Heaven Rules!

We're doing these studies in the book of Daniel. We are going to continue today in the book of Daniel with the title of today's message, Heaven Rules. So let's open our Bibles together, if you will, to Daniel chapter 4. We're actually going to be looking at two chapters in our study today, spending a little bit more time actually in Daniel chapter 5. Now, in Daniel chapter 5, many of you will know we come to there to Belshazzar's feast, a great banquet that he puts together. It's actually his last banquet that we find out. But before we get to that king, let's finish up our time with King Nebuchadnezzar here in chapter 4. I want us to remind ourselves of the events leading up here to chapter 4. Generations have now come and gone, as from the time that the Israelites had been overtaken by this Babylonian kingdom. They found themselves removed, of course, from their homeland, found themselves removed from any possibility of worship to their god, even found their vessels of worship, their articles, moved from God's temple and placed in a citadel for the Babylonian gods, which are no gods, of course, lower-g gods. But again, all as a result of this arrival of this foreign, evil kingdom led by King Nebuchadnezzar. And as a result of this overflow, Judah, Daniel, and his three friends, Daniel's king, Daniel's fellow people, had all been taken into captivity.

Chapter 1, we found that King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, absolutely astonished, that Daniel and his three friends looked to their god, our god today, of course, for help as they came out looking healthier and better than the others who had eaten of the king's delicacies. And after interviewing them, King Nebuchadnezzar declared that there's none like these four young men.

Chapter 2, we saw that God drew back the curtain, giving us the future reality of our coming and conquering Savior with a vision of a stone cut without hands. And this stone comes and strikes the great vision of a statue and demolishes it all together. It was a statue of a head of fine gold, chest and arms of silver, you'll remember, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay. Once again, leading King Nebuchadnezzar to sing the praises of Daniel's God, declaring that Daniel's God is the God of all gods. But then in chapter 3, possibly stirred by that vision of himself being the golden head, we find King Nebuchadnezzar now demanding all to bow down to a golden image, which he had erected.

But of course, all that culminating in the tremendous events of Daniel's three friends and their deliverance from the fiery furnace. Once again, causing Nebuchadnezzar to declare there's only one God that should be worshipped. That's the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So when we arrive to these first verses here in chapter 4, we come and arrive some 20 years later from those events that ended in chapter 3. And we quickly realize that King Nebuchadnezzar is once again filled with pride, amazing to consider, especially all that God had shown him.

So again, we're going to touch briefly here in chapter 4 as we're given another one of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, which Daniel is then commissioned to interpret. This dream, though, is about a giant tree we'll see, the dream of a giant tree, and that represents King Nebuchadnezzar himself. And then with the cutting down of this tree, that will usher in the seasons in which Nebuchadnezzar will actually live as an animal, an animal in the field, a beast in the field. Wait till you read about this.

And again, it's a dream that Daniel will once again come in to interpret. But I want you to notice before we begin to read here in chapter 4 all of this, it always comes with the appeal to Nebuchadnezzar to repent. All of this comes with the appeal to him, the opportunity for repentance. We'll see. So Daniel chapter 4, let's begin reading in verse 20, in verse 23-27 here. So Daniel 4 verse 20. Here's the interpretation of that dream. The tree that you saw, Daniel says, which grew and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens and which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely in its fruit abundant, in which food was for all, under which the beasts of the fields dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the heaven had their home.

Verse 22, it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong, where your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens and your dominion to the end of the earth. Sounds good so far. However, he continues. Verse 23, And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field.

Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him. This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decreave of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King. Verse 25, They shall drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses.

And inasmuch as they gave the command to leave the stump and the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after you come to know that heaven rules. Then here's the appeal for repentance here. Verse 27, Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. So let's stop there. So here it is, Nebuchadnezzar. Here it is. Here's your opportunity to repent of your pride while the dream is still a dream, while this is not yet a reality of you being cut down.

Won't you bow before the living God? But in one simple sentence there in verse 28, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. Why? Why? He wouldn't change. He wouldn't humble himself. So again, verse 28 through 33, here it is, verse 28 through 33, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of the 12 months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon.

