The Writing Is On the Wall

Let's dive into the text this morning.

Daniel 5, if you've got your Bible or your app, open it up.

We're going to be working through this together this morning.

How many of you have ever heard the statement, the writings on the wall?

Yeah?

You've heard that statement?

Maybe you've heard it about someone's marriage, right?

They've been fighting constantly the writings on the wall for their marriage.

Or maybe perhaps you've heard it about your favorite team as they start to tank in the postseason yet again.

After losing three of their starting lineups to injury, the writings on the wall for their playoff hopes.

There's something really fascinating about this statement.

It's almost always evident to the people on the outside observing the situation.

But it's rarely acknowledged by the people in the midst of it.

You see, this statement, the writings on the wall, it's a cultural idiom that we use to communicate that there are clear signs or evidence indicating that something, often negative like failure or doom, is inevitable.

It's used to suggest that the outcome is already apparent, even if it has yet to be acknowledged.

But the term itself, it actually comes from Daniel 5, where the hand of God writes the inevitable fate of King Belshazzar and the Babylonian Empire on the wall of the palace while they're in an intoxicated denial of it.

What we'll see in the text this morning is that you and I are often like the king, working to avert the inevitable, the writing on the wall.

Even though God has revealed it and he has shined his light upon it for us to see clearly through Jesus.

The context of the feast this morning of Daniel 5, we've actually skipped quite a bit in the story of Daniel.

Now, we haven't skipped any of the verses in Scripture, but in Daniel's life, we actually see this chasm between chapter 4 and chapter 5.

Chapter 4, if we remember from our first sermon in the series, chapter 4 is uh a middle of a chiasm within Daniel, a chiasm where we see the message of Daniel told in reverse order off the center reflection point.

And we actually have Daniel 4, verse 37, the reflection point of the first chiasm in the book.

Daniel 4:37

This is where the king Nebuchadnezzar has regained his reason after being drawn to repentance when God humbled him for his vile pride.

And here's where King Nebuchadnezzar proclaims the glory of God in verse 37.

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 is able to humble.

Now at the onset of chapter five, we're introduced to this other king, and his name is Belshazzar.

He's actually the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.

And so more than twenty years have passed from the end of chapter four and the beginning of chapter five.

And Daniel himself is believed to be around 80 years old at this time.

Now, at the opening of the passage, King Belshazzar, he's in the grand palace of Babylon, and he's reveling in his power, hosting a lavish feast for a thousand nobles.

And the weird thing about, the wild thing about it, he's doing this all while knowing that the Persians are advancing toward Babylon, preparing to besiege it under the leadership of King Darius.

He's doing this all while knowing this.

Belshazzar is throwing an intoxicating feast thick with wine and foolish pride, and the Persian Mead army is advancing to his palace door.

You see, drunk in his pride, in defiant of the God of Israel, Belshazzar then calls for the sacred vessels that were looted from Jerusalem's temple to be used to toast his pagan gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Belshazzar and his palace guests, they're openly mocking and blaspheming the true and living God.

You see, their rebellion toward his sovereign power is drenched by their intoxication.

But there's this inevitable judgment that keeps drawing closer and closer just beyond their wall.

Now, as the drunken laughter echoed throughout the palace, there's this chilling sight that silenced the room.

A disembodied hand writes this cryptic message on the palace wall.

And here, in this moment, fear just grips Belshazzar.

The scriptures tell us that his face drains of any color, his knees start trembling at the sight.

And in verse 7, we read this 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 me 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.

You can almost sense Belshazzar's desperation, right?

He is drunk on his own power and his wine that he has established for this lavish party, and then he sees this hand, and all of a sudden he'll do anything to be able to know what is being revealed in this moment.

And so he calls for this council of so-called wise men, but they fail to interpret the writing.

They're unable to discern what has been revealed by God's hand.

You see, only God could supply the wisdom to interpret the message.

And we see the reality of that even within Scripture, that the truth of God has been revealed.

It has been made plain for all to see.

Yet without the wisdom of God, without the power of the Spirit, that revelation remains concealed in obscurity.

We can't see it rightly.

We can't understand it properly without the power of the Spirit illuminating it for us that we might see clearly Jesus Himself.

Human wisdom alone is insufficient to bring clarity to the revelation of God.

What we're soon going to discover is that the hand was actually inscribing God's inevitable judgment upon Belshazzar in Babylon.

It's going to reveal that God's judgment is not only certain, but also cannot be discerned or averted by any human effort.

Now, finally, after they've dialogued among themselves with no avail, the grandmother queen urges Daniel to stand before King Belshazzar, a man renowned for divine wisdom and insight.

Daniel is brought before the king, and as he stands before him, Belshazzar declares this, verse 13.

Oh, you are that Daniel.

