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July 1929
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Ilf In te rn a t io n a l Lesson C omm en ta ry i§ B y D a v id L. C ooper
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August 4, 1929 B elshazzar’s F east (Temperance Lesson) Dan. 5:1-31 Devotional Reading: Psa. 1.
FRED S. SHEPARD ’S BLACKBOARD OUTLINE R EVELINGS (Excess) ELAXATION (Off-guard) UINATION (Penalty) Like a serpent—like an adder.— Prov. 23:32.
put forth his hand to prevent its falling, God smote him with death. That which is consecrated to God, as was the Ark, the vessels of the temple, and the temple itself, cannot with impunity be used in a trivial, light, or secular way. II. The Handwriting on the Wall. Vs. 5-28. 1. The Appearance of the Writing Fin gers. V. 5. In the midst of the festivities, when their hearts were intoxicated with the pleasures of the hour and their feelings were paralyzed with fleshly gratification, a crisis suddenly appeared which threw the banquet hall into a pandemonium. There appeared “ the fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the can dlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.’’ Life is un certain. On such a day and at such an hour when men least expect an interrup tion of their plans and pleasures, God most frequently intervenes, either in a miraculous way, as in this case, or in a providential occurrence, either of which is an interposition. Little did the Sodom ites realize that on the day after the two strangers entered their city (Gen. 18, 19), they would be dashed into eternity un prepared to meet a righteous God against whom they lived in sinful defiance daily. So far as human knowledge is concerned, the summons into the presence of God or chastisement in the form of calamity may come at any moment. On such a day and in such an hour, when the world is least expectant, Jesus the Messiah will descend from heaven to the air, catch up His saints out of this sinful world, and begin sending His judgments upon the world. 2. The Failure of the Chaldeans to In terpret the Writing. Vs. 6-9. The miraculous appearance of this hand struck consternation and fear to the heart of the king, for he realized that he was in the presence and grip of the supernatural. Doubtless his guilty con science, which he, in ail probabilities, had often outraged, heightened and intensi fied the dread of the moment. So great was his terror, that it had appreciable effects upon his body: Immediately he called for the “en chanters, Chaldeans, and soothsayers." He recounted the occurrence and offered great gifts to the one who would interpret it. Among the gifts offered was promo tion to become “the third ruler in the kingdom,’’ This statement was an enigma until archeologists revealed the fact that Nabonidus was king and Belshazzar was Co-Rex. Therefore the Biblical account fits most accurately into the historical facts as revealed by archeologists. All of the attempts of these soothsayers were futile because, if they knew the im port of the writing, God would not permit them to tell it. There is no doubt, ac cording to the New Testament Scriptures,
Golden Text: “And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). L esso n in O u tlin e Introduction: Historical Setting. I. The Banqueting. Vs. 1-4. II. The Handwriting on the Wall. Vs. 5-28. 1. The Appearance of the Writing Fingers. V. 5. 2. The Failure of the Chaldeans to Interpret the Writing. Vs. 6-9. 3. The Success of Daniel in Inter preting the Writing. Vs. 10-28. a. The King’s ‘Explanation to Daniel. Vs. 13-16. b. Daniel’s Reply. Vs. 17-28. (1) Nebuchadnezzar’s Ex perience a Warning. Vs. 17-24. (2) The Interpretation of the Writing. Vs. 25-28. III. Daniel Honored. V. 29. IV. The Fall of Babylon. Vs. 30, 31. —o—: Introduction: Historical Setting. 'T ’HE scene of this lesson is the banquets ing hall within the palace of Bel shazzar, king of Babylon, in the great city of Babylon. The persons present formation which is gathered from Herod otus, Xenophon, the contract tablets, and the Cyrus cylinder, it seems most prob able that the city was captured without resistance in the month of Tammuz (June-July), but that the king and his forces, fortified behind the walls of the inner city in the palaces, temples, and for tresses, maintained their resistance against the Persians until the 11th of March esvan, which was the night of Belshaz zar’s feast. Prior to the archeological discoveries and the deciphering of the many contract tablets and the Cyrus cylinder, the ration alistic critics were overconfident in their affirmation that the book of Daniel was utterly unhistorical. Therefore they as signed it, upon rationalistic principles, to the days of the Maccabeah struggle were the king and his lords, together with his wives and concubines. T h e time was the 11th of Marchesvan (Oc- tober-November) of the year 539 B. C. From all the in
(175 to 63 B. C.). But the great array of facts which have been collected by the painstaking labors of Dr. Robert Dick Wilson in his book “Studies in the Book of Daniel,” and those presented in “In and Around the Book of Daniel,” by Charles Boutflower, have utterly ex ploded the rationalistic position of the critics. All of the data point most defi nitely and positively toward the inevi table conclusion of the historicity of the book of Daniel. Therefore the faithful child of God can accept, with perfect assurance, this book as the very Word of God. I. The Banqueting. Vs. 1-4. Belshazzar was king of Babylon. He is not mentioned on the. monuments nor in any of the contract tablets (records of commercial transactions) as king; but his father, Nabonidus, was, according to the historical records, king. There is perfect harmony between Daniel’s statement and that of the monuments. Nabonidus was the king and Belshazzar, his son, was Co- Rex. Nabonidus and his army had met Cyrus in battle north of the city and had been defeated. It seems that after this defeat he did not return to the city but left the affairs of the capital city within the hands of his son Belshazzar. On the fatal night of which this lesson speaks, Belshazzar, feeling secure behind the great walls of the inner city, gave a most sumptuous banquet to his lords, wives, and concubines. According to the customs of the times among the heathen, and irreligious people even among the Jews, drinking was common. The vessels of gold which had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar when he took Jerusalem and which had been stored in the great temple at Babylon, were brought forth and used at this ban quet. Of course these vessels had been dedicated and consecrated to the service of God, which facts set them apart from a common, to a sacred use-—to be used only in the true worship of God, When that which has been consecrated to God, is prostituted to secular uses, God, being what He is, necessarily intervenes. Thus He acted when the Ark of the Covenant in the days of Eli was removed from the tabernacle, taken to the battle-front and captured by the Philistines. Dagon, the Philistine god, fell before it. The Israel ites at Beth-shemesh when they pried into it were punished of God. When Uzzah
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