The Handwriting Is on the Wall

Well, good afternoon, everyone! That was kind of surprising. I think we're going to have another hymn or something first, you know? But, uh... Appreciate very much being here. I thank Mr. Joseph for allowing me to come over here. It's really enjoyed coming here. It's very nice to see all of you again. It's been quite a while. It's been a few months since I've been over here, but... Really, really enjoyed being here.

You've got such a beautiful little hall here, and it's... It's a nice drive. It's actually closer coming here than it is going up to Saginaw. I speak once a month over there, which is a Sabbath where I speak in Saginaw and Flint when Mr. Murray gives a Bible study, so it helps him out on that Sabbath. But it's actually closer to come here than it is to Saginaw by about five or five miles or so, so... Really enjoyed coming over. It's a gorgeous day today, so it was a perfect time to be coming over here.

Really, really enjoying it. As Dr. Sims mentioned in his opening prayer about the horrible tragedy over in San Bernardino, that couple that obviously have links to terrorism, and now the FBI has actually called a terrorist attack, which it was pretty obvious to most of us that that's what it was. And it looks like there's other ties that people have evolved with it that they haven't really figured out yet, but that had some hand in that with providing money to them or... There was some planning, obviously a lot of planning involved, and probably some help from other individuals as well.

But it does kind of lead into what I want to talk about today. A lot of things are happening in the world and here in the United States. So where do we now stand in the timeline of history? I'm talking about the United States of America, and the events leading up to...

And as far as the world goes, also events leading up to the return of Christ. How close are we to that time when, as it says, all things that are written will be fulfilled? And especially, we'll do things right now in the United States of America. And it describes what other times we're now living in and what does that pertain to the coming events that we're going to have? Where are we? So I just wanted to take a brief look at today as we approach the end of another year here coming up.

And also just real briefly touch what can we learn from this as far as the people of God today and the times we're now living in. But today I want to take a look at where we now stand in the timeline of history, especially as the United States of America. Where does the United States of America now stand in the timeline of its history as a nation? What must that mean for all of us who are part of the True Church of God?

How does that relate to us? And what I want to show as well is what phrase sums up where we now stand as a nation. Is there a phrase that kind of sums up where we now stand? That's what I want to look at today. I'll give my title a little bit later momentarily. First, I want to just take back a look at history a little bit. I'm going to lead up to a monumental event that happened in the Bible, a Bible event that changed the course of history.

But before getting to that event, I want to first give some background, take some time to give some background to this major event, a major biblical event that changed the course of history. God bless, as we know, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We gave them a special promise to bless their descendants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the descendants of Israel. And of course, they became the nation of Israel, as we know. And then, after David's son Solomon, after his reign, the Kingdom was divided into two nations, the northern ten tribes of Israel and the southern tribe of Judah, which consisted of Judah and Levi, half-tribe of Levi and Benjamin.

As we know, the Kingdom of Israel, the northern ten tribes of Israel, fell around 721 B.C. And then the southern tribe of Judah fell around 586-587 B.C., right in that time period. Now Babylon is the one who conquered the southern tribe of Judah. But Babylon also conquered Assyria in 612 B.C. And they had three invasions of Judah. And the first invasion that Nebuchadnezzar, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had on people of Judah was in 605 B.C. And at that time, at that very first time, they took some of the nobles of Judah captive, as it says in Daniel 1, verse 3.

And among those nobles that were taken captive was a young man by the name of Daniel. Daniel was taken captive in that first captivity of Babylon, about 605. There were three overall invasions. As we were told in 2 Chronicles 36, verse 16, God allowed Judah to fall, because it got to the point where it says in 2 Chronicles 36, verse 16 that there was no remedy. There was no way to turn things around. It had gotten that bad.

Nebuchadnezzar reigned as the king of Babylon, starting about 612 B.C. down to about 562 B.C. And, of course, one of the things it talks about in the book of Daniel is that Nebuchadnezzar had this huge dream of his golden image and troubled him very much. Finally, Daniel came to give the interpretation of the gold image, the image of gold. After he had given that interpretation, he was promoted, Daniel was, to a top administrative position. He was considered then to have the very wisdom of God. He gained a reputation for not only interpreting the dream, but he had to tell Nebuchadnezzar what he dreamed. He told him what he dreamed, and then he interpreted for him. So that reputation then stayed with Daniel for the rest of his life, as we'll now see. The last king of Babylon that's mentioned in the Bible, at least, is Belshazzar, who reigned with his father, Nabonidas, until Nabonidas was captured by the Persian king Cyrus, at which point he became, Belshazzar then became the sole ruler of Babylon. I'll kind of get into that a little bit more in a moment. But one additional point pertaining to the background of this major biblical event, which is recorded in the book of Daniel, and I'll just mention this because it's interesting. Daniel has a little different than some of the other books in that Daniel 2, 4, beginning of Daniel 2, 4, through chapter 7 of Daniel, was written in a form of Aramaic, in the other chapters of Daniel written in Hebrew. Let's turn to Daniel 2, 4, where it's the sort of beginning of the original language being in the form of Aramaic. It begins in chapter 2, 4, where it even tells us that. Daniel 2, 4, then the Chaldean spoke to the king in Aramaic, and that original language, as it's translated from, was originally a form of Aramaic, which continues on through chapter 7 of Daniel. This form of Aramaic, actually, the Old King James says Syriac. Here it says Aramaic, but the Old King James says Syriac. The Hebrew is a-la-mi-aw-aw-see. A-la-aw-aw-meath, like Aramaic. Which the Strongs called the Syrian language, or Syriac, as it's translated in the Old King James.

