The Writing on the Wall
Living in Babylon: An Exposition of Daniel

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Good morning, church! Are you ready for chapter five? We’re coming up on chapter five. Out of curiosity, how many of you have been with us on this whole journey through the book of Daniel? Lift your hands. Let me see how we’re doing. Okay, that is a good number. Those who may have missed a few chapters, I hope you’re reading during the week so you will know where we are in the text.

Today, we’re going to introduce a new character. Between chapter four and chapter five, about thirty years have passed and Nebuchadnezzar has passed away. There is a new man on the throne; we’ll encounter him in just a moment. As we’re going through this series, the twelve chapters of the book of Daniel, we’re going to take a break for Easter and then we’ll come back to it because we have to focus on Easter, right? We have to focus on the resurrection. We’ll come back after that and look at Daniel.

We’ve entitled this series, “Living in Babylon,” because “Babylon,” in the Bible, is symbolic of the world. It is symbolic of the world system, the world’s government, the world’s economy, even the world’s religion. Man-made religion, everything that’s made by man is symbolic of Babylon.

When we talk about living in Babylon, why Babylon? What we’re saying is, just as Daniel and the Jewish exiles were carried off to live in Babylon, they were believers, citizens of Jerusalem but they were living as exiles in Babylon. So we’re like exiles because, as born again believers, our citizenship is in heaven. But yet we live in this world. And so we’re like exiles in this world, exiles in Babylon. But how do we live so that we, with our lives, honor our King Jesus? How do we honor God as exiles in Babylon? This is what we’re talking about this morning.

The dictionary defines the word, “honor,” like this: “To hold someone in high respect, to revere, to give glory, to give credit to, to pay , honor or to worship.” There are two movements for honor; it’s a closely related synonym to worship. One is to recognize what someone is worth; to recognize that they’re worthy of honor. And then the following movement would be, having recognized it, to pay them or give them honor, to give them what they’re worth. I would ask you this question: Who receives your honor? Who receives your praise? Who do you lift up? Who do you give credit for your life?

This past week, a couple of members in our small group had just installed a hardwood floor in their house. The wife said, “My husband did a great job. I can’t wait for you to come over and you will see the great job that he did.” Her husband puffs his chest out with pride; his wife is bragging on him. And then, he immediately looks at me and he says , “But you know, God gave me the ability to do that.” I’m glad you said that because chapter five is coming your way, buddy. You gave God the credit and the honor for everything you are and everything you do.

Who do you give credit? Who do you give honor? This guy, this new guy on the throne, Belshazzar, did not honor God. He and Babylon did not honor the most high God. God brought their kingdom to a close because they didn’t honor Him. As we’re looking at the text, I think that the text argues why we should give all of our honor, praise and glory to God. As we look at the text, I think we’ll discover three reasons from Daniel why all the honor and praise goes to God. He deserves it all. Why He deserves all of our honor. Let’s look at the text. It’s a great chapter. This is a chapter that was one of my children’s favorites when they were young. I would tell the story and act it out. Today, it will become one of your favorite chapters in the Bible, too.

Daniel 5:1-31 (ESV) 1 King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. 2 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. 3 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. 4 They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 5 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. 6 Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7 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.” 8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. 9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed. 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 forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. 11 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 Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, 12 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.” 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, whom the king my father brought from Judah. 14 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. 15 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. 16 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.” 17 Then Daniel answered and said before 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. 18 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. 19 And because of the greatness that 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. 20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. 21 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. 22 And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 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. 24 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. This is Daniel, chapter five. This is God’s word.

