The Writing on the Wall.

God is loving and patient and merciful. But that does not mean God will overlook or disregard sin. Or that he stays out of the way when wrong happens. It simply means that God’s motivation in whatever he does is a desire to move us towards repentance and towards himself. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
God is also a righteous judge. He is the protector and defender of those who seek refuge in him. That means God promises to right wrongs. Romans 12:19 says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,’ says the Lord.” The Lord will execute his judgment. Romans 1:18 says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” He will destroy sin because sin causes death. If you will not be separated from your sin, you will face and feel his judgment. This might sound mean, but God’s hatred of sin is a sign of his love for us. It is proof he is the defender of those who seek refuge in him. He will not “be patient” with sin forever. As Adam Smith once wrote, “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” God knows when his patience will no longer be capable of producing repentance, when his being slow to anger looks like he is overlooking sin.
One such story of God’s judgment follows on the heels of a story of his mercy. Daniel 4 is the story of how God chastised Nebuchadnezzar severely, brought him to repentance, had mercy on him, and restored him.
Daniel 5 is the story of God’s swift and final judgment on a sinful person. God knows when which approach is required.

FROM PARTY TO PROFANITY VV. 1-4
The story switches abruptly. Chapter 5 begins with Belshazzar now king instead of Nebuchadnezzar. The scene is a large public feast at the royal house in the presence of a large crowd. The story escalates when the king tastes the wine. This seems to be a polite way of saying that he had overindulged in wine. Basically, he got drunk. While intoxicated, he remembers that they still had the holy vessels taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He orders them to be brought forth to be used as drinking cups at his party. They then used the cups as acts of worship to pour libations (liquid sacrifices) to the gods they worshipped. These were the gods that they had portrayed in the form of idols. What started as a party ended with the king profaning the holy objects used to worship Israel’s God.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL VV. 5-12
The situation takes a turn for the worse when all of sudden the king sees a hand appear and start writing on the wall. The event terrifies the king, and he summons his wise men to help him understand the riddle. It is unclear whether other people saw the hand as it wrote. The text only mentions the king sees it. But no matter who saw it being written, everyone saw the text on the wall. But there was a huge problem. Evidently no one could read it. In verse 7, it says that the king offers a reward for anyone who could “read the inscription and explain its interpretation.” No one was able until the queen remembered Daniel.

THE INSCRIPTION INTERPRETED VV. 13-28
Daniel shows up and promptly refuses the rewards offered him. He tells the king the works God performed in the days of Nebuchadnezzar (v18-22). He then says Belshazzar has been arrogant and that the use of holy vessels in the worship of idols was the last straw. Daniel then reveals the inscription: Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin. All of the words refer to money. The base unit of money was the Shekel. This is originally the using of weights to measure/value grain harvests. It is kind of like the British Pound. Mene means Mina, which was 50 shekels (tekel is just a rare alternate spelling). Parsin means “half (the u at the beginning of the word just means “and”). So, the phrase translates “A Mina, a Mina, A shekel, and a half.” But what does it mean? On the surface, they are just monetary terms. The king might have been looking at the caterer’s bill for the large party he had just hosted. It had a deeper meaning which Daniel now gives. Mene also can mean “appointed.” Tekel means weight out (remember shekel was a using of weight). Peres (which is another form of the verb Parsin used above) means half, so “to divide.” Daniel says the inscription means three things: (1) God has fixed the number of days for Belshazzar, (2) He has been weight and found lacking and, (3) His kingdom will be divided between the Persians and Medes.

SUDDEN FULFILLMENT VV. 29-31
Though God had granted Nebuchadnezzar’s opportunity to change, this time the prophesy is fulfilled quickly.
That same night a palace coup occurred, and Belshazzar was killed. The Medo-Persian Empire took over Babylon.
What lessons can we learn from how God dealt with Belshazzar:
The Dangers of Blasphemy – Blasphemy might sound like an archaic word or idea. It simply means “dishonoring God through speech or action.” One of the Ten Commandants is “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20:7). To take the Lord’s name in vain means to use it as if it is meaningless. The common easy designation is using the word “god” as an exclamation as in the phrase OMG. But it means more than that. It means to treat God and the things of God as if they are of little value. He is saying to treat all things that pertain to me with respect. God is not being petty or humorless. He is simply saying that you call tell a lot about a person’s
priorities by what he treats as valuable, and what he disparages or misuses.
The Slippery Slope of Sin – There is a famous quote that says, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” No one wakes up and decides out of the blue to reject God, commit murder, or destroy his life. The path into sin is a slippery one. As we toy with something we believe to be not very dangerous and end up where we never expected to be. This is what happens with Belshazzar. What starts as self-indulgence ends with sacrilege. Every sin, no matter how small, is a step down the path that leads to hell. And once we are on it, it is so easy for us to be pushed farther and farther down it.
The Jealousy of God – The flash point for this event was Belshazzar’s use of temple cups used in his partying and in his worship of idols. It might seem odd that God allows a man to be killed because he used the wrong cups at a party. That is not the point. These objects had been set apart exclusively for use in the temple. This reveals that God is passionately devoted to the things that belong to him. The sacred vessels are an example of how seriously God is devoted to the things that are his. What is more important is that you are his. He is eager to passionately protect and defend all that he has made and to redeem from the attacks of the evil one.
God’s jealousy is an aspect of God’s love for us. And because He loves us, he wants us to be set apart for his service.