Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, March 20, 2022

The Writing Is On The Wall.

Today, Pastor Michael is back on track with his series on Daniel. This is the fifth (5th) installment of this series and Daniel is really in interesting person, once you start drilling down on his legacy.

The story of the first half of the book of Daniel was about the Babylonians taking over Jerusalem, the “Babylonian Captivity”.  Lots of folks, including Daniel, were re-located to Babylon during this time.  Daniel not only found a way to survive, but a way to actually thrive, as one of King Nebuchadnezzar’s most trusted advisors.  Now, in Chapter 5, King Nebuchadnezzar is dead.  There is actually a huge gap in the timeline between Chapter 4 of Daniel and Chapter 5.  

Daniel was maybe in his late twenties the last time we saw him and now in Chaper Five he is around eighty!  So where’s he been?  He’s been doing his job, serving the king and the Lord.  He was just being faithful!

Nebuchadnezzar’s successors are out fighting and Belshazzar is appointed reagent of the Kingdom, being Nabonidus’ son.  Belshazzar was a ‘grandaddies money’ kind of guy.  And when the story opens, we find Belshazzar partying!  Now he’s partying with religious articles from the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem.  The timing of it, was equally as terrible, as a time to throw a party.  Cyrus the Great is outside the walls of Babylon, getting ready to conquer them!  The overall timing of everything here is just really bad on an epic scale.  

A ghostly hand now appears in the room…bizarre!  This hand floats over to a well lit section of the wall and starts tracing words on the wall.  Belshazzar calls for his aids to interpret this writing…so all the wise men come in and they cannot ascertain the answer (third time in Daniel where wise men couldn’t help, by the way!).  Belshazzar’s mom hears the disturbance and informs them that she remembered Daniel used to help Nebuchadnezzar’s dream interpretations.

Daniel gets called in and interprets the writing.  And the news isn’t good.  Daniel lets Belshazzar that he needs to humble himself and chides him for using the articles of the true Lord in his partying.  The meaning is “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and time is up”.  And up, TODAY!  

The end of the Babylonian empire had come.  The empire fell that night and Belshazzar was killed.

A new empire took its place, a partnership of the Meads and the Persians.  This is the end of Babylon but not the end of Daniel!

What can we learn from Belshazzar?  He certainly didn’t learn from history, nor humble himself.  He needed to get ahold of God with both hands and beg his help and favor.  He is the example of what not to do!

Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter 5.