Why God deserves all of our honor: Because …

1. It is God who gives and takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen. It’s God who gives us all that we have and all that we are. I told you earlier, I’m going to preach Daniel’s sermon. So when we begin to chip away at chapter five, verse 17 is where we see Daniel start preaching. I’m not quite as old as he is yet. Praise God. You know, I feel like I’m older than most people, but Daniel’s ahead of me here. He’s probably in his late seventies, coming up on 80. In verse 17 and following, we start seeing some repetition of certain words. “Let your gifts before yourself and give your rewards to another.” I don’t need what you have. I have what God has given me, but let me tell you about your forebearer. Nebuchadnezzar. Look at verse 18, “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty.” Nebuchadnezzar didn’t earn that. He didn’t work for that. Those temple vessels that you took from the most high God, God let him have those. He gave them to him. God gave everything that Nebuchadnezzar had; all of his glory he gave to him. Do you see that in verse 18? Then, in verse 19, “And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him.” And because of the greatness that he gave him; he repeats it. Listen, You knew all this. You knew that everything Nebuchadnezzar had, God gave him.

Chapter four says he sent out a royal decree telling everyone that God is the most high God and He can humble who He will. He gives and he takes away. Nebuchadnezzar had learned that God had taken him from his royal throne and made him eat grass like the cattle.

He was out running with wild donkeys; that’s one of my favorite parts of chapter five, by the way. I had to work that in. Daniel saw him out there; he was running with wild donkeys. He had a mind like a beast and everyone knew it. Everybody in the family knew what happened. “Old Neb,” seven years out there, living in the rain, with the dew settling on him.

What about you? What do you have that God didn’t give you? You earned this, right? Did you make that body with that mind? Did you choose what parents you would be born to? Did you choose? No, no. Everything you have, everything you are and everything that you will be ultimately came from the Creator, the most high God. Have you recognized this, to the point where you’re willing to honor the One who gave you all that you are?

In verse 20, he makes his second part of the point. Verse 20, “But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him.” God gives and God takes away. God gives and God takes away.

Romans 1:21-22, 28 (ESV) “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools… And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind.” Roman says this, in chapter one, , for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were dark and claiming to be wise, they became fools and since they did not see fit acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind. God gives and God takes away.

Who is this Belshazzar? For centuries, people challenged skeptics of the Bible, liberal theologians. They would look at the book of Daniel and say that there it is; he made that up. There was no Belshazzar. The reason that they were saying this was they couldn’t find evidence in any extra biblical source. An extra biblical source is something outside of the Bible, so you could find it written on a wall somewhere; a historian wrote it or something like that. The skeptics looked at the Bible; they said that there’s no Belshazzar. We can’t find Belshazzar, yet, we found Nebuchadnezzar; his name is everywhere. That’s a myth. Daniel made that story up. They said that for years this was a problem.

However, in 1853, archaeological evidence was discovered in the ruins of Babylon that identified Belshazzar as the oldest son of Nabonidus and the “crown prince” of Babylon. Further evidence later found on cuneiform tablets indicated that Nabonidus had entrusted the “authority of the throne” to Belshazzar. This also explains why Belshazzar offered to make Daniel the “third ruler” (v.16) in Babylon because he was the second and his father, the first. In short, the Bible was again proven accurate by archaeological evidence! And so, there was actually a Belshazzar. He was a religious man, but not in the way you think; he was religious toward the moon God but Marduk was not the moon God in Babylon. And so, he had a conflict with the priest, and he moved to another city as the king to appeal to the moon God. He left his son, his first born son, Belshazzar, to run the kingdom. This is why, I believe, Daniel even more accurately quotes him as saying, “I will put purple on you and gold around your neck and I’ll make you the third ruler” because he was only the second ruler himself.

If you go back to the book of Genesis, Pharoah offered this to Joseph; he said that if he could interpret his dream, he would make him the second ruler, which was more common in Oriental language. They would say, I’ll make you the second in command. But in this chapter, he says “the third;” that’s sort of odd. It’s because Belshazzar, his father, is still alive.

