When God Crashes Your Party

May 15, 2022

When God Crashes Your Party - Daniel 5

Daniel 5 records the events of October 12, 539 B.C. – the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians.

Daniel 5:1-4, Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

Death was literally knocking at the door, but Belshazzar was partying when he should have been praying. He knew Babylon was being besieged, but he had a false sense of security inside the fortified walls of the city.

In a defiant act against God, Belshazzar got the sacred cups stolen by Nebuchadnezzar to use for “booze.” He was using for wickedness what God designed for worship. He was using the sacred for something sinful.

Belshazzar was in God’s face. When you get in God’s face, you are about to lose God’s grace. Belshazzar had crossed the line. When you reject the grace of God, all that is left is the judgment of God.

God literally crashed Belshazzar’s party and the “handwriting was on the wall.”

Daniel 5:5-8, In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke, saying to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck; and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” Now all the king’s wise men came, but they could not read the writing, or make known to the king its interpretation.

Belshazzar pictures the one who lives as if this life will last forever, and this life is all that matters. They reign temporarily as kings over little kingdoms made of dust that will one day rust, decay, and fade away!

Luke 12:20, But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?”

Mark 8:36-37, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Daniel 5:13, 16-18, Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke, and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?...And I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor.

Daniel 5:22, But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this.

Why did God crash Belshazzar’s party?

1) He chose not to remember God. (See Romans 1:18-25)

2) He chose not to revere God. (See Proverbs 15:25)

Belshazzar pictures the one who deliberately rejects God’s grace and mercy. When you reject God’s forgiveness and grace, all that is left is God’s wrath and God’s judgment. (See Matthew 12:31)

Matthew 12:31, Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

Daniel 5:24-30, Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. 25 “And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; 28 PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. 

If you die without Christ, the “handwriting is on the wall.”

Like Belshazzar, your life will be judged by God — “weighed and found wanting.”