The king spoke, saying, this is 12 months later notice, verse 30, is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you, and they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses.

That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men, ate grass like oxen, his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws. Let's stop there. I often joke with my son that if he doesn't cut his fingernails more quickly, they're going to look like talons.

Anyway, sorry, side note there. But all this comes upon him, doesn't it? But I want you to notice something very interesting here. Verse 29. What does it say? At the end of 12 months, doesn't it? At the end of 12 months, God gave him 12 months before this reality fell on him. Why? Well, we have a merciful God, don't we? This was an urging to Nebuchadnezzar to repent. 12 months. God is very patient with us, isn't he? Something to remember in this.

But Nebuchadnezzar didn't allow God's patience and his kindness to lead him to repentance. Very important. But rather his response. We saw it there in verse 30 again. Is not this great Babylon? You can almost just picture him looking out over the land that I have built. This is not the great Babylon that I have built. A royal dwelling, my mighty power for the honor of my majesty. It's amazing, really. So therefore, the very hour of the Word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar's life.

The time was gone. Mercy at this point is gone. Just judgment. Judgment falls upon him. Driven for men. Ate grass like oxen. Get that in your mind. His body was wet with the dew of heaven. Long hair, nails like birds' claws. So the hand of God rested very heavily on Nebuchadnezzar at this point, bringing him to absolute uselessness, absolute powerlessness. But you see that in this, what is God doing? God is looking to lead him to repentance. God's always looking to lead us to repentance. So it might be that he's compelled to keep coming back and back to an individual, to an individual in this way. Either because in this case or in cases in general, he or she is not moved when God chastises him with his hand. Or he or she is roused for a period of time, but then returns again to the former apathy. Therefore God may be compelled then to deal with an individual in this way. But I was thinking about this this week. If you think about it, it's really remarkable. When you look at all these instances with Nebuchadnezzar and these chapters that we've been going through, you could ask, why was God even bothered with Nebuchadnezzar? Why even be bothered with this? He was an arrogant individual, to say the least. A big-headed character fascinated with the making of his own gods and so on.

Why would God even be interested in such a man? Well, we worship a gracious God, don't we? It's very merciful. He's worthy of our praise and our adoration when we see how he's dealing with individuals, the men and women in Scripture. He's worthy of our praise and our adoration when we see that he would come and, if you like, rain blows upon blows upon an individual in order to lead them to repentance. See, conversion is often prefaced by humiliation.

Conversion is often prefaced by humiliation. Now, this is the case in my life, where he, God, is wanting to move us to being in want. God wants to move us to being in want of him so that then he can pour his consolations on us.

And what wonderful consolations these are, because you'll notice the same hand of God, which brings this man down to eat grass like a beast in the field, is the same hand which lifts him back up to great usefulness again. And at the end of the days, here we go, verse 34.

And at the end of the time, listen to these words by this king. This is where God wanted him to be. At the end of this time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever.

So this is the place in which God wanted to take Nebuchadnezzar here. And I hope that this was a place of repentance that was deep enough where he would remain, not fall back to his his former pride, which we've seen a chapter, you know, each chapter as we turn the page, it just seems like the pride came back. And if you think about it, what an encouragement for the early exiles here. What an encouragement as they saw all that they had was being taken away by this man, by this king. And now Daniel writes to them and says, Listen, listen to what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. He's look what he's saying. Look what he's saying to your God. Exiles. That's verse 36. Verse 36. At the same time, my reason returned to me. And for the glory of my kingdom, my honor, my splendor returned to me. My counselors and my nobles resorted to me. I was restored to my kingdom and excellent majesty was added to me. But you'll notice verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth and his ways are justice. And those who walk in pride, he's able to put down. I'm sure even Nebuchadnezzar was surprised that of the place that he has now been, that God brought him. I'm sure he never imagined having this humility, being able to access it in this way. And I'm sure that those that he returned to and returned to all the same honor, the splendor, that's a miracle in itself that they waited around for him after seeing him, feeding him grass in the field. They would have been quite astonished. But it is an amazing encouragement here because this all speaks to God's sovereignty. That's what we've been seeing in these four chapters. God's sovereignty. Where's Nebuchadnezzar today? Where's Nero? Where's Stalin? Where's Hitler? You see, this our God, he's the one that lifts up and disposes earthly kings. This is the God we come to this afternoon.