Here’s a couple of other thoughts. The middle part of Daniel, chapter two through chapter seven, is written in Aramaic. Most of the Old Testament is written in the language of Hebrew. Hebrew and Aramaic are connected there; they are sister languages. Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew are all Middle Eastern languages. But here, we have the most Aramaic in the whole Bible. We find a little bit of Aramaic makes it over in the New Testament. Jesus speaks it from the cross in the New Testament. But right here, in Daniel 5, it’s all Aramaic. And so, when it says, this is your father, Nebuchadnezzar, it could easily mean grandfather. It could easily mean relative. It could mean successor; you are the successor of Nebuchadnezzar. Aramaic makes it kind of flexible.You can see this even in the New Testament when they refer to Jesus as the son of David. David is not his father, but what they mean was He was born into the lineage of David. You see, Aramaic had a little flexibility here.

(refer to chart on screen) Nebuchadnezzar was the one who founded Babylon. He defeated the Assyrians. He defeated the Egyptians. He defeated Judah. Here’s Babylon and he’s the king. He died about 563 BC and his son, Marduk… He was assassinated by his brother in law, who reigned for five years; this guy only reigned for nine months. These guys are not in the line of Nebuchadnezzar but he marries Nebuchadnezzar’s sister, probably in order to solidify his claim to the throne. And then they have a son, Bellshazzer, who’s actually the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.

The reason that I’m giving you all of this is because I want you to understand something: The Bible is true. Those extra biblical sources that for 1800 years people were saying that they trusted more than the Bible turns out once archaeologists started digging, they found out that the Bible was accurate all along. Archaeology is the best friend of the Bible. Every time something is dug up, it always confirms what the Bible says. So this is Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. It was well known that he was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. I guarantee that family story was constantly circulated about his crazy grandfather who went out and ate grass for seven years before he finally humbled himself .

Many of us are like Belshazzar; we know better but we’ve lifted ourselves up against God. He makes a point of saying his house, the house of God in Jerusalem. He repeats it over and over again. Orientals were kind of superstitious. Even if they didn’t believe in the God of Jerusalem, they were too superstitious to actually take those golden vessels and drink out of him. But not Belshazzar; he lifted himself up against God. He thinks he can do it all. He carried it off and he put it in his temple treasury. Kind of like the Indiana Jones movie; he took that stuff there.

He sent his servants over to that temple treasury to get those Jewish vessels out from the Jewish temple. What he was doing was shaking his fist in the face of Almighty God. God wouldn’t allow him to shake his fists at Him. His arms were too short to box with God. Immediately, God sent from heaven a disembodied hand to write on the wall. The writing is on the wall. We still use that phrase today. It comes from Daniel, chapter five. The writing is on the wall. It means judgment is coming. It’s already been written.

It wasn’t enough that he had them to go get the temple implements but he had to praise the gods of wood and iron and gold and silver and stone; man made gods. He had to drink from the temple’s golden vessels and praise the gods he couldn’t see and he couldn’t hear.

The God of heaven said, you have not honored Him. That’s what He said to him. Here’s the crux of the matter. He didn’t honor God.

The book of Job says this, Job 1:21 (ESV) And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Do you know what you never see? You never see a hearse pulling a U haul. You came into this world naked. You’ll return naked. Have you yet come to the point where you would honor God and say, “Everything is yours; you gave it to me. You could take it away. So I honor you.

What’s the greatest gift of all the things God has given to you? (Let me think about it, well, my wife, my kids, my house. I’m thankful for that. I’ve got a job…) I agree that those are all gifts, but what is the greatest gift? The greatest gift is Jesus. He is the greatest gift . God looked throughout all of the universe and He said, I’m going to give them something that is more valuable than anything I’ve made. I’m going to give them the One who has existed from the beginning. He is the uncreated One; the Christ, who is the second person of the Godhead. The one I love; I’m going to give Him. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever that would believe on him should not perish but be saved.” That’s the greatest gift.

If we want to honor God, we need to be thankful for everything He’s given us. Ultimately, here’s what I think God wants to know. What did you do with the greatest Gift? What did you do with Jesus? What did you do with Him? He gives and He takes away. What did you do with Jesus? Friends, will you honor God today by receiving Jesus, the greatest Gift that God ever gave?

Here’s our second reason that we should honor God with all that we are. First, because He gives and takes away. He’s the one that gives and takes away. Second:

2. It is God who sustains and numbers our days.

It is God who sustains us and keeps us alive. He’s the one who knows the day we will take our last breath. He’s got a number. He already knows it. He numbers our days.

I’m still preaching in Daniel; I’m in verses 23 through 26 now. Daniel is preaching to Belshazzar and I’m taking his notes and I’m preaching to us. Here’s what he says, 23 “…but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. 24 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.” You worship those false Gods, but the God in whose hand is your breath, you did not honor.

Eighty year old Daniel is not playing. I don’t know if it was because he was older; maybe older makes you bolder. I don’t know, but I think it’s because the Holy Spirit was on him in such a way that he spoke the judgment of God. Belshazzar, you knew better. God can determine whether or not that next breath will come.

Some of you, when I said that, wanted to make sure you could get one more breath in. You cannot. May I say something to you? There’s coming a day, if the Lord doesn’t take you home sooner, where you will take your last breath and there will be no next breath. That will be it; this old body will pass. Why are you even alive today? It’s because God sustains you.

The word, “hand,” is in this chapter four times. Three times, it refers to the disembodied hand that wrote on the plastered wall, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.” But this one time in Daniel’s sermon, he’s not talking about that hand. He’s talking about this anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphic means that God is a spirit. He really doesn’t have a hand. But for humans to understand what Daniel’s talking about, he says that the hand of God holds your life and not just your life but your ways because it says “in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways.” In other words, everything you are, He holds.

I can’t help but sing the child song, “He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole wide world in his hands.” He’s got you in His hands and you don’t honor him. Who do you think you are Belshazzar? Daniel is on fire; he’s preaching. He tells him like this, Look, the minute that you and your party guests took those temple implements and, to be fair, (a little bit) to Belshazzar, I believe he’s already tipsy when he did it. If you read verse one, it says, “King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.” So now, that’s uncommon in and of itself, because an Oriental king usually was upon a podium or a platform separate from the people, maybe, by curtains. He would drink privately, but they would dispense wine to him. But it says, he drinks in front of them. In other words, he got down there and partied with them because Belshazzar is a young “whippersnapper.” He’s in his early thirties and he is king. He’s showing off. (Hey, by the way, go get the gold vessel that my grandfather took from Judah. Let’s drink from it.) He had a drunken party and he drank out of the holy vessels that were set apart for God’s temple. Ones by King David, fashioned by King Solomon and ordained, never to be touched by anyone except for the lividical priests . He brought them into this pagan revelry and drink from them. Who do you think you are? God holds your breath in His hands. The one who holds your breath in His hands sent the hand that immediately wrote on the wall. He wrote on a plaster wall.

Archaeologists who have worked in Babylon have found evidence of the plaster. They would make these brick walls, but they would put plaster on them and then paint them colorfully. Plaster is very historically accurate. The words were written just across from the lamp stand. I think God made sure that Bellshazzar could see it.

(illustration) If I had been Belshazzar and you were the 1000, God wrote the words right over there and the lamp was right there. Everybody here is still having fun. Belshazzar sees it first, and then when they see it, , I think one but one they start asking, “ What is it?” I think everybody saw it, not just Belshazzar; they all saw the writing on the wall. There was writing on the wall.

Look how it’s described. I can’t help but think that Daniel wrote this with a bit of humor in mind so that when the Jewish audience read it, I think they laughed out loud. They were exiles in Babylon, but they thought this King Belshazzar was a comic figure. Why do you say that? Look at this description in verse 6, “Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.” And then it says, in verse 7, “The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers.” The king called loudly, which in the Aramaic meant, “called out.”

The Aramaic can be kind of colorful. I’m just just going to say what it literally says, “his limbs gave way.” That was the politically correct way of saying, what in the Aramaic said, that the knots of his limbs were loosened. It literally meant he needed a change of clothes.

I used to teach this same story to my kids. I told you about the Bible quiz after dinner. We had three Mason jars for Stephen, Jonathan and Erin. I would bring out pennies and then, if you got the question right, you got paid a penny and would put it in your Mason jar. This is one of their favorite stories because they liked the part when I would tell the story about his knees knocking together and trembling. Who was that king whose knees knocked together when he saw….? They would say, Belshazzar. If they had known this part about the knots of his limbs being loosened, It would have been their favorite story. You know how boys are. They love that kind of humor.

The Queen Mother was the daughter of Nebuchanezzer whom Nabonidus no doubt married to secure the throne. She was Belshazzar’s mother. Notice how she came uninvited into her son’s presence, gave him unsolicited advice, and even commanded, “Now let Daniel be called.” She didn’t come to the crazy party. She came in there when she heard what happened. I’m thinking she came in to bring fresh clothes because that’s how mamas are. You can’t have the king in those clothes; the knots of his limbs have been loosened. She came in with advice; she told him about one who can solve puzzles. Literally in Aramaic it meant: Let me tell you about the guy who can untie knots. He can solve puzzles.

This is funny stuff. This is like a political cartoon, and it would have made the Jews laugh and say, “Our God is God and that guy, Belshazzar, was never in charge. Look what God did to the one who thought he was. Somebody who would raise himself up against God, God made him a clownish figure.” This is what happened. Daniel is explaining it to him. “God has your breath; God has your ways in His hand.”

And then, Daniel says, “God has numbered your days.” Look at verse 26, “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.” He’s beginning to translate and he says that this is the interpretation of the matter. “Mene” means God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. God’s already numbered your days. He’s numbered our days. We don’t know the number, but He does. He knows the exact day. He knows the number of your days.

Here’s what it says in Daniel, chapter 9, verse 2 (ESV), “2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” In other words, he said, as I got older, I started reading through those scrolls that Jeremiah sent to us because the book of Jeremiah actually says that it sent the writings of Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon. Daniel is studying those.

Here’s some of the verses that he found in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 25:11, “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” Jeremiah 29:10 says, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place back to Jerusalem.” So the clock was ticking. Babylon was a powerful kingdom. But God said, you only get 70 years. It was Jeremiah that prophesied this 70 years; he’s already talking about this. Jeremiah finished prophesying in 580 BC. Babylon fell in 539 BC. So if I did my math right, it’s more like 40 years. Jeremiah said you get 70 years. God told me Babylon, you only get 70 years. Why 70 years? Why limit Babylon to 70 years?

Here’s one thought that a lot of conservative commentators have observed; in the book of Leviticus, Israel was supposed to give the land rest every seventh year. They were supposed to plant crops, they weren’t supposed to plow. They were supposed to live on that. And then, God promised in the sixth year, He would give them such abundance that it would be enough to pass them through the seventh year and even get them into the eighth year before they had to harvest. He was going to give them a triple harvest every sixth year and then rest the soil. They called it the Sabbath year.

But, here’s the problem. Israel didn’t obey. Judah didn’t obey. From the time of King Saul to the time of the fall of Jerusalem, that’s about 490 years. If you divide it by seven, which they were supposed to rest every seven years, I don’t know how your math is, but if I divide seven into 490 I get 70. So here’s what God said; either you rest or I’ll rest you. You can rest when I tell you to, or I will cause you to rest where they didn’t rest. And so He rested Jerusalem, Israel for 70 years before He sent them back.

When I was first married, I was working a job that had an alternating schedule. Every other weekend, . I had to work. I was working in retail, so every other weekend I had to work all day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I got out of the habit of going to church; when I would get a weekend off, I kind of felt like I should get to sleep in because I was working so many hours. My wife would get up and she’d say, “Aren’t we going to church today?” She’s thinking, you’re the guy I married who was always talking about Jesus. And then, I’m the guy who’s not getting up. I just got out of the habit of going to church.

