Articles
Belshazzar’s Gods of Gold
It was the eve of the empire’s fall. Belshazzar, the vice-regent of Babylon, was giving a great feast for a thousand of his nobles (Dan 5:1). It is not clear why they were celebrating. They did not appear to be worried about the advancing Persian army. But the celebration rapidly turned to fear with the appearance of a disembodied hand, writing on the palace plaster walls (5:5). Belshazzar turned white and knocked his knees together at the sight (5:6). Whatever he saw terrified him, and he gathered all of his court wise men together to read the “writing on the wall” promising great riches and power to the man that was able to read it (5:7). When all others had failed, Daniel was called in to interpret the writing, by recommendation of the queen mother (5:10-16). However, Daniel’s entire explanation of the writing is filled with scathing critiques of Belshazzar. (5:17-28). Everything he has done is wrong, and his entire kingdom will be ripped away from him within the night.
The feast itself is filled with hints of what is wrong. Belshazzar was the last in a chain of successors to the empire’s founder, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had several interactions with Daniel and Daniel’s God throughout his reign. Daniel was twice able to interpret the king’s dreams by the power of his God. Daniel’s three friends were once spared from the hot flame of the furnace by the power of this God. Nebuchadnezzar himself, when he exalted himself in his pride, testifies to how this God humbled him and removed him temporarily from his throne, forcing him to eat grass like a beast until he realized that the Most High was in charge of his kingdom.
Yet Belshazzar seems largely oblivious to these events. Daniel appears to have been forgotten or marginalized (he has to be summoned by the queen). Belshazzar instead has brought out the golden vessels plundered from the house of Daniel’s god in order to facilitate his feast (5:3). But instead of praising the god of these vessels, he and his nobles praise gods of gold, silver, wood, and stone (5:4). Belshazzar’s behavior contrasts sharply with Nebuchadnezzar’s, whose last words in the book are praise for the King of Heaven (4:37).
Daniel’s speech makes a point of comparing Nebuchadnezzar with Belshazzar (5:18-21). The language used to describe Nebuchadnezzar is language that is ordinarily used of God (5:19). Peoples, nations, and men of every language are said to have feared him (cf. Dan 7:14). He is said to have killed whom he wished and have spared whom he wished (cf. Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6), to have exalted whom he wanted and humbled whom he wished (cf. Psa 75:7; Isa 2:11, 17; Dan 2:21; 4:37). But even though Nebuchadnezzar had wielded such godlike power, God was still able to depose him and remove all of his glory (5:20)! Nebuchadnezzar was implicitly not the one who kills and makes alive at all, but rather God was. Not only did he lose his throne, but he was made to dwell with beasts and wild donkeys (5:21; cf. 4:33). He was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized the place of the Most High (4:15, 23, 25, 33).
Nebuchadnezzar learned something from his humiliation. He may have been in charge of Babylon’s empire, but El Elyon was in charge of him. However, Belshazzar, who would have been alive for those events and who would have known of all that had happened did not learn the lesson from his predecessor. Daniel’s harsh clause “even though you knew all this” puts Belshazzar’s sin into stark perspective. He had seen the power of the Most High God, but instead had chosen to worship the inferior gods of gold. He saw Nebuchadnezzar humbled and reduced to the life of livestock, but he did not learn the lesson of God's sovereignty and power. He drank wine from God’s vessels and praised gods that couldn’t see, hear or understand (cf. Psa 115:3-8). But the one God he failed to praise was the God who held his life’s breath (5:23). The God that provided the very dishes for his great feast was the one God getting no recognition at that feast—the true God who would soon rip him from his throne and slay him.
As Christians, we stand in the footsteps of an even greater king. We are not followers of Nebuchadnezzar, but rather followers of Christ. And our King, the King of Kings, was not inflicted with humiliation against his will, but rather chose humiliation on our behalf to the point of death. Because of his humiliation, God highly exalted him, so that we could praise the king of heaven forever. Now, we are invited to a great feast of the Lord, with Christ himself as the host. But we must take care that we do not see God only for the beautiful dishes he provides for us. I fear that some Christians are so enamored with the “dishes” of their religion—the rituals, the decoration, the tradition—that they have forgotten the God who gave it. Let us take care that in eating and drinking at the feast of our Lord, we do not make the same error Belshazzar made in worshipping and praising every idol in our hearts, while ignoring the God who feeds us. Otherwise, we may find ourselves like Belshazzar, suddenly swept away by a judgment he didn’t see coming, numbered, weighed, and divided, by a word of the Lord he didn’t understand.
