New Church Sermons: Belshazzar and the Writing on the Wall (Dan. 5)

“He should have seen the writing on the wall!” This expression means there was clear evidence—evidence that was ignored—of a bad or dramatic event about to happen. The connection with writing on a wall traces all the way back to the Bible. It refers to a miraculous event in the life of Daniel the prophet, an event that preceded one of the most dramatic moments in all of history: the night the Babylonian Empire was destroyed. This event is recorded not only in the Bible, but in other ancient writings as well. By putting all these sources together, we get unparalleled insight into one of the greatest turning points in history.

To understand how important and dramatic this moment was, we need to set the stage with a bit of background. This took place when the Jewish people were in exile in Babylon, one of the lowest moments in their history. As it says in the opening verse of Psalm 137: “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion” (Psa. 137:1). Their exile meant the end of Israel’s existence as a kingdom, the end of their national sovereignty. It looked very much like the final chapter in God’s special relationship with the Jewish people.

This tragedy was just over a hundred years after another major exile: the Assyrian exile of the northern tribes of Israel. These are the famous Lost Tribes of Israel, who soon mixed in with the Gentile nations and, for the most part, disappeared from history. The Assyrian exile was a strong warning to the nation of Judah in the south. But did they repent and turn to God? No. Judah continued in its rebellion, worshipping false gods and practicing immorality. As a result, God gave them over to the Babylonians, who invaded their land and took many into exile.

The first group of exiles included the prophet Daniel. He and other young people were taken to Babylon as hostages in the attempt to guarantee the good behavior of the rulers of Judah (Dan. 1:3-4). But this was not to be, and the city of Jerusalem was finally besieged and destroyed, with far larger groups being taken to Babylon. This was in the reign of the famous King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.*

* Nebuchadnezzar II.

By the time Jerusalem was destroyed, Daniel was already a provincial governor of Babylon and a trusted advisor to the king. His remarkable advancement came because of the successful interpretation of a dream that had greatly troubled the king. This was the dream of a huge statue made of four different materials. It was a prophecy of the coming of vast new empires to the Middle East, something that would begin to happen in Daniel’s own lifetime (Dan. 2). But Daniel’s rapid rise had not come without challenges: three of his fellow exiles, also advanced to positions of power, were nearly killed in a fiery furnace because they refused to worship a statue of the king (Dan. 3).

At the time, Nebuchadnezzar was busy rebuilding the city of Babylon after its destruction by the Assyrians. Old temples were restored, and new ones built. In secular history, Nebuchadnezzar is remembered for his Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Some believe this was a stepped pyramid (a ziggurat) with its terraces covered with gardens. He also completed the royal palace in Babylon begun by his father.

The city itself was massive. It sat on both sides of the Euphrates River. Originally, you had to cross from one side to the other by boat. But Nebuchadnezzar ordered a stone bridge to be built. This wasn’t an easy task. The water had to be temporarily drained from the river so the foundations of the bridge could be laid. This was done by digging a huge lake-sized basin some distance upstream. The water was then diverted into the basin, leaving the river bed dry long enough for the workers to put in the foundations of the bridge. Once the work was finished, the water was released, and the river flowed back through the city. Remember this event: it will become important later.

Around its outer perimeter, Babylon was protected by a triple line of walls. The walls themselves were protected in turn by a huge moat. Some ancient writers considered these massive walls to be so well built, they included them among the wonders of the ancient world. This made the city incredibly strong. No wonder the inhabitants felt it could never be taken by an enemy.

Strangely, in the latter part of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, almost nothing is recorded about his deeds or accomplishments. This silence is explained in the Bible, which records a seven-year period in which Nebuchadnezzar went crazy. This was in fulfillment of a prophetic vision he had of an enormous tree being chopped-down (Dan. 4). The interpretation of this dream, given by Daniel, was that the king would be driven away from mankind until he recognized the authority of the one true God (Dan. 4:25). This is exactly what happened a year later. For seven years, the king wandered around like an animal eating grass, until God finally restored his mind, and he gave glory to God in heaven.

Soon after that, Nebuchadnezzar died, and the kingdom was ruled by rulers we know little about. The first, Amal-Marduk is the Evil-Merodach of 2 Kings 25:27 and Jer. 52:31. He released King Jehoiachin of Judah from the prison where he’d been kept for thirty-seven years. This is the last event mentioned in both the book of 2 Kings and in Jeremiah. His prison stay has been confirmed by the discovery of ancient lists of the provisions he received while in prison.

