Daniel 5:10 - Meaning and Application

Here is the first thing to notice: the queen mother gave the king information about Daniel and showed how suitable he was for this hard case. It is thought that this queen was the widow of Evil-Merodach and the famous Nitocris mentioned by Herodotus, a woman known for unusual wisdom. She was not at the feast with the king’s wives and concubines (Daniel 5:2), because it did not suit her age and dignity to join a wild night of drinking.

When she heard about the fear that had come over the king and his nobles, she came into the banquet hall herself. She urged the king not to lose heart because his wise men had failed to solve the mystery. She reminded him that there was a man in his kingdom who had helped his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, at similar moments of crisis, and who could no doubt help now, too (Daniel 5:11, Daniel 5:12). She could not read the writing herself, but she directed him to the one who could. Daniel should have been called first.

Notice the high view she had of Daniel. She said he was a man in whom was the spirit of the holy gods, meaning something more than human was in him, not only the spirit that all people have, which is like the Lord’s lamp in them, but a divine spirit. In the language of her own country and religion, she could not have praised any man more highly. She spoke of him as a man with an excellent mind, full of light, understanding, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods.

He had remarkable insight into hidden things and foresight about things to come, so it was clear that God had given him special help. He had more knowledge and understanding than all the other wise men when it came to dreams, puzzles, hard sayings, untying knots, and solving problems. Solomon also had great wisdom of this kind, but Daniel seems to have had even more direct divine guidance in these matters. A greater than Solomon is here. Yet what were both of them, compared with the riches of wisdom hidden in Christ?

She also spoke of Daniel’s character. An excellent spirit was found in him, and that matched his wisdom well. God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to the one who pleases him. Daniel had a humble, holy, and heaven-minded spirit. He was devoted to God, gracious in heart, and zealous for God’s glory and for the good of others. That was truly an excellent spirit.

The queen mother also explained the honor Nebuchadnezzar had given Daniel. “Your father,” meaning your grandfather, for Nebuchadnezzar could be called the father of that royal line, had made him master of the magicians. Belshazzar may have spoken carelessly or proudly about Nebuchadnezzar and his way of ruling, so she reminds him of it here. The king, she says, had made Daniel chief over all the wise men of Babylon and had given him the name Belteshazzar, after the name of his god, thinking to honor him.

Yet Daniel himself kept using his Jewish name, showing his faithful loyalty to his religion, and so the court name had faded from use. Only the queen mother remembered it. It is a good service to bring back the memory of worthy people’s good work, especially when they are modest and not eager to be praised.

Then she made her request plainly: let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. This shows that Daniel had been forgotten at court. Belshazzar did not even know that such a treasure was in his kingdom. A new king had brought in a new group of officials, and the old one had been pushed aside.

Many useful and valuable people remain hidden for a long time, and some who have done great service live long enough to be overlooked. Still, God does not forget the work done for his kingdom. Daniel had been removed from office and was living quietly, not seeking another place of honor. Yet he stayed near the court and within call, even while Babylon was under siege, so he could be ready to help the children of his people if needed. Providence arranged that, just as that kingdom was falling, he would be brought back to court through the queen’s help, ready for honor in the next government. So the righteous shine out of obscurity, and humility comes before honor.

Then Daniel was brought in before the king (Daniel 5:13). He was now close to ninety years old, so his age, honor, and former rank might have given him free access to the king. Still, he allowed himself to be led in like a stranger by the master of ceremonies.

The king asked him with some pride, “Are you that Daniel, one of the captives from Judah?” Since Daniel was a Jew and a captive, he did not want to depend on him if he could avoid it. He also repeated the praise he had heard about Daniel (Daniel 5:14), saying that the spirit of the gods was in him, and he had sent for him to see whether he truly deserved such a reputation. The king admitted that the wise men of Babylon had failed, for they could not read the writing or explain it (Daniel 5:16). Yet he still promised Daniel the same rewards he had offered the others if he could do it (Daniel 5:16). It is strange that the magicians, who had been confounded before in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, did not try to preserve their honor with some bold guess. But God ordered it so that they had nothing to say, just as the pagan oracles were silenced when Christ was born.

Daniel then gave the meaning of the mysterious writing, and it was such a message that it could only have increased the king’s fear. Daniel was now old, and Belshazzar was young, so he seems to speak more directly and freely to him than he had to Nebuchadnezzar. When correcting anyone, especially those in power, wisdom is needed to judge the situation well, because wise rebuke is part of the way that leads to life. In Daniel’s speech here, 1.

He says he will read the writing that had terrified them and explain its meaning (Daniel 5:17). He brushes aside the king’s offer of rewards and is displeased that it was mentioned, because he is not one of those who speak for pay. He later accepted gifts from Nebuchadnezzar, but he would not bargain for them or read the writing only in return for promised honors. In effect, he says, “Keep your gifts. They will not last long anyway, and give your rewards to someone else, to whichever wise man you would rather pay. I value them not.”

