And like I said earlier, we're not in Deuteronomy. We're in another Old Testament book that starts with D. We are in Daniel. Daniel chapter 5. And so, Living Hope, as a church plant, we've been going through Daniel for a couple of weeks now, obviously. Mostly taking whole chapters at a time, right? Because this is really how the story breaks down. And in Daniel, each chapter is its own kind of self-contained narrative. So that moves a little bit faster than maybe some of us are used to moving. But I think in this case, at least, it makes a lot of sense. We'll be going through all of Daniel chapter 5 this evening. And, you know, just like in the bulletin on a Sunday morning, right, you look at the outline, and Randy's got a thesis statement. I usually just, you know, if Randy does it, it's probably a good idea, so I do that. Here's our thesis statement for this sermon is that humility and meekness may seem foolish. But the Lord numbers, weighs, and divides. And those words are chosen specifically because of this chapter. The Lord numbers, weighs, and divides the proud when he delivers his people. And so that's the thesis statement, the kind of main point I kind of derived from this chapter. But really, I could have just taken it from Psalm chapter 9, verses 7 through 10. gets at this in the same way, in a much more poetic way, where in Psalm chapter 9, we read that, the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness. He judges the people with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you. For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. All right, here we have really kind of the theme of the book of Daniel, especially these first few chapters we've looked at kind of captured in these verses where the Lord is the one who ultimately reigns. In the book of Daniel encounter many powerful kings, Nebuchadnezzar and in a moment Belshazzar, but it's the Lord who sits enthroned forever. It's the Lord who judges. It's the Lord who reigns and his judgments As it shows here in Psalm 9, his judgments are actually the protection and deliverance of his people. His judgments are deliverance for the oppressed, for those who know his name, for those who seek him. This is actually a common theme in scripture, that judgment and deliverance go hand in hand. And that's what we see here in Daniel 5. And so as we move into Daniel 5 as the story, and if you, maybe you're familiar with Daniel, or if you've been around for sermons, or you just, yeah, and if you'd read through it, we'd be going at a little scene change here. Because the first four chapters of Daniel, there's actually one character who appears in all four chapters of Daniel, besides the Lord. There's one character who appears in all four. Do you know who that character is? It's not Daniel, believe it or not. A little trick question there. It's Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar is the one who appears in the first four chapters of Daniel. And really, throughout the first four chapters, there's almost a developing storyline of Nebuchadnezzar moving from really an enemy of the Lord, certainly an instrument of the Lord, but an enemy who's taking, he's destroying Judah. He's taking Judah captive. He's taking the things from the temple in Jerusalem and bringing them over. He's a blasphemer. But by the end of chapter four, he's singing praise songs. He has come to understand, not just be shown once or twice, but he's really come to understand that the Lord is the one who has ultimate authority. It's the Lord. God is the most high. His kingdom is the true kingdom. He's able to admit, just as it says in Psalm 9 there, that it is the Lord It is the Lord who sits enthroned forever, not Nebuchadnezzar. And he had to be severely humbled in order to get to that point. In order to get to the point where he admitted, Nebuchadnezzar admitted that he was not the one who was enthroned forever. Again, that's what chapter 4 brings us through. But now, as we get to chapter 5, Nebuchadnezzar's just gone. He leaves us with his praise song. In this no longer Nebuchadnezzar, now we jump ahead where all those first few chapters of Daniel took place somewhere between the 590s and 560s BC to where we're jumping ahead to 539 BC. In fact, we can be pretty sure we're jumping ahead to mid-October 539 BC. So interesting, kind of fitting for where we're at, right? It is October 13th, mid-October. Here we are, mid-October, 539 BC. Belshazzar is now reigning in Babylon. Spoiler alert, not for long, all right? Belshazzar who suddenly we get introduced to in chapter 5 here in verse 1. He's reigning, like I said, not for long, and he's probably Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. If we want to get into the details of 6th century BC Babylonian politics, he's probably not Nebuchadnezzar's direct son, probably a grandson, and he's probably not the only king at the time. He's probably co-reigning with his father, Nabonidus. But Nabonidus has been sent away, according to historians, probably for upsetting some priests. Again, we don't need to get into all the details of mid-6th century BC Babylonian politics. But it's just as helpful to know, because later on, Belshazzar is going to bestow on somebody the honor of being the third ruler in the kingdom. And you say, why the third ruler? Like, that's weird. Why couldn't he just, what, second? Couldn't bring him up to second? Well, again, the kind of complexities of Babylonian politics at the time is that Belshazzar is merely a co-ruler, and so thirds as high as he can give out. So here we are. Let me jump in here. We're going to kind of break this down into a few verses at the time. And the first thing we're going to run into in these first four verses is some hard-headed arrogance. some hard-headed arrogance here in chapter 5 verses 1 through 4. So let me just start reading in verse 1 where we read that, an ominous introduction to this king who we hadn't met before, right? Nebuchadnezzar was finishing honoring the Lord. Here's