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Daniel’s
response was almost insulting to the king when he said, “Keep
your gifts for yourself.” He knew the end was coming. But Daniel
did not miss the opportunity to remind Belshazzar of his great-grandfather’s
pride and humiliation. That was the work of God Most High and He was
now talking to Belshazzar. Pride was the problem of Nebuchadnezzar
and it was the problem with Belshazzar!
What did God
Say? Daniel now gave the interpretation.
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Now
this is the inscription that was written out: ‘MENE, MENE,
TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ This is the interpretation of the message:
‘MENE’ --God has numbered your kingdom and put an
end to it. ‘TEKEL’ --you have been weighed on the
scales and found deficient. ‘PERES’ --your kingdom
has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
(NASB) Daniel 5:25-28 |
The message was simple - it was over! Only the king and his party
did not understand that the Medo-Persians were approaching the palace
that very evening. History says the invasion was victorious shortly
after midnight.
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Then
Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple
and put a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation
concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler
in the kingdom. That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king
was slain. (NASB) Daniel 5:29-30 |
The conquest was easy according to the Cyrus Cylinder which says,
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When I entered Babylon I set-up the seat of government in the
royal palace amidst jubilation and rejoicing. |
The Babylonian Chronicle adds,
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On 12 October, Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, and the troops of
Cyrus entered Babylon without battle. |
God had predicted this defeat
of the Babylon Empire by the Medo-Persians. God also predicted
that Babylon would never be lived in again and that prophecy has been
fulfilled.
God has a message for all of us in this
book. His Spirit has been speaking to us again. Have you gotten tired
of it? The message is important because we have heard it for four
chapters: Daniel 2, Daniel 3, Daniel 4, and now Daniel 5. The message
is simple - our relationship with God Most High needs to change. Pride
and arrogance are only the symptoms of a deeper spiritual problem.
These occur when one fails to submit to God Most High AND fail to
give Him the credit for every positive thing we accomplish in life.
We all have this problem. Here is one illustration.
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Two ducks were preparing for their annual flight south for the
winter, when their friend Mr. Frog informed them of his desire
to travel along too!. “You have no wings,” said the
ducks. “No,” said the frog, “but if you two ducks
will kindly hold this stick in your mouths, I will grasp it
in the middle with my mouth, and we’ll all go along together.
The whole thing was working out quite well. However, as they
flew over a pasture, two cows looked up and saw the three. One
of the cows commented, “Now there go a couple of intelligent
ducks!” Mr. Frog heard this and, wanting to get full credit
for his idea, said to the cows, “No, it was my id-eee-aa
. . .” |
Here are two more. |
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