar, who was nothing like Nebuchadnezzar.

That's the point of Daniel's reminder.

Look now at verse 22 of chapter 5.

For Daniel's rebuke.

And you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you, the language has emphasis.

It's like he's pointing his finger at Belshazzar's chest.

You have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know.

But the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways you have not honored.

Daniel still hasn't gotten to the writing on the wall yet.

God's exiled seer stands up like a prophet to preach, and he hits Belshazzar with seven words, seven verbs, complete and perfect punch list of Belshazzar's stupidity.

I've underlined them for you above.

In your Bibles, if you look back at chapter 4 and verse 37 and compare it to this as we go, you'll see.

You'll see.

How does Nebuchadnezzar end?

Able to humble, right?

But where does Daniel start in on Belshazzar with the first accusation?

You have not humbled.

In many ways, friends, this is just that great theme of scripture from a human perspective that God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud.

Daniel continues, though you knew all of this.

You knew.

Daniel's ordering of the stories makes it obvious, but again, Belshazzar probably remembers the time his grandfather went nuts.

He probably saw it, or at least heard about it to some extent.

Belshazzar surely knew that it was a fool's errand to mock the king of heaven, but he didn't listen.

He's lifted himself up.

That's the third accusation.

It's the same word Nebuchadnezzar chooses in verse 37 for extol, right?

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol in honor the king of heaven.

Nebuchadnezzar lifted up Daniel's God.

Belshazzar lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven.

He built himself up by trying to tear Yahweh down.

Bad idea, right?

The next verb.

The vessels have been brought in before you, which itself is a crime.

These are sacred and holy vessels to be handled only by certain people in certain ways.

Surely Daniel didn't make excuses for Nebuchadnezzar carrying them off.

But Belshazzar ought to have trembled before he even touched God's vessels.

Think now to the New Testament.

Both individual Christians and the corporate church are described as God's temple.

Bear that in mind, friends.

If God was zealous for a bowl, how much more precious in his sight are the people sitting next to you, on your right and on your left.

And how much greater will his wrath be on the one who tears down God's temple.

When we slander one another, or tear one another down, we commit the sin of Belshazzar.

But the next verb, Daniel continues, you have drunk wine from them.

Not only has Belshazzar dared to mess with the vessels of God's house, he's employed them in the service of his drunken revelry.

It's like using scripture to justify an affair or claiming that God spoke to you and told you to rob that bank.

For such is idolatry of the worst kind.

And Daniel says as much in the next verb, right?

You have praised the gods of silver and gold.

Who did Nebuchadnezzar praise back in chapter 4?

The king of heaven.

Belshazzar spat in that king's face and worshiped a rock somebody brought in from outside and painted up.

Beloved, do you praise the gods you make with your own hands?

Your bank account, your reputation, your family, your intelligence, your good looks.

We could go on and on, could we not?

Take heed, you little Belshazzars.

For you have not honored the God of heaven.

And so then we have Daniel's reading.

From God's presence, this word comes to you all.

Much like it came to Nebuchadnezzar.

Many, many tackle parson.

Your days are numbered, verse 26, and they will come to an end swiftly.

And you have been found wanting in verse 27.

That's us, but for a holy God.

But your kingdom.

Yours, specifically you guys, your kingdoms have not been divided and handed over to the Medes and the Persians.

That's where it breaks down a little bit, doesn't it?

That's because I think, guys, that's about as far as as I can take this passage and apply it along those lines of don't be like Belshazzar.

It's a valid theme.

It's definitely part of Daniel's point, and it's a favorite when we preach this text, but it's not, I don't think.

I don't think that's Daniel's primary point.

Because Belshazzar was not Daniel's primary audience.

He's dead by the time Daniel writes this.

No, Daniel's writing to a bunch of Israelite exiles.

Near the end of Jeremiah's 70 years, or even, I think, maybe after that first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the one who came and conquered Babylon at the end of this chapter.

When the decree had gone out and was issued for every man of Judah to return to Jerusalem.

Look at this in Ezra chapter 1.

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing.

Thus says Cyrus, King of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven.

Ooh.

Similar word choice there, right?

The God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Whoever among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up and rebuild the house.

And so the point of this text in Daniel 5 isn't necessarily just.

Don't be like Belshazzar.

No.

No, it's look how your God brought you out of Babylon.

Hear me?

Surely there's a warning here.

There really is, because Belshazzar looks just like the kings of Judah before the exile began.

