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Daniel 5:1-6

¹Many years later King Belshazzar gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. ²While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. ³So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. ⁴While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

⁵Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, ⁶and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him.

Reflect

Chapter 5 introduces us to a new ruler of Babylon - King Belshazzar. A few notes to provide us some background for this chapter:

• Sixty-six years have elapsed since Chapter 1.
• