Daniel 5

Daniel 5

Clarke - “It should be observed, that each word stands for a short sentence; mene signifies NUMERATION tekel, WEIGHING and peres, DIVISION.” · God had Belshazzar’s number, and it fell short · God weighed Belshazzar, and he came up light · God would therefore divide Belshazzar’s kingdom to the Medes and the Persians (Guzik Daniel 5 Commentary) UPHARSIN (Parsin) -The "U" means "and". Peres is the singular of parsin which means "divided," but "peres" can mean either "divided" or "Persia." The word Parsin contains a wordplay on the name “Persian” and even conveys a prophetic nuance as the Babylonian kingdom gave way to a kingdom of the Medes and the Persians (Medo-Persia). Cathers has an interesting comment (that I have read in several commentaries which make the point that Aramaic had no vowels which potentially could lead to a different reading) noting that… The inscription was written in Aramaic, a language that the people understood. It wasn’t as it the message was in a foreign language; it was that they just didn’t understand it. To the person in the room looking at this, it looked as if a series of monetary values were being written on the wall. Mene is the mina, about 50 shekels. Tekel is the shekel Upharsin is the half-shekel Totaling 101 ½ shekels. Daniel 5:26 "This is the interpretation of the message: 'MENE'--God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. God: Da 9:2 Job 14:14 Isa 13:1-14:32 21:1-10 47:1-15 Jer 25:11,12 Jer 27:7 50:1-51:64 Ac 15:18 Daniel 5 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries "YOUR NUMBER IS UP!" Or we could subtitle it "I've got your number!" MENE - Aramaic noun referring to a measure of weight. It appears twice for emphasis (cp the doubling of Pharaoh's dream in Ge 41:32) God has numbered your kingdom - Not just numbered but finished for he would not see the light of the next day (Da 5:30) Even as God had allowed the wicked Amorites to survive until their iniquity was "full" (Ge 15:16), so the total number of days allotted to the Babylonian kingdom had been reached (cp Da 2:37, 38, 39). And put an end to it - Belshazzar had crossed the line. The "jig" was up! There is no longer time for repentance. "Your number is up!" C H Spurgeon Sermon Notes A Man troubled by His Thoughts - His thoughts troubled him. — Daniel 5:6 TO many men thinking is an unusual employment. Yet it is a distinction of man that he can think. No wonder that when thought is forced on some men they are troubled. This trouble from thought is salutary: by it conviction and conversion may come; and, in any case, troubled thought is as the sounding of the tocsin, arousing the mind, and warning the soul. Let us think of Belshazzar, and of ourselves. Of us, too, it may have been said, "His thoughts troubled him." We must be in a bad way if we dare not face our own thoughts about ourselves. What must God's thoughts of us be? I. IT DID NOT APPEAR LIKELY THAT HIS THOUGHTS WOULD TROUBLE HIM. l. He was an irresponsible and reckless monarch. He came of a fierce nation, and was born of a father who had been punished for his haughty spirit. 2. He had hardened his heart with pride (verses 22 and 23). Daniel said, "thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven." 3. He was drinking wine, and it had worked upon him (verse 2). 4. He was rioting in gay company: "his princes, his wives, and his concubines." Such comrades as these usually chase all thought away, and help their leader in his recklessness. 5. He was venturing far in profanity (verse 3); daring to abuse the sacred vessels, in his banquets, as an expression of his contempt for Israel's God, whom he despised in contrast with his "gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." Perhaps he had mentioned these in detail as the gods who had triumphed; at any rate, the prophet brings them forward with detestation in verse 4. No man is rendered wise or thoughtful by the wine-cup. No man is out of the reach of the arrows of God. No conscience is so dead that he cannot arouse it. Many other men in far lower positions exhibit equal pride of station and success; this is stimulated in much the same manner, and exhibited with much the same contempt for the things of God. A parallel is easily drawn between Belshazzar and other proud ones. II. YET WELL MIGHT HIS THOUGHTS TROUBLE HIM. l. For what he saw was appalling: "fingers of a man's hand over against the candlestick" (verse 5). God sometimes gives men warnings which they must notice. 2. For what he could not see was suggestive. Where was the hand? Where was the writer? What had he written? What did it mean? A terrible mystery was involved in his vision. God gives men hints of something behind, which is yet to appear. 3. For what he had done was alarming. His own past flashed before him. His cruel wars, oppressions, blasphemies, and vices. What he knew of his father's career increased his terror. What he had himself failed to do came before him: "The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified" (verse 23). What he was then in the act of doing startled him. He was wantonly defying Jehovah, the God of Israel. See him trembling before whom all trembled. He has drunk a strange draught out of those holy cups. III. AND MIGHT NOT YOUR THOUGHTS TROUBLE SOME OF YOU? 1. You are careless, riotous, fond of feasts, given to much wine. Does wantonness ever end well? 2. You are prosperous. Are not beasts fattened for the slaughter? 