The Fall of Babylon: Lessons from Belshazzar's Feast

Awesome.

That was awesome.

If you would in your Bibles tonight, turn to Daniel, chapter

six.

Daniel, Chapter six.

We continue our series in the Book of Daniel.

I mean, if you really want to turn to the right scripture, you

might turn to Daniel, Chapter five.

But some of y' all can turn to Daniel, chapter six, Daniel, chapter

five.

I wrote it down, six.

I don't know why, but before our revival meeting and before we

preached on preparation for revival, we had covered chapter five,

chapter four.

In chapter four you have Nebuchadnezzar turning into a bird.

And again God judged Nebuchadnezzar because of his pride.

His pride.

He said, look what I have built.

Look at the great nation that I have built.

And God punished him.

God spanked him.

And it says there in the chapter five or chapter four, that

as he came to the realization that God is the God of heaven and

God is the one who sets up thrones, who puts them down, and

as he recognized the character of God, as he recognized the true

and living God, God, after seven years, God brought him back

and he was reigned on the throne there in Babylon, by the way,

he reigned for 43 years.

King Nebuchadnezzar.

43 years.

All right, so if you're there now, Daniel 5:1.

Daniel 5:1

Belshazzar, the king made a great feast to a thousand of his

lords and drank wine before a thousand.

And Belshazzar, whilst 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.

Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the

temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem.

And the king and his princes and his wives and concubines drank

in them.

They drank wine and praised the gods, little gods of gold and

silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and stone.

Verse 5.

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.

Then the king's countenance was changed.

I would say so, wouldn't you, if hand came down and started riding

on the wall of your house, so that the joints of his loins were

loosed and his knees smote one against another.

And the king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans

and the soothsayers, and the king Spake and said to the wise men

of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show me the

interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet, and have

a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler

in the kingdom.

Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read

the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.

Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance

was changed in him, and his lords were astoned.

Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords,

came into the banquet house, and the queen spake and said, o king,

live forever.

Let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be

changed.

There is a man in the kingdom who in whom is the spirit of the

holy gods.

And in the days of thy father light, in the days of thy father

light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods,

was found in him, whom the king Nebuchadnezzar, thy father the

king, I say the father, made master of the magicians, astrologers,

Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

Forasmuch as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding,

interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving

of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Belteshazzar.

Now let Daniel be called, and he will show you the interpretation.

And then was Daniel brought in before the king.

And the king spake and said to Daniel, art thou that Daniel, which

art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king

my father, brought out of Jewry?

I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in

thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom

is found in thee.

And now the wise men, the astrologers, whom have been brought

in before me, that they should read this writing and make known

unto me the interpretation thereof.

But they could not show the interpretation of the thing.

And I have heard of thee that thou canst make interpretations and

dissolve doubts.

Now if thou can read the writing and make known to me the

interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and

have a chain of gold about thy neck, and thou shalt be the third,

the third ruler in the kingdom.

Look at Daniel's response.

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, 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.

O thou king, the most high God, gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father

a kingdom, and majesty, and glory and honor.

And for the majesty that he gave him.

All people, nations and languages trembled and feared before

him, Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive,

and whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down.

But when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride,

he was disposed from the kingly throne, and they took his

glory from him.

And he was driven from the sons of man, and his heart was made

like the beast, and his dwelling was with the wild asses.

They fed him with grass like an oxen, and his body was wet with

the dew of the heaven.

Till he knew that the most High God ruled in the kingdom of

men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

So we remind him what happened to his father, and thou his son.

O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest

all of this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven,

and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee.

And thou and thy lords and thy wives and thy concubines have drunk

wine in them.

And thou hast praised the gods of silver and of gold and brass,

iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know.

And the God in whose hand thy breath is, in whose all thy ways

hast thou not glorified.

Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was

written.

And this is the writing that was written.

Many, many.

Tiklupharson and this is the interpretation of the thing many

God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

Tickle.

Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.

Peres.

Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes.

And the Persians then commanded Belshazzar that they clothed

Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck and

made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third

ruler in the kingdom.

Daniel wasn't no part in that, because he knew what was about to

happen.

And in that night was Belshazzar, the king of Chaldeans,

slain.

And Darius the Midian took the kingdom, being about threescore and

two years old.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, bless the reading of your word.

Bless again the message.

I pray, God, that you would just help us to see again the importance

of knowing you, understanding who you are, and putting you in your

proper position in our own minds and in our own lives.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Alright, Daniel's now 80 to 90 years old, so there's a big gap here.

And Nebuchadnezzar is now dead, and whether he's in heaven

or hell, we do not know.