One of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah.

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

This is a crazy statement from the king.

Listen, Daniel's been in Babylon for 70 years.

And not only has he just been in Babylon for 70 years, he's been the second in command for a lengthy period of that.

This brother brought insight, interpretation, wisdom.

He was the lead person of the king's council for a lengthy period that it established him in prominence and prosperity.

And here, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, King Balshazzar, says, Oh, I think I've heard of you.

I think the statement from the king helps us to navigate our own aspects of and struggles with our identity of being a sacred people living in a secular city.

That's what we're trying to unpack in this whole series through Daniel.

What does it look like for us to be a sacred people living in a secular city?

You see, Daniel had been living, working, leading in Babylon for around 70 years.

And for a long period of that, Daniel was the governor of the Prince of Babylon.

Yet Daniel seems unbothered by the king, still referring to him as an exile of Judah.

You see, Daniel knows his citizenship is not ultimately residing in Babylon.

He is not a Babylonian.

His citizenship resides to another kingdom in another land.

And so what we get to do is observe the tension between Daniel's agreeable participation with a secular culture that brings him prominence and prosperity while still holding on to and embracing an identity of a different sacred citizenship.

Look, here's what Daniel does: he comes into this secular city where they worship false gods, where they don't live according to God's law, right?

Everything about this culture is against who Daniel is and the God that he serves.

But what does he do?

He becomes a servant for the good of the culture of which he resides in.

So much so that he is exalted to a place of prominence and prosperity.

He has this agreeable participation with the secular culture of which he finds himself in for their good.

We see that in Jeremiah.

That we're exiled to serve in a way that causes the flourishing of the culture that we find ourselves in.

But what does Daniel do time and time again?

He draws a line in the sand when that culture is calling for him to be unfaithful to the God of whom he belongs and serves.

Daniel stands faithful.

He draws a line.

You see, Daniel is never afraid to draw that line.

He's never afraid to stand apart in the midst of intense cultural pressures.

And not all of those cultural pressures are negative, right?

They're not all being thrown into a fiery furnace or thrown into a lion's den or being killed, right?

Because he won't participate.

Some of those cultural pressures are for the lavish, right, uh uh joy of uh uh prosperity and comfort.

Look what the king says right here.

He says, if you'll just tell me what this says, I will clothe you in purple, I will put jewelry upon you, I will put you in this place of leadership within Babylon.

Just tell me what it is.

And so, whether it's consequence or whether it's prosperity, Daniel is not moved by what the circumstance in front of him is.

He is steadfast, faithful unto the God of whom he belongs, in spite of the circumstance before him.

Daniel remains faithful to the God of whom he serves, always ultimately trusting in him for the outcome, whatever it may be.

And we see this tension even here.

Unmoved by the king's angst of the moment, the king's forgetfulness of Daniel's acclaim, or the promise of reward, Daniel recounted and rebuked Belshazzar's arrogance, how he had forgotten the humility of his grandfather, and has mocked the true God who holds his very breath.

Look how Daniel responds here in this moment, verse 21.

Speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, 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 will.

And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this.

But 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.

Man, look how Daniel just speaks boldly against wickedness.

You see, Daniel was unafraid to stand faithfully for righteousness and speak boldly against wickedness.

And then there in the moment with this confident authority, he discerns the writing.

Mene, God has numbered your kingdom days and they are finished.

Takel, you've been weighed and found wanting.

Ufarsin, your kingdom is divided, given to the Medes and Persians.

You see, Daniel stands before the king, serving as this prophetic voice, pointing to God's total sovereignty and inevitable judgment.

Where the writing on the wall had been concealed in obscurity, Daniel comes in and he shines this bright light upon it that they might know and see clearly.

By the wisdom of God, he shines this light on the revelation that was so concealed in darkness from Belshazzar and his counsel, and the message reinforces that God holds all kings and their kingdoms accountable to his righteous standard.

You see, the substance of the king's heart had been weighed in the very just balance of God's righteousness and had been found wanting.

In every regard, the writing was on the wall for King Belshazzar.

Darius and his army were at the gate.

God had revealed his judgment.

There was no way in which his intoxicating distraction or his council of fools could ever avert what the Lord had already sovereignly established.

And that very night, as the feast's echoes faded within the palace, Babylon fell.

Darius and his Persiamede army stormed the city, and Belshazzar's reign ended in blood, just as the writing foretold, and the hand of God had spoken.

And none could defy its verdict.

You see, what I think we observe in the text this morning is that God's judgment cannot be averted.

God's judgment cannot be averted.

Like King Belshazzar and the Babylonian Empire, the writings on the wall for God's coming judgment against sin, wickedness, and prideful self-exaltation.

