Sermon Transcript August 21, 2011 Living for God in a Messy World The Hand Writing is on the Wall Daniel 5 This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on August 21, 2011, at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109 by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. It is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) 563-8286. An audio/download version of this sermon may also be found on the church web-site at www.wethefc.com. 1
Review This summer we have been making our way through the first six chapters of the Old Testament book of Daniel. As we have been making our way through some rather fascinating stories, we have been learning how to live as citizens of Jerusalem while living in the city of Babylon. We have been watching Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We have been learning from their example how to live as citizens of God s kingdom while living in a messy world. Here is what we have observed to this point in our study. Here is what we have learned from Daniel and his three buddies as to how to live as people of God in this world. Lesson #1 Resolve to Remember: From Daniel 1 we learned that citizens of God s kingdom are people who resolve to remember that they belong to God s kingdom. What disciplines do you practice that help you remember that you belong to God? Daniel and his three friends chose not to eat the king s food or drink the king s wine to help them remember that they were first and foremost followers of God. Right now you are practicing the discipline of the corporate worship of God, you are voluntarily coming under the teaching of the Word of God, and this discipline helps you remember God and the calling God has on your life. As citizens of Jerusalem we must practice those disciplines that help us remember who we truly are. We must resolve to remember. Lesson #2 Seek First the Kingdom of God: From Daniel 2 we learn that citizens of God s kingdom give priority to God s kingdom above the kingdom of man. In this chapter we got to see the incredible dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had regarding the future kingdoms of the world and we discovered that the kingdoms of man will come and go. But that is not true of the kingdom of God. In the coming of Jesus, God s kingdom has come into this world and some day it will completely fill heaven and earth and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So our first allegiance is not to the United States of America. We pledge our allegiance to Jesus Christ and to his kingdom. Lesson #3 Trust God: From Daniel 3 we learn that citizens of God s kingdom trust God in the good and in the bad of life. As Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced the prospect of being thrown into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to the golden image, they put their trust in God. The great line of Daniel 3 is found in verses 17-18. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. We trust God, whether or not God chooses to deliver us from our fiery furnace. 2
Lesson #4 God Uses Our Faith to Reveal Himself to Others: The lesson we learned briefly last week at our Baptism service came from Daniel 4. As these four men exercised their faith time and time again, Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king of Babylon, was learning more and more about the living God. Each chapter reveals a new revelation this king gets about God because of the faith of these four Hebrew men. Someone asked me if I thought Nebuchadnezzar became a worshiper of the living God, of YHWH, Jehovah, the God of Israel. The end of Daniel 4 makes you wonder. He said, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Is that not what we live for as citizens of Jerusalem living in this messy world? Do we not long for God to use our lives to reveal Himself to others? Introduction So how do we live as citizens of Jerusalem in the city of Babylon? We resolve to remember We seek first the kingdom of God We trust God We exercise our faith that God might show Himself to others through us This brings us to Daniel 5 and a fifth lesson we can learn from these six wonderful chapters in Daniel. Let me tell you up front what you will learn from this chapter about how to live as a citizen of God s kingdom in this world. Citizens of God s kingdom do not shrink back from proclaiming the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now the word gospel literally means good news. To those of us who embrace the gospel, that is indeed what it is. It is the message that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture. That is good news and with it comes the message of the forgiveness of sins. So if it is good news why would we be tempted to shrink back from sharing it? Herein lies the reason. With this message of good news also comes hard news. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that the good news can not be embraced without first hearing the hard news. This hard news is hard to swallow and our culture doesn t receive it very well. The hard news is this. You are a sinner and you deserve the judgment of God. If you do not turn through faith to Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin, you face the prospect of eternal judgment in a place of eternal and conscious torment. John 3:36 lays it out this way. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever rejects the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Because of this reality, we are 3
