the whole hand — just the fingers — were visible, moving slowly and surely across the plaster of the wall, over against the flickering light which emanated from the candlestick. It was as though a visitor from another sphere had arrived, a harbinger of impending doom. T he M ortal F right of the K ing (5:6-9) Bead 5:6 carefully. The monarch was half drunk with wine: his face grew pallid with fear. He trembled with terror. He roared for his official interpreters (5 :7 ), the frustrated as trologers. The introduction of Daniel is the first ray of light upon the bleak and terrifying scene. The queen remem bered the prophet (5:10-12). Appar ently Daniel, no longer the young man of Dan. 1, had been forgotten for years by the royal court. The queen recalled the tradition that in the days of Nebuchadnezzar the prophet had shown himself to be a man of “an ex cellent spirit, and knowledge, and un derstanding, interpreting of dreams” (5:12). The interesting fact is that Daniel’s prophecies of Chapters Two and Four were appreciated but their lessons were not taken to heart. Belshazzar’s court presumably understood that some day the Babylonian kingdom would yield to Medo-Persia, according to the image prediction of Chapter Two. But the king persisted in his vice and iniquity, as though the god of the ages were not on his throne. It is one thing to know the truth; it is another to accept and profit by the truth. The mystical words mene, tekel, up- harsoin meant “number, weight, divi sion” (5:24-28). Belshazzar’s king dom was weighed in the balances of God. The verdict: guilty. The pro nouncement: disaster. The Medes and Persians would replace the Babylo nians (5 :28 ). Belshazzar, soon to perish, rewarded the prophet in a scene of macabre impotence (5:29). At least the unholy monarch kept his drunken word! 31
C hapter Two gave us a view of pro phetic history. Empire would fol low empire until at length the smit ing stone (2:45) would strike the image, and then in turn become a mountain, i.e., until Christ would re turn catastrophically to set up his kingdom. Chapter Five pin-points the transfer from the first to the second empire, from B aby lon to Medo- Persia. T he M ajestic F east (5:1-4) Years had elapsed . Belshazzar, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, was co ruler with his father. (Hence his promise to make Daniel “third ruler” in the kingdom. See 5:7, 16, 29.) Far from humbling himself before God, the monarch prepared a banquet where debauchery, idolatry and blas phemy held sway. He and his wicked associates actually drank out of the holy vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had brought to Babylon from the tem ple in Jerusalem (5 :3 ). This was the acme of wickedness, the peak of arro gant wantonness. God would tolerate it no longer. T he M ysterious F ingers (5:5) A weird phenomenon it was. Not
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