And so when we enter into chapter five, this is the knowledge. This is what we know as we go into these stories. And now we have a new king that's now upon us, and Daniel is going to be called again to perform in the same capacity as he has. And what Daniel's purpose is throughout all of this, and it's our purpose too, is to give insight to the watching world who God is. That's our whole purpose. This was Daniel's whole purpose. For us to give insight to the watching world of who our God is.

So we move into chapter five, a new king here. I wonder if this new king learned anything from God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. What do you think? Well, let's read this together and see. Chapter five, as human beings, we're pretty hard-headed. Chapter five in verses one through nine. Now, before we read and get into the story of this new king, and these are wonderful stories, by the way, I want you to remember that, again, that Nebuchadnezzar had taken these sacred vessels from the temple of God. These were the vessels that God's people used to honor and extol him. Well, Nebuchadnezzar had taken him and put him into this Babylonian citadel. They had sat there, maybe as a symbol of his authority. But now those are going to come back into the picture here in a dramatic way with this new king. So chapter five, beginning in verse one, let's read through verse nine here. Bel-Shazar, the king, chapter five verse one, made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tasted the wine, Bel-Shazar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God, which had been in Jerusalem. And the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, the gods of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Verse five, in the same hour the fingers of a man appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then, I'm sure it did, the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers. The king spoke, saying to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and tells me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck, and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Now, all the king's wise men came, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king its interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled. His continents changed, and his lords were astonished. Let's stop there. So, another great story that Daniel brings us to here in his recordings. And essentially, we're in a trilogy here, in the middle of a trilogy, with three rulers, of course. Chapters 1 through 4 is Nebuchadnezzar. Chapter 6, we'll see, is Darius the Mede. And here in chapter 5, of course, is Belshazzar. And before we get to digging in here, we do want to notice that things have really changed, dramatically changed. We see no mention of Nebuchadnezzar. Well, a little bit of a mention, but he's not mentioned in any form of being in any kind of rulership here. So, we saw that chapter 4 ends with Nebuchadnezzar extolling the praises for Daniel's God. His ways are just Daniel's God, and it ends with the personal experience of him crawling on his belly in the garden. He declares that God is able to humble those who are prideful. And with this great change, though, in Nebuchadnezzar's life comes a change in the empire we see here. So, a great time has elapsed. Here, obviously, in Nebuchadnezzar's reign, his decision-making is all a memory, his influence. So, are God's people in trouble now? This king doesn't seem any better than Nebuchadnezzar, maybe even seems a little bit worse in his pride. Should we be worried? No.

