Daniel 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see Belshazzar the king in a joyful mood, but suddenly gloomy and trapped in his own wealth. We also see how he insulted God, and how God struck fear into him. The question is what came of this struggle, and whether the man who hardened his heart against God ever prospered.

First, see how the king insulted God and showed contempt for him. He held a great feast, a banquet with wine, likely for a yearly celebration, perhaps his birthday, his coronation day, or a feast for his idols. Historians say Cyrus, who was then besieging Babylon, knew about this feast and expected the city to be careless. Thinking the people were buried in sleep and wine, he used the chance to attack and later took the city more easily.

Belshazzar invited a thousand of his nobles to drink with him. They may have been men who had defended the city, or his council of war, whom he planned to consult after they had drunk freely. It was also considered a mark of favor that he drank wine before them, since eastern kings usually stayed out of sight. He did this to display the honor of his royal power, much like Ahasuerus did.

In this lavish feast, he insulted God’s care and openly challenged God’s judgments. His city was under siege, a strong enemy stood at the gates, and his life and kingdom were at risk. The Lord’s hand was already against him, calling him to weeping, mourning, and sackcloth. God’s warning was already sounding in the city, as Jonah warned Nineveh that destruction was near. Instead of proclaiming a fast like the king of Nineveh, he declared a feast, with joy, loud eating, and drinking, as if he dared Almighty God to do his worst (Isaiah 22:12-13).

He also showed contempt for God’s temple and defied God’s sanctuary (Daniel 5:2). While he was tasting the wine, he ordered the vessels from the temple to be brought so they could drink from them. It was as if he thought, “These holy vessels should hold such fine wine,” and the order was carried out as a joke. But there was likely more than foolish humor here. It seems he acted in cruel spite toward the God of Israel.

The people of God cared deeply about these sacred vessels, and their return from captivity especially concerned them (Jeremiah 27:16, 18; Ezra 1:7). They may have expected their deliverance soon, since the seventy years of captivity were nearly over. Some may even have spoken confidently that the sanctuary vessels would soon be restored. In response, Belshazzar claimed them as his own and used them like ordinary tableware. Mirth is truly sinful when it profanes holy things and mocks what belongs to God. Babylon was being prepared for ruin because nothing would satisfy them except songs from Zion (Psalm 137:3), and nothing would serve them except the vessels of the sanctuary.

He also insulted God himself and challenged God’s own being. They drank wine and praised gods of gold and silver, meaning idols made by human hands and imagination (Daniel 5:4). They gave to images the honor that belongs only to the true and living God. They may have done this through sacrifices or songs of praise. Wine had made their minds foolish, and in that condition they were ready to praise lifeless idols of wood and stone. Sober people would not choose such nonsense. Drunken worshipers are fit only for dead idols, which are really not gods at all but devils. They had gone astray through wine (Isaiah 27:7).

They drank and praised their idols as if those false gods had provided the feast and given them every good thing. Or they may have been praising them with drinking healths, with the king leading the toast to one god after another, including those made of wood and stone. Sin and godlessness strengthen each other. Drunken revels lead into idolatry, and idolatrous drinking then feeds more drunkenness.

Now see how God struck fear into the king. Belshazzar and his nobles were deep in their feast, the cups were moving quickly, and they were likely shouting victory over Cyrus and his army. They trusted that the siege would soon be lifted. But the time had come for what had long been said about Babylon, that when the Persians and Medes came against it, its pride would fall (Isaiah 21:2-4). God turned the night of pleasure into terror.

The court celebration was ruined at once. The king himself could not keep order, and all their joy turned into sorrow. Then the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, right before the king’s face (Daniel 5:5). The rabbis said the angel Gabriel guided the fingers and wrote through them. One of our own writers, Dr. Lightfoot, said that the same divine hand that once wrote the law on two stone tablets now wrote Babylon’s doom on the wall. There was no thunder, no lightning, no sword-bearing angel, only a hand writing in the light of the candlestick, where all could see it.

God’s written word is enough to frighten the proudest and boldest sinner, when he chooses to give it force. The king saw only the hand that wrote, not the person it belonged to, and that made the sight even more terrifying. What we see of God, just a part of his work in creation and Scripture, can fill us with awe about what we do not see (Job 26:14). If this is only the finger of God, then what must his arm be like when he acts in power?

The king was at once seized by panic and fear (Daniel 5:6). His face changed color, and the joints of his back gave way, so that he had no strength left. His knees knocked together with fear. But why was he so terrified? He did not know what was written, and it might have been good news for him and his kingdom. Yet his own guilty conscience rose up against him and told him he had no reason to expect any kindness from heaven. He felt sure that a message written by an angel could only bring fear. A man who knows he is exposed to God’s justice will quickly think of such a message as a summons to answer before him. God can quickly wake up the most careless person and make the strongest sinner tremble. Often, all he has to do is let that person’s own thoughts run loose. Those thoughts soon become his torment.

The wise men of Babylon were immediately called in to see what they could make of the writing on the wall (Daniel 5:7). The king shouted for the whole group of magicians, in great haste and real alarm, to come and try to read the writing and explain it. He and all his nobles could not claim that skill, because it was beyond them. Among the heathen, the study of supposed divine revelation and dealings with the spirit world was usually left to one class of people. But what God writes for us is plain enough for all to read. Anyone who wants to may learn God’s mind from Scripture. To push these wise men to use all their skill and to stir them to compete with one another, the king promised great rewards to anyone who could explain the writing clearly. He knew what these men wanted and what would flatter them, so he offered a scarlet robe and a gold chain, glittering prizes to people who knew no better. He also promised that the winner would become the third ruler in the kingdom, just below the king and his heir.

But the king was disappointed in them. None of the wise men could read the writing, much less explain it (Daniel 5:8), and this only made the king more troubled (Daniel 5:9). The matter looked worse and worse to him, and he feared that danger was coming. His nobles, who had shared in his drinking and pleasure, now shared in his terror too. They were all stunned and at a loss, and neither their great number nor their wine could keep them steady. The reason they could not read the writing was not simply that it was in an unknown language or script. God either blinded them or confused their minds so badly that they could not read it. In this way, the honor of explaining this mysterious writing would be kept for Daniel. An awakened conscience that has been truly convicted is rightly made even more uneasy when every created help proves powerless to give it peace.