called to warn people everywhere to repent and flee the wrath that will come when Christ returns as Judge. It says in Acts 17:30-31, The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. This is hard news to deliver. But based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we believe that the handwriting is on the wall. I am sure many of you are familiar with that expression. It is an expression used to convey that doom is certain. We are certain of this truth. We confess in our creed that Jesus who died, rose again, ascended into heaven and sits in authority at the right hand of the Father shall come to judge the quick (the living) and the dead. Because the writing is on the wall we do not shrink back from warning those around us to repent. This we learn from Daniel. Daniel literally had to read the writing on the wall for the king and this writing pronounced God s judgment. But Daniel did not shrink back from this difficult task. Citizens of Jerusalem do not shrink back from proclaiming the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lets look at the story we find in Daniel 5. Why A Party? Daniel 5 begins with a party. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Let me begin by first introducing you to a new character in the book of Daniel. In fact, he kind of shows up in Daniel 5 completely out of nowhere. We meet him at the beginning of verse 1 and we were not expecting to see him there. His name is King Belshazzar. Up to this point, in the first four chapters of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and he was a major character in each chapter. At the end of chapter 4 we even hear this Babylonian king giving praise to the living God. Chapter 4 closes and chapter 5 opens and without any warning there is a new king on the throne. I wouldn t be surprised if 30 years past between these two chapters. Nebuchadnezzar s reign ended in 562 B.C. and the events of Daniel 5 took place in 539 B.C.. In verse 2, Nebuchadnezzar is identified as the father of Belshazzar. The word father can also mean predecessor and that is the meaning of this word in this story. 4
The true father of Belshazzar was a man by the name of Nabonidus. Nabonidus took the throne of Babylon four years after Nebuchadnezzar passed. Six years into his reign, he made his son co-regent and they ruled together over Babylon for eleven years. Not to get too far ahead in the story, but when Daniel comes before the king to read the handwriting on the wall, he is promised at the end of verse 16 that if he is able to do so he will be made the third ruler in the kingdom. Obviously, we know who number one and number two is in the kingdom. It is Belshazzar and his father Nabonidus. Just as an interesting side note to all of this. For the longest time, scholars doubted the historicity of this story because nowhere was there ever found any record of a king in Babylon by the name of Belshazzar. It wasn t until 1854 that a British consul by the name of J. G. Taylor was exploring some ruins in southern Iraq and they came across several small cylinders with writing on them. Here, they discovered writing that had been commissioned by King Nabonidus and it contained a prayer for long life for both Nabonidus and his eldest son Belshazzar. While none of the archaeological discoveries name Belshazzar as king, listen to what was written in Biblical Archaeology Review in March/April of 1985. In legal deeds from the sixth century B.C. the parties swear oaths by the gods and the king, according to a well-known and long-standing practice. In some of these deeds from the reign of Nabonidus, we find that the parties swear by Nabonidus and Belshazzar, the king s son. The formula, swearing by the king and his son, is unattested in any other reign in any documents uncovered. This suggests that Belshazzar may have had a special status. We know that during part of his father s reign, Belshazzar was the effective authority in Babylon...For several years of his reign, Nabonidus did not even live in Babylon; instead he stayed at the distant oasis of Teima in northern Arabia. During that time, Belshazzar ruled in Babylon. According to one account, Nabonidus entrusted the kingship to Belshazzar. you know who Belshazzar is as we begin Daniel 5. He is the son of the king, Nabonidus. He reigned with his father over the country of Babylon for eleven years. He was essentially the one in charge of the city of Babylon while his father was stationed elsewhere. He personally came to power twelve years after Nebuchadnezzar s reign came to an end. And here he is, throwing a big party at a rather odd time to be throwing a party. The reason I say it is an odd time to be throwing a big party is because while he is in the palace carousing with a thousand of his lords, Darius and the army of the Medes were outside the walls of the city damming up the river so that they could enter the city through the space provided them when the water dried up. Belshazzar also knew that other major cities within the empire had already fallen to the Medes and the Persians. 5
His father, Nabonidus, was with the army in a city called Opis and he fled when defeat was sure and by this time the Babylonian armies had been decimated and there was nothing left to hold back the armies of the Medes and the Persians. So why the party? It sure does seem an odd time for a party. But this was no ordinary party. This party was Belshazzar s last ditch effort to save Babylon from their enemies. It was a party with a purpose. It was a party that sought to appeal for help from the gods of the Babylonians. This is why they brought out the articles from the temple of Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had brought with him when he conquered the city of Jerusalem. Through this party they were toasting the past victories of their gods with the hope that the gods would once again intervene and rescue them from their enemies. 5 And so we read in verse 4, They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Hand Writing on the Wall Look what happens during this party when the revelers are calling out to their gods for deliverance. Starting in verse 5 we read, Immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. I would imagine we can all appreciate this reaction from the king. If you were sitting in a room and a disembodied hand was floating above you scrawling a message into the wall, I am quite sure you too would be rather unnerved. So in verse 7 we read The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. (Sounds like a short-lived and an empty reward with the Persians advancing into the city as he spoke!) Then all the king s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Perhaps it was written in a language they were not familiar with or the letters were arranged in a way they could not decipher. Or another possibility was that they knew what the words were but could not interpret the meaning of the words. Because no one could discern the message that had been mysteriously etched into the walls King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed. Into this scene enters the queen in verse 10. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, O king, live 6
forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchanezzar, your father your father the king made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation. You know, when you read this with the perspective of how much time has transpired between Daniel 4 and 5, you come to the realization that Daniel has lived a long time in the city of Babylon. Time and time again he was called upon to deliver the message from God and yet his message seemed to fall on deaf ears. Here he is before another king who is essentially blaspheming the name of God by bringing the vessels from the temple to drink out of and by recounting how the gods of Babylon had defeated the God of Israel. Daniel did not live to see any great revival as a result of his ministry. He did see growth in Nebuchadnezzar s understanding of God. But in essence, the message he delivered brought judgment on the people of Babylon. And yet, Daniel faithfully spoke the message of God into a culture that refused to listen. He held out the real prospect that if they repented, God would turn to them with favor. Citizens of Jerusalem do not shrink back from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. We read in verse 13, Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, who the king my father brought from Judah. I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Daniel responds to the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and when his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was 7
taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. Of course, Daniel is referring to the events described for us in Daniel 4. Here God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar and brought him to a point where he recognized the absolute sovereignty of God over all things. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar confesses at the end of Daniel 4 that those who walk in pride God is able to humble. That is a universal truth. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:5-6, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Isaiah 2:12 warns us, For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty against all that is lifted up and it shall be brought low. This was the lesson Nebuchadnezzar was taught in Daniel 4. He recorded it for all to read. But here we are, some twenty years later and this lesson was forgotten and Belshazzar is now the king and he not only is failing to humble himself before the Most High God but he is blaspheming the God of Israel by claiming that the gods of Babylon defeated the one true God. What pride. What arrogance. He failed to acknowledge the glory of God. There is no greater sin in the universe than the sin of pride that defames the glory of God. Proclaiming the Gospel So here Daniel is and he now has to proclaim the hard news to the king, Belshazzar. He needs to confront the king with his sin and needs to pronounce to the king his judgment. So he begins by confronting the king with his sin. He says to the king in verse 22, And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. Basically, he is telling the king that he should have known better. He knew all that happened to King Nebuchadnezzar and how God had humbled this mighty king and how this king in turn responded with praise to the Most High God. And yet here he is, defaming the name of God. I think what he says at the end of verse 23 is especially poignant. In their party they were celebrating the victories of their gods over the God of Israel, when in reality, the God of Israel is the one in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways. It was this God the king failed to honor. 8
This is the hard news of the gospel. This is what makes it hard to share the gospel in our culture. Most people don t have any problem admitting that they have done bad things from time to time, if not daily. But what we fail to grasp is the severity of our sin against a Holy God in whose hand is our breath. Oliver Thomas wrote an editorial in USA Today, just a couple weeks ago. The title of the editorial was Should believers fear Hell and God? In this article he acknowledged that most Americans believe in Hell but he questioned the justice of it. In fact he even went so far as to say that if it is true, if Hell is real, God is unjust. The punishment of Hell, eternal and conscious torment, in his view, does not fit the crime. That is our problem. We don t understand the crime. John Piper says it this way, Sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness. If ever there was a generation without excuse, it is our generation. Science has opened our eyes to the glory of God like no other generation before us. Whether we are looking through the telescope or the microscope, wonders have opened to us that no other generation has seen. And yet we take this information and exchange the glory of God in such a way that we worship creation instead of the Creator, and for this, God s wrath is upon us. In addition to this, we have the full revelation of God in the Scriptures, where God has disclosed his character to us and told us of his holiness and love. There is no book that has been published more than the Bible. You can readily find in on the bookshelves of secular and religious bookstores, libraries, homes and churches. And yet we chafe under the notion that God is holy and his law is to be obeyed. So we raise our puny fists into the air and we claim independence from God foolishly thinking that we can draw one breathe without his sustaining hand of grace. In addition to this, we don t live in B.C. but in A.D. We live after the coming of Jesus into this world and the evidence of the resurrection declares to us the truth of God. The cross tells us how severe our sin really is and how holy God is. The picture of the cross is symbol to us of how God feels about our sin. His only begotten Son, died in our place and took our punishment for sin. We must be willing to look our culture in the eyes and proclaim the truth and the reality of their sin and our sin. We all fall short of the glory of God. God have mercy. After confronting the king with his sin, he pronounces God s judgment on him by reading the handwriting on the wall. We pick it up in verse 24 where we read, Then 9
