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Last week we were thinking in Daniel chapter four, which was God's critique of the culture of Babylon. And we noticed that God did not say that there was anything wrong with the culture in and of itself. Its art and architecture and so forth. What was wrong was the attitude of the great emperor Nebuchadnezzar. His heart filled with pride. Built for his own glory, he said, Babylon the Great. He was the great beautifier and rebuilder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and he was exceedingly proud of it, and being warned of God to repent of his sins, he took no notice and persisted. And as he walked upon the roof of his palace one night, he was moved with pride to say, is not this great Babylon which I have built by my own strength and for my own glory? And therefore, because he would not repent, God brought upon him the discipline that God had warned him of, and he lost his senses, was driven out of the palace, and became and lived like a a beast of the field, and ate grass like an ox, and was careless of his own bodily appearance. His hair grew long, he didn't even cut his nails, and they developed into claws like animals' claws. In the mercies of God, however, God had said that his discipline would only be temporary, and at the end of the time, Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes and s- and he thought of God the Almighty and reached out his hands, so to speak, to find God and found God to be real and was brought back to his sanity and to praise the Most High, who is able to abase those that walk in pride and then bring them back to true relationship with God. So chapter four was a story of God's discipline of the great monarch Nebuchadnezzar, and yet of his restoration. In the dream that he saw, he was likened unto a great tree, beautiful with leaves, beautiful with a shade, beautiful with its fruit, of much benefit to man and to beast. The tree was cut down, but its stump was left and care taken so that the stump should not rot, but be prepared to grow again, and eventually the tree grew again. Emblematic, of course, of the fact that after God had disciplined Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar was restored. King number one, therefore, in chapter four. Now we come tonight to chapter five, and we are to read of Belshazzar, who in all probability was his grandson. Though you'll hear Belshazzar in the text said to be his son and Nebuchadnezzar his father, but that is a Hebraism and way of talking. Nebuchadnezzar would have been his grandfather. Belshazzar's father was a certain Nabonidus, and he was away in Teman for several years, for reasons about which the historians are not particularly sure. And being absent and away for these years, he had made his son Belshazzar regent in the place of the, of the king. That is why you will hear this grandson regent on behalf of his father Nabonidus, that's grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabonidus, and now acting as regent for his father. You will hear him say to Daniel that if Daniel is able to solve the mystery that has presented itself, then Belshazzar will make him third in the kingdom. That number third is, of course, significant. Why third? Because Belshazzar himself was not the first. He was a regent under his father. His father was the first, uh, and he was absent at the time and had been for some years in Teman. And so Belshazzar was the second. If Daniel was able to solve the mystery, then Daniel would be the third in the kingdom. So with that, let's read the passage now. It's Daniel chapter five, and we'll take the time to read it all. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which is in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, 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 in Jerusalem. The king and his lords, his wives and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of bronze, of iron, and of wood and stone. In the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the lampstand 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 in him, and his thoughts troubled him, and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with purple 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. Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were perplexed. Now the queen, but that would have been his mother, the reigning queen. Belshazzar was only regent. The queen was the wife of Nabonides, mother to Belshazzar. Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house. The queen spoke and said, O king, live forever. Let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him. You'll notice that the queen is a pagan. You've picked up her pagan language, haven't you? And the king Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made him master of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. For as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpreting of dreams and showing of dark 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 the interpretation. So then was Daniel brought before the king. The king spoke and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Judah? It's difficult to know whether he was speaking sensibly, or still whether there was a lot of sarcasm in him. For Daniel had been head of the civil service under his grandfather. And to be referred to merely as a captive immigrant brought into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar the Great might not have been intended as ordinary politeness, but however, we pass by it. I have 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 enchanters, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make known unto me the interpretation thereof. But they could not read the interpret- they could not deliver, show the interpretation of the thing. But I have heard of thee that thou canst give interpretations and dissolve doubts. Now, if thou canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another. Nevertheless, 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 the kingdom and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, 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 raised up, and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit hardened, that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses. He was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he setteth over it whomsoever he will. And yet thou his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though thou knewest all 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, thy wives, and thy concubines have drunk wine in them. And thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know. And the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uphasin. This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. Peres, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold about his neck and made proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. And the God who interpreted the writing for Belshazzar, may he be pleased to instruct us and give us good understanding this evening. Tonight we are to read and to think together on God's judgment, on the Prince Regent of Babylon, and on his destruction. This, therefore, is a very solemn chapter. It brought to an end not only the life of Belshazzar, the Prince regent. It brought to an end the Babylonian Empire. For that night the city was taken, and the empire passed to the Medes and the Persians. But that night, let's begin where the story begins. Belshazzar decided to put on a party, which was a very funny thing to do in the circumstances, surely. For just recently, the forces of the Medes and the Persians had won an enormous victory and virtually pulverized the armies of Babylonia. And after that, the Medes and the Persians had approached the city, and this very night were encamped about the walls of the city. And Belshazzar's reaction was to put on a party. Caught with some party. I don't think a bachelor could imagine it, but some of us present will be able to imagine it. Oh, can't you see the dames appearing? Oh, wow, the earrings are dripping. I had different ideas of color scheme for facial makeup, I must admit that, you see, but the gowns that, oh, and the splendor, of course. In the royal palace, the archaeologists have uncovered, of course, long since, what they consider to be that very room in the palace. And one of the walls is plain plaster. It might be, in fact, the plaster of the wall on which the hand wrote. Anyway, it was a tremendous party, and of course the Prince Regent was there in all his finery. Uh, no jeans present there, I may tell you. Ooh. And uh, the wine was tremendous, of course. You say, why did he put on a party when the enemy was encamped around about the city? Well, perhaps he thought that the walls of Babylon were absolutely impregnable, and not even the Medo-Persians could come in. Anyway, he held a party. It's like dancing on the deck of the Titanic while it's going down. As the party got started, and the king tasted the wine, as was the normal custom, before the guests, but probably more than that, as they had had enough wine to make them good humored, Belshazzar made a decision over something that one suspects had been going around his mind, perhaps for a few months, perhaps for a year or two. You see, he had known, did you observe what Daniel said to him? You knew what happened to your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar? When he got uppish and proud of his own power and his own glory, and how God humbled him. And Nebuchadnezzar, your grandfather, came converted, if you like, to worship and acknowledge the true God, the Almighty God of heaven, as distinct from all the idols that Babylon normally worshipped. He knew it. And I think of the Queen Mother, who on that occasion came in and exhorted him to go and fetch Daniel. I fancy if the Queen Mother had had her way, she would have told Belshazzar many a time, oh, Belshazzar, some of these women are not the very best, you know, and anyway, oughtn't you to be sobering up a little bit? Oughtn't you to remember what happened to your grandfather, Belshazzar, dear? You know how mothers can get at you. And uh, uh, uh, and uh, isn't it time you sort of broke off some of your al- alarming sins and uh... You know this God that Daniel represents is real God. He was tired of hearing of it. So he ought to repent and