The next Babylonian ruler was Neriglissar, the same name and possibly the same person mentioned in Jeremiah 39:13 as Nergal-sarezer. He and his son ruled for a short time, until they were replaced by a fourth ruler: Nabonidus. You may never have heard his name before, but you have heard of his son, Belshazzar, a key figure in the book of Daniel. In his own language, his name, “Bel-sharra-utsur,” means “may the god Bel protect his life.” Keep in mind that Daniel lived through all these changes in rulership.

Belshazzar’s father, Nabonidus, was an unconventional ruler. He preferred to worship the moon God, Sin, instead of Marduk, the chief god of the Babylonians. This is probably because his mother was a priestess of the moon god in the city of Haran, the same city from which Abraham had come to the Promised Land more than a thousand years earlier.

Nabonidus seems not to have liked Babylon very much. Some think it was because at the New Year’s festival, part of the ritual called for the king to be slapped, and not lightly, by the high priest. But for whatever reason, Nabonidus moved his center of government out into the Arabian desert, to an oasis city known as Tayma, which sat right along the main route of the Arabian spice trade. This is the same Tema whose caravans are mentioned in Job 6:19, its generosity in Isaiah 21:14, and its eventual destruction in Jeremiah 25:23.

While Nabonidus was in Tayma—for almost 10 years—he left his son Belshazzar, the crown prince, in charge in Babylon. Belshazzar is first mentioned in the Bible in Daniel 5, but the events connected with him in Daniel 7 and 8 actually took place before that. This is because the book of Daniel isn’t in chronological order, but instead is divided into two sections. The first section, written mostly in Aramaic, contains historical events from the life of Daniel (chapters 1-6). The second section, written mostly in Hebrew, contains Daniel’s own visions (chapters 7-12).

For many years, scholars rejected Belshazzar as a real historical person. They claimed the stories about him in the Bible were fiction. But now, from documents discovered by archeology, including the Nabonidus Cylinder and the Nabonidus Chronicle, we know that the Bible was right all along.

The first event in the time of Belshazzar was Daniel’s vision of the Four Beasts (Dan. 7:1-28). Like Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue, this was a prophecy that the Babylonian Empire would come to an end. It would be followed by three other great world empires, each symbolized by a different animal. The date of this prophecy—in the first year of Belshazzar—is important. This was the same year that the Persian Empire was born, the empire that would soon replace the Babylonians.

A second vision in the time of Belshazzar also prophesied the coming of three great empires (Dan. 8:1-27). But here, for the first time, their nationalities are identified by name: the first, appearing like a ram, would be the empire of the Medes and Persians (Dan. 8:20); the second, like a goat, refers to the Greeks, its great horn to Alexander the Great (Dan. 8:21). Here again, the date of the prophecy is important—the third year of Belshazzar. This was the year before, or perhaps even the very year, in which Cyrus, the king of Persia, had an important victory over Croesus of Lydia. This extended his empire west into what is today Turkey.

You may have heard of Croesus before in the expression, “richer than Croesus.” One of the reasons Croesus is remembered as being fantastically rich is that he was the first to issue gold coins as currency. These were made from naturally occurring electrum (gold mixed with silver) found in the river that flowed through his capital city of Sardis. This is the same Sardis mentioned in the book of Revelation (Rev. 3:1-6).

Croesus was also famous for providing the funds to rebuild the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, another of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This temple is mentioned in the book of Acts, when its silversmiths rioted because of Paul’s visit to the city (Acts 19:27).

Cyrus’ victory over Croesus extended his Persian Empire far to the west, into an area where Greeks were living. This means that the Greeks were just entering the international scene in exactly the same year they’re first mentioned by name in the prophecy of Daniel. The message of God was clear: big changes were coming.

The next target for the Persians was the Babylonians to the south. In October of 540 BC, the Persians defeated the Babylonians at the Tigris River. Then they advanced to the city of Sippar (the Sepharvaim of the Bible), which they took without a fight. From there, they marched on to Babylon. But this would be a much more difficult city to take. The Babylonians thought that no one could ever take their city. Remember that triple wall and moat we talked about? And they had lots of provisions stored away that could use in case of a siege.