Now, Daniel would have, that was apparently the common language of that particular time, and Daniel would have understood and been fluent in both Hebrew and in Syriac or Aramaic, this form of Aramaic that was used here. So he would have understood both of those and be able to write in both of those languages and understood both of them. He'd been fluent in both languages. With that background, then, let's move forward to a specific date. Now, it's interesting, we can actually give specific dates, because they've uncovered, many years ago, over 100 years ago, Babylonian Chronicles that actually give the exact date of the fall of Babylon. But I want to go to another date you can derive from the Babylonian Chronicles, and that's October 10th of 539 BC.

On the Hebrew calendar, this would have been on the 14th day of the seventh month, or on the 14th day of Tishri, October 12th, 539 BC. In other words, the day before the Feast of Tabernacles, as we would look at it today. And again, this particular date is derived from what are called the Babylonian Chronicles, which give the exact date of Babylon's fall. In addition, the Nabonitis Chronicle, a chronicle called the Nabonitis Chronicle, was discovered over 100 years ago, which details events leading to the fall of Babylon. They give very interesting details.

It's not all there. There are some aspects of that tablet that are missing, but it gives enough to give us quite a bit of information. So, October 10th of 539 BC was two days before the fall of Babylon. I'm giving you this history in going into this because I think there are some parallels that we'll see here relating to Babylon's fall and to where we are right now as our nation. Now, Nabonitis is up until the discovery of the Nabonitis Chronicle and the discovery of the Babylonian Chronicles. There's also a tablet that was found about... I think the first tablet that was found was about 1852.

They found this with Belshazzar's name on it. But up until that time, a lot of skeptics looked at the Bible, read Daniel, talked about Belshazzar. They said, wait a minute, we can't believe the Bible. There is no such... In the king list of Babylon, there was no mention of anybody by the name of Belshazzar. So skeptics tried to discredit the Book of Daniel because up until the 19th century, discoveries of this one tablet in 1852 and later the Nabonitis Chronicle, up until they discovered those who was no king by the name of Belshazzar, ever found.

However, Belshazzar is mentioned on this tablet, discovered in 1852, and then also on the Nabonitis Chronicle. So suddenly, the biblical record was confirmed by evidence outside of the Bible. Now, the Nabonitis Chronicle records that Belshazzar remained in Babylon, while his father, Nabonitis, was away in a little town called Timah, T-E-M-A, for ten years. And during that ten-year period, of course, Belshazzar would have been...he was in the city of Babylon, so he would have been the ruler over the city of Babylon.

But his father was the king, but he was off in a town of Timah for ten years. And that was from about 550 B.C. to 540 B.C., ten years just before the fall of Babylon, which is 539 B.C. So Nabonitis, away for ten years, in this call, called Timah, suggesting then that Belshazzar were probably, during that time, they were co-regions of Babylon. Then, after being away for ten years, Nabonitis returns to Babylon, not long before it fell.

And by October of 539 B.C., their first part of October, 539, Nabonitis and Belshazzar, the co-regions there of Babylon in the city of Babylon, they knew that Cyrus and the Medo-Ancursion army were heading towards Babylon to conquer it. They knew they were on their way. They knew they were advancing towards Babylon. They knew that they were led by a general by the name of Gobraeus. So Nabonitis, in early October, 539 B.C., Nabonitis and the contingency of the army of Babylon went out to meet them at a town called Opus, O-P-I-S, to engage them in battle.

They engaged the battle at Opus, but the Cyrus and the Medo-Persian army were victorious over Nabonitis and the Babylonians. So they started to retreat. Babylonians did, back towards Babylon. In the next encounter, it occurred on October 10th. They didn't have a date of that encounter at Opus. They called the Battle of Opus, but they don't have a date on it. It was missing from the Chronicle. But they do have a date for when they engaged them on October 10th in a little city called Cyprus, S-I-P-P-A-R, which is located about 50 miles north of the city of Babylon.

And when Nabonitis was retreating, they got to that city's sidebar, and what they did there, Nabonitis and the Babylon army fled. They basically gave it up without a battle. And Nabonitis fled at that time in Cyprus. He was missing for a couple of weeks, and a couple of weeks later, he was captured by the Persian army. Now, one of the soldiers... This is theory now. We don't know this for sure. It's not in the record. But it's very likely that one of the soldiers of the Babylonian army, who escaped from the Battle of Opus up north, came back to Babylon.

He got there back to Babylon and probably, undoubtedly, told Belshazzar what had happened, how they'd been defeated at Opus, and how they'd fled at Saipar. They just passed north of Babylon, and how, basically, their army, M&I's numbers, was in retreat.

That brings us to the date of October 12th, 539 BC, or to the 16th of Tishri. That's the day the empire of Babylon fell. It fell on that very day, October 12th, 539 BC, as that's according to the Babylonian Chronicle. This also brings us to the immense record in Daniel 5, and to the handwriting on the wall. And that's where I've derived my sermon. My sermon title is, The Handwriting is on the Wall. I want to make some parallels to what happened on those days leading up to the fall of Babylon and to where we might be today in our history. The first, a side note. Many people today would like to discredit the Bible. Yet those same people often use phrases, which are commonly used today. We commonly use, like, a cross to bear, a house divided against itself, labor of love, signs of times. You reap what you sow. In the tooklum of an eye, a two-edged sword, and your days are numbered, or maybe the handwriting is on the wall. See, all those phrases have one thing in common. They're all from the Bible. In the phrase, your days are numbered, of course, is derived from the handwriting on the wall. But Daniel 5 and the handwriting on the wall reveals that the great empire of Babylon fell in one day. In one day. Let's go to Daniel 5 to see what lessons we can learn.

Daniel 5. We'll go to Daniel 5 beginning in verse 1. Belshazzar. Again, that's where he's mentioned in the Bible. There is no Belshazzar. Well, now they know there was. The last king of Babylon was actually Belshazzar, not Nabonidus, as most records used to indicate, until they found these other carnicles. Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords. Pretty big feast. And he drank wine in the presence of the thousand. And while he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his father, actually his grandfather, it's his ancestor, the word means ancestor, it was actually his grandfather. Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So Belshazzar's wives are mentioned here, his wives and his concubines.