I got promoted to store manager; we’re unloading trucks. I got injured and broke my leg. I broke my leg severely, to the point where I had to have a bone graft. I was laid up with a cast to my hip for nine weeks. I went to church Sunday, Sunday night. Wednesday night, I couldn’t drive, had to sit in the back seat of my 1971 Toyota Corona. There was barely room for that casted leg in the back seat of the Toyota. I’d be in the back seat with my wife driving; I was somewhat humbled. I couldn’t even drive. I couldn’t even take a shower. I put plastic bags over my leg and try to get in the shower. I got the cast wet and I had to go get a new one. So then I had to stand like this at the kitchen sink to let my wife wash my hair. God rested me. He knows how to rest those who don’t obey Him. I was never the same after that. God gives; God takes away. God sustains and He numbers our days.

Isaiah 46 talks about how God sustained Israel during the time of Babylon. God knows the number of our days. Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Number your days because you only have a limited number. You don’t have an unlimited number on planet Earth. If you believe in Jesus, you have an unlimited number in eternity. What you do here matters for eternity. The decisions you make and the way you live number your days.

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus speaking, He says, Matthew 10:29-31 (NLT) “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” I think Jesus was being a bit humorous. Don’t you trust Me? You’re more valuable than sparrows. God knows how many there are. He knows when they fall. He knows when they fly. He knows the number of hairs on your head. It’s easier on some of you than others. But He knows; He holds your breath in His hand.

Back in Genesis, people were living up to 900 years old. Methuselah lived 969 years. After the flood, God said, I can’t let that happen anymore because sin increases too much; I will limit them to around 120 years. And then, later, 70 or 80 years old, because the longer you live, the more you become sinful. God needed to limit sin so you get a chance to believe in Him and to repent. What we need is life. So we receive life. He holds life. Don’t you want eternal life? How do we get eternal life from sin? By coming to Jesus.

Look at Colossians 3:4 (ESV) “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Do you want life? Then, you must have Jesus. Remember the old milk commercial where they’d have a mustache of milk? They would get movie stars and put them on billboards and in magazines. Got milk? Remember that? Got Jesus? Got life? I know that’s not good English.

In John 11:25 (ESV) “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live.”Do you have Jesus? Have you received the greatest gift? If you want real life, if you want to know that you get the next breath you must have Jesus.

Here’s our third reason that we should honor God with all that we are:

3. It is God who weighs us according to His righteousness.

Let’s look at verse 27, “Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;” You’ve been weighed in the balances and found wanting. You’ve been weighed, Belshazzer; you’ve been weighed and you’ve come up short. You came up short. That’s an interesting language, isn’t it? Belshazzar thought highly of himself. He felt the weight of his own glory. But Babylon and he were weighed in the balances of God’s justice, and both he and Babylon came up short. They came up wanting according to God’s righteous judgment. It’s like he’s picturing a scale.

We’ve done this since ancient times. Greek mythology has lady justice, right? Have you seen this? This image of lady justice, she holds the scales of justice and she has the sword of judgment in her right hand. We see images like this in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court has lady justice. A lot of police departments throughout the United States have lady justice on their seal, on their emblem or badge. Often she has a blindfold because justice is supposed to be equitable and blind to your circumstance.

If you were to go door to door in Wilson and you get somebody to answer the door, you ask them this question, “If you were to die today, if you were to die tonight, and God were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’ what would you say?” Here’s what 80% of Wilson will say; ”I tried to be good. I tried to be good because I have this picture that there’s a scale in heaven where if my good works outweigh my bad works, I get in. But, if my bad works outweigh my good works, I go to hell.” That’s how most Wilsonians think and that is not biblical. Here we are; we’re supposed to be in the “Bible Belt.” That way of thinking did not come from the Bible. That’s the Babylonian religion; that’s the world’s religion, that man, through his own effort, could earn God’s approval.