Why? Well, God remains in charge of the change. But God's people, they might have been looking at this and this new king and thinking, oh, now we're in real trouble and just been so disheartened by this. But does change diminish God's kingdom and his purposes? No. No way. God's in control of the change. Always. But so, therefore, God's servants should always be ready for action. No matter what's in front of them, no matter who's in front of them. The characters may change, doesn't matter. The challenges may change, the circumstances may change, doesn't matter. Who's in control of the change? Do we put our trust in the change or do we put our trust in the one who's in charge of the change? That's the question. Well, we know what Daniel did in the ebb and flow of things here. He's constantly prepared to stand up and he's constantly prepared to live what he proclaimed. Very important. And he's smart enough to realize that the influence he had, maybe a little bit of influence with Nebuchadnezzar, that's now gone. But it doesn't affect him. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that only God can work with a certain type of king on a certain type of throne. No. And you'll notice here, this was an indulgent king, to say the least. An indulgent king. And we'll try to move through this quickly. He's throwing a great banquet. I actually read that with a certain archaeological dig, they actually found what they believe is this throne room. And they call it the throne room. They say that on one side of this room is this ornate blue enamel bricks. And then there's three walls of kind of a white plaster. So the white plaster would have been perfect to see the part of the hand and to see kind of writings that we read about this. It had been easy to write a message on those white plaster walls. And they discovered this wall, this room, it had a recessed area where they thought that maybe the throne stand would have been to elevate Velshazzar above the rest and his prominence. But if God's people were to get on their tippy toes and look through the window and look at these events that were transpiring, they'd have been shattered. They'd have been tempted to be shattered. As they saw God's vessels, sacred vessels, gold and silver vessels now being passed around, drinking through, you know, goblets, I'm sure. God's goblets, if you will, being used in this way. The very things that were used to glorify God in this depraved situation. And we know that these were, again, mentioned there in chapter 1 and verse 2. These were stolen when God's people were overtaken, put into the citadel, the Babylonian gods, you know, there. But now this new king is going to take it a step further, if you can imagine. They couldn't have imagined this, I'm sure. And if you try to put yourself here at this moment that's described for us, if we were to be able to conceal ourselves among the crowd, you can look at certain secular history and kind of get a picture of what you might have seen, and what you might have smelled, and what you might have heard at this time, to sketch it in a little bit. More than likely, there would have been huge beasts on spits, you know, being rotated and cooked so you'd have had those smells coming in, all the aromas of the different herbs and spices.

It would have just been so colorful with all the ornate regalia, the outfits of the day.

These were the who's who of that time. This was the leader of the then-known world. It'd been quite a thing to get a ticket to this banquet. These were the cream of the crops. And there was one man that stood above him. Oh, King Belshazzar! And he was exhausted above. He had the adulation of the crowd. You know, he held men and women's hands. Their destiny in his hands. He could do whatever he wants with them, make any command he wanted to do. And this day, he was leading the people in their drinking. And he decides to bring out these vessels from the house of God. Again, gold goblets, different articles taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem. Precious, absolutely precious to God's people. Belshazzar says, let's get those. I'll bring those in. Yeah, give some to my, you know, the men and women here. Eat, drink, and be merry. It's just a classic example of heathenism and man at the apex of indulging himself. Nothing sacred. Nothing sacred has a certain contemporary feel to it, doesn't it?

I saw a little bit of this in New York City when I was visiting. Just nothing is out of bounds. And so it is into this context here in verse five that slowly but suddenly the fingers of a man appeared and began to write there on the wall. Oh, I'm sure it just stopped everything. Just stopped all the music, everything. All the chatter stopped. Complete silence, I'm sure. There in verse five, verse five, in the same hour the fingers of a man appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw that saw the part of the hand that wrote. And what begins first, he's just, oh, all the blood is drained from his face. That's what it says here. Just frightened. I don't know if you've ever been frightened that much before. I have. Your body is uncontrollable. And your knees actually do that. And it even says that it gave way. It seems like his legs gave way. Verse six, the king's countenance changed. Thoughts troubled him. The joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. So what is he to do? What was he to do at this point? Well, we know what he does. Who is he going to call? Well, he's going to call his band of misfits. He calls them wise men. You know, his Ghostbusters, if you will. Here, we've seen these guys. They just keep reincarnating themselves. We saw them with King Nebuchadnezzar. Verse seven, they're quite useless, always. Verse seven, the king spoke saying to the wise men of Babylon, you know, whoever reads this writing tells me its interpretation will be clothed in purple. I'm sure these purple robes, a chain of gold will be put around his neck and actually become the third ruler in the kingdom. So they had all been dangled there, I'm sure, under these guys' noses. They should have gotten rid of these guys in King Nebuchadnezzar's reign. But there's always these guys ready to step up, tell you what you want to hear, make a quick dollar, of course. But they were baffled. Verse eight, nine, verse eight, nine. Now all the king's wise men came, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king its interpretation. Of course, King Nebuchadnezzar was greatly troubled. His countenance changed again and the lords were astonished. But, you know, we see God's overruling hand here. We know God, this indicates that God deals with pagans even. We know God deals with this church, deals with us and all of these people around the world. God even deals with pagan kings. So maybe we should pray that God deal with pagan kings of our day. You know, deal with them in their lives. Be powerful. Show these kings, if you will, the end of themselves. Let them know who you are, Father. Make some faces pale.