But it seems as though maybe he made a profession, maybe he made

that leap forward in understanding who God is.

67 years has passed since the first invasion in Jerusalem and that

Daniel was carried off into captivity and his friends, the other

princes.

And 30 years since the events of chapter four.

Again, Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years and now another reigned

in his stead.

The reason why, again Belshazzar tells Daniel that he could

be the third ruler is because Belshazzar was not indeed the king

of Babylon.

He was the son of the king.

The son of the king.

At the very most, they were co reigning together, him and his dad.

And his dad's name is Nobodendis.

I'm close to how to pronounce it.

We see in chapter six, a great feast, chapter five, a great feast

taking place.

No doubt this was to boost morale because the city of Babylon

was surrounded by the Mede and Persian army.

Now be reminded how big Babylon was.

Again, he's putting on this party as a diversion of the impending

doom that's about to happen.

Babylon, the city.

Again, the walls.

11 to 14 miles long.

The walls, the height of the walls.

And there's some, again, some, you know, back and forth as to how

high they really were.

Herodias and Xenophon.

Xenophon.

I'm close.

Both of these historic historians kind of differ and there

are other historians who differ, but some say it was 300ft

high, some say 75ft high.

Doesn't matter, that's, that's a big tall wall.

They were anywhere from 30 to 60ft thick, by the way.

The moat in front of them also was 30 to 60ft wide.

So just imagine as you came to this wall, you had a 60 foot moat

that you had to cross.

You had possibly 300 foot walls that were 40 to 60 foot thick.

There was also an inner wall in Babylon.

A lot of cities had that, where you had the outside wall and

then an inner wall that protected just a central part of

the city.

This city was humongous.

It was the square mileage of the city of Arlington.

I mean, at least that big and probably bigger.

I've read multiple books that try to clarify how big the city was.

It's beyond our amazing, amazing city.

One of the ancient wonders of the world, the River Euphrates ran

through the city.

And the historical evidence proves out that the way the Medo

Persian army took the city was by diverting the entire Euphrates

river and going under the wall.

Under the wall.

Amazing, amazing feat.

And Babylon was defeated in one night and Belshazzar slain and

killed.

No doubt here that we find Daniel has been put in the background

by that I mean, he wasn't the prominent one anymore in the political

realm, if you would.

But his reputation was still widely known.

Daniel the understand one who understands dreams.

We see here Belshazzar is confronted by God.

And in similar fashion as to the reason was again pride, just

like his grandfather probably was Nebuchadnezzar pride.

Belshazzar had taken the vessels from that his father had

taken from the temple in Jerusalem in Daniel chapter one.

And he took the vessels of the temple, and they were drinking out

of them wine and praising their gods, their deities, their

idols.

And the inference here is that they were praising their gods, their

little gods and their deities, to deliver them from the Medo Persian

army, drinking out of the vessels from the temple, the temple

of the true God.

It was blasphemy, understand that?

And it goes on to say here in verse 23, that he praised the gods

of silver and gold, which what see not nor hear.

I'm going to turn over to Psalm.

Look at Psalm 115.

Psalm 115, verse 1.

Psalms 115:1

The Psalmist says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto

thy name give glory for the mercy and for the truth's sake.

Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God?

But our God is in the heavens.

He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased right Jehovah God does

whatever he pleases.

Their idols are silver and gold, their work of men's hands.

They have mouths, but they speak not.

Eyes have they, but they see not.

I'm in verse six, Psalm 115.

They have ears, but they hear not.

Noses have they, but they smell not.

They have hands, but they handle not.

Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their

throat.

They that make them are like unto them.

So is every one that trusteth in them.

O Israel, trust thou in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield.

Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield.

The Lord hath been mindful of us.

He will bless us, and he will bless the house of Israel.

And he will bless the house of Aaron.

He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.

The Lord shall increase you more and more.

You and your children, ye are blessed of The Lord which made heaven

and earth the heavens, even the heavens are the Lord's.

But the earth hath he given to the children of men, the dead.

Praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.

But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Praise the Lord.

Idols graven by art and man's devices can't see, they can't hear,

they can't taste, they can't talk.

Yet they were praising their gods, their idols.

A hand comes down from heaven and writes on the wall.

Scared the king?

Just a little.

Might scare you, too.

I love that.

And most of y' all laughed when I read it.

His knees smote together.

I don't know if my dad remembers this story or not, but

the first time I sang in church, I was six years old.

First time to sing a solo.

And afterwards I asked my dad or mom, I can't remember which one,

about why my knees were shaking.

You get scared enough.

Can you imagine that?

A king.

It's amazing, isn't it?

Afraid.

And then he goes on to talk about.