3. You are trifling with holy things. You neglect, or ridicule, or use without seriousness the things of God. Will this be endured? Will not the Lord be provoked to avenge this contempt? 4. You mix with the impure. Will you not perish with them? 5. Your father's history might instruct you, or at least trouble you. 6. The sacred writing "over against the candlestick" is against you. Read the Holy Scripture, and see for yourself. 7. Specially, you have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Conscience beholds the scales in the hand of the infallible Judge. Take heed that you do not fall into Belshazzar's condition, to whom Daniel gave no counsel, but simply interpreted the sentences which sealed his doom. As yet we dare preach the gospel to you, and we do. God's thoughts are above your thoughts. He bids you repent of sin, and believe in his Son Jesus; and then your thoughts will cease to trouble you. Thoughts and Facts Such mystery of iniquity within, That we must loathe our very thoughts, but for the cure He hath devised — the blessed Tree The Lord hath shown us, that, cast in, can heal The fountain whence the bitter waters flow. Divinest remedy Whose power we feel, Whose grace we comprehend not, but we know. — Miss Havergal Conscience, from inaction, is like a withered arm in the souls of many; but the Lord of conscience will one day say to it, "Be thou stretched forth, and do thine appointed work." As the ant-hill, when stirred, sets in motion its living insects in every direction, so the conscience of the sinner, disturbed by the Spirit, or judgments of God, calls up before its vision thousands of deeds which fill the soul with agony and woe. — McCosh The Duke of Wellington once said that he could have saved the lives of a thousand men a year, had he had chaplains, or any religious ministers. The uneasiness of their minds reacted on their bodies, and kept up continual fever, once it seized upon their frames. It is our blessed office to tell of One who can "minister to a mind diseased;' whose grace can deliver from "an evil conscience," and through whom all inward fear and trouble are removed. Charles IX of France, in his youth, had humane and tender sensibilities. The fiend who had tempted him was the mother who had nursed him. When she first proposed to him the massacre of the Huguenots, he shrunk from it with horror: "No, no, madam! They are my loving subjects." Then was the critical hour of his life. Had he cherished that natural sensitiveness to bloodshed, St. Bartholomew's Eve would never have disgraced the history of his kingdom, and he himself would have escaped the fearful remorse which crazed him on his death-bed. To his physician he said in his last hours, "sleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. They drip with blood. They make hideous, faces at me. They point to their open wounds, and mock me. Oh, that I had spared at least the little infants at the breast!" Then he broke out in agonizing cries and screams. Bloody sweat oozed from the pores of his skin. He was one of the very few cases in history which confirm the possibility of the phenomenon which attended our Lord's anguish in Gethsemane. That was the fruit of resisting, years before, the recoil of his youthful conscience from the extreme of guilt. — Austin Phelps Daniel 5:27 " 'TEKEL'--you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. You: Job 31:6 Ps 62:9 Jer 6:30 Eze 22:18-20 Have been weighed: Mt 22:11,12 1Co 3:13 Daniel 5 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries WEIGHED AND WANTING! Weighed on the scales - God’s Word Weighs My Life. God had weighed Belshazzar's life in the scales of justice and found that he came up short. His life did not "measure up" to God's standard of righteousness. In first Samuel we read these words uttered by Hannah in her prayer… Boast no more so very proudly. Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth, for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed. (1Sa 2:3) Job knew this great truth that God would one day weigh" the actions (including every thought, word and deed) and asked… Let Him weigh me with accurate scales (Let Him weigh me in balances of justice), and let God know my integrity. (Job 31:6) Let's not skip over God's scales too quickly thinking "poor Belshazzar"! God's searching eye weighs every heart (Pr 15:3, 2Chr 16:9, 1Sa 16:7, etc) including the heart of believers and we will one day stand before Christ's Bema Seat to… be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what (we have) done, whether good or bad (not referring to sinful but worthless deeds). (2Co 5:10-note) Whitcomb writes that "The Egyptian Book of the Dead pictured men being weighed in balances after death to determine whether their sins out­weighed their worthy deeds. But Scripture makes it plain that salvation is never determined that way, for none are worthy (Ro 3:23). Nevertheless, men are weighed by God to deter­mine degrees of reward or punishment (1Sa 2:3; Job 31:6; Ps. 62:9; Pr 16:2). (Ibid) Found deficient - Campbell says "Belshazzar had been weighed in the balance of God and found too light in view of the blessings God had bestowed upon him. He was "found wanting" because he had not fulfilled what God expected of him as an earthly ruler. He had misused his position and privileges and had failed to acknowledge and glorify God. Solemn words again, "Belshazzar, you did not measure up!