Belshazzar doing exactly what kings aren't really meant to do, right? Proverbs talks about how it's not right for kings to drink wine or rulers to take strong drink lest they forget what's been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted, right? That's Proverbs 31, 4, and 5. But here we get introduced to Belshazzar in the midst of gluttony. But as we'll see, it's not just gluttony, it's blasphemy too. Let's keep reading. Belshazzar, when he had tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So this is more than just a giant feast. It's more than just gluttony, as much of a problem as that might be. This is blasphemy, because Belshazzar, he doesn't want to have a feast with just the normal feasting silverware, plates, and utensils, right? We're told that he takes the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, that he had taken out of the temple that is the house of God in Jerusalem. So this is straightforward blasphemy. We could talk about the differences between a temple in Babylon and the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. There certainly were no images of the Lord in the temple in Jerusalem. Any temple in Babylon or really anywhere else would have been filled with all these kind of idolatrous images. You know, gods cut out of stone and wood and gold and silver and whatnot. And so you could pretty obviously show some disrespect to any of those Babylonian idols by just hurting the idol itself. But there was no images in the Lord's temple. And so you couldn't just take the image of the Lord in the temple and do anything harmful to it. But still, the other utensils, the things used for sacrifices, and the lampstands, and the bowls, and all the things that were in the temple, they were still rightly understood to be holy. And if you were to mistreat those, it was a sign that you were disrespecting the Lord of that temple. This actually is not a hard concept for us to get around, right? If you went into my office and you started blowing your nose with the books in my office, would I be right to take that personally? Yes, right? It wouldn't be like me going like, thank you for not blowing your nose on me. No, no. The fact that you're using my office in such a disrespectful manner says something about how you're treating me, or how much more so with Belshazzar and using these vessels from the temple in Jerusalem for his own party. Now, you remember why these vessels were there. Do you remember why these vessels were even in? Jerusalem, or I'm sorry, not in Jerusalem. If you go to the very beginning of Daniel, very beginning of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 1, we read about how in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, this was around 597 BC, he came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, that is Babylon, to the house of his God and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. So back when Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem, he brought back some of those nice things that were in the temple, back to put in the storehouse of his own God. And we don't hear about them at all. Nebuchadnezzar, as far as we know, never touched them. There may be even a sense of some reverence there of him keeping them in the religious place, not using them for his feasts. But here's Belshazzar using them for his feast, clearly showing himself to have some hard-hearted arrogance towards the Lord. But as we keep reading, we see that this hard-hearted arrogance very quickly turns to some weak-kneed alarm. I mean, that's the thing about arrogance, right? It's often a false confidence, is it not? Maybe you've seen this in yourself, or you've seen it in others. that really arrogance is insecurity in disguise. It's kind of like an over-inflated balloon. It doesn't take too much to pop it. And as we see, that's going to be the case here. for Belshazzar, does not take too much for him to be moved from this sort of carousing, arrogant ruler to almost a cartoon character and how frightened he gets. Because we read in verse five that immediately, immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall in the king's palace opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. The king's color changed. and his thoughts alarmed him. His limbs give way and his knees knocked together." You see how quickly he's been changed? I mean, this is genuinely funny. We should see how ridiculous it is for him to suddenly be in this state. I mean, this description, I mean, am I the only one who can't help but think of, like, cartoon characters? Like, literally what jumps to my mind is Scooby-Doo, right? You know, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, and they hear, like, the ghost, and they hear, like, the monster, or whatever it is, and usually Scooby jumps into Shaggy's arms, and, woo-woo, Shaggy, right? And they're just, like, frightened, and they got the shaking thing. Am I the only one who's watched these cartoons? You're all more cultured than I am. That's all right. You've seen these cartoons. That's the description here. His limbs gave way. His knees knocked together. He's in a pathetic state like Scooby and Shaggy when they hear a ghost in the abandoned amusement park. And so in response, Belshazzar calls together really the least effective characters in the whole book of Daniel. If you'd been reading through the whole book of Daniel, you would have heard about how the king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans and the astrologers. You would have met these guys before and you would know that Belshazzar is about to run into a dead end. These guys have appeared on the scene multiple times before, unable to help the king. These guys come traipsing in, the king calls them in, the king declared to these wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation, he says, they shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. And the king Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed." Like I said, he has run into