In this chapter highlighting God’s message of judgment against Belshazzar, Daniel has been presenting to Belshazzar God’s reasons for this final judgment. Daniel 5:23
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.
Daniel has shown that Belshazzar exhibited overweening pride, had blasphemed God by using the vessels of the temple for pagan rituals and had worshipped idols.
Fourth, not only was Belshazzar prideful and unrepentant, history records his cruel and impulsive character:
Even the heathen historian Xenophon pronounces him an “impious” man, and instances his passionate cruelty in slaying one of his nobles for anticipating him in striking down the game in a hunt, and in mutilating a courtier at a banquet because one of the women said he was handsome (Joseph Seiss, Records from Babylon; or, The Records of Daniel the Prophet, p. 141).
Like the overzealous farmer-land owner in Luke 12, Belshazzar was a “fool” whose soul would be required of him that night. As Job rightly says, “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). We breathe so naturally and never have to think about it, but the day God decides He doesn’t want us to breathe any longer, it’s all over. How tragic that Belshazzar had used the breath God gave him to curse His name!
Belshazzar’s familiarity with Nebuchadnezzar’s madness should have engendered a measure of humility leading to a circumspect use of authority motivated by respect for the God of Israel. Instead, he brazenly mocked God through his flagrant desecration of the temple vessels at the riotous party.
Bruce Wilkinson, the one-time director of Walk thru the Bible ministries, had a sermon entitled “The Three Chairs.” He bases it off of Judges 24:15-16; Judges 2:7, 10. In the first chair, the chair of commitment, is Joshua, who “knew the works of God.” The second chair are the elders, the next generation, who know “about God and His works.” The third chair is the next generation who “did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.” The point is, every generation needs to recapture really knowing God and experiencing His works. Don’t settle for a second-hand faith.
Like many of the wicked, Belshazzar wouldn’t submit to God or retain him in his thoughts (Job 15:20-25; Psa. 10:4; Prov. 18:12).
Woe to those who rise early in the morning, [That] they may follow intoxicating drink; Who continue until night, [till] wine inflames them! The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute, And wine are in their feasts; But they do not regard the work of the LORD, Nor consider the operation of His hands. (Isa. 5:11-12)
Here is a frequent pattern of history: the excellence and character of a predecessor degenerates in the descendant. In the same way that great nations, having experienced God’s blessings, tend to abandon His ways and degenerate with time, so too many family lines. It is a rare and precious result when the character and godliness of a father or mother is successfully passed on to a son or grandson.
When men refuse to repent and do not respond to the promptings of God to turn to him, then eventually because of His holiness and justice, He will act in judgment. Nebuchadnezzar had sinned in many ways but had eventually turned to the Lord and experienced His mercy and grace. But that would not be the case with king Belshazzar.
Daniel then read and interpreted the oracle. Could Daniel read it? Of course he could. He had been reading God’s words for eighty years. Sure, it was a coded message, but to Daniel this was very much like a message from home.
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.
Scholars have wearied themselves trying to figure out how Daniel got his interpretation from these three apparently Aramaic words. Their explanations have been as diverse as those of Belshazzar’s wise men probably were. It seems best to simply take Daniel’s interpretation at face value.
It has been said that Daniel could interpret these words because he recognized his Father’s handwriting (G. Campbell Morgan, p. 64).
Three words in Aramaic, the first word repeated for emphasis. These are words used for measuring quantities and weighting good on a scale for purchase or trade, and apportioning items.
The meaning of that phrase seals the fate of Babylon.
Generally, here is what they mean:
- Mene (“numbered” or “counted”): Belshazzar had been measured, counted and scrutinized. This word is repeated twice to emphasize the care with which he had been measured.
Empires rise and empires fall. The bounds of their existence is not determined by man, no matter how extraordinary his brilliance, wealth, or power. Nor are they set by the “watchers” who rule in high. They are set by God. The sandglass for the Babylonian empire had run out.
“There is a kind of double meaning in the verb ‘to number.’ It means not only, ‘to count’ but ‘to fix the limit of’ as is also the case in our common expression that a man’s days are ‘numbered’” (H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel, p. 234). “A Divine sentence of destruction upon the king and his people, that was called forth by the insolent presumption of the present ruler . . .” (Zöckler, The Book of the Prophet Daniel, p. 127 “One wonders how long it might be before the Lord God places our own country on His scales” (Paul Benware, Daniel’s Prophecy of Things to Come, p. 108).
Stephen R. Miller (b. 1949) comments, “‘Mene’ was written twice to stress that the divine decision was certain of fulfillment. So the message literally reads ‘Numbered, numbered, weighted, and divided (Miller, Daniel (The New American Commentary), 165).”
- Tekel (“weighed”): Belshazzar had been weighed according to God’s standards of righteousness and had fallen short (Rom. 3:23).
There was no point in giving Belshazzar time to repent. He had sinned willingly and wantonly (see above) against great light (the example of Nebuchadnezzar). Daniel had clearly confronted Belshazzar with the reality that he had not done this ignorantly. He said “though you knew all this.” “You knew it, Belshazzar, and still did not humble yourself.” It proves the principle, to whom much is given, much is required.
As the old poem puts it,
There is a line by us unseen
That crosses every path—
The hidden boundary between
God’s patience and His wrath.