Now, first of all, I just want to talk about this banquet. It says there were a thousand lords there. That's a huge amount of people. It's a large banquet, a thousand. And it is that thousand of his lords, there would have been attendants, there would have been servants, there would have been probably some guards, and it talks about the wives and concubines as well. So this banquet room then would have been very large, very large banquet room. In fact, indeed it was, they have actually uncovered that banquet room archeologists have, digging around the ruins of ancient Babylon. It's now been unearthed by archeologists at the site of ancient Babylon, and it measured roughly 52 feet wide and 170 feet long, almost 9,000 square feet. Now, just to give you a little bit of perspective, if you've been to our church building in Flint, our church building in Flint is about 3,000 square feet, so it's about three times larger. That's just that banquet room, 3 times larger than the entire area of our church building in Flint. Not the hall of medium, but the entire area of the church building. So this banquet room would have been 3 times larger than the area of our church building in Flint. Now, when you read the description that I just read here, a description of what kind of like you was having a drunken party. And Vashyasir was breaking protocol here at that time to invite wives and concubines, because women were customarily separated from the men on social occasions. They didn't meet together. In fact, just an example of that, when the Persian king Xerxes, or Hazaros, as he's called in the Bible, when he gave a back up for his officials, Scripture says that Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women. Esther, verse 1, verse 2 and 3, and verse 9. In other words, an indication is that she made a separate feast for the women, because they didn't feast together. The men were separate. So Vashyasir broke protocol by having the women and the concubines in this banquet with the men.

But sometimes they know they talk about the phrase, the catchphrase, wine, women and song can lead to trouble. Well, that's what this banquet had, wine, women and song, and a party atmosphere, and it led to big trouble. But, of course, Proverbs warns kings, those in leadership position, to have too much intoxicating drink. I'm just going to read that real quick, Proverbs 31, verses 4 and 5. So you've got to be careful if you're in a party atmosphere and you have too much free liquor. It is not for kings, O Lemuela, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink. Lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the justice of the afflicted. Back to Daniel 5. Again, Daniel 5, verse 2. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, and his wives and concubines, might drink from them. He did this knowing what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar, after what happened, and he had that banquet and saw things and had things happen, he put those vessels away, stored them away. But Belshazzar did this knowing what happened to Nebuchadnezzar about 25 to 30 years prior to this. Now, Nebuchadnezzar undoubtedly put these vessels in storage after what happened to him. And now Belshazzar here gives a command to retrieve them for this special banquet he's having. But here's the most astounding fact. You look at this thing and you step back and think about, think what's going on, the bigger picture, after you do some research. The things that's astounding to me is the fact that all this is taking place. Belshazzar's throwing this great feast and having this great banquet, knowing that the armies of the Medes and Persians are on his doorstep and are about to attack his city. So you look at this and say, why is he throwing this banquet? He knows and enemies approaching that they want to overcome the city of Babylon. They want to take it over, to conquer it. Now, according to Babylon and Chronicles, this is now October 12, 539 B.C., when Babylon is invaded in falls when this banquet's taking place. So this banquet's taking place on October 12, on that night, October 12, 539 B.C., only two days after the Battle of Cyprus, when they basically, they people at home, gave in without a battle. The Medo-Persian army is now at the gates of Babylon, seeking to destroy and capture it. And Belshazzar's up here throwing this banquet. Doesn't make sense. As I said, this is also now the 16th of Tishri or the second day of the Feast of Tabernacles, as we would look at it as well. That's what it dates. So the troubling question then is, with the Medo-Persian army near the gates of Babylon, why would Belshazzar throw this huge banquet?

Why do you throw a party with wine women in song at this particular time? Now, one thing we can discern from all this with a great deal of certainty is that Belshazzar was driven by pride and vanity, and a sense of being invincible. He obviously thought Babylon could never fall. What happened on this very night brings this proverb to mind as a lesson to those driven by pride. I'm just going to quote it here, and I've turned to it, Proverbs 16, verses 18 and 19, which says, Pride goes before destruction and the haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoiled with the proud.

Now, some commentators speculate that Belshazzar may have thrown this feast to celebrate the sense that now he was going to be the king of Babylon. He knew his father, Nabonites, had gone out, had been defeated up there at Opus, and then they fled at Saipar and given up that city without a battle. And then he fled and disappeared, didn't know where he was, and he probably figured, well, Belshazzar probably figured, okay, my father's not going to come back.

That makes me the king. In fact, some think he may have even crowned himself the king at that time, because in the Nabonites chronicle, Belshazzar is referred to as the crown prince, as the heir to the throne. So it's like, okay, my father's gone, that makes me the king. And that he threw this banquet to proclaim that he made himself king and threw the banquet to celebrate that, which was substantially how arrogant he was, and that he had a lust for power and a sense of being invincible.

Now, why would he thought that he was invincible? I want to give you a little bit of background here that you can research yourself and find out. It's very interesting. The city of Babylon at that time was the greatest and most unpenetrable city on the face of the earth.

Belshazzar felt assured there was no way that any army could ever penetrate beyond its gates and walls. There was no way it could ever fall to a foreign power. The city of Babylon, if you study, is built in the form of a square with a wall all around it. And that's about 14 to 15 miles on each side.

So it's about 15 miles one way, 50 miles another way. It's about 60 miles all the way around the perimeter. This wall was built. It's a square. So 60 miles all the way around. 50 miles, 15 on each side. This wall was built of stone and brick. Guess how high it was? It was 300 feet high. 300 feet. No army's going to get in there. The walls also extended 35 feet below the ground.