… The night of revelry and revelation became a night of retribution. (Borrow Daniel, decoder of dreams) John Walvoord sees the events in Daniel 5 as a foreshadowing of the end of the times of the Gentiles when the King of kings returns "In many respects, modern civilization is much like ancient Babylon, resplendent with its monuments of architectural triumph, as secure as human hands and ingenuity could make it, and yet defenseless against the judgment of God at the proper hour. Contemporary civilization is similar to ancient Babylon in that it has much to foster human pride but little to provide human security. Much as Babylon fell… so the world will be overtaken by disaster when the Day of the Lord comes" (Chapter 5 Belshazzar’s Feast And The Fall Of Babylon) Daniel 5:27 C H Spurgeon Faith's Checkbook Weighed and Found Wanting 'TEKEL'-- you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient Some of you are hurting. Your earthly prospects grow dark, and it is midnight. Your business is failing. You have sickness in the house. Your darling wife languishes before your weeping eyes. Your children, by their ingratitude, have wounded your spirit. You are a believer, and you know that God is testing and trying you. God wants you to know that a summertime religion is not sufficient. He wants you to see if your faith can stand the test of trial and trouble. Remember Job? What a scale he was weighed on! What weights of affliction were cast on him! He was a mountain of sore trouble, and yet he could bear them all. He came out of the scales as proof against all the weight that Satanic strength could hurl. Is it this way with you? Can you say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)? Can you submit to His will without murmuring? Can you still say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15)? Remember, if your religion will not stand in adversity, it will not give comfort in the storm. You would be better without it; for with it, adversity deceives you. Without it, you might discover your true condition and seek the Lord as a penitent sinner. If a little adversity breaks you, what will happen when all God’s storms are let loose on your soul? “If you have run with the footmen, and they wearied you … how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan” (Jer. 12:5)? If mere trials distress and grieve, what will you do when all the hurricanes of divine vengeance sweep across the earth and shake its pillars? Dear friend, I want you to see how you handle your trials and troubles. Does your faith stand? Can you see God’s right hand even when it is wrapped in clouds? Can you discover the silver lining of tribulation’s black clouds? God help you to come out of the scales, for many are weighed in them and found wanting (Dan. 5:27). Daniel 5:27 C H Spurgeon Morning and Evening 'TEKEL'-- you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, “Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?” Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavour to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did—“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, “Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be ‘found wanting,’ when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.” “Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.” (Morning and Evening) Daniel 5:28 " 'PERES'--your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians." Your: Da 5:31 6:28 8:3,4,20 9:1 Isa 13:17 21:2 45:1,2 Daniel 5 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries PERES - This is the singular form of the plural upharsin. The Aramaic word is perea which a Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon says "is probably used as a word play in Da 5:25, in the handwriting on the wall. "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." The words can be taken to mean mina, a shekel and a half mina (or half shekel). This makes little sense and Daniel interpreted it as the verbs number, weigh and divide. The last verb may have a double word play in its similarity to Persia, which was about to conquer Belshazzar. The word "upharsin" is the conjunction "and" plus the plural of peres." Has been divided - Notice Daniel does not say "will be" but speaks of it as if it has already happened, so certain is the judgment (and in fact it is possible that it might have been literally happening as they were speaking -- at this very moment it is highly likely that the Euphrates River was being diverted to provide access into the city under the mammoth walls). Given over - By whom? Clearly the Most High God (Da 2:21) To the Medes and Persians - see Da 6:28.