from his presence the hand was sent and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. There were three words inscribed on the wall. They were in Aramaic, which leads me to believe that the wise men of Babylon could read the words but could not discern what God was communicating through them. By themselves they simply mean, numbered, weighed, divided. So what does that mean? Daniel tells us. In verse 26 he says, This is the interpretation of the matter. MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PARSIN, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. So Daniel speaks a word of judgment to this king and does not shrink back from the message found in the handwriting on the wall. Our culture scoffs at the notion of such an idea as Hell and judgment, but we must not shrink back from pronouncing it. I am not talking about being belligerent or mean spirited. We all have images in our minds of those who do more damage than good in their hell fire and brimstone, finger-pointing condemnation of those who do not agree with them. But, nonetheless, we do need announce the warning of judgment and the need to repent. It is interesting that at the end of the book of Revelation when John is beginning to reveal the scene of the final judgment, when every person will stand before the living God and give an account that we find these words, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! Here we are in Daniel 5, the night the city of Babylon falls. We read in verse 30 That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. Babylon becomes the picture of the kingdom of man, and there is coming a day of judgment for this world and all who live in it, just like there was for Belshazzar and the city of Babylon. I think the message of the handwriting on the wall is not just for Belshazzar, but it is for all of us. MENE, MENE: Your days are numbered. The fact that this word is mentioned twice indicated that his days were up. For you, it is around the corner. You may not know it, but for some of you, midnight in your life is about to strike. TEKEL: You will stand before God and your deeds will be measured on a balance and you will come up short. You will be found wanting because there is no one who can earn their way to God. The result is PARSIN: You will be judged. Your only hope is this; if during your days you repent of your sin and turn to Jesus, his righteousness will be given to you and your scales will be balanced and you will have eternal life. Don t be like Belshazzar and get to a point where it is too late. Today is the day, turn to Jesus. 10
Application I would like to close this morning with three quick points of application for us this morning. 1. We must talk about Hell: My first point of application is this. We must not shrink back from talking about the reality of Hell. It is a notion that is mocked by our culture and is being questioned by religious leaders, but it is the message of the Bible and it is real. A website I frequent is called www.thegospelcoalition.com. They have great video vignettes, discussing matters of faith. This week I saw one with John Piper, DA Casron and Tim Keller. They were discussing the role of mercy ministries and the message of the gospel. They were asking the question: How do you safeguard the gospel while being involved in mercy ministries? In other words, they are all for feeding the poor but they also want to make sure that they don t forget the gospel! Listen to what John Piper said about this. How do we keep compassion ministry from sweeping away the need for evangelism? It is very hard to give up on the gospel if you believe there is a Hell. That is, after this life there is an endless suffering for those who did not believe in the gospel. We exist to relieve all suffering, especially eternal suffering. If you believe the handwriting is on the wall and judgment is coming, then you must not shrink back from sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what citizens of Jerusalem do! 2. Learn the Gospel: Perhaps one of the things that keeps us from sharing the gospel is that we don t know how. I would say to you, learn how to share the gospel so that you might appropriately warn others of the coming wrath and might point them to the hope of Jesus. This Fall, I am offering a seven week class that will train you how to share the gospel. I not sure if I will be doing it Sunday night or Monday night, but it is an opportunity for you to learn how to share Christ with others. 3. Turn to Jesus You may be here this morning standing in Belshazzar s shoes. Perhaps you are yet to repent. Your days are numbered, but as of right now, you still have time. God is the loving ruler of the world. He made the world. He made us rulers of the world under Him. You are worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they were created and have there being. (Rev. 4:11) But is that the way it is now? No! We reject God as the ruler of our life and try to run life our own way without God. But we fail to rule ourselves, our society and our world. There is no one righteous, no not one. No one who seeks God. 11
No one who understands, we all have turned away. (Rom. 3:10-11). What will God do about our rebellion? He won t let us rebel forever. The punishment for our rebellion is death and judgment. It is appointed unto man to die once and then face the judgment. (Heb. 9:27) God s justice sounds harsh. But because God loved us, he sent his son into the world, the man Jesus. Jesus always lived under God s rule and by dying in our place he took our punishment and brought forgiveness. Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18) And that is not all, God raised Jesus to life again as the ruler of the world. Jesus conquered death, gives new life and is coming back to judge the world. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3) That leaves you with two ways to live. You can live your way and continue to reject God as the ruler of your life and try to run your life your own way. The result is you are condemned by God and you face death and judgment. You can live God s way. You can confess your sin, rely on what Jesus did for you on the cross and submit yourself to Jesus as the rightful ruler of your life. The result is you are forgiven of your sins and you have everlasting life. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life and God s wrath remains on him. (John 3:36) The handwriting is on the wall of your life. Your days are numbered. You are found wanting. Apart from Jesus, there is judgment. Turn to Jesus today! By Dr. Scott W. Solberg - All rights reserved 12