Good Morning! - Dan. 5:13-16 - The Fame of Daniel

Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spoke and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry? I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not show the interpretation of the thing:

And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom. (Dan 5:13-16)

Daniel's fame survived a lot of years. He is a genuine messenger of God as he walks into the smelly room of dignitaries who are struggling through their drunkenness to understand what is going on. He had been set aside and suppressed for 23 years but he is still Daniel, the man of God.

My grandmother named me after him. When I was about six, we received a Bible story book through the mail with Daniel on the cover. I felt like he was family from that time. His name means "God is my judge." Several names in the Bible end or begin with EL which means God. Samuel, Joel, Elijah. You can spot them as you read your Bible.

The Queen Mother walked into the room as the only ray of light they had. "She told the king and his lords enough about Daniel's gifts and ability, and told just enough of his past to inform Belshazzar of the honored place Daniel held in Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom. Here indeed is a display of sound judgment on the part of the queen mother" (Strauss).

Daniel was no longer a young man advising an old king, but an old man of 80-90 years advising a young king who had blown it big-time. He was rich in spiritual experience and many years of observation of the affairs of the kingdom. In view of the miracles God performed through him and his three friends, it is unlikely that he was forgotten. It's just that he was a wet blanket on the style of Nabonidus and Belshazzar.

We don't want anyone telling us what to do, not even God—especially God! I mean, what is there in life but money, power, sex and booze? Well, there are also the status symbols and toys we pursue. He who has the most toys when he dies wins—but he does die and stands before a holy God to be judged. It's really a downer to think we are bad enough that it took the Son of God dying on a bloody cross to pay for our sins. Even in Paul's day, there was the "offense of the cross."

There is a law of physics called impenetrability….two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. There is another law, a spiritual law of imthronability….(I don't think there is such a word. I just made it up.) We and God cannot sit on the throne of our hearts at the same time. God will not share the throne of your heart with you. It's either God or yourself on that throne. That's why men will not be saved. In most cases it's not because they lack the knowledge of how to be saved, although there are many who do not know how. But when a man learns how to be saved, then he has to grapple with God being in charge of his life and with his new knowledge of salvation, he resists being saved.

Daniel must have been a striking figure when he walked in and stood before the king and that drunken crowd. His appearance was one of courage and confidence and dignity—and authority. The king spoke first and ascribed more to Daniel than he could to all of his official wizards put together. Belshazzar was not interested in Daniel's God. He had no intention of repenting of anything. He was beyond that.

Daniel was not impressed with the things the king wanted to do for him. Belshazzar would be a dead man within 24 hours. But Daniel's God, who was everything to Daniel, would live forever and would be always on His throne. Daniel had decided as a teenager to go with God and it was a full and exciting journey. Dare to be a Daniel in these troubling, wicked days.

Memory Verse for this week:

(1Th 4:13) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1Th 4:13)

(See 1Th 4:13-18).

A cluster of six verses on the second coming of Christ will be presented as memory verses, one verse per week. I hope you will work faithfully on each verse, each week and master the six verses as a group. Begin a new verse on Sunday evening. Go over it and all the others you have memorized, five times a day. You will treasure them the rest of your life and be able to share them again and again. "May I say my verses to you?"

Good Morning! - Dan 5:10-12 - The Faithful Queen Mother

Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house: and the queen spoke and said, O king, liveforever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:

There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;

Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation (Dan 5:10-12).

Many scholars believe this was the Queen Mother, the widow of Nebuchadnezzar." "...it appears, by what she says afterwards, that she was well acquainted with affairs in his time; and, being an ancient woman, might be the reason why she was not among the ladies at the feast in the banqueting house; but came into it, without being sent for, on hearing the consternation and distress the king and his lords were in, and the moanful despairing words they expressed on this occasion: (Gill).

She is fascinating in that she has commanded the attention of so many commentators and I must confess that she stirs my own curiosity. She knew a lot about Nebuchadnezzar and must have been at least 90 years old when she came into the troubled banquet hall. She was not included in the early clatter of the wild party and was probably the ongoing connection between her young grandson king and the past of Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar could have sent word for her to come quickly or she could have heard through her private connections and could have come on her own. At least there did not seem to be any fear of being rebuffed for being pushy.

She would have been called in by the king and not by the king AND his lords. It did not take a whole committee to call in the queen mother. So it seems most likely that she was being informed all along and at some point, on her own, made her way to Belshazzar to try to be of help to him. She still had a sharp mind and was an aggressive type. This was what the king needed.

I believe she probably shared the faith of her late husband, Nebuchadnezzar, whom I believe we will see in Heaven. In the providence of God, not only was Daniel preserved, but this old queen had also been kept alive and positioned in a room not far away for this special hour. Think about it: waiting in the wings for many years to give a three-minute speech to her grandson in the presence of the ruling leaders of all the provinces of the kingdom of Babylon. That was her job.