So you weren't going to be able to dig your way under it either. And the first wall was wide enough that it was like a highway, from which thousands of soldiers could look down and fire an approaching army. It was 25 feet thick. The wall was. It had a 25-foot highway around the top of it. There were also 250 towers along the perimeter of that wall, and each of those towers was 450 feet high. So they could have soldiers up there in those towers and on that wall, anybody approached, they could fire at them.

Take them down, unless they were having a party and nobody was paying attention. But they figured that that wall would never stop. There also was a double wall that was 75 feet from the first wall to the second wall to the second wall behind the first one. So you had to go through two walls. They thought they were invincible.

Now, the Euphrates River also flowed through the town of Babylon. It was built on both sides of the Euphrates River. So that was their source of water. They had a continued source of water, and they had a food supply that could last for years within the city. So they could withstand a long siege. And the huge iron gates secured any entry through the Euphrates River into the city. You had these iron gates where you could not get into the city through where the Euphrates came through it.

Now, before getting to the handwriting on the wall, I want to ask this. Do you and I really, 100 percent, believe and trust the Word of God?

It's very interesting that God foretold many years in advance through Isaiah and Jeremiah exactly how Babylon was going to fall in detail.

He gave detailed prophecies concerning the fall of Babylon. Even though Babylon was by far the most fortified city in the world at that time, and had 300-foot walls which was 10 to 35 feet below the surface of the wall, had a double wall or all that, God, through Jeremiah, prophesied that would not save her. Velshezra thought it would. They can't get in here. Look at the walls. Nobody can penetrate that wall. Notice the prophecy in Jeremiah 51. Let's go to Jeremiah 51 and begin in verse 53. Very interesting. Now, you have to think, when you read this, you think about the walls of Babylon being 300 feet high, with towers 450 feet high. Though Babylon were to mount to heaven, though the walls of Babylon went up 6,000 feet, all the way up in the sky, nearly to heaven, as you look at it, though Babylon were to mount up to heaven with their walls, and though she would afford to find the height of her strength, because everything was fortified to the hilt, yet from me, plunders would come to her, says the Eternal. She said, those walls aren't going to save her. She can't find security in that.

Because the sound of a cry comes from Babylon, verse 54, in great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, because the Lord is plundering Babylon, and silencing her loud voice. She's proud. She has a loud voice. Say, no, nobody could ever penetrate this city. I'm going to have a banquet. I'm going to throw a party. I don't have to worry about anybody ever getting into this city.

She had a loud voice in defiance to God. It was also prophesied by Jeremiah that her voice would be silenced, and that her great destruction would come by a nation to the north. They said, a nation to the north is going to come and destroy you. Let's go to Jeremiah 50, just a little bit back here. Jeremiah 50, verse 3.

From out of the north, a nation comes up against her. These are all prophets of Babylon in verse 15, 51 here in Jeremiah. From out of the north, a nation comes up against her, but shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein. You know, Babylon was dwelt in there after that for a while, but she was never rebuilt to her former glory, and no one lives there today. She's desolate. You can also see Jeremiah 51, 37, which says basically the same thing as this verse here. Jeremiah 50, verse 9 also says that it's going to be from the north. For we hold our rays up and cause to come up against Babylon, an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall array themselves against her. And from there she shall be captured.

That assembly of great nations was also prophesied to be associated with the Medes.

Let's go to Jeremiah 51, verse 11. Verse 11, Make the arrows bry, gather the shields. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, for his plan is against Babylon to destroy it. Also, verse 28, Jeremiah 51, Prepare against her the nations, prepare against Babylon, it's talking about, against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, its governors and all its rulers and all the land of his dominion. Babylon was destroyed by the Medes and the Persians, by the Medo-Persian Empire with the kings to the north. There's a prophesied here, exactly as prophesied. And this is all, Jeremiah was prophesied at least 50 years in advance of the fall of Babylon. This is 50 years in advance. This is prophesied. It was also prophesied, they'd be taken by a trick or a snare. They would trap them unawares. That was prophesied. Jeremiah 50, verse 23. Jeremiah 50, verse 23.

The last part of that verse, very latter part of verse 23, I have laid a snare for you. You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon. He says, I've laid a snare, I'm going to trap you. And you're not going to be aware of it. And you are not aware of this trap, of this snare. And you have been found, and also you've been caught. Because you have contended against the Eternal. Verse 24. Now the snare that trapped them is described by the Greeks historians, the two Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophones. Xenophones spelled with an X. X-E-N-O-P-H-O-N-E. But it was also prophesied by Jeremiah to involve. This snare, it would entrap them and catch them, was also prophesied to involve the drying up of water. Let's go back to Jeremiah 51, or we're still here. Jeremiah 51, I should say. Let's go back to Jeremiah 51. This time, verse 36. Jeremiah 51, verse 36. Therefore, thus says the Eternal, Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. And the latter part of that verse is, I will dry up her sea. Speaking of Babylon, I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. The water supply for Babylon was Euphrates River. That was the water supply for Babylon. And the Xeno-Siddur bill on both sides of Euphrates, which went through the center of the city, and which was its source of water. What happened was, as related by Herodotus and Xenophone, a second division of Cyrus's army diverted a portion of Euphrates River many miles upstream, before they went in there to actually take it. It had been diverted upstream. And also, this was October. In October, after a long, dry summer, Euphrates River is going to be low at that time of year, plus they diverted a portion of it into a nearby swamp several miles upstream from Babylon. So, by the time that they invaded, Euphrates River was very, very low. If so low, you could walk along the banks to the gate, making a possible lease to walk along the banks of Euphrates River where it entered into the city of Babylon. But how did they get through the gate? What about the gate? The gate's claw—you can't get through that gate. It's locked. It's closed.