Daniel sees that the kingdom is at its last stage, so he treats its gifts and honors with contempt. We should think the same way about the world’s rewards if we saw, by faith, that its end is drawing near. Let the world give its fading gifts to someone else. Better gifts are the ones we should keep in view and in our hearts. Still, we should do our duty in the world, serve as fully as we can, read God’s message to it in a life of faith, and make its meaning clear through a good life. Then we can trust God for his gifts and rewards, because everything the world offers is only worthless trinkets beside them.

He also gives the king a full account of God’s dealings with his father Nebuchadnezzar, which were meant to warn and instruct him (Daniel 5:18, 5:21). Daniel is not adding a decoration or an interesting story. This is a needed step before explaining the writing. If we want to understand what God is doing with us, it helps to remember what he has done with others.

First, Daniel describes the great power and honor that God’s providence, meaning his wise rule over all things, had given to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 5:18, 5:19). He had a kingdom, majesty, glory, and honor, more than any heathen prince, as far as we know. Nebuchadnezzar thought he had won his greatness by his own skill and courage, and he credited success to his own planning and energy. But Daniel tells him that it was the Most High God, the God of gods and Lord of kings, as Nebuchadnezzar himself had called him, who gave him that kingdom, that wide rule, that majesty in governing it, and that glory and honor that came through his success. Whatever outward success anyone reaches, they must admit it is God’s gift, not their own achievement. No one should say, “My strength and my own hand have earned this wealth or position.” Instead, we should remember that it is God who gives people the power to gain wealth and blesses their efforts.

The power God gave Nebuchadnezzar was very great in both strength and authority. His strength was so overwhelming that it could not be resisted. God gave him such majesty, such large armies, and such skill in commanding them that his sword succeeded wherever it turned. He could frighten and conquer nations without even striking a blow, because all people trembled before him and were willing to make peace on any terms to save their lives. This shows what force can do, and what fear does to people. It rules much of the brute side of the world, and even among human beings it often rules and is ruled by the same fear.

His authority was also complete and unchecked. The power allowed to him, or at least the power he claimed, faced no challenge. He ruled as an absolute monarch, a ruler with total control, and no one shared that power with him in making laws or carrying them out. When he punished, he could condemn or free whoever he wanted. Whom he would, he slew, and whom he would, he saved alive, even if both were equally innocent or equally guilty. The right of life and death was entirely in his hand. When he gave rewards, he could promote or refuse promotion as he pleased. Whom he would, he set up, and whom he would, he put down, simply on a whim and without any reason, even to himself. It was all from his own pleasure, and his will served as his reason. That was how eastern kingdoms were often formed, and that was the manner of their kings.

Then Daniel points out Nebuchadnezzar’s sins, by which he had provoked God against him. He acted harshly toward those under him and became a tyrant and oppressor. The very description of his power shows how he abused it, guided by moods and passions instead of justice and reason. So he often condemned the innocent and cleared the guilty, and both are hateful to the Lord. He removed worthy men and promoted unworthy ones, which harmed the public good. For that, he would answer to the Most High God who had given him his power. It is a hard and rare thing for anyone to hold absolute power and not misuse it.

But that was not all. He also acted proudly toward the God above him and grew haughty (Daniel 5:20). His heart was lifted up, and that is where his sin and ruin began. His mind became hardened in pride, hardened against God’s commands and judgments. He was stubborn and set in his ways, and neither God’s word nor God’s discipline made any lasting impact on him. Pride hardens the heart in every other sin and makes the means of repentance and change ineffective.

Daniel also reminds him of God’s judgment on Nebuchadnezzar for that pride and stubbornness. God took away his reason and removed him from his royal throne (Daniel 5:20). He was driven away from people to live with the wild asses (Daniel 5:21). He who would not govern his subjects by reason had not enough reason left to govern himself. God rightly takes away a man’s reason when he becomes unreasonable and refuses to use it, and he takes away power when it is used in oppression.

Nebuchadnezzar remained like a beast until he learned and embraced this basic truth of religion, that the Most High God rules. In fact, religion more than reason sets human beings apart from the animals and gives them honor above them. It is a greater honor to be a subject of the supreme Creator than to rule over lower creatures.

Kings must know, or else be made to know, that the Most High God rules in their kingdoms. His rule stands above theirs, like an empire within an empire. He appoints over them whom he will, just as he makes heirs and rulers.

In God’s name, Daniel brings charges against Belshazzar. Before he tells him his doom from the writing on the wall, he first shows him his guilt. In this way, God is shown to be right when he speaks and clear when he judges. Belshazzar’s first sin was this: he did not learn from the judgments God brought on his father, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (Daniel 5:22). Daniel says, “You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.”

It is a serious offense when our hearts are not humbled before God. We should be humbled by repentance, obedience, and patience, so that we yield to both his commands and his providences, that is, his wise rule over our lives. Even the greatest people should admit that, great as they are, they still answer to God. It is even worse when people know enough to humble them, but refuse to think on it or use it well. That is especially true when they have seen others broken because they would not bend, and others fall because they would not stoop. Children make their sin worse when they follow the wicked ways of their parents, even after seeing how much those sins cost them.