Do you wonder sometimes if your life ever amounts to anything or have you done anything significant in the service of the Lord? Perhaps some have had a lot birthdays and you wonder what you can do now. But be assured that God knows what He is doing and there may be an important three-minute testimony you will give somewhere that fits in perfectly with God's purpose for your life. Or perhaps you are an ongoing testimony by your words and by your faithful service right where you are. So……bloom where you are planted. And have a nice day! Don't you just love this story about the Queen Mother?

Memory Verse for this week:

(1Th 4:13) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1Th 4:13)

(See 1Th 4:13-18).

A cluster of six verses on the second coming of Christ will be presented as memory verses, one verse per week. I hope you will work faithfully on each verse, each week and master the six verses as a group. Begin a new verse on Sunday evening. Go over it and all the others you have memorized, five times a day. You will treasure them the rest of your life and be able to share them again and again. "May I say my verses to you?"

Good Morning! - Dan 5:6-9 - The Fear of Belshazzar

Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers.

And the king spoke, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof,shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof; then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled. and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished (Dan 5:6-9).

Belshazzar's cup of iniquity was full… he had no more time to humble his heart before God. When his official wizards could not interpret the writing on the wall, he went ballistic! His alcohol failed him. The party was over. Rebellion against God does not do well at sunset.

The Lord measures time and speaks of fullness of time.

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5). God sent His Son to be born on earth when it was time.

When God was showing Abraham all the land He was going to give him and his descendants, He said: And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Gen 15:13-16). America's cup is filling up. America is going to be judged and punished as a nation like all the other nations and kingdoms that thumbed their noses at Him.

God had previously shown Nebuchadnezzar by Daniel the prophet that he and his kingdom was the head of gold but his kingdom would come to an end and be followed by an inferior kingdom of silver in the breast and arms of the beast of his dream (Dan. 2:36-45).

The prophet Jeremiah had already given God's decree: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. (Jer 27:5-7)

Jeremiah is very specific about how long Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom will last: through his lifetime, and through the tenure of his son (Nabonidus) and his grandson (Belshazzar). After that time, the kingdom of Babylon and the head of gold would end.

until the very time of his land come: "until the time of the destruction of his land come, also of himself;''

"…there was a time fixed for his life, and so long the nations were to serve, and did serve, him personally; and there was a time fixed for the continuance of his monarchy, in his son, and son's son; when it was to end, as it did, in Belshazzar's reign; and when the seventy years' captivity of the Jews was up:" (Gill)

...and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him; and his kingdom; subdue it, and make it tributary to them. This was accomplished by the Medes and Persians, with Darius and Cyrus at the head of them, and other nations and kings, allies and auxiliaries to them, and associates with them; see Jer_25:14" (Gill).

"We have further evidence of Belshazzar from a prayer of Nabonidus to the moon god for his son which was discovered on a clay cylinder: 'My son, the offspring of my heart, might honor his godhead and not give himself to sin.' Herodotus, the Greek historian, also mentions this and confirms it" McGee). While this day of infamy and doom is going on, Belshazzar's father, Nabonidus, was away from the palace in a battle.

So, why didn't Belshazzar offer his wizards a chance to be second in the kingdom? Because Belshazzar was second in the kingdom. His father was first. This is the third time the official wizards had been herded into the palace to unravel God's message and the third time they didn't know beans about it. Three strikes and you're out so these fellows will have to find another line of work. They were quacks who made a good living telling the king what he wanted to hear. Anyway, their boss is about to…. retire.

We are going into all of this because the Book of Daniel has been attacked with a vengeance in an attempt to discredit it. Nobody can tell the future! Get rid of this troublesome book! For a long time one of the points of attack was its supposed inaccuracy about Belshazzar. He was not supposed to exist. But now it has to be admitted that he did indeed exist and the critics were wrong.

One final thought from Strauss on God's fingers. Belshazzar "saw only a few of the divine fingers, and the Bible says, 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Heb 10:31. The mere sight of the fingers frightened him, but he was yet to feel the full weight of God's hand in judgment. The God of Heaven is merciful, slow to anger, and longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Peter 3:9). But there must come an end to His tolerating of the unholy and wicked deeds of any man."

The Book of Daniel is necessary to understanding the time line of human existence on Planet Earth. If God is in charge of Planet Earth then the evolutionists and the planners for a one-world government know about as much as the Babylonian wizards. The Book of Daniel is a square pill for the intelligentsia! Also, if you believe the book of Daniel, you are in the way of the clowns who want a productive and peaceful world full of love and cooperation—without God.

Memory Verse for this week:

(1Th 4:13)But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1Th 4:13) (See 1Th 4:13-18).

A cluster of six verses on the second coming of Christ will be presented as memory verses, one verse per week. I hope you will work faithfully on each verse, each week and master the six verses as a group. Begin a new verse on Sunday evening. Go over it and all the others you have memorized, five times a day. You will treasure them the rest of your life and be able to share them again and again. "May I say my verses to you?"

Good Morning! - Dan. 5:5 - The Fingers of God

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man'shand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote (Dan 5:5).