There's also prophesied—now, before I get to that, there was also prophesied that our sea and springs would dry up, as we just read, at a time when a great drunken feast was taking place, which would cause them to be asleep, as to what was about to happen, and which would give them a false sense of security. Let's read this in Jeremiah 51, verse 39.

Jeremiah 51, verse 39, In their excitement, I will prepare their feasts. They're going to have a feast. And I'll make them drunk. They're going to be drunk from this feast. That they may rejoice. They're going to be rejoicing, having a party. And they're going to sleep, a perpetual sleep, and not awake. So they're going to be asleep when this happens. They're going to be having their attention in other words. They're going to be having this big feast in his banquet. That was prophesied.

Now, another thing that's amazing was also prophesied. This would take place at a time when Nebuchadnezzar's grandson was in power as a king. Of course, Belshazzar was his grandson.

Jeremiah 27, just go back a little ways to Jeremiah 27, where that was prophesied. Jeremiah 27, verses 6 and 7. Jeremiah 27, verse 6. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beast of the field I have also given him to serve him. So all the nations in so sure of him shall serve Nebuchadnezzar and his son and his son-son, his son and his grandson, until the time of his land comes. And then, at the time of his grandson, many nations at Great Kings shall make him, his grandson, serve them.

Nebuchadnezzar's son was a man by the... In the scripture, he's called Evo-Meredoc. It's his name given in 2 Corinthians 25, verse 27. But if you look up in history, some historians give his name as Amel-Marduk, A-M-E-L-M-A-R-D-U-K, which means soldier of Marduk. Marduk was the chief god of the Babylonians. After reigning for only 2 years, Nebuchadnezzar's son, Amel-Marduk, after he married just 2 years, he was murdered by his brother-in-law, a man by the name of Neerah Glesser, who then made himself king and then reign for the next 4 years, from 560 to 556 BC. But this was a brother-in-law. He was not in line to be the king. And after he was murdered, his son, Labeshai Marduk, Marduk, Marduk, I should say, he became the king for a short period of time of only 9 months in 556 BC, but he was just a boy. And he was murdered. And he was murdered, it looks like, by a plot from Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, so they could then, they knew they were the rightful heirs, and they murdered the boy, so they could then take their positions in the national rightful heirs of Babylon, because they were in the line to be kings.

This fulfilled in the prophecy of Jeremiah 27. It was going to fall during the time of a bloodline relative of Nebuchadnezzar, in other words, his grandson, his son-son, who would have been Belshazzar. That fulfilled that prophecy. Babylon was also prophesied to fall suddenly. Going back to Jeremiah 51, Jeremiah 51, verse 8.

Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Suddenly. Actually, it fell in one day. That's how sudden it was. It was also prophesied about 150 years in advance. Whose army would destroy Babylon and how it would be accomplished? It's amazing. The person is given by name whose army is going to destroy it, and how it would be accomplished. How what the snare was going to be. How that snare, that trick was going to be accomplished.

It was prophesied by Isaiah in this case. Let's go to Isaiah 45. A lot of you are familiar with it. I'm just going to read one verse here. Isaiah 45, verse 1. And Isaiah has written 150 years before the fall of Babylon. This is 150 years. This is before Cyrus is even born. He hasn't been born yet. But it says in Isaiah 45, verse 1, This is the Lord who is anointed to Cyrus. So this is prophesied. He called Cyrus by name before Cyrus was even born. Whose right hand I have held. Of course, Cyrus was the overall one who had the overall general of the armies of the Medo-Persian Empire. To Cyrus' right hand I have held. To subdued nations before him. To loose the armor of kings. And then notice the last part of that verse. To open before him. To open before him the double doors. This is what I find really intriguing. Those double doors were the gates in the Euphrates River, through which the army of Cyrus, led by his general, Gubrias, entered the city of Babylon by walking along the back of the Euphrates River, which was very, very low, because it had been diverted, because it was dry, and it was the end of the summer season. It's how he ended the city on the night that the handwriting appeared on the wall. Now the question then becomes, and this is an interesting and intriguing question, why were the gates not shut? It says here, the gates will not be shut. It says the gates are going to be opened. It doesn't say the gates are going to open when they get there. It says the gates are going to be opened. They're not going to be shut. They're not going to be locked. Belchazir thought they were. He thought he was secure, but they weren't. The gates were not shut. They were open. Normally they were always locked and secured. So why were the gates not shut on that particular night? That's the question.

The snare they were not aware of, as we read in Jeremiah 50, verses 23 and 24, may well have been a conspiracy from within the city. That's what most historians think. If you go back, Nahumrinathus was a very unpopular king. While he was away for ten years in the town of Timah, he dispensed with the Spring Festival to Marduk. He gluminated. It's like, okay, I'm going to be gone now. I'm the president. I'm going to be gone for ten years. So no more Christmas for ten years. No more Spring Festival to Marduk. That upset the habit. It was a great deal. It was a great festival to them. He dispensed while he was gone. For ten years. He dispensed with that feast. Also, as I mentioned, the Babylonian city of Opus, which is north of Saipar, north of Babylon, he revolved against Nabonidus. When he revolved against Nabonidus, he had all the citizens, these were his citizens, citizen of Babylon, he had the entire city massacred. He massacred his own citizens because they revolted against him up in Opus. In fact, it's interesting that both the city of Saipar and Babylon fell without a battle and without any resistance.

So Babylon, it would appear, welcomed Cyrus as a liberator. They didn't like either of those guys.

So his own citizens became a snare and helped facilitate the fall of their own empire because they didn't want any more of Nabonidus or Babylon. They were both very unpopular. All those prophecies written 50 or 150 years in advance came to pass exactly as prophesied, which now brings us to the handwriting on the wall, Daniel 5. Daniel 5. Let's go back to Daniel 5, verse 4.