acknowledge God. At night, when he's a little bit tipsy, he made his decision. He would show the people he'd done with this idea of God. He was going to be free. Then he did a thing that he knew would be absolutely shocking. To back home his decision. He ordered his servants to go to a temple in the city where Nebuchadnezzar had put the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem. These were sacred vessels devoted in the temple in Jerusalem to the service of Almighty God. They were sacred vessels. Now, in the days when Nebuchadnezzar took them, he was an utterly unreconstituted pagan, but even he recognized that those vessels were sacred. When he conquered the, uh, Judeans and destroyed their temple and destroyed the city, he wouldn't have been offensive to their God. Like any old pagan, he would have respected that they worshipped a God, and that God could be real. He would then have held that that God had allowed his gods to overcome the Jews because perhaps the Jews had offended their own particular god, and their own particular god was now abandoning them to Nebuchadnezzar. So he took the vessels, but then in his pagan mind, reverently put them in the house of his god, alongside of his god, because these represented to Nebuchadnezzar the vessels belonging to a god. And he wanted to act reverently, even as a pagan. This night, Belshazzar, who knew all about those vessels and what they signified, ordered them to be brought to the banqueting house, and himself stood up and drank from them, and encouraged all the guests likewise to drink from them. Everybody was shocked, of course, and enjoyed it immensely. Like the worst of a BBC Radio Four program that openly magnifies and glorifies homosexuality, and everybody is very glad. So they drank over those gold and silver vessels. Tell me, why do you think those vessels were of silver and gold? Why couldn't they have ordinary cups? Value, yes. And why did they have to be that? The best of their could be, for what? For God, yes. In the temple of Jerusalem, they were dedicated to the service of God. They must be of the greatest value that Israel had, devoted and consecrated to the service of God. Belshazzar ordered them to be brought to the palace. Value, he says. I'll show you, my dear guests, my idea of value. The ultimate value in this world is what? And with it, he picked up the golden vessel full of wine and drank on them himself. The ultimate value in this world is me and my pleasure. He encouraged them all to do the same. And then he suggested that they drink a toast to the gods, the pagan gods of wood and iron and stone that neither see nor hear anything. That was a very convenient religion, wasn't it? You needed some gods. You didn't want them snooping on you all the time, do you, after all? And they drank in honor of the gods of wood and stone and brass and and iron and so forth. Gods of the kind that weren't too keen on morality. It was a double desecration, therefore, wasn't it? Open defiance of the true God of heaven. Desecration of his vessels, praising idolatry instead of the living God, and making themselves and their pleasure the ultimate value in life. And just as they were drinking from the vessels and praising the gods of silver and so forth, and the gods of stone that see not or hear not. A hand of a man came out and wrote on the plaster, on the wall, by the lampstand, and wrote the words, Munai Tekel, Tekel you Yufasin. fasten. In that moment, the smile went off Belshazzar's face, you know. His countenance was changed. His knees knocked together. His loins were powerless. Evidence, presumably, of shock. He called aloud, because you see, the writing was there. It was obviously supernatural. Some supernatural power was doing it, writing on the wall of the king's banqueting house. And the trouble was, try as he might, he, he couldn't read the writing. It's a terrible fix to be in, isn't it? To realize that some supernatural power has written something. You know it's supernatural. You can't read it. That is, you couldn't understand it. I think you may have friends like that. Friends who, if you were to challenge them, would say, yes, I do believe the Bible is God's word. And you point them to John three sixteen. They can't understand it. They can't make sense of it. Got any friends like that? Can you understand the writing? This also is supernatural, you know. This is God's word written. To know it is God's word, and yet not to be able to make any sense of it for yourself. It's a scary situation, is it not? Why couldn't the man understand it? You see the words, Bnei, Tekel, and the U is means and, Farsin, are ordinary everyday words for weights and measures. It's like somebody writing on your wall, tons, hundredweights, pounds. Well, you'd know what that was. You've seen them on all sorts of scales and so forth and so on. But then, as well as being the sign of weight, they acted as coins, because in those far off days before coinage was invented, if you bought something rather large, you would then, uh, cut your silver and weigh a bit of silver or weigh some gold and give it to pay the expense. So when Abraham wanted to buy a plot of land to bury Sarah, his wife, he