Make some knees knock, Father, if it's according to your will.

Such pride we see in these individuals that are elevated.

Now eventually we get to the point where Daniel reminds Belshazzar what happened to his father, Nebuchadnezzar. Let's see this, verse 13 through 21 here. Verse 13 through 21.

Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, and this is surprising to me, Are you that Daniel, who is the one of the captives from Judah, who my father the king brought from Judah? I don't know this, but you can almost hear the slurredness in his voice. I'm sure he'd been drinking quite a bit at this time. Are you that, Daniel?

I have heard of you, verse 14, that the Spirit of God is in you, and that the light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they couldn't give me the interpretation of the thing. Of course not. Verse 16. And I have heard you that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known its interpretation, you should be clothed in purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and you shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. Here it is, O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father, a kingdom, majesty, glory, and honor. And he's reminding him now before the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 19. And because of the majesty that he gave him, let me remind you, all peoples, nations, language trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed. Whomever he wished, he kept alive. Whomever he wished, he set up. And whoever he wished, he put down. But, you know, Belshazzar, I'm telling you about Nebuchadnezzar, but when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was disposed from his kingly throne. And they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men. His heart was made like a beast. And the dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven. Till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men. And it points over it whomever he chooses. Let's stop there. So he's reminding Belshazzar here what happened to him when his heart was lifted up. His heart was hardened.

He was disposed from his kingly throne. Heart hardened, became deranged in his mind. That's what happens. I've seen this over the years. The hardened heart causes you to drift away from God. You speak to some individuals that at one point were part of our fellowship. Somewhere in there, their heart got hardened. It's almost as if they're forgetting things. They can't recall things that were in them at one time.

And the problem here for Belshazzar, his heart becomes hardened. Why? Pride. He denied God in his life. He didn't recognize God as the giver of all things. And you would think that if Belshazzar saw this horrendous experience that he had seen in Nebuchadnezzar, crawling in the grass, eating the grass, you know, as a young boy, that would have made an impact on him. What happened? What happened to Father? You think that would register in his mind? What brought him to that condition?

Maybe he could have been told, or maybe he was told.

We'll see later that Belshazzar knew. He knew.

God raised his father up to a position of prominence. He took it all on himself. So God said, Fine, if you want to take your throne, well, I'll put you and have you crawl in the grass until you acknowledge that I'm the sovereign God, until you become in want of your Creator.

So Daniel's very straightforward with Belshazzar here, and he's basically saying the same prideful fault is in you. Notice verse 22 here. Verse 22, But you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.

It's important to note there. So he had an intimate awareness of this and what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. Yet he didn't learn from it. He's repeating the same mistake. And it's such an interesting thing. It happens in human nature. It's happened to me. We had this subconscious, either it's a conscious or subconscious thought that you know, what's happened to someone else where God has shown himself and dealing with someone else won't happen to me. It may happen to them, it won't happen to me. And sometimes it is a subconscious thing, but it is. That's a specific lie of the devil since the very beginning, where Satan says what God has promised won't happen. We saw it from the very beginning. Eve said, God has said, if we eat this, we shall die. Satan said, no, it's not going to happen to you. What God says won't happen to you. It's a very powerful lie.