Belshazzar thought, you know what? I worship these guys, these man made gods. I’m doing this. But God weighed him and said, look, the scales of My righteousness say you’re falling short because the only way you could have made this right was to learn from your grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar and recognize and honor me. You didn’t do that; you came up short.

Now, this is the king whose mother had recommended that he talk to Daniel. And, as I said before, the queen was not his queen, but the Queen mother, the wife of his father, Nabonidus. She came and gave him advice. You could tell it’s not his queen. You can tell it’s his mama because she comes in and gives him unsolicited advice. You know, your mom will do that. She doesn’t ask him to go get Daniel. If you look at verse 12 it says, “that Daniel be called.” In other words, I feel like she wouldn’t even be talking to him anymore. She is talking to the servants. Go get Daniel. She came in and said, you send him into retirement. He used to be the chief under your grandfather. He can handle this. Bring him in here.

And so, they did. Look at verses 13 through 16. I think Belshazzar tried to maintain some of his dignity. I don’t think he had any left, but he tried to act a certain way when Daniel came in. You can kind of pick it up a little bit. Daniel comes in before the king, in verse 13 and the king says to him, “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. “ He’s trying to knock him down. You’re an exile from Judah that my father, which we’ve determined father and here means grandfather. My father, Nebuchadnezzar is actually my grandfather. He brought you here. He’s still taking credit. His mama told him that he had the spirit of the holy gods. He didn’t say the spirit of the holy gods like she did, but he just said, gods. Look, if you come in, I’ll give you a purple robe and a golden medallion. I’ll make you the third ruler. That’s what he says to Daniel.

Belshazzar said to Daniel, “I have heard” (14, 16) of you and your gift for understanding dreams, explaining riddles and solving problems (Literally in Aramaic, “looser of knots”). The king who had already had the “knots of his loins loosed” had Daniel, the one known for his gift of “unloosing knots” before him. He loosens the final knot. You’ve been weighed in the balance and found wanting. You’ve been found wanting. Your days have been numbered.

He gets to Parsin and he says your kingdom will be divided between the Medes and the Persians; divided between them. The Persian Empire was actually the greater, and the Medes were allies. But really, under Persia, Cyrus was the king of Persia and Darius was a Mede. Your kingdom will be divided; that’s what he told them. You’re gonna lose what you have.

In verse 30, it says, “That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. “ King Belshazzar was killed that very night like boom! Right there it is. You see, he was throwing this party while the people were at the gate. Like a young prince who got the crown too soon and didn’t earn it, he’s a party boy showing off.

Historians tell us that King Cyrus of Persia recognized that the gates were impenetrable. Remember how I told you that it had double gates and that the gates were so tall and so wide that you could run two chariots, side by side, on top of the walls? And so, what Cyrus did was he sent Darius the Mede down there and they came up with a plan. They dammed up the Euphrates River, which ran under the walls and ran through the city and gave them unlimited water supply and that could water all their plants and couldn’t run them out of food. They dammed up the Euphrates and built a canal to divert it. They waded in ankle deep water and walked under the wall. At night time without firing a shot, they took the city and killed Belshazzar and all the leaders except old Daniel, who now becomes a leader under the Persian rule because he outlives Babylon.

(Refer to chart on sermon video for details.) The Kingdom of Judah ends ____BC. The Babylonian Empire, like a streak across the heavens like a shooting star. Only in the last 70 years as we’ve talked, Nebuchadnezzar built that he overthrew the Assyrians, overthrew the Egyptians. He overthrew the Judeans, and he brought them here. We already talked about the gap here between him and his grandson, Belshazzar. We’ve talked about the three contemporary prophets who are writing during this time and boom, October 539 BC. That was it. In extra-Biblical sources, it is confirmed that Persia took it without having to destroy or pull down one brick. What a clown Belshazzar was partying while the city falls. This was all prophesied160 years before Babylon fell by Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah 44:24-28 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,‘ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’; who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers’;who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,‘ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”

He will make fools out of Babylon’s Wise Men. He will confirm His word to his servant; He did that through Daniel. He said, “I will dry up your rivers.” He did that through Cyrus. He’s not finished. 160 years before Babylon fell, before Cyrus was even born, he said, “Cyrus will pull down Babylon.” This is your Bible. This is your God telling Isaiah what’s coming. Isaiah had already passed away.