a dead end. Or another way to put it, he has essentially sprung a leak, sprung a religious, a political leak. And this has happened because he's put his hope in lies. He has put his hope in the gods, and in the theology, and in the practices of Babylon. These wise men who had failed Nebuchadnezzar, and here he is relying on these wise men, in quotes, right? Wise men. Once again, he's put his hope in lies. And so he has sprung a leak. He is not able to hold water. He is finding himself having nothing to drink when he's thirsty, right? He needs a drink of wisdom, and he's being given nothing. And you know, this is exactly what happens when any of us turn to lies, when we turn away from the Lord. This isn't just a Babylonian problem. This isn't just a Belshazzar problem. God's Word makes it clear that this can happen even for supposedly orthodox or biblical worshipers. This is what Jeremiah famously condemns, the Lord condemns his people through Jeremiah for. It's not Jeremiah 2.12-12, it's Jeremiah 2.12-13, so don't be distracted by that, even though I just pointed it out. But Jeremiah says this. He says, be appalled, oh heavens, at this. Be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. Why should we be so appalled? What is he trying to draw our attention to that's so terrible? Well, my people have committed two evils, and they're two related evils. They've forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns, water bottles, for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So what have they done? What's this terrible thing that God's people have done that should make us appalled and shocked and desolate? Well, they turned away from the Lord who's living waters, whose true deliverance and true life that actually can save them. And they've turned to things that can't actually save and comfort and deliver them, what Jeremiah calls broken cisterns, right? And so it's kind of like, I've got this cup of water. I go in and I filled it up with the water fountain there earlier. It seems to have pretty good structural integrity because it's still holding the water that I filled it up with earlier. But it's not hard to imagine if this was a broken solo cup and it had holes springing out here that I could go fill it up and by the time I got it back here and my throat got a little rough and I went to go take a drink, what would I be able to drink? Nothing. I would come up dry. I would still find myself thirsty. That's exactly what Jeremiah accuses God's people of doing, and that is exactly what Belshazzar has done. He has turned to a broken cistern. He has turned to a source that cannot deliver him. His wise men and his theology, all of the amazing things of Babylon. I mean, Babylon, ancient Babylon's an amazing place. You went there, you would see the architecture, you'd see all sorts of things. Wow, a lot to be impressed by. Broken cisterns. So he's found himself. Seemingly hopeless, seemingly helpless. But thankfully, at least for him, or at least thankfully for the sake of truth, the story doesn't end there. Because he finds some cool-headed guidance there amongst the core. Thankfully, there's someone there with a memory. There's someone who's seen some light, and it overhears what's going on. It's the queen. And again, getting into the details of 6th century BC Babylonian politics, it's probably the queen mother, probably his mother who's ruling kind of within this area, but just helpfully and rightly referred to as the queen. But the queen, because of the words, The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall. And the queen declared, O king, live forever. Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the king, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation." So the Queen Mother has seen what any of us would be able to see if we went back and we read Daniel 1 through 4. We'd see that Daniel is different. The God that Daniel knows and Daniel worships and Daniel prays to is not a broken cistern. Daniel knows the God who is a fountain of living water, to use Jeremiah's terminology. And Daniel's proven this time and time again. He's proven himself, right? The Lord has proven himself as the God who's able to reveal mysteries. Nebuchadnezzar learned that earlier. He's the God who's able to sustain, right? He'd learned that as Daniel and his friends took on a much more meager diet there compared to all the others in the kind of King Nebuchadnezzar's court and yet were raised up. He's learned that this is the God who's able to deliver. As Nebuchadnezzar again learned, trying to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into that furnace. Daniel's different because the God he worships, and he turns to, and prays to, and relies on, and listens to, and obeys, is different. Not a broken cistern, but a fountain of living water. We can use the Queen's terminology too, right? I've used Jeremiah's terminology, but the Queen, what does she say, right? There's a man in your kingdom, verse 11, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. She's coming from a Babylonian, confused, many gods, many idols sort of perspective. And so the best she can do is say, there's something different about this guy, the spirit of the holy gods. Or as she puts it in verse 12, an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dream, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel. And so if we're turning Daniel chapter 5 into a movie, If you're just like, oh, we're going to make a big Hollywood movie out of this. The queen would not have a big part, right? Wouldn't be a long part. Probably would just be in this one scene. But you'd need to get a good actress to play her, right? Because this is an essential scene, right? Her role cannot just be given off to someone who flubs their lines, right? Her lines, her role is central to moving this along, right? Her job is essentially this. To point Belshazzar, to point all of us in the right direction, to point them to Daniel and the God of Daniel. Right? She's got kind of in miniature, a ministry much like John the Baptist, an important ministry, but in a ministry that's not about herself. It's just a pointing ministry, right? Where John the Baptist, what was his job? Say, Behold the Lamb of God, twice in John chapter 1. He says, Behold the Lamb of God. Jesus walks by. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He walks by again the next day. Behold the Lamb of God. And what happens when he points out that a second time? He's got his own disciples, John the Baptist's own disciples who say, Thanks for the help. Your mission's accomplished. I'm going and following Him. That's what the Queen does here. That's what John the Baptist does. There's countless characters actually in scripture who are just on the scene for a moment, but they have an essential role of pointing, pointing. You think of Naaman's slave girl. You remember sick Naaman from second Kings, right? Naaman's slave girl on the scene for two verses. But what does she do? She points her master to Elisha. And then she's gone. We don't get to hear from her anymore. Just points her sick master to a fountain of living water. That's what Queen does here. Hey, pay attention to Belshazzar. Pay attention to Daniel. He knows the true God. So Daniel arrives. Daniel's called on the scene and he gives some heavy-handed judgment. Fair, but heavy-handed. Because before I read this, right, notice... I'll save that part for later. Let me just read this. I'll just keep reading. So, then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, you are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king, my father brought from Judah. And I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men and chanters have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me. It's an interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now, if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. All right, so where Belshazzar gets pointed to, right, where the queen points him to, may not seem very impressive, right? Can you imagine how it felt for him? He has this party where he kind of stops the party and he says, hey, let's bring in the vessels from the temple of the God of Judah. Wouldn't that be really funny? Let's just make a mockery of him. He gets stopped in his tracks. His knees are shaken, right? So he gets frightened. None of the other Babylonians are able to help him. And now he's finding out his only source of help is an exile from, you know, the same place that the vessels he's trying to mock are, the god of the vessels he's trying to mock are from, right? He couldn't have loved this, right? It had to be a little bit of, a little embarrassing for him, right? His tails between his legs that this, you know, there he is trying to show off his superiority and Babylon superiority over the places he's conquered and now he's being told, right, that verse 13, Oh, one of the exiles of Judah whom the king, my father, brought from Judah, right? One of these guys I thought we'd conquered and proved our superiority from to is our only hope. You almost wonder if he's saying verse 13 with a sneer, like, oh, you're that Daniel, one of those exiles from Judah. You know, my father brought you from Judah, right? We captured you, right? But this is the way it is with the Lord. Our Rescuer. Our Rescuer is humble. Our Rescuer is not glorious according to worldly standards. Turning to our Rescuer may not make us look impressive to those around. It's a lot more fun to have a party, you know, mocking the God of Judah than it was to have to turn to one of his people for Belshazzar. I'm sure Belshazzar hated having to turn to this aging captive from Judah. It's humbling for him and it's humbling for us, right? Remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians? Where he goes, where is the one who's wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? We can maybe add in, where is the wise man of Babylon? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Not a glamorous Savior. A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." This is what we've learned. This is what Belshazzar could potentially learn. You and I are not so different from Belshazzar. A cast-off Jew of the God you've despised is our only hope. And so we get to hear Daniel's response. And if Belshazzar is not, if he's not impressed by Daniel, maybe he could take a little consolation in the fact that Daniel's not too impressed by him. Verse 17, Daniel answered, answered and said before the king, let your gifts be for yourself. Give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation." Daniel's going to play along. He's going to give his interpretation. He's going to do his Daniel thing that he's done before. He's going to give the interpretation that no one else could give. But as I read along, notice how long it takes Daniel to get around to the interpretation of the writing on the wall. Daniel's much more concerned to get to the rebuke. about to read. He's much more concerned to put Belshazzar in his place than he is to help him with his mystery. So I'll read here an extended section that Daniel says, let your gifts be for yourself, your rewards to another, right? Give those to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O King, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty, right? God gave it to him. Nebuchadnezzar didn't make it for himself. He was able to really be a king. There were not a lot of limits to Belshazzar's kingship. If you had read chapter four, you know that when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind and his mind was made like that of a beast and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven until he knew, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdoms of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this. But you've lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you. And you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you've praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know. But