Belshazzar’s second charge was that he had treated God more boldly and shamelessly than Nebuchadnezzar had done. The proof was the feast he held that very night, when terror seized him in the middle of his revelry (Daniel 5:23). Daniel says that Belshazzar had lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven. He had set himself against God’s royal authority by profaning the vessels from God’s house and turning holy things into tools for his sin. He had also praised idols of silver and gold, which cannot see, hear, or know anything, as if they were greater than the God who sees, hears, and knows all things.

People who are determined to keep on sinning are glad to have gods who do not see or hear or know. Then they think they can sin safely. But they will discover, to their shame, that those are not the gods who will judge them. They will be judged by the one before whom all things are open and exposed.

The third charge was that Belshazzar had failed to do what he was made and kept alive to do. Daniel says, “The God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.” This charge stands against all of us, and we should think carefully about how we will answer it. We depend on God as our Maker, Preserver, Benefactor, Owner, and Ruler. Our breath first came from his hand, and it still remains in his hand. He holds our lives together, and if he takes away our breath, we die. Our times are in his hand, and so is the breath by which our times are measured.

In him we live and move and have our being. We live by him, live on him, and cannot live without him. A person’s way is not under his own control or disposal. All our ways belong to God, because our hearts are in his hand, and so are the hearts of all people, even kings, who seem most free in their actions. Because of this dependence, our duty is to glorify God, give ourselves to his honor, and serve him. We should aim to please him and make praise to him our work. Yet, though we depend on him this way, we have not done this. We have all sinned and fall short of God’s glory.

This is the charge against Belshazzar, and no extra proof is needed. The facts themselves prove it, and his own conscience could not deny it. So Daniel goes on to read the sentence as it was written on the wall. When Belshazzar had reached such a height of sin that he trampled on the most sacred things, and when he was in the middle of his sacrilegious, idolatrous feast, then the hand was sent from that God whom he had so boldly insulted. That God had long put up with him, but would bear with him no longer. It was he who wrote the message now before Belshazzar (Daniel 5:24). The same God writes bitter things against sinners and makes them bear the result of their own guilt (Job 13:26).

As the sins of sinners are written in God’s knowledge, so their doom is written in God’s law. The day is coming when those books will be opened, and they will be judged by them. The writing was: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin (Daniel 5:25). We are helped by the inspired explanation of these words, or we could make little of them, since they are so short. Their meaning is, He has numbered, he has weighed, and they divide. The Chaldean wise men could not understand who “he” was, since they did not know that there is only one God, and that may be part of why the writing puzzled them.

Mene is repeated to show that the matter is certain. It means, “He has numbered and finished.” Daniel explains that God has numbered the years and days of Belshazzar’s kingdom, and now they are ended (Daniel 5:26). The time appointed for him to hold the kingdom has run out, and he must give it up. Here is the end of his kingdom.

Tekel means “You are weighed,” and, in a similar sense, “You are too light.” Belshazzar and his actions are weighed in the just and perfect scales of God’s fairness. God knows his true character as clearly as a goldsmith knows the weight of metal on the finest scales. God does not pass judgment until he has fully considered Belshazzar’s actions and the merits of his case. But Belshazzar is found wanting, not fit to hold such a trust, a vain, light, empty man, lacking weight and worth.

Upharsin, or Peres, means “divided,” and also points to the Persians. Daniel joins both ideas together (Daniel 5:28). Belshazzar’s kingdom will be divided, torn from him, and given to the Medes and Persians, like spoil to be shared among them. This also fits the doom of sinners. Mene, Tekel, Peres can easily stand for death, judgment, and hell. At death, the sinner’s days are numbered and finished. After death comes judgment, when he is weighed and found wanting. After judgment, he is cut off and handed over as prey to the devil and his angels.

Daniel did not give Belshazzar the same call to repentance that he had given Nebuchadnezzar, because he saw that God’s decree had already gone out, and Belshazzar would not be given time to turn back. You might expect Belshazzar to be angry with Daniel, and, knowing his situation was hopeless, to lash out at him. But his conscience had convinced him so deeply of the truth of Daniel’s words that he made no objection.

Instead, he gave Daniel the reward he had promised, put on him the purple robe and the gold chain, and announced him as the third ruler in the kingdom (Daniel 5:29). He did this because he meant to keep his word, and because Daniel was not at fault if the meaning of the writing was not what the king wanted to hear. Many people show great respect to God’s prophets, while still paying no real attention to God’s word.

Daniel did not place much value on these titles and marks of honor, yet he did not refuse them, because they showed his ruler’s goodwill. Still, we can think he received them with a quiet smile, knowing how soon they would fade with the man who gave them. They were like Jonah’s plant, which grew up in a night and died in a night. So it would have been foolish for Daniel to be very glad of them.