Daniel 5, verse 4. We'll go through verse 7. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone in defiance to God. In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand and the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. The king saw the part of the hand and the road. He just saw the hand, the fingers up there, and wrote these words. All of a sudden, just a hand peered on there. Do you think that would scare you? Then the king's cotton has changed and his thoughts troubled him, so the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. All of a sudden, he's not quite so arrogant. The king cried out to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the sous-sayers. The king spoke to all the wise men of Babylon. He said, whoever reads this writing, whoever can understand what this means, tells me what it means. He shall be clothed with a purple and have a chain of gold around his neck, and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom, which tells us Nabernais was still living at that time, even though he was fleeing, as he would have been the first ruler in the kingdom of Babylon, and with Belshazzar being the second ruler. But none of the king's wise men could understand or interpret the handwriting, so we go down to verse 10. He talks about a queen here. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, also she came to the banquet hall, and the queen spoke, saying, O king, live forever, which is why you greeted kings. Do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your continents change. Who was this queen? This was not Belshazzar's wife, as she was already at the banquet, as read in verse 2. He said, The wives and the concubines were there. His wives and concubines were there with him at the banquet. Nor was this the wife of Nabernais. As according to Nabernais' chronicle, she had died prior to this event. Most scholars believe that this was the queen mother, that she was the widowed wife of Nebuchadnezzar. And that makes sense, because she knew firsthand what happened back when her husband was reigning, as he was a king, and encountered Daniel to interpret the dream of the golden image. She knew who Daniel was. She knew of his wisdom. Going on in verse 11, There is a man, she said, this queen then tells Belshazzar, There is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God. In the days of your father, in the days of your grandfather, light and understanding of wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your grandfather, your ancestor, your grandfather, your grandfather the king, Nebuchadnezzar, he made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, caldians and soothsayers, inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas, was found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar, who the king named, excuse me, who King Nebuchadnezzar, named Belteshazzar, but his name was Daniel. Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation. Then Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judea, who my grandfather the king brought from Judah?

Now Daniel was brought as one of the captives from Judah in 605 BC as a teenager. This is now 539 BC, 66 years later, so Daniel is now in his 80s.

Which gives a lesson. Daniel had been on the sideline for a long time. He'd been out of the picture for a long time. He's now in his 80s. I think the lesson here for us is, never think that you're no longer youthful to God because maybe of your age, or because you may have been on the sidelines for a number of years, not really been equally involved in things that's going on in the Church. It doesn't mean you're not valuable to God or useful to God. Daniel here, though now in his 80s, and though he hadn't been called before the king for many, many years, he still has a very important role to play. I think with the times we're living in right now, we all have a very important role to play, too. Who knows what that role might be?

Who knows how any of this might be used by God in the future, times we're living in? But then Belshazzar here said to Daniel, verse 14, I have heard of you that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you, dropping down to verse 16, and I have heard of you that you give interpretation and explain enigmas. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, give me understanding you're going to be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and you'll be the third ruler of the kingdom. In Latin, what he was asking for was a quid pro quo. You know, you give me something, I'll give you something. You tell me what this means, I'm going to give you power and position of rulership.

You know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back, so to speak.

Notice Daniel's response, which gives us another important lesson for each and every one of us. Verse 17, Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give rewards to somebody else. Yet I don't care about rewards, position, or power, I don't want that. Yet I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. To avoid any semblance of a quid pro quo, Daniel refused the king's offer of special gifts or position of authority that he was offered. He wasn't interested in gifts or power or authority. He was only interested in pleasing God and serving God.

Verse 25, He gets a hand writing on the wall, where Daniel says, This is the interpretation that was written, Many, many techo eupharson. Now, it's a very interesting book I read by a man by the name of Dr. David Jeremiah. It's called Agents of Babylon. He indicates here in his studies, he's a doctor, and these kind of things, he said, It's not that they didn't know what those words meant. I mean, they could read the words, but they had no idea what they meant or what they indicated.

They were Syrian or a form of Aramaic, which was the common language. And the problem was, what did they mean and what did they indicate? In English, if you saw these in English, they would have been numbered, numbered, weighed, divided. Okay, well, you're at a banquet. And all of a sudden, there's this big wall over here, Pastor Wall, in this great banquet room, a thousand people in there and more, and all of a sudden, you can see these fingers up there, and they're writing these four words, numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.

What does that mean? What would that mean? You might be able to read the words, but you wouldn't know what in the world they meant. We can go to understand them. So was the Belshazzar and all his lords. They couldn't understand it. This is the interpretation that was written, many, many, Teclu, Eufars, and Daniel says, this is the interpretation of each word. This is what it means. This is what it indicates. This is what it portends. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Teclu, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Basically, if you look up in Strong's, Eufarsa and Peres are the same word. Strong says, Eufarsa is divided from, or Peres is divided from a root word, which means to split up without violence, which is what happened. It was divided without violence. Now, why is the word many, M-E-N-E, or the word that means numbered, why is that one repeated?

It doesn't tell us, but obviously to give emphasis. Just saying, your kingdom is numbered, or just saying, your days are numbered, could imply at some point in the future. But to say, your days are numbered, numbered, would tend to imply more immediately they are numbered.

That Babylon's number of days were over and would end that very night, which they did. So it emphasized, your days are numbered. I mean, they're numbered. They're up right now. It's all over. Verse 30, That very night, Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain, and Darius the Mede. Now, here's another really interesting scripture, if you look into it. It's a difficult scripture, if you will. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old.

But here's another enigma. Liberal scholars will say, there was no such man as Darius the Mede in any of the Babylonian king chronicles. He's not mentioned. Or in the Persian, I should say. Or in the Medes. Any of those king-wests. There's no mention of Darius the Mede. In any way. In historical records. And that's true. You can't find anybody by the name... There are people named by the name of Darius, but in the records of the king chronicles there, there's no mention of a man by the name of Darius. It doesn't exist. That's true. And as far as the records are concerned.

