Daniel Unlocked #29

Daniel Unlocked # 29. The Fall of Belshazzar’s Babylon Points to the fall of End-Time Babylon?

Exactly as announced by the prophet, Babylon falls. And it does so quickly; while the king and his courtiers party, the city falls without a battle. According to the historian Herodotus, the Persians dug a canal to divert the Euphrates River and marched into the city on the riverbed. That same night Belshazzar is slain. His father, King Nabonidus, who has left the city already, surrendered himself later to the new rulers. He was spared and exiled. Thus, the greatest empire humanity has ever known to this point comes to an end. Babylon, the head of gold, is no more.

Belshazzar’s love of amusement and self-glorification eroded the lessons he should never have forgotten; and he committed sins like those that brought judgments on Nebuchadnezzar. He wasted the opportunities graciously granted him, neglecting to use the opportunities within his reach for becoming acquainted with truth. Alas, such is humanity!

Humanly speaking, there was no reason for concern about the Medo-Persian army without. Babylon had massive fortified walls, a food supply for many years, and plenty of water, because the Euphrates River flowed through the heart of the city. So, King Belshazzar sees no problem in having a party while the enemy surrounds the city. He orders a momentous immoral celebration. What a powerful testimony to the excessive arrogance of humanity, especially in contrast to the power of the Lord.

Through Daniel, God tells the king that despite the opportunities he has had to learn truth, “But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!” (Dan. 5:23 NLT).

Daniel 5 stands in close parallel with Daniel 4. Both chapters portray in graphic terms God’s sovereignty over the kingdoms of the world. In Daniel 4, God took away the power from Nebuchadnezzar for a limited period. In Daniel 5, God removes the power from Belshazzar and brings the Babylonian kingdom to its prophesied end.

One theme that pervades the book of Daniel and is graphically demonstrated here is that of the arrogance of the human powers in their rebellion against God and what stands for God in the world. When he should be more focused on defending his city against the impending attack of Medes and Persians, Belshazzar was offering a lavish banquet to his officers.

The blasphemous gesture of Belshazzar in defiling the temple vessels, which represented the temple, amounted to an attack against God Himself. At this point, the Babylonian king, and the system that he represented had filled up the cup of their iniquity. In that moment, the heavenly tribunal pronounced the sentence. A supernatural hand wrote on the palace wall the sobering message: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN” (Dan. 5:25).

His worst sin (more so than his hedonistic party) was his treatment of the vessels from God’s temple. Daniel 8 will also portray an attack on the sanctuary of God. The blasphemous handling of the sacred objects epitomized Belshazzar’s contempt for the God of Israel and finally filled the cup of Babylon’s iniquity. However, the root of his faults lay in his refusal to walk in the light that God revealed through His dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. To avoid making the same mistake, we should pay close attention to the experiences of others, both positive and negative. Most importantly, we must walk in the light that God has shed in our path through His Word.

Like Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 NLT, concerning the second coming of Jesus, ‘When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure, then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.” Belshazzar’s feast conveyed a sense of normalcy to the city’s inhabitants in spite of the enemies gathering outside the city walls. At the height of the celebration, Belshazzar praised the gods “of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone” (Dan. 5:23,) but not the living God. Apparently, he forgot what God had done through Daniel to teach Nebuchadnezzar. However, Belshazzar’s very act of desecration indicates that he may not have been completely oblivious of the living God. By seizing the sacred vessels of the Jerusalem temple to be used as drinking cups in that blasphemous celebration, the Babylonian king demonstrated that he not only refused to honour the God of the Hebrews, but he also exerted wilful contempt against Him.

By profaning the temple vessels, the king was expressing his most outrageous contempt for the reality those objects represented; namely, the worship of the true God. Such objects, though in exile, remained holy, and Belshazzar should have treated them with utmost respect. The scarlet harlot of Revelation 17 will commit an identicle crime that will bring her judgment.