You see, he has revealed to us that the kingdoms of the world will be conquered by the eternal King and his everlasting kingdom, that every man's heart will be weighed in the balance of his just righteousness, and every desire and deed shall be exposed before him.

He has appointed a day for which he will cut down his foes, trample wickedness underfoot, scatter the kingdoms of man, and establish the dominion of his son forever.

Now that revelation, right?

The clarity of that revelation, it may have been concealed in obscurity in times past, but now in Christ, it has had this light brilliantly shined upon it.

You see, we may be tempted to say, well, we didn't know.

We were unaware of the inevitable.

We weren't warned or cautioned of such dread, but God's judgment cannot be averted.

The writings on the wall, judgment day is advancing.

Hear this sermon clip from Acts 17.

The apostles preaching, saying the time of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this he has given assurance to all by what?

Raising him from the dead.

You see, God made it clear.

The writing was always on the wall for mankind.

But here in Christ, he shines this brilliant light upon it to make it clear.

And how does he do it?

By raising him from the dead.

You see, Jesus' resurrection from the dead is both the assurance of God's coming judgment and our hope-filled escape from it.

But many of us, we refuse to acknowledge God's inevitable judgment.

We refuse to acknowledge God's inevitable judgment.

Many of us live like the king and his counsel in light of God's coming judgment.

We try to avert the coming judgment of God by either living in an intoxicated denial of it or by seeking the wisdom of this world to avoid the inevitable.

Many of us, we intoxicate ourselves to deny the inevitable.

We love living distracted.

We love it.

We don't like to ponder about what is to come.

And so we live in this intoxicated state of distraction.

You see, Belshazzar was throwing a lavish, intoxicated feast with a thousand of his noblemen, all while knowing that Darius and his armies were advancing to their front door.

But the shocking thing is, many of us live every day like this.

We try to distract ourselves with the intoxication of worldly pleasures, false joys, and impotent happiness so that we can live in a distracted denial of the inevitable.

We live in a cultural reality where we immerse ourselves in materialism, entertainment, and hedonism to avoid thinking about spiritual realities.

We love living distracted.

We don't like to think upon the heavy things of this life.

We don't like to ponder on our end.

We want to always live in the moment, but it's a life of utter distraction.

Some of us even turn to the intoxication of substances, compulsive behaviors, or unhealthy habits to numb the very existential fears of our guilty conscience, avoiding the reality of God's coming judgment.

And even sadder still, we often seek relationships that reinforce our avoidance.

We love to surround ourselves with others who deny or even at times mock spiritual truths, much like Belshazzar's guests who joined in his blasphemy.

But what do the scriptures do?

The scriptures continually call us to live sober-minded about the end of all things which is at hand.

There's this constant call throughout the New Testament to live sober-minded about the day which is inevitable.

We're to live as a holy people, be self-disciplined, persist in prayer, have missional urgency, fellowship with God's people, all in light of the reality of that appointed great day.

You see, our eyes are not to be focused on the things of this world.

Head down, living in this perpetual, distracted denial of God's clear revelation, but they're to be lifted heavenward in this longing and expectation of our coming king.

So we gotta stop intoxicating ourselves with the things of this world.

We have to stop living distracted.

We have to stop going day by day in a functional denial of the inevitable.

But we must live sober minded.

For as Paul declared, salvation is nearer to us now than when we even first believed.

Others of us, though, we seek counsel in hopes to avoid the inevitable.

Many of us, we seek counsel from the wisdom of this world, right?

Even though deep down we know that we cannot avoid what is coming.

We stand here and we look out at the crisis and chaos around us in this world, and in response, what do we do?

We work to try and collect and seek the counsel that brings any type of clarity to the confusion.

And so we gather these voices around us and we hope that they'll provide some type of solution for what we're experiencing, but all that they provide is an incompetent discernment.

Well, um, maybe this is all in regard to climate changes.

Or perhaps this is a population crisis, or or maybe this could be concerning the absence of diversity and equity and inclusion, or what if it has to do with economic instability, or there's a technological threat that we must be made aware of?

No.

And what do we do?

We look to political parties, environmental initiatives, scientific advancements, humanist ideologies, new age gurus, social influencers, conspiracy theorists, mom bloggers, and theobros.

All in desperate hope to what?

Avoid the inevitable through some sense of powerless human intuition.

We fooled ourselves into believing that they may have the answer.

That they may have the answer for what has been written on the very wall of our heart.

You see, we know, we just don't want to acknowledge it.

We deceive ourselves into thinking that we might be able to prolong our days.

Maybe we can delay judgment, maybe we can hinder what is drawing closer to us moment by moment, but we can't.

There's no human wisdom, no human effort or intuition that is able to affect the day of which he has appointed in his sovereign power.

The day is approaching.