Other than Josephus, he's mentioned Josephus, but Josephus probably mentioned because of Daniel. He's just quoting from Daniel. But historical records do show that a man by the name of Gebarias, as it could be rendered, as it was... as I previously stated, some will call it say Gebaru. Gebaru and Gebarias are apparently the same. They're just different languages. One's Greek and one's Aramaic. They say that Gebarias was appointed by Cyrus to be the ruler of Babylon at this time. And that is in the records.

There is records of that. That Gebarias was a governor over Babylon after it was conquered, not Darius. So what about this verse 31, then? This man Darius the Mede was 62 years old. It's now believed that Darius here was not a proper name in this case, but a title.

It was a title. It was a title meaning holder of the scepter. He's the given the rulership. He's the governor. He's going to be the governor, the ruler. He's going to be the one who's going to take over and be put as governor. He's going to be the scepter holder or the governor. If you look up the word Darius in strong concordance, they will tell you it can mean a title rather than a name. And that it was the title of several Persian kings. They took on the title of Darius, or they took on the title of being the scepter holder. So a more proper writing in verse 31 would be, And the scepter holder of the Medes received the kingdom.

And the man Cyrus appointed to be that scepter holder was Kobrias. And the secular of Cusola. So there's no discrepancy between what Daniel says and what is recorded in secular history. In fact, it's interesting. You want to get more interested on it. It's very interesting. You go to the UCG's Bible reading program, and you find their commentary on Daniel 531. They got two pages on how Darius is a title and is used as a title. It doesn't mean of individual, but it used the title.

And the man that had that title, that was appointed to be the governor of Babylon when it fell, was Kobrias. They have very interesting two pages of background and history on that in the United's Bible reading program. But that then brings us up to our time today and to our final question. Is the handwriting on the wall right now for the United States of America? Not in the sense of being numbered numbered, but in the sense of being numbered and weighed and divided.

Our future days as a leading nation and most powerful nation in the world, now numbered. Has the United States of America been weighed in the balance by God and found wanting?

Has the United States of America, are we found wanting before God and to be given over to and divided to some other power, possibly, or some other form of government? First, what parallels can we derive from the fall of Babylon in our time today and where we are today?

First, we know we have enemies, just like they did. Babylon knew they had an enemy, they had an approaching army, they knew the armies of the Medes and Persians were on their way to try to capture or overtake Babylon. They knew they were there, they knew they were on their doorstep, they were heading there. We also know we have enemies approaching us who want to destroy us. We know of any... what happened in San Bernardino shows out even more. Another terrorist attack since 9-1-1, and probably more will be coming. I've read a book that shows there are a lot of cells in the United States, terrorist cells, and I know they know they're true because this woman, she disguised herself as a Muslim. She speaks Arabic, she's a Jew, but she speaks Hebrew and Arabic and English, and she disguised herself as a Muslim, and she went to mosques, and she infiltrated meetings of Muslims, and she could understand... they thought they brought her in, let her stay there, because I thought she was a Muslim. But she was an infiltrator, and she heard what they said, and she knows there are cells all around America plotting to destroy Americans with things that happened like in San Bernardino this past week. So we have enemies or So we have enemies or ... who want to destroy us or are approaching us. But most of our leaders are confident that that will never happen, just like Belshazzar. He's come and asked if it's going to happen. And like Belshazzar, our current administration feels and acts like we're invincible. We, like King Belshazzar, have a false sense of security. I say we have talked about this country and many of its leaders. Not all, but many. We have a sense of security, and our current administration is asleep, basically. They're asleep as to the dangers we face as a nation right now all around us that are apparent to a lot of others. I want to make a parallel to one scripture here, interesting scripture, Revelation 3, it's one we're very familiar with, Revelation 3, verse 14. A message to the seven churches is a message of the Church of Laodicea. And to the age of the Church of Laodiceans right, these things says the Amen, the faithful and the true witness and the beginning of the creation of God. Of course, I realize this message is to the Church. But Old Testament Israel was called the Church in the Wilderness, or the congregation in the Wilderness, depending on which translation you use, Acts 7-38. In a sense, the New Testament Israel, of which the United States of America is a major component, is God's New Testament Church in the Wilderness, in the Wilderness of a world ruled by Satan, so to speak. So there could be a tie in there. So this message, then, could also, at least in principle, relate to us as a nation. Verse 15, I know your works. And I know, you know, right now, you are in your history, you're in a dangerous world, you've got enemies that want to destroy you, and you're in your very midst, but you're lukewarm. You're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one way or the other. We are lukewarm as a nation when it comes to confronting the dangerous witness. And we are lukewarm, of course, towards God, aren't we, as a nation, unfortunately. Could our blessings from God be numbered, and could our days now be numbered? Is God pleased with us, or is He about to let us reap the consequences of our own doing? Verse 16, so then, because you are lukewarm and you're neither hot nor cold, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth.