And so, Belshazzar said to himself, that might have happened to my father, but you know, I can do what I like. I can drink from what I like. I can please myself what I like. I can indulge in these sinful things. So Daniel confronts him here. Verse 23 again. Look at who Belshazzar was worshiping here. Verse 23. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought to the vessels of his house before you. This is God's house. And you and your lords, your wives, your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the God in heaven. No, you have praised the God of silver, gold, God of bronze, iron, wood, stone, which do not see or hear or know. And the God who holds your very breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. That's huge. The God who, he chose not to acknowledge the one who holds your very breath in your hands. You know, I know you do. And I often just when I wake up in the morning, I just thank God, oh, thank you for another opportunity today. You know, that first conscious breath that you take, I know that breath is held in my creator's hands. And it's an absolute gift to me. And if you go into the day acknowledging and understanding that it's an absolute absolute gift that you have this day, he gave you this breath, this conscious breath again, it changes everything. And you start looking back at your life. And you think, boy, I want to honor this gift of breath today. I want to honor it better. But, you know, this speaks to our contemporary society. Man tells God he doesn't want them, bows down to the stone, bows down to all different kinds of things. We can bow down to the stone that builds our houses that can give us pride. Bow down to the stone that builds the office buildings that we walk into or the iron, you know, of whatever iron plate that we stamp on there, whatever it may be, whatever speaks to our pride. God brings his perspective to bear here. And here it is in verse 25. This inscription is written here in verse 26 through 28. Here's the interpretation of each word, and it can really be summed up in three words, numbered, weighed, and divided. Numbered, weighed, and divided. Verse 26, this is the interpretation of each word, meaning God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. So Daniel is looking at this king and saying, the days of your kingdom are numbered now. It's almost time. It's going to be over. You've been weighed in the scales of God's purposes, and you've been found wanting. And the kingdom that allows you to throw these big banquets to fill your pride, well, that's about to be divided amongst the Medes and the Persians. And sure enough, if you read secular history, and we'll get into this a little bit more when we get into chapter 7, you read secular history, you discover right on cue the commander of the Persian army. He diverts up a dry riverbed in the river Euphrates and took the kingdom right out underneath Belshazzar. But what we want to notice here, I think the main thing here that I take, there's several things to take from chapter 5, I think one of the main issues is these and revolves around these sacred vessels. These sacred vessels here of God. Some would say, who cares about these goblets that they're drinking out of? Yeah, a few goblets. What's so significant about that? It's actually very significant. Very significant. Because the goblets in these different articles, they of themselves weren't the issue.

It's what they represented. It's what they represented. God has made certain things sacred and they're not to be tampered with. When I look at this story, I think, man, where am I?

What sacred thing am I tampering with? Was you God? So we can ask that individually. We should ask that individually. As a society, what are we tampering with? Marriage is sacred. It should not be tampered with. Human life is sacred. We'll get into that with the Bible study upcoming in the weeks ahead. Human life is sacred. It should not be tampered with. Truth is sacred. It should not be tampered with. But having tampered with it all, the king hears these words that are written there on the wall.

So what am I tampering with that's sacred? What are you tampering with that's sacred?

Because we're not dealing with ancient kings here today. We're dealing with these little empires. We're dealing with these little dynasties in our lives. These little empires and these little dynasties come in all different forms. They look to move us and make us tamper with the things that God has said are sacred. All these little dynasties, little empires, they come into our lives. They want us to defile those things which God has said are sacred, and we just can't do it. We must stand up like Daniel time and time again, no matter how many times it comes. So in times of change, may we be like Daniel, ready for action.

Pray to God that He will keep us from taking those things which are sacred and somehow making excuses or trivializing them. Thank God for sometimes making our faces pale.

Thank God for sometimes making our knees knock. Because we know what a loving and patient God He is. And we know all these things are for the purpose to bring us to Him, to have us be in a deeper want of Him. And then once we want Him, then He's ready to just pour out these consolations on us, this comfort to help us through these tough decisions that we're making and these sacrifices that we make. And may we pray that God grant us not to be like Belshazzar. We've heard it, but somehow this world has caused us to be in some kind of drunken stupor in just different ways. The world has a way of causing us to our minds to turn in that way. Let's pray that we cannot be brought that way by the world. And let's pray that we're humbled. Let's pray that God write these words upon the walls of our heart. Let's pray that He be patient with us and give us these months. Give me some extra time, Father, so that I can turn these things and honor you in a better way. And let's just remember, no matter what faces us, whatever looks to knock us off the path to God's kingdom, never forget, heaven rules.