Context No. 3506 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Daniel (Greek) 5:1-6: in context

1Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. 2Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded that the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem be brought to him, that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them. 3Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of God’s house which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, drank from them. 4They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 5In the same hour, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote near the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote. 6Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

At a drunken feast, King Belshazzar commits a deliberate act of sacrilege. He calls for the sacred vessels taken from God's temple in Jerusalem and drinks from them, he and his lords and wives, while praising the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. It is defiance flung in God's face, using what was holy to toast lifeless idols.

And in that very hour, the fingers of a human hand appear and write on the plaster of the wall, and the king's bravado collapses. His face changes, his limbs give way, his knees knock together in terror. The reveler who had mocked God is suddenly undone by a hand he cannot read. There is a warning here about presumption against God, treating what is sacred with contempt while glorying in idols that cannot see or speak. Pride can carouse in apparent security right up to the very moment God's hand writes on the wall. Mockery of God, however secure it feels, does not go unanswered.

Do I ever treat what is sacred with contempt or presume on God's patience, forgetting that pride flung in his face does not go unanswered?

Sources

Daniel 5:3: "Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple... and the king and his lords... drank from them."
Daniel 5:4: "They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone."
Daniel 5:6: "Then the king's face was changed in him... and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another."