approached the locals and said, look here, I'd like to buy a plot of land from the bury my wife. And being good Middle Easterners, they said, oh yeah, well, you take it. I mean, we gladly give it to you. No, no, said Abraham, no, I'd give you the fair price for it, you see, uh, if you'll tell me what the price is. Well, said the owner, well, I mean, actually it says it's about four hundred shekels, you see, but um, I mean, what's that between you and me? Well, that's a good way of bargaining, isn't it? That's how they do in those parts. Beware if you go on holiday to those parts, uh, do see. And, and, and, and so said, righto, said Abram, and he weighed him out the silver. That's how you did. You weighed it out. And so many pounds weight of silver was worth so much, you see. We can think of it both as weights and of coinage. And Belshazzar would have seen it all over the place. Why couldn't he read it? Well, I don't know. What about you? Suppose you get home tonight, hard day's work done, and you're sitting with great comfort in your drawing room, and a hand comes out and writes on your wall, pounds, shillings, pence. You'll say that's an old-fashioned hand. Well, all right, pounds and pence, do you see? Yes? Uh, marks and fennics, do you see? Euros and, uh, whatever goes with euros, do you see? Mm-hmm. What would you make of it? And if you had reason to think it was God's handwriting it, what pounds, shillings, and pence writing it on my drawing room, on the wall? What do you make of it? No. Well, you say it's money anyway. I see. And what is money? You say money is value. No, it isn't. Money is only a way of measuring value. I don't suppose that bit of paper in my pocket with twenty on it was worth anything in itself, is it? Money is only a mark of value. You can test that any day you like, you see. Suppose you've got, um, Ten pounds and you're giving it away, yes? And you give it to a six-year-old boy. What will he buy with it? Will he big the- buy the biggest ice cream you could ever set your eyes on, if you let him, and have fifty stomach aches thereafter? But, uh, you see, ha, that's his idea of values. Give it, uh, to young lady of seventeen or eighteen, ten pounds, you put it with another ninety to buy not an ice cream, dear me no, the very latest Chanel something or other, or a suitable evening dress. Give that same, that same ten pounds to father, he won't buy an ice cream, not nor Channel four or whatever it is, or five. uh No, indeed not. What will he do with the ten pounds? He'll put it with another hundred and buy a new club for his golf. I see. Same money. Have you noticed how values change in life? What are ultimate values? What's the value of a human being? What's our value? Could you put a price on it? You know, value is not the only element in it. When folks get older, the sense that somebody needs them, wants them, is a very important thing. Some dear ladies that have looked after a household of children, and their husband dies, and the children are all fled and flown, get a feeling that nobody needs them. That is a desperate state to be in, isn't it? Matter to anybody whether I live or die. What's the ultimate value? They tell me that diamonds, they have their use in industry because they can cut s- hard stuff, but diamonds as ornaments, do you know, they wouldn't have any value at all, except it is that ladies like them. And I'm, I, I forget now the message that they're meant to, uh, diamonds are forever. Yes, diamonds are forever. I got that, yes, now. Diamonds are forever, and it's because ladies want them that diamonds get their value. If ladies didn't want them, well, what would you do with them? Can't eat them, can you? What's the ultimate value of a human being? And could you put a price on it? I'll tell you the awesome, the awesome truth. Your value, ma'am, your value, sir, is that God wants you. Doesn't need you. He wants you. He made you. Made you for himself. And when you, like the rest of us, went astray. Oh, talk about the price he put on us. To redeem us back to himself, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. All the value. That God would want me so much as not only to create me, but when I went my own way, would pay so much to get me back. And Belshazzar? Ah, he couldn't read the writing. He'd just taken the golden vessels dedicated to the service of Almighty God, the true and the living God. and had thrown God out of the window, so to speak, if he could, and made himself and his pleasure the supreme value. He isn't gonna have this Jew. He's not of our race. He's not of our religion. Getting influenced with Nebuchadnezzar and pulling the strings and getting himself up into the chief civil service and all that kind of thing. He's not going to listen to him and get converted to his God, whatever the Queen Mother says. Let God know. But I'm the ultimate value. And he took the vessels, the golden and silver vessels from the house of the Lord, and drank of them himself, and praised his lifeless gods. So he had evaluated God. And now God came to set up his balances in the very banquet hall and was about to evaluate Belshazzar. Daniel came in and said, in spite, sir, of your knowing all about what