Indeed, the doomed one’s path below
May bloom as Eden bloomed;
He did not, does not, will not know,
Or feel that he is doomed.
The Scriptures everywhere assure us that “the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed” (1 Sam. 2:3). Solomon writes : “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the spirit” (Prov. 16:2). “He puts every Belshazzar and every other person in His balances, weighs every soul, marks every folly, and records every good and every deficiency. Every opportunity misimproved, every admonition disregarded, every ungrateful feeling indulged, every impulse of pride entertained, every instance of power abused or talents squandered, every word and act of profanity, every neglect and slight of Jehovah’s messengers, every effort to get away from duty, every attempt to drown serious thoughts by sensual excesses, every sending away of God’s servants to wait for a more convenient season, every contempt for the Bible and for those who believe and follow it, every thought and passion, or idle word that men speak,—all of them, singly and together, are surveyed and weighed, and written down in heaven against the day of final account” (Joseph Seiss, Voices from Babylon; or, The Records of Daniel the Prophet, pp. 158-159).
John speaks of the Great White Throne judgment in Revelation 20:11-12, 15. There is not a single person on earth whose works would be worthy enough for them to gain a “not guilty” verdict before that throne! All manmade efforts will be found wanting. All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). We fall woefully short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). Psalm 130 says…
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
But we don’t have to depend upon our own efforts. Peter, the disciple, wrote, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,” (1 Pet. 3:18). Our works, “the unrighteous,” will never measure up. But Christ’s work, “the righteous One,” was perfectly obedient and went to the cross not to pay for his own sins, but for ours, enabling us to be brought to God.
- Upharsin (“and divided,” or “halved”): This is a reference to Babylon being divided between the Medes and Persians.
“Little had this drunken king known that, even as his revelry was at its height, the engineers of the Persian army were diverting the Euphrates and that the enemy was marching into the city on the riverbed” (John Phillips, Exploring the Book of Daniel, p. 94).
| Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin | ||
| Consonants | Pointed (Vowels Added) Coin | Interpretation |
| מנא [mnʾ] | מְנֵא [menēʾ] mina | מְנָה [menâ] “numbered” (Dan. 5:26) |
| תקל [ṯql] | תִּקַּל [tiqqal] shekel376 | תְּקִילְתָּה [teqîlettâ] “weighed” (Dan. 5:27) |
| פרס [p̄rs] | פְּרֵס [perēs] half-mina | פְּרִיסַת [perîsaṯ] “divided” [in two: Medes and Persians] (Dan. 5:28) |
This is the shortest prophecy in the Bible, just four words, shorter even than Jonah’s message to Nineveh, just 8 words in English, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
No wonder the kingdom psychics had been unable to decipher it. It was a cryptic code, impossible to make sense of unless one already knew its meaning. Daniel could read it because God had revealed its meaning to him.
Leon Wood wraps up the meaning of this scene for us: “In summary, Daniel’s interpretation set forth that Belshazzar’s kingdom would be destroyed, for the reason that he had been found lacking in moral and spiritual value, and that the encroaching enemy, the Medes and Persians, would absorb the kingdom into their larger domain” (Leon Wood, A Commentary on Daniel, p. 150).
At this very moment, the armies of the Medo-Persians were already creeping in under the city walls through the gates, ready for the kill.
The Bible tells us that God weighs us in the scales. In Job 31:6 Job cries out, “(Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!) In 1 Samuel 2:3 we read, “Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed.”
The New Testament idea of “walking worthy” of God has this same idea of being weighed or measured out so that the “weight” of our actions matches the “weight” of God’s glory, lest we “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), supported by Harry S. Truman to succeed him (although he lost to Dwight David Eisenhower), once said, “Man is a strange animal. He generally cannot read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it.” Belshazzar now knew what God had written.
“As God had judged Nebuchadnezzar’s pride by removing him from the throne, so He would judge Belshazzar’s pride by taking the kingdom from him and giving it to another people” (Pentecost, “Daniel,” p. 1346).
Like Belshazzar, the key question is, knowing that reality of God’s judgment against sin, will we heed it, or will we go on our merry ways ignoring God’s warnings?
Jesus and the apostles warn us as believers that we will one day give an account for our lives—for our words, our actions and even our thoughts and motives.
Jesus said, in Matthew 12:36-37
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
Paul tells believers
we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:9b-10)
Yes, we will face a judgment. However, our judgment is not related to our sinfulness, because Paul clearly states “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Rather, this is an examination of our record of service, whether we will be rewarded for things we have done.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 is speaking of that same judgment, the judgment of believers for the sake of rewards…
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
More dreadful is the judgment of unbelievers at the Great White Throne judgment in Revelation 20.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
If you are not a Christian, if your name is not found in the book of life because you have not put your trust in Jesus Christ, oh unbeliever, do that today. Do not wait, for judgment is certain and final.
You may be a religious person. You might be a devout Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran or Presbyterian. You might be Muslim or Buddhist. Standing before that Great White Throne will be many who have believed in many gods and many who have believed in no god.
What will happen to these religious people? Jesus told us: “22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
It doesn’t matter what religious works, even what spectacular ministries they have conducted, the key factor is whether Jesus knows them, whether their names are in the book of life.
Grace Still Amazes 