Isaiah, Chapter 45, Isaiah 45:1-6 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.” He named Cyrus again. He says that Cyrus will do this. Cyrus will come in and and he will do this and it even describes how God goes ahead of him and opens up the door to Babylon.

Your Bible is reliable; God was always the One on the throne. It was never Ezra or Belshazzar because God gives and takes away. God sustains and numbers your days. It is God who is the judge of His creation. He made it and He’s over it. He weighs every soul in His balance, and we all come up short. That’s why He sent Jesus because the truth of the matter there is a scale. But it’s not the one that we think it is. It’s not about weighing our good against our bad. No, it’s about weighing our life against God’s righteousness, which is how every scale is. If you buy a tomato, you don’t weigh it against another tomato. You weigh it against the standard of weights that’s been set by the US government. And so those scales are supposed to be tested. The pumps at the gas station have a seal where they’re tested regularly against the scales of what’s right, according to the law. God has a scale of righteousness, and here’s His weight. There’s nothing we can do; we’re lost.

Romans says. We’re all sinners. Romans 3:22-24 (NLT) “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.”

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” You’ve been weighed in the balance, and you’ve been found wanting, unless you received the gift, the greatest gift. The greatest gift is Jesus, who is your life, but he’s also your righteousness. If you take and receive Him, you put him there in your place because His righteousness is sufficient. Why? Because in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV), it says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” For our sake, He made him God. The Father made Jesus a son to be sin, Who knew no sin so that in Him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God. He is our righteousness.

Don’t be trying to put your works on the scale. You’ll come up short. You’ll be weighed in the balance and found wanting. Put Jesus there, so that when God asks you someday, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” You say, “I believe in Jesus and He’s my all in all. I honor Him. He’s my righteousness.” And the Father will say, “Well done.” Jesus will say, “I know you. I know you. Come on in.”

The warning has been cast. Judgment was set upon Babylon. The writing was on the wall and King Cyrus was at the gate to receive the kingdom. The writing’s already on the wall for us today. Today, this stone is rolling down the mountain and will strike the feet of the kingdom’s man. And Jesus will set up His own kingdom of righteousness. Someday it’s coming. The writing’s already on the wall. He’ll come like a thief in the night. No man knoweth the hour, but the Father knows because He’s numbered our days. Do you believe it? We should so order our days, looking for the One who’s at the gates instead of partying in revelry as the Son approaches. Let us be people who are watchful and waiting and working until Christ returns. Let us give Him all the honor and praise He deserves.

Let’s pray. God, first I pray for that person who came this morning that came in on a thread. They don’t know what to do. But today they hear that Jesus can set it right. That He is the great gift. He’s the life. He’s our righteousness. He’s our all in all. My friend, if that’s you this morning and you need a Savior, if you would admit that and repent of your sins. Say, “I’m a sinner, I have stopped thinking I’m mostly good. No, I give that up. I’m a sinner. I’m lost.” Admit that and then say, “But, I believe in Jesus as my Savior will You come into my life. I believe You died on the cross and that You rose from the grave and live today. Come and live in me.” This is how we pray. This is how we ask. Come into my life. Forgive me of my sin and make me the person you want me to be. I want you to be my Savior and Lord. Are you praying right now? Others are here and you know Him as Lord and Savior, but you have forgotten to honor God with all that you are and all that you have. You are wasting what He’s given you and you have forgotten to be thankful. You’re complaining and you’re not honoring Him with your stuff and with your talents and with your family and with your life. You have forgotten that He would have you number your days, that you would live for Him, watching and waiting for the Son, Jesus, to return. Would you repent of that right now? Forgive me. I want to live for You in a way that honors You in all areas of my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.