Remember Ahaz, we mentioned him earlier.

The same one.

He didn't only foster idolatry by worshiping the gods of Damascus.

He took the vessels of the house of God.

The same ones.

He took them out, cut them up, and turned them into altars on every corner of the city, making offerings to other gods there and throughout Judah.

And so Daniel's point is to some extent, don't be like Belshazzar, you returning exiles.

That sort of stupidity is what got you here in the first place.

But that's not all.

It's not all, because the point of the passage is a little hidden.

It's a little hidden until you stop thinking about Belshazzar and Daniel and you start thinking about Israel's God at the end of the chapter.

That very night Belshazzar died.

Right?

That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed.

And Darius the Mead received the kingdom.

Being about 62 years old.

He died.

And the God who sets up kings and takes down kings handed the kingdom over to Darius the Mead.

This is a moment in history Daniel's readers knew.

It was a watershed moment in their story.

It was a key point for them.

The name Belshazzar probably triggered the memory.

This is the beginning of their freedom, the start of the end of the exile.

And it looked hopeless.

It looked bad.

They were broken.

For truly, that was the point of the exile, right?

To break their pride.

But how could they rebuild what they had lost?

You remember those weeping elders at the foundation of the second temple?

Do you know what God said through Haggai when they finished building the whole temple?

God looked at them and said, Who's left among you who saw this house in its former glory?

How do you see it now?

Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

The answer is an obvious yes, right?

It's as nothing in your eyes.

That ragtag group of exiles returning from Babylon faced a lost cause.

It was hopeless.

They had little to no organization.

They were a small remnant compared to Solomon's mighty nation.

They had no access to Solomon's wealth or his political connections to source the materials Solomon had.

Worse yet, the priesthood was broken.

See the end of the book of Nehemiah.

Their families are all mixed up with pagans who worship false gods just like Belshazzar and Ahaz did.

It's a lost cause.

But Israel's God.

He loves to be the God of lost causes.

It's there.

Right there in the text of Daniel 5.

Belshazzar took the vessels of gold and of silver.

The temple, what remains of it, is threatened yet again.

Not only is it torn down, but now its vessels are desecrated in all for Israel's sin.

And then Israel's God breaks forth in battle array.

He brings the army of the Medes and the Persians swiftly upon the head of his enemies and his people's persecutors.

He rescues them with a mighty hand, that outstretched arm from heaven, and declares judgment upon their enemies.

He engineers their return.

That very night, the army of the Medes and the Persians diverted the river, and they snuck under the river gate in the middle of the great party.

And they took Babylon and killed its king.

They would say that no blood was spilt.

It was a peaceful battle.

Because they came in in the night while Belshazzar was drunk and sitting in his wet breeches.

What a fool.

So that then, friends, is the point of Daniel chapter 5.

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

The God of Israel rose up to save them when all hope was lost.

That's why I call it a secret hope.

Because you have to look closely at the vessels God saved from Belshazzar's fat fingers to see it.

Remember Ezra 1 when the people go home?

I stopped short.

They don't go home empty-handed.

Ezra continues.

This was their number.

Look at that.

5400 things.

Daniel thus tells his little brothers with this magnificent story.

Go home.

Go home to the land of our fathers, Abraham, Moses, and David.

Honor the king of heaven.

Don't be like Belshazzar or Ahaz before him, and be of good courage.

Rebuild the house of the Lord our God.

Worship him, worship him, praise and extol him.

For each and every vessel you carry was protected through the exile when all hope was lost, so that it could be returned to the worship of Yahweh, just like you.

Just like you.

Throws him away.

But Zerubbabel his son, Zerubbabel his son, David's son, returns to David's city and the kingship is restored to some extent.

Behold, in that temple, the house of Zerubbabel built, the one that was puny in comparison.

After Herod gusses it up, right?

But it's Jesus who walks into that temple.

He doesn't walk into the great and glorious one Solomon built.

He walked into the one built by restored Zerubbabel.

Jesus, himself a son of David.

But then behold, as that God of lost causes, the one who entered that temple, he hangs on a tree, we would sing, though the sun had ceased its shining, though the war appeared as lost, what a lost cause, right?

The war appeared as lost, but Christ has triumphed over evil.

Trust in Christ, believe in Christ.

The God of lost causes conquered exile, conquered Babylon, and conquered death when all hope was lost.

But I cut God short back in Haggai.

He actually said, Who's left among you who saw this house in its former glory?

How do you see it now?

Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

Yeah, take this in.

Yet now be strong, those Arubabel.

Be strong, O Joshua the son of Jehosedak the high priest.

Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord, and work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt.

My spirit remains in your midst.

Fear not.

O friend, is your life a lost cause?

Do you look at your hands and watch them tremble like Belshazzar's with the wine stains of your idolatry?

Do you, like the Israelites, as they come back in Jerusalem, look upon the ruins of your life, the consequences of your sin, and start to lose hope?

Have you been walking with Christ now for years only to find more sin buried deep in your heart?

Beloved, your God is a God of lost causes.

He's a God of lost causes.

Think of this.

How hopeless did the universe look when Adam and Eve blasphemed the holy vessels in the Garden of Eden?

But against all odds, the God man crushed the head of the snake who lied to Adam.

You, therefore, keep going.

Keep going.

Be strong and put to death the serpent's lies in your own heart.

Kill sin.

Kill it.

Put it to death.

Be about rebuilding the temple of the living God, for his spirit remains in your midst.

But it's not just an individualistic thing, though, is it?

No.

God speaks to a rebuilding nation.

And we, beloved, are a new covenant people being remade into a temple of the living God.

Is life together hard?

Does ministry feel like a lost cause sometimes to keep cleaning up after ourselves?

Oh, that you would be strong.

Oh, that you would keep serving, keep forgiving, keep teaching, keep praying.

Brother elders, keep leading.

In a church full of broken, sinful little Belshazzars like me, keep leading.

But we can be sure, like Paul said in Philippians, we can be sure that he who began a good work in us, it's a plural word there.

Paul speaks to the whole church.

Began a good work in us.

We'll bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

So be strong.

Oh we'll be strong, all you people of God, and work, for God is with us.

He promised, did he not?

Did not Christ tell you, Behold, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age.

Now look now out over the whole world.

As lots of little Belshazzars run amok.

They mock your God, they scorn your worship.

Oh, how the nations rage.

Does the cause of Christ seem hopeless to you?

Do you feel like an underdog when you read the news in the morning?

Be of good courage.

Be of good courage.

You have a secret hope.

A hidden hope.

A life hidden with Christ in God.

And one day when the trump sounds and the Lord descends, remember that He who comes says, Behold, I am making all things.

Oh beloved, pursue that lost cause of Christ.

Be strong and have faith, because where there is such faith in God, there is hope for a future.

No matter how bad it seems, or how lost the cause.

And then stand up like Daniel.

I haven't done any be like Daniel stuff yet.

Be like Daniel.

Stand up.

Be like Daniel, who denounced wicked Belshazzar before a thousand of his nobles.

You thought the handful of lions in a hole were scary.

This was just as risky for Dan.

He stood up.

He stood up and he spoke.

And so should we.

Stand up.

We could even sing, right?

Stand up and sing like David taught generations of God's people to sing.

Even this generation, returning from exile, stand up and sing like them who could say, some trust in chariots and some in horses.

But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Some in chariots, some in horses, some in idols of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

But we, we, we trust in the name of the Lord our God who sent the vessels of the temple into exile and brought them back to the city of David.

We trust in the Lord our God, who submitted our bodies to the curse and will raise them up at the last day.

We trust in the Lord our God who took on flesh, died at the hand of lawless men to the sound of their mocking voices.

And when all hope seemed lost, he rose victorious, even from the depths of the grave itself.

The God of lost causes thus vindicated and glorified to rescue a lost cause like you and like me.

Oh, some trust in chariots and some in horses.

But God's people say with me, we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Would you stand to pray with me?

Oh, our souls, praise, praise, praise the King of heaven.

To his feet may we bring our tributes, ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Who but we, who but thee?

Our praises should we sing.

Hallelujah, Lord God, hallelujah, you, you have done amazing things.

Please strengthen our sojourning hearts to sing your songs in this foreign land.

Father, we labor here like pilgrims, exiles even from your presence, awaiting the great consummation of your restoration of all things.

Cause our hands to serve you, cause our lips to praise you, cause our minds to honor you, and cause our wills to heed you.

Because, Lord, you've caused our hearts to trust you by the power of your spirit and the testimony of your Son shed blood, by which you displayed your love for all to see.

There is none higher, none more worthy than the Lamb who was slain.

O Father, cause us to trust him.

Though the dread of night overwhelms our souls, cause us to trust him.

But we may not see what the future brings.

For there's none above you, and none before you.

So we will trust in your name alone.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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