I'm going to let you go. That's scary. I'm going to let you suffer your own consequences of your own doings. But as right now as the wealthiest nation of the world, do we feel we are self-sufficient and have need of nothing? Verse 17, could this pertain to us as a nation? Because you say, hey, I'm rich, I'm the wealthiest nation in the world, and I really have need of nothing. I don't have to worry about any enemy destroying us. We've got oceans separating us. I mean, hey, that's not going to happen. But you do not know that if you look in your relationship with God and spiritually speaking, you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Verse 18, I counsel you to buy for me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and not your eyes with eyes that you can wake up and see what's happening and where you are. And I have to ask, what will it take, if you look at that from the point of view of the United States of America, what will it take for us as a nation to buy from God, I should say, gold refined in the fire? What will it take to wake us up? Well, it's going to take another major attack? It might be too late. Only time will tell. The second peril we can find, draw. That was the first peril. The second peril we can draw from the fall of Babylon is Babylon fell, apparently, created by factors from within, within their own kingdom. At least, that's what it appears. Both Nabinaz and Belshazzar were very unpopular among the people, and the downfall of Babylon, to a large extent, came from within. So the second peril we can draw from that is that we are seeing the same trend. We currently have an increasingly unpopular administration, which continues to forge ahead, regardless of what it has. It thinks global warming is a bigger threat than ISIS. And it keeps falling ahead, the zone of gender, regardless of how unpopular that might be and how dangerous the world we live in. And you've got all these things happening in our country. You've got all kinds of movements and all kinds of demonstrations going on in different cities, people demonstrating and people killing and shooting. What's going to happen? Where are we headed? Do we have a head of some kind of a revolution? I don't know.

Other nations have gone down this path, and sometimes it has led to revolutions like it did for, in France, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution during World War I. But our own moral degeneracy from within is leading to our decline and downfall from within. We are falling from within because of our own doing. We don't go by any moral laws anymore to speak of as a nation, generally speaking. Although there are a lot of people who do, but many don't. But that's what happened in ancient Babylon. It fell from factors that happened within. A third parallel we can draw from the fall of Babylon is that it fell without a battle. It wasn't a battle. They're up there having a banquet. Everything's okay. Somebody, apparently from within, opened those gates and they came in, and it fell without a battle.

Our fall from power and from being the leading nation of the world, and his prophesied also to be without a battle. Let's go back to Ezekiel 7. Ezekiel 7, verse 14. They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, but no one goes to battle.

That's kind of the way we are today as a nation. When nobody wants to go to battle, you don't want to go out and fight an enemy. You can go out there and try to destroy you. So the question is why will no one go to battle? We already see that as a prevailing opinion regarding our war on ISIS, our war on terror. We'll drop bombs on them, we'll do this, we'll try to arm some other people here, but we're not going to go to battle. We're not going to go get involved. I can understand why people feel that way, but that's in a sense where we are.

No one wants to go to battle. The problem is, how do you defeat an enemy that is going to battle by not going to battle? That's the question.

On the other hand, the point is that a nation can go into decline and be removed from power without a battle, as was Babylon, and that could have happened to us as well, which is what is indicated by these verses here. Again, Ezekiel 7, dropping verse 12, shows an area within here in these verses how we could go down without a battle. Verse 12, the time has come, going back from verse 14 to verse 12, the time has come, the day draws near, let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is on the whole multitude, for the seller shall not return to what has been sold, and may still be alive, for the vision concerns the whole multitude, and shall not turn back. No one will strengthen himself who lives in iniquity. Verse 19, they are going to throw their silver into the streets, and their goal will be like refuse. Their economic status, their economic situation, their silver and their goal will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Eternal. Economies, it's not going to save you. If our economy collapses, and I hope it doesn't, because that means my economy is going to collapse, but if that happens, that could bring the downfall of America without a battle. Just a lot of things that can happen.

We still have the strongest economy in the world. With the national debt approaching 19 trillion dollars, our economy, that set of our economy could change in the twinkling of an eye, as you could say. Now, so three parallels we have that could tie into the fall of Babylon. I'll just emphasize this again. Three parallels are, number one, like Babylon, we have a sense of security. We feel somewhat invincible, and we tend to be asleep at the wheel. It's the real dangers. Number two, like Babylon, we could fall aided by factors from within.

And number three, like Babylon, we could fall without a battle. The current trends indicate the handwriting is beginning to appear on the wall for the United States of America. That's what the trends indicate. In conclusion now, then, let me conclude by quickly addressing the three main questions I asked at the beginning of the sermon. Number one, where does the United States of America now stand in the timeline of its history as a nation?

You know, Daniel 4.17, I won't turn there, it just tells us that the most high rules in the kingdoms are men. So, if God is the one who's going to determine when a nation falls, God determines the rise and fall of nations according to His purpose. He determines the fall of Babylon, and He will determine the fall of the United States of America. But the fact is that all great nations in history, every single one, every great empire and every great nation in history of the world, has risen and fallen, without exception.

It now appears we are heading towards a fall, and that our timeline in the history of our nation may be coming to an end. Why? Well, because of disabilities to God. But even more importantly, I'm going to say I want to put this in a positive context. A positive context, so why we may be heading towards the fall and heading towards the events that are going to lead to the return of Christ. And that's because, maybe it's happening because of the fact that the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.

Daniel 7, 18. Maybe it's time for God to say, I'm time for the saints to possess the kingdom, so this world can be changed and returned to God. That could be a reason we might be heading for a fall and the time might be there now, a bit closer. We appear to be approaching that time regardless of how many years that might take. The second question I asked was, what must this mean for all of us who are a part of the true people of God?

Well, just very general, very quickly, it means that our faith must remain strong, to never lose faith in God and God's word and God's promises. It means that we must love God with all our heart and our mind and our soul. It means we must love our neighbors and ourselves.

That means the people of the world as well, the situation of what they're going through. It means that we must love our brethren, regardless of who they are or where they are. It means that like Daniel, we must always put God first in our life, like Daniel did.

He always served to please God. He served God and pleased God. He didn't care about what happened in the world. And he didn't fear what man could do to him. And that like Daniel, we must never compromise God through the God's way of life. Don't seek possessions or authority or positions, just seek to please and serve God. And God will take care of us. And of course, it also means then we must endure to the end, whatever that might mean. That is what this means for all of us who are a part of the true people of God.

Finally, then, what phrase sums up where we now stand as a nation? I believe the phrase that now sums up where we stand as a nation is, the handwriting is on the wall.