That’s why, even though the city was under threat from the Persian army, Belshazzar went ahead with a major feast, in which he used as dinnerware vessels taken by his grandfather from the Temple in Jerusalem (Daniel 5:3).* These were holy, sacred vessels that had been dedicated to the God of Israel. But at Belshazzar’s feast, they were used for idolatry, to praise the gods of Babylon (Dan. 5:4). This was too much for God to endure.

* Nebuchadnezzar is here called Belshazzar’s “father” in the Hebraic sense of “ancestor” (Dan. 5:2).

Just then, in the middle of the feast, the “fingers of a man’s hand” mysteriously appeared and began writing on one of the plaster walls, clearly illuminated by a nearby lamp (Dan. 5:5). This is the famous handwriting on the wall that Belshazzar himself saw as it was being written. This terrified the king, who quickly called for his wise men to interpret the letters that had been written (Dan. 5:6-7). These “wise men” included the magi, who later sent representatives to inquire about the birth of a baby in Bethlehem, the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies they’d heard from their Jewish neighbors in Babylon (Matt. 2:1-12).*

* The word magi is used in the Theodotion Greek translation of the book of Daniel.

Belshazzar offered a rich reward to anyone that could interpret the writing. This included elevation to the third highest position of power in the kingdom (Dan. 5:7). Why the third highest? His father, Nabonidus, was first in the kingdom; he himself was second. It was the highest position he could offer. But the wise men had no idea what the message meant.

Because of all the commotion, the queen entered the hall where the king and the nobles had gathered (Dan. 5:10). The women had apparently been drinking in a separate room, just as the Persian noblewomen did later in the time of Esther (Esther 1:9). The queen recommended that Daniel be brought in to interpret the writing (Dan. 5:11-12). From her words, it seems clear that Belshazzar didn’t know Daniel, and perhaps that the prophet had been in retirement for some time.

The queen recommended Daniel not only because of his knowledge and insight, which included his ability to interpret dreams and riddles. She also mentioned his ability to “untie knots” (in the original language, Dan. 5:12). This is usually interpreted as a reference to solving difficult problems. But actual knots could also be important in those days. A good example is the famous Gordian knot that confronted Alexander the Great. His creative solution to untying the knot gives us the expression “cutting the Gordian knot”: solving a complex problem with brute force.

So Daniel was brought before the king and began to interpret the writing on the wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN (Dan. 5:25). The first word, MENE, he said, meant that Belshazzar’s kingdom was being brought to an end. TEKEL meant that Belshazzar had been found deficient. And UPHARSIN, from the root PERES, meant that his kingdom had been divided and given to the Persians. This was a strong rebuke directed against Belshazzar. But the king kept his word and immediately rewarded Daniel, making him third in the kingdom.

After that, the Bible’s account ends suddenly, mentioning only that Belshazzar was killed that same night (Dan. 5:30). Why don’t we get any more details? Because the writer assumes that we already know what happened: a dramatic event that shaped the course of history. So what else happened that night?

The Persian army outside the city saw that it couldn’t breach the walls of Babylon directly. So they decided to enter the only other way they could: through the river. To do this, they diverted the water of the Euphrates using the same earthworks and artificial lake that had been built years earlier when the bridge connecting the two sides of the city had been built. Once the water was down to mid-thigh level, the soldiers waded into the city.

Even then, if the Babylonians had been on guard, they could easily have closed the gates that led to the river. The Persians would then have found themselves trapped and easily defeated.* But no one noticed the Persian army because of the party that Belshazzar was throwing. When people heard loud noises coming from the palace, they just assumed they were from the party. By the time they realized what was going on, it was too late. The Persians marched right into the palace and killed Belshazzar that same night. This was the end of the Babylonian Empire, one of the great turning points in world history.

* As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus.

The new Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, initiated a new era in the Middle East. That same year, he released the Jewish people from their captivity. Their elation at this news can be seen in Psalm 126: “We were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they were saying among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for them’” (Psa. 126:1b-2).

The Persian Empire lasted for about two hundred years, until Alexander the Great swept across the world, the third kingdom in the prophecies of Daniel. Just over two hundred and fifty years after that, the Romans appeared, the final kingdom in Daniel’s prophecies. This is when a small group of wise men from the magi made their way from the old Persian homeland to Bethlehem to see the baby that had been born.* But of all the dramatic steps in history and prophecy leading up to this moment, one of the most clearly recorded and remembered was the night that God wrote on a Babylonian wall.

* Persia, in the meantime, had been conquered by the Parthians.

(For more on this topic, see the index category Magi.)

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