Like Darius in his Persian army coming closer and closer to Belshazzar's palace door, so is the great day of the Lord coming closer and closer to us.

The day when our lives will be weighed in the balance.

And we really only have two options in this moment.

We can submit to its sure reality now, or we can be crushed under the weight of it later.

But that's it.

And only the fool would work to deceive himself into believing that he's able to outright avoid it.

So, church, we can't go on denying his judgment through intoxicating ourselves and distraction, nor should we continue striving in human wisdom and effort to avoid it.

No, Jesus is patiently allowing us time to simply submit ourselves to it.

He is the inevitable.

He is the one coming to judge the world.

He is the one who will scatter the kingdoms of men and establish his eternal reign here and now among his people.

But he's patiently allowing us time to submit to that truth, that we might not perish from his judgment, but be delivered through it by his finished work.

The apostle Peter unpacks this truth for us in 2 Peter 3, 8 through 10.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved.

That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but what?

But here's the inevitable.

Yet greater than Daniel.

Greater than Daniel because through himself he makes a way of hope-filled deliverance by grace through faith in his finished work.

Belshazzar was not able to escape the Persian Mead army, but we are able to escape the wrath of God because it has been poured out on his son in our place.

You see, Jesus bore the fullness of God's judgment on the cross in our place, and in exchange, he offers us his perfect righteousness.

His perfect righteousness in place of our sin that demands his just punishment.

So that in him we are weighed in the balance, but we are not found wanting.

In him, we are weighed in the balance of God's just righteousness, and yet we fully satisfy his holy demands.

You see, the good news of the gospel is we're not found wanting, we're found accepted.

We're not being crushed under God's judgment, we're being embraced by his affections because of Christ alone.

You see, Jesus is the radiant light of both God's judgments and his deliverance from them.

He not only makes clear what seems clouded, but in himself he provides the way to truly avert the coming judgment.

It is to believe in him.

John 12, Jesus Himself declaring, if anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.

For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.

The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak.

This was the first coming of Christ.

This was his ministry to us as he became like us.

It was to shine this radiant light on what has already been declared by the Father.

But it's also to save us from it.

It's to deliver us from the inevitable judgment of God.

And so our prayer for this body and this church this morning is that we would live in light of God's inevitable judgment.

Church, the writing's on the wall for mankind.

We can look out at the crisis and chaos of culture and we can try to discern it through our own human intuition.

We can try to apply some type of solution to the chaos around us.

But it's it's impotent.

It's not going to be fruitful.

It will not give us the solution we so desperately need.

Only God, who has already revealed.

And not simply revealed, but he has shined this radiant, brilliant light on it through Jesus Himself that we might see it clearly and know the problem is sin.

The solution is judgment.

And you will either be judged by your sin or you will be judged by Christ who died for your sin.

God will destroy all human kingdoms, and he will establish the eternal kingdom of his son on the day of which he has appointed in his total sovereignty.

So, how do we live in light of that?

First, I want to make a call to anyone here who might just feel weary and exhausted of trying to either live in this intoxicated, distracted denial, or who is striving to avoid it altogether through human intuition and wisdom of this world.

The call for you this morning is simply just submit to it.

Submit to the inevitable.

Submit to the simplicity yet eternal beauty of Christ's deliverance out of the judgment which is coming.

Because only He is sufficient for us to have a way of escape.

But we don't just escape judgment.

The beauty of the gospel is that we're brought in to the beautiful fellowship and communion with God our Maker.

As His children, living in an abundant, fruitful, blessed, favorable life.

Repent and believe.

That's the call.

Trust in Christ to escape the coming judgment.

But if you're in this room and you are already in Christ, by grace through faith in his finished work, then the call this morning is to live as faithful witnesses.

To live like Daniel, who was a servant of the culture, but was willing and able to draw a line when he had to and say what needed to be said.

There is a judgment coming.

But there's a way out through Christ Himself.

We have to live as faithful witnesses with compassion for the culture that we find ourselves in.

Because here's the reality: you and I did not discern the writing on the wall through our own effort and strength or cunningness or intellect.

We were able to see clearly what had been written because the Spirit of God made us alive and shine that bright light on it so that we might see it clearly.

And so, what do we do with culture?

We go with them to them with compassion.

Because only the Spirit of God is going to be able for them to see it clearly in the way that He made us see it clearly.

So we have to live with a missional urgency because that day is closer now than it was even when we started this sermon.

We live within a world under God's judgment.

And so we must be a people who proclaim the hope of the gospel.

Because here's the reality: the world is Belshazzar and his noblemen and his council of fools who are trying to make some sense out of this chaos.

Christ, he is Darius and his Persian army drawing closer and closer to the city's gate.

Look at this picture in Revelation 19.

John the apostle being shown this in the spirit.

Then I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The writings on the wall.