Bring in the.

You know, bring in the astrologers, bring in everybody.

And whoever can interpret this thing, I'll reward them.

And he gives the, you know, the chain, golden chain on the neck.

And then he says, a third, the third.

And rule, you know, reign.

Will reign in third place.

Well, the third place is because he's second place.

His dad was the king.

And here comes Daniel.

By the way, Daniel comes at the suggestion of the queen.

Remember, Belshazzar's wives were already there.

So this queen was not Belshazzar's wife.

Maybe this was the queen of his dad.

Slight possibility, and it depends on who you read.

This could have been Esther.

Could have been.

It's interesting.

You know, we don't.

Can't be dogmatic, but it's interesting.

Daniel is brought in.

What does Daniel do?

Well, Daniel begins to rebuke the king.

And before I get ahead of myself, notice that not only does

he recognize as his mother, or has his mother or queen suggest about

Daniel.

When Daniel comes in, Daniel, Belshazzar says, I've heard of you.

When he says, I've heard of you.

The second time he is speaking of that.

I personally have heard of your reputation.

It's not just the queen suggesting it, but that Belshazzar

had heard about Daniel.

It tells you again of Daniel's lasting lingering testimony of how

God had used him.

Daniel rebukes Belshazzar.

He says, I don't want your rewards.

I don't need them.

Plus, I could just.

His wheels are turning.

You're about to die anyway, so you can give me to be third in the

kingdom, but that's meaningless because the Medes and

the Persians are about to take over.

Then in verses 18 through 21, we won't read it again, but he gives

the example of Nebuchadnezzar.

He is telling Belshazzar, you know.

In fact, it says, he says, you know what happened to Nebuchadnezzar,

and you know why it happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

And yet you.

I'm just summarizing now.

You're doing the same thing.

You are prideful.

You, instead of depending upon God and the true God of Heaven, are

depending upon your little gods, who cannot hear, who cannot

see.

I'm just making the point that he makes it very clear that Belshazzar

knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and why it happened,

and yet he refused, and he was prideful, and he went down the same

path.

Well, you think you learned from your predecessor not to mess

with God?

That's my summarization.

Don't mess with God, the true living God, not the little gods.

Verse 21, Daniel reminds him that Nebuchadnezzar understood and

knew, as God did.

Raise him back up.

That the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men and appoints

kings and sets them down.

In fact, verse 23, he says that God Jehovah is the one who holds

our breath in his hands, our breath.

And he's the one who determines life's direction.

Look at verse 23 one more time.

But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they

have brought the vessels of his house before thee.

And thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines have drunk

wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold

and brass and iron and wood and stone, which see not, nor hear,

nor, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose

all are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified?

And whose are all thy ways?

In other words, he is the one to determine your life's direction.

He's the one who's determined it.

And yet you're not glorifying him.

And then Daniel interprets the dream verses 25 through 29, that

the kingdom was going to be taken from them.

And in verses 30 through 31, we have the death of Belshazzar and

the fall of the great and mighty kingdom of Babylon, all in

one night.

This great kingdom that had risen, who was the again the most

powerful nation in the then known world, gone in one night.

An amazing thought.

How quickly a nation with that kind of power, that kind of authority,

gone.

It is God who rules in the affairs of men.

It is God who sets up kings and puts them down again.

I think it's great for us to be reminded that God is in control.

So what are the applications?

Number one, God's in control.

God's in control.

And that's why I went over and read Psalm 115.

Trust in him, he said to Israel, trust in him.

To Aaron and his priests, trust in God.

Put your trust in him, because God is in control.

And one night, Darius, the king of the Medes, defeats Babylon.

By the way, Darius and Cyrus are ruling together.

All right, so Darius is the king of the Medes, Cyrus is the king

of the Persians.

But no doubt, historically speaking, Cyrus was the main.

He was the man and Darius was under him as such.

But it was called the Medes and the Persians.

God is in control.

Number two, there is only one God.

We serve one God.

There's not two, there's not three, there's not four.

There is one.

And can I remind you, Jesus said, when you have seen me, you

have seen the Father.

I and the Father are one, are one.

Again.

When people touched Jesus, they touched God.

When they bumped into Jesus, they bumped into God.

God in the flesh.

There is one God, one God.

Number three.

In the New Testament, the Bible says, be not deceived.

God is not mocked.

For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.

It goes on to say, those who sow to the flesh, reap the flesh,

and those who sow the spirit reap the Spirit.

Understand that that applies to lost and saved people.

That that biblical principle, that precept applies to all what

a man sows, that shall he reap.

Understand that you don't get by with it.

God is a just God.

