Tuesday
King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to be brought and said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled. - Daniel 5:1-9
The setting for this story is a party that took place about two-thousand-five-hundred years ago. It was the year 539 B.C. The King of Babylon, Belshazzar, ruled over a vast empire, and God’s people (the Jews) were under his thumb. Belshazzar’s grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, had conquered Jerusalem and taken most of the Israelites captive (Daniel 1-2). It is important to know that Nebuchadnezzar had his own rather serious struggle with pride. He waffled back and forth between trusting in the God of the Israelites and trusting in himself. God eventually took everything away from him to humble him. the book on Nebuchadnezzar ends with these words at the end of Daniel 4, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
The interesting thing about this ancient party is that the Babylonians took the vessels that belonged to Almighty God; the vessels that were used in the worship of God, they took those vessels and they toasted the gods of this world, the gods of their own ideas and imagination. Now Belshazzar knew about this God. He knew the stories of how God had protected His chosen people and had destroyed those who opposed them. He certainly had heard about what had happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. He knew that those vessels belonged to the Most High God and that they were used in the temple worship of this Most High God; and yet he calls for these particular vessels. They had conquered many, many countries. No nation at the time could compare to the might of Babylon, he had his choice of any vessels from which to drink. Yet, very specifically, he calls for these vessels.
Daniel 5:3a - Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem;
In other words it is like saying, “In Your Face, God!” They took those goblets and they held them up in the Face of God. It is like saying to God, “We are taking Your vessels, and we are praising our gods of gold, silver, iron, wood and bronze. We are drinking from Your vessels, God, to the gods that we believe in.” Belshazzar’s attitude and actions leave no doubt about who he worships - himself! He thumbs his nose at God and does what he wants to do. He does not realize it, but they are going to party now, and pay later.
Part of God’s message for us in this story is this - Who are we praising with the vessel that God has given us and belongs to Him? Who are we toasting with our vessel (our lives)? Who are we raising our glass to, who are we praising, with (our) vessel that was created by God, and was created for God; it was created for His pleasure and his purpose?
Romans 12:1 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.
I don’t know if you think of yourself in this way, but you are created by God to be used for God’s purposes and reflect God’s glory! In other words, you are God’s vessel! Your life is to be filled with His glory and used for His purpose, so don’t raise your glass to anyone but Him!
Jeff Frazier
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