He was drunk. Not just him but everyone with him. But he was not just drunk on the liquor he had consumed but drunk on pride. Drunk on his sense of invincibility. Drunk on power. There are many things a person can get drunk on. Belshazzar was drunk on them all.
The Persians had literally been on his doorstep trying to break in and destroy Babylon. But Babylon was invincible with its technology, engineering and innovations. The walls were so thick that chariots could race on top. So what army thinks it’s going to penetrate these with some wood battering rams? Go ahead and try.
Then there are two sets of 3 walls. If by somehow someone is able to get in, we will pick you off easily when you are in the corridor of these walls.
And don’t even think of trying to mess with the waterways. It’s the Euphrates after all. High volume of water. And we have gates that run down into the water to stop you from merely swimming inside.
So go ahead and try, Belshazzar thought. We will drink of our power. We will drink of our invincibility. And we will drink to our gods with the temple articles from the conquered god of Israel.
That was a dumb move on Belshazzar’s part.
As they were downing more and more liquor, a hand suddenly appeared out of nowhere and in front of everyone wrote on the wall.
Belshazzar was terrified. So much so that two translations have translated the Aramaic to say he lost control of his bowels and pooped his pants. Others say he wet his pants. Whatever that Aramaic phrase means, his body responded in fear.
Everyone was in an uproar. He called for the wise men, the magicians, the diviners and others to translate the words. But they couldn’t or wouldn’t. The distress intensified.
‘If anyone translates this I’ll make them 3rd in the kingdom’ Belshazzar announced in desperation. He could only give the third place as it was his dad who was actually king. But his dad was on a self-imposed exile/vacation and had made his son regent in his place.
Still nothing.
Then the queen walked in when she heard the commotion. When she found out what was happening, she told the king not to worry. There was a man who worked for his ancestor, his grandfather, who had the spirit of the gods. He could translate the words. She called him Daniel. Not by his Babylonian name assigned to him but by his Jewish name – Daniel.
Belshazzar quickly summoned Daniel and offered him riches and power if he could translate the words. Daniel didn’t need this. But he was willing to translate. Unlike when he translated the troubling words for Nebuchadnezzar and was afraid for his master, he had no problem translating the words for this king. The one who had just defiled the temple articles by having a drunken fest to his gods with the holy articles from the Jerusalem temple.
You’ve been weighed on the scales and been found wanting, Daniel said. Your kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians.
Daniel was then immediately given the gold and the honor. Not that it mattered to him.
Meanwhile outside the gates King Cyrus had been at work. He had discovered an old marsh and had his men dig ditches, diverting the Euphrates into a former lake. The water lowered enough that his soldiers snuck into the city without being detected. Not that it mattered as everyone was too drunk to do anything.
And that night, upon which Cyrus said there wasn’t even a fight, Cyrus conquered Babylon. Belshazzar would be killed.
Belshazzar had spurned God. He had seen what happened to his grandfather when his grandfather did not acknowledge God, but it made no difference to him. He was that arrogant that he refused to learn from history. It would cost him his life.
—
Daniel had said to Belshazzar that “you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways” (v. 24). This gave me pause. Not in a fearful way. But do I honor the God who holds my life and my ways in his hands? Let’s just say I had some repenting to do. And probably a lot more that I need to do.