Nebuchadnezzar did and what he suffered and what God did for him and his conversion, you have defied God. Now let me read the writing. Mene, mene, a coinage, the weightage of that time, a minor. It means a measurement, that is a measurement of value. Measurement of length, a measurement of weight, and it came to regard as a certain special fixed measurement. God, says, uh, Daniel, as he reads the writing, has numbered, has measured your days. Do you see? It's numbered your kingdom. Meaning what? Well, the psalmist, to quote a similar phrase, the psalmist says in the psalm somewhere, teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom. We're not here forever, are we? God has numbered your kingdom, and your kingdom now is running out. This very night it would be finished. Mena, Mena. Shekel or tekel, for the king spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew, and therefore the words are in Aramaic, not shekel, which is Hebrew, but tekel means the same thing. It's originally a balance, do you know, that they weighed things in, one side going up and the other side going down. You see, put a weight this in, and somebody else sits, uh, in something else here, and you weigh them in a balance. And here, according to Daniel, God had set up his balance in the banqueting hall, and God was weighing Belshazzar. Now, what weighed in the balance and found wanting too light. You could feel a hurt and sympathy with him, couldn't you? Could you not? Weighed in the balances of God's law. How would you weigh? If it were God's justice and his holy law that weighed us, Romans chapter three tells us what the result would be, doesn't it? We know that what things soever the law says, it says to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God. Found wanting. And you feel like crying out, oh Belshazzar, oh Belshazzar. At the very last moment, Belshazzar. Oh Belshazzar, God is a merciful God, and if you turn to him, he will r- he he in repentance, he will, he will save you, Belshazzar. And you look back to the table. It's not looking so good now, you know. That's how tables are before a feast, before a dinner. They look lovely, don't they? All the plates set and the nice and the forks and the beautiful flowers and everything else, oh, it's beautiful. When the dinner is past, doesn't look so beautiful, does it? There's a drink stain on the old tablecloth, and there's crumbs of bread here and and bits of meat there and gravy spelt somewhere else, this horrible mess, do you see? And it wasn't looking too good now after the feast. Ah, but look there, those gold and silver vessels, representing the very living God of Israel that made the man and would have had mercy on him as he did on his grandfather. But M- M- Shez has taken them and thrown them away. Doesn't want the God. He's chosen his values, and now there's no point of return. He will suffer those values for all eternity. Ufasin means two parts. The verb, if you translate it then as a verb, it could be expounded like this, as Daniel expounded it. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. That night, El Shaza was slain. The walls of Babylon may have been impregnable, but you see, the Medes and Persians did a clever thing. Their engineers diverted the river, and when the waters had gone, they walked up the bed of the river into the city and slew the unsuspecting people. You see him there, look. That's Bill Sherzer. Lying a corpse. What's he worth now? It's unspeakably solemn, isn't it? And it talks to every man and woman. What are our values? What is our supreme value? All the wonder of it. That we're people made in the image of God, gone astray, but God longs for us still. Has paid the cost of the blood of his own dear son to bring us back with eternal glory. Get rid of him. What now are you worth? And that eternally. That is the solemn message of Daniel five as the first part of his book comes to its end. It's a gospel message, isn't it? And yet, it is a warning message, but it's couched in such terms that even a modern could understand it. What are life's true values? Let's pray. And now, Father, we thank thee for thy holy word. We thank thee for these solemn things. For thy wisdom and thy kindliness in having this record in thine inspired book, that we may learn therefrom. We thank thee once more for thy servant Daniel. We thank thee for his courage, for his ability, for his life in service in the Babylonian civil service, but his glorious faithfulness to thyself. We thank thee for his voice to Belshazzar. The last time he heard the voice of God on earth. Help us, Lord, to grasp the meaning of this chapter. Help us to worship thee for thine amazing grace that has put such value upon us who have received thy son. Fill our hearts, Lord, with the longing desire to go out amongst our fellows and call on them, in the name of God and his dear Son, to stop and think of what their true values are, lest they shall go over the allotted number of their days, rejecting the Savior, without God, without hope, and without value for all eternity. Help us, we pray, as we thank thee now for this food and the fellowship we expect to have together, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.