the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored." So like I said, notice we haven't even gotten around to the interpretation yet. The writing on the wall that turned Belshazzar into Scooby-Doo is not a concern for Daniel right off the bat. No, Daniel rebukes the king. He rebukes him for not honoring, how does he put it, right? Not honoring the God in whose hand is your breath, right? The God in whom we live and move and have our being, right? The God who created everything and sustains everything and lifts up who he will and brings down who he wills, the one true God, again, who gives you your very breath, which you cannot go very long if he withholds it. You've been ignoring that one. That's his rebuke. But you say, oh, well, I mean, Belshazzar, he was raised in Babylon. He was raised, you know, a good Babylonian boy. How could he have known about this God? Well, the Lord sent messengers. The Lord had allowed Daniel and his friends to be there in Babylon. making the Lord known. He should have learned this from Nebuchadnezzar. That's what he says in verse 22. This all happened in Nebuchadnezzar, and you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this. Is this not just Romans 1 in action right before Romans 1 was ever written? I don't have a slide for it, but just Romans 1, starting in verse 18, Paul writes that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, like put on display by Belshazzar, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Paul doesn't say are ignorant of the truth, no, suppress. The truth, right? For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them, right? In many ways, but for Belshazzar, he had front row seats to what's happening in his family and in his kingdom. God's shown it to them through the humbling of Nebuchadnezzar. But even as Paul writes in verse 20, his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, they've been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they, someone like Belshazzar and Babylon, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, and knew enough about this God to have seen his work in the life of his father or grandfather Nebuchadnezzar. They knew him. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking. turned to broken cisterns, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God, the God in whose hand is their breath and in whose are all their ways, the immortal God, they changed it for images. Images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things, right? Praising the gods of silver and gold and of bronze, of iron, wood and stone. So he's without excuse, right? We are without excuse. His goodness, his saving power, the fact that we should turn to him, that he is the God of living waters is on display for all of us. Finally, Daniel's able to give the interpretation, right? Now that the rebuke's been given, now that the king's kind of in the right place, he can give the interpretation for the writing on the wall. "'Cause then from his presence, the hand was sent,' Daniel goes on to tell Nebuchadnezzar what's happened. From God's presence, right? The true God's presence, the hand was sent. And this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed. Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parson. This is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. So this judgment has simply come. Our phrase, like the writing's on the wall, right? You've heard that before. Some team gets up by 30 in a basketball game. Well, the writing's on the wall. This game's over, right? There's some outcome that is certain. There's no changing about what's to happen, right? That phrase of writing on the wall comes from here, right? Where this writing shows up on the wall. Apparently, it was the words, mene, mene, tekel, parson, show up on the wall. And, you know, the wise men aren't able to understand it, and some have wondered why. Hey, why is it? Was it kind of some language I didn't understand? Was it code? Did it disappear? What seems most likely is that these words, kind of like in Hebrew Aramaic right there, there wouldn't have been like the vowels, and they would have been all pushed together. So it's just these string of letters, kind of like a vanity license plate. Have you ever driven past a vanity license plate, and you're like, I'm sure that says something, but I have no clue what it is? Have you been there? I saw one this week that I honestly, I was like, I know it doesn't say grandma hater, But I can't think of what it would say besides grandma hater. I'm sure to them it has some great meaning. That's probably what was going on here. It's like some compacted letters together that if you don't have the context, you're just, I don't know. If you don't have the insight, you're just left guessing. But Daniel, right, he's able to, he has the spirit of the true God, the God who reveals mysteries in him. And so he's able to tell, right, that this is the, this is, these are the words for some, actually some pretty standard Babylonian weights and measures, mene, mene, tekel, and parsin, right? So it's simply, you know, numbered, numbered, weighed. and measured. This is just a sign that you've been judged. Belshazzar, judgment has come for you. Because Belshazzar is king. He would have thought of himself as above judgment. But remember Psalm 97 earlier? The Lord sits in throne forever. He has established his throne for justice. He judges the world with righteousness. There's a higher throne than Belshazzar's. Belshazzar has been assessed. His pride leaves him condemned. There's a higher throne than Belshazzar's. He's been judged. And this is, again, something we have to keep in mind is there are many who do not see themselves as accountable to God. Often in our world, you get authority, you get some power, you get some influence. And to the degree that you get authority and power and influence, you think of yourself as less accountable to anyone else. We, I mean, pick your example, right? You see this in politics, certainly not limited to politics. It can happen in the world of religion, right? How tragically often does it happen that someone within a religious institution, right, to the degree that they gain influence and power, to that degree they think of themselves less and less accountable, right? That's the foolishness that Belshazzar lived in, right? and needed to be reminded, no, you've been judged, there's a higher throne than your own, Belshazzar. And so as we finish the story, we see that he is met with swift-footed justice. Swift-footed justice. Let me read these last verses here, right? Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. Let's stop there real quick. Do you want to give Belshazzar a little bit of credit? You know, he stuck to his word. He said whoever is able to interpret this, he would clothe with purple and give a chain of gold and do all these things, that he'd be third ruler in the kingdom. So give him credit where credit's due, but it's not worth very much. He's essentially just bestowed someone with a pile of Confederate money in April of 1865. This is not very useful, right? This is not going to be useful even a day from now, right? Because that very night, as we're told in verse 30, that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old, right? That very night. And this is where we realize that the narrator has actually kind of been holding out on us, been withholding some interesting information, right? That this night, that this whole party was taking place on, is a world famous, historically famous night, right? This is the day the Babylonian kingdom fell. This is the day the Babylonian music died. This is the end of the kingdom of Babylon. This was the kingdom that God had used to bring judgment on his people. He gave Nebuchadnezzar Judah. He gave them into his hands, but it is now time for their judgment. And they, although they were proud, are now brought down. And there's a few different stories of exactly what happened. One, the most famous is by, you know, maybe you've heard of him, an ancient historian, Greek historian from about a century later named Herodotus. It says that Cyrus captured Babylon by temporarily diverting the course of the Euphrates, right, which would have been this great life source right into the middle of the city. But he temporarily diverted it. And so while the Babylonians are feasting and dancing and doing this thing, his troops were able to just kind of wade right into the middle of the city in this sort of severely decreased river. So the Babylonians had this really strong wall around the city, and the river went right in. So they thought, hey, even if the army's outside, we'll be fine for a while. We've got tons of food, and we've got this great gushing river. But as this story goes, they diverted that river, and we're able to walk right in as this dumb party is happening. Again, you think of, was this a good time for him to be feasting? We're learning now what he knew, what Belshazzar knew. There's an army outside, and he was throwing this party. This was foolishness. And this is the day the city and the kingdom fell. Xenophon, another historian, adds that the Persians took the city at night and that one of Cyrus' generals killed the Babylonian king who, in Xenophon's words, was a riotous, indulgent, cruel, and godless young man. So even though Daniel chapter 5 doesn't go into all those details, I have to say their account checks out. the long-awaited judgment of Babylon that God's people have been waiting for has come. And this is, again, where we get to see that our God is the God who numbers, weighs, and divides. He's the God who comes in with perfect judgment, so different than the justice we often find in our world, so imperfect, so ham-fisted at times. He's the God who comes in with perfect justice, And His justice is also the deliverance of His people. They go hand in hand, right? As His people, right? Part of what makes us His people is the fact that the judgment we deserve for our sin has fallen on Jesus on the cross, right? He's saved us from the wrath to come. So part of the good news is that we miss that judgment. But part of the good news is also that when that judgment comes, that final judgment comes, we get delivered. into the fullness of God's kingdom. What we're waiting for is a similar thing, similar justice, similar judgment, similar time for the proud to be brought down, for the oppressors, for those who ignore God yet seem to have it so good to be made low, to be forgotten, to history. That's what we're waiting for. That's what we really need. And so that's where we're able to celebrate the judgment of God. And that's actually what makes, again, meekness and humility possible. Because meekness and humility seem so foolish according to the kingdoms of the world. I'm just finishing with this reference to Romans 12. We're doing something like Paul says here, beloved, never avenge yourself. That just seems dumb according to the standards of the world. According to the kingdom of the world, you're not gonna get very far if you never avenge yourself. But why does Paul say that? Does he say it because, you know, no one has ever done anything wrong, really. If you just got to know them, you'd understand their method, why they were doing what they were doing, and you'd see that wasn't wrong. No, that's not his reasoning. It says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you'll heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That's a manifesto for the exiles of Judah in Babylon. How are they able to not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good? It's because they knew about the wrath of God that would come at the right time. How is it that we in our own spiritual Babylon cannot be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good? Again, because we know of the God who is able to number and weigh and divide with perfect justice and perfect timing. So let me go ahead and pray and we'll sing our closing song.