God's judgments of the past seem so remote and safe for us today. If they actually occurred, it was thousands of years ago and all of that is in the past. Right? Science and the Humanist Manifesto I & II have set us on a course of saving ourselves since no deity will save us. And we now think that 150 years of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species makes us safe from the outdated book of Hebrew and Christian theology, the book that promises a day of reckoning at the feet of the Almighty (Heb 9:27; Rom 5:12; 6:23). And, who needs a savior nailed to a cross to save us? The prevailing mood today is "We must save ourselves from the myths of the Bible."

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2Th 1:7-9). God will have the last word!

It's nice to read about terrible things if we can enjoy the agony of others with a bowl of popcorn. Our fascination with horror movies betrays our innocence. We are obsessed with the entertainment of death and horror, safely removed. Police stories are popular and always begin with someone getting graphically bloody and dead. Otherwise, where is the story? We have CSI, not only plain but also of New York and Miami. And let us not forget that no modern drama is worth its salt without at least one humongous explosion in living color with lots of boom. Two booms are better. Our addiction is better fed if we think someone is inside the explosion, burned to a crisp. We have become a nation with a growing appetite for artificial violence and shock.

Those too timid for CSI violence can view lesser artificial shock programs. Death and violence sells advertising which sells products. Please stay with me—there's a point to this.

If there is a God who keeps accounts and measures out judgment when mercy has run its course, then we can likewise transform THIS bad news into an evening of entertainment and popcorn. We are so-trained. The possibility of God's judgment is yet another fiction. Others may expect to stand before God, but not me. We also have installed within ourselves the little fiction of our personal innocence i.e. I'm not perfect but I'm not really bad, certainly no worse than a lot of religious people I know.

That little fiction, combined with our training in horror fiction leave us in a pitiful condition to deal objectively with a holy and living God who has told us plainly that we are going to stand before Him to be judged. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Rom 3:18)

This is the truth and not fiction: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Rom 3:23) For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. (Ecc 7:20) … it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Heb 9:27).

"At the height of Belshazzar's awful blasphemy and defiance of God, when his cup of iniquity was full, there came forth in full view of the inebriated crowd a weird phenomenon. Out of the sleeve of the night there appeared the fingers of a man's hand writing strange words across the plaster of the wall in the king's palace. Suddenly the revelry ceased, and all eyes were riveted on the wall. The lamp stand of Jehovah, being at that very hour desecrated by Belshazzar, was now being used to illuminate the handwriting on the wall so that all could read the words" (Strauss).

There was no hand; no arm—just fingers. We are reminded of God's fingers at other times:

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exo 31:18)

Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. (Exo 8:19)

But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. (Luk 11:20)

This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. (Joh 8:6)

Concerning Belshazzar, McGee suggests: "God does not speak by dream or vision because this is a man whom He doesn't intend to reach. God would not endure this impious insult to heaven, so He writes on the wall of the banqueting hall. Is it done in anger? Very frankly, I think it is, and I believe the One who wrote this is the same One who wrote in the sand when they brought a sinful woman before Him (John 8:1-11)." For the woman "it was a time of forgiveness: here, for Belshazzar, it is a message of doom. He has ignored the God of heaven, as Daniel will soon make clear to him."

Belshazzar must have grown up in Grandpa Nebuchadnezzar's palace, the same place his father, Nabonidus, had grown up. With Nebuchadnezzar's conversion to the true and living God he would automatically have had great respect for the vessels he took from God's Temple in Jerusalem. He had completely destroyed the Temple, so there was nothing to do but house and protect the vessels until another Temple might someday be built in Jerusalem. Grandpa Neb had now been dead 23 years.

Belshazzar knew from his earliest years that the room and the items in it were regarded by his father (grandpa) as holy unto the Lord God of Jerusalem. Belshazzar's father, Nabonidus was gone a lot and had no interest in rearranging Nebuchadnezzar's palace or its artifacts. So Belshazzar knew—HE KNEW BETTER— than to desecrate the holy vessels of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

In a sermon by the great Methodist evangelist, Sam P. Jones (1897) is found these words:

"There is a time I know not when; A place I know not where, The Spirit will poise his golden wings and leave me in despair. There is a line by which all our paths are crossed; beyond which God has sworn that he who goes is lost." Follow link below to find the sermon. Type "Sam P. Jones" into Google and get acquainted with him.

http://books.google.com/books?id=WSI3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&dq=There+is+a+line+I+know+not+where&source=bl&ots=X9ONYu7wKF&sig=SexReJhXky22dLZBDHHz5bqaVXk&hl=en&ei=ZaXFSZaeC9zMmQej0NXYCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA211,M1

Memory Verse for this week:

(1Th 4:13)But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1Th 4:13) (See 1Th 4:13-18).

A cluster of six verses on the second coming of Christ will be presented as memory verses, one verse per week. I hope you will work faithfully on each verse, each week and master the six verses as a group. Begin a new verse on Sunday evening. Go over it and all the others you have memorized, five times a day. You will treasure them the rest of your life and be able to share them again and again. "May I say my verses to you?"