He is a fair God.

And God is a God of love.

In fact, that's who he is.

He is love.

But he's also a just God.

Understand that we, as we've been learning in the revival meeting

this week, man, Brother Davison just pushed on it and pushed

on it.

We ought to live separated lives.

We ought to live holy lives.

You reap what you sow.

Number four again, pride comes into here.

We two or three weeks ago, we did a whole message on pride on Nebuchadnezzar.

If you want to hear about that, go back and listen to It.

But again, pride is the opposite of humility.

And we ought to be a humble people.

We ought to have contrition, and we ought to be again, humble

before God, broken before God, dependent upon God, surrendering

to God, yielding our lives to Him.

We don't worship anything else.

You know, an idol is whatever again, dwells on the throne of your

heart.

An idol is whatever gets in front of you and God or between you

and God.

Idols are not just, you know, the little wooden gods or the silver

gods or the gold gods.

That God or God's little God is whatever you allow between you

and Jehovah, the God of heaven.

We as Christians need to be careful, stay focused.

Don't take much to get off track.

Doesn't take much to get diverted from the path we ought to

be in.

And then I really want to dwell on this one for just a minute.

Verse 23.

God holds our breath.

He determines our life's direction.

If you would.

This will turn to Acts, chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Most of y' all will remember this passage.

Paul enters the city of Athens.

And as he enters the city of Athens, literally, the roads of Athens

are lined with gods, little gods.

And somebody had written, one of the historians had written, there

was possibly 50,000 of them throughout the city of Athens.

This little statue, this God and this statue and this God and

this statue and this God.

And Paul stands up and he preaches on Mars Hill.

And he says, men of Athens.

And he begins to speak to them.

Look at chapter 17.

Look with me in verse 22.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of

Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious.

For as I passed by and beheld your devotion.

So again, he's walking along the streets and.

And he's seeing these little.

These little statues, these little gods.

I found an altar.

So he comes to one in particular God with this inscription,

to the unknown God.

I just.

That.

That to me is hilarious.

So you have all these gods throughout the city, but just so

you didn't leave anyone out, we're going to put down to the unknown

God, because we don't want the unknown God to strike us dead either.

So to the unknown God, him whom therefore ye eagerly worship,

him, declare I unto you, this is awesome God that made the world

and all things therein.

Seeing that he is lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in

temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's

hands as though he needed anything seeing he giveth to all

life and what and breath and all Things and hath made of one blood

all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.

And all the same he hath given made a man of one blood.

We're all the same.

Different ethnicities, but all the same one blood.

This one verse negates racism for Christians, one verse negates

it.

The Bible in no way is racist.

And if you are a Christian and you are differentiating between different

ethnic groups based upon the skin, you are.

You're in sin.

You're wrong.

You have a problem.

Get right with God.

God loves the children of the world.

Amen.

Amen.

I love that verse.

I think it's awesome.

And hath determined what the times before appointed and the bounds

of their habitation, their direction in life.

Paul is telling these Athenians, hey, that unknown God,

let me declare him unto you.

God that made the worlds and all things therein.

He is Lord of heaven and earth.

He don't dwell in temples made with hands and he goes on and on.

He is the One who made us.

He's the One who set our bounds.

He's the one who determined where we would be born, when we would

be born.

He's the one that holds our very breath in his hands.

That's jehovah God.

Verse 27.

That they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after

him and find Him.

That will negate some Calvinists.

Though he be not far from any one of us, for in him we live and

move and have our being as certain also of your own poets have

said, for we are the offspring, for we are also his offspring.

Forasmuch then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to

think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven

by art and man's device.

And at the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth

all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day in

that he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom

he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men

in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Just.

He's talking about Jesus there.

Just to let you know.

Raised him from the dead.

Remembering that God is indeed the God of heaven, the God is the

One who made everything.

We didn't evolve.

God spoke and it came into existence.

Six days.

God created all things.

And on the seventh day he was so tuckered out that he took some.

No, I'm just kidding.

No.

He wasn't tired.

But he ceased from his creative activity, his creation activity,

in order to set for us example that we should rest on the seventh

day.

What a God we serve.

The God Jehovah, the true and living God.

We ought to be thankful that God allowed us to be born in the

United States of America.

Because he's the one who determined that want to be thankful

that he's the one who determined whom I would be born to.

So thankful.

God is so good.

And what he's saying to Belshazzar is, that's the God whom

you should serve.

But you have chosen your little gods.

We should glorify God for what he's done.

Amen.

That's what he said.

You did not glorify God.

We should glorify God for what he's done.

God has been so good to us.

We won't turn there for lack of time.

But Babylon falls.