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 ight
had come and midnight was approaching.
Hours earlier the Medo-Persian army had slipped under the huge
walls surrounding Babylon through the muddy, waterless Euphrates
River. The army had diverted the river so that it could slip
under the huge wall and enter the city. As we come to Daniel
5, the Medo-Persian army is moving through the outer region
of the city and approaching the king’s palace. Ancient
historians tell us that when the Medo-Persian army had first
approached the city of Babylon to conquer it, the military men
on the city wall had teased them. The Babylonians trusted in
their three hundred foot (one hundred meters) high wall which
was fifty feet (seventeen meters) wide. The city had looked
so impossible to defeat that the Medo-Persian army had left
and defeated other Babylonian cities first. The victorious army
had now returned and was searching for the palace. Xenophon
recorded Cyrus, the king of the expanding Medo-Persian empire,
as saying to his army on this night before they entered the
city, “Tonight we go against them when some are asleep
and some are drunk and all are unprepared.” That was the
Babylonian New Year, the night when every good Babylonian citizen
got drunk.
Happy
New Year.
The events of Daniel 5 occurred just before midnight on the
night of this invasion. It was the New Year, and Belshazzar
the king had invited his family and the government officials
to a New Year’s party to get drunk. That was the goal of
the evening according to ancient records.
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Belshazzar
the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles,
and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.
When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring
the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his
father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem,
in order that the king and his nobles, his wives, and
his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought
the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple,
the house of God which was in Jerusalem; and the king
and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank
from them. They drank the wine and praised the gods
of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
(NASB) Daniel 5:1- 4 |
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It
was common for the king to invite his concubines and wives to
attend a major Babylonian feast. Dancing girls and wine! This
was an evening to pursue pleasure, and in his pursuit the king
ordered the gold and silver vessels taken from the temple in
Jerusalem to be brought in. I am sure they thought this was
great! He did not realize he was pursuing emptiness.
“Pleasure”
Interrupted.
God now interrupted the party with a riddle which frightened
the king and his guests. Riddle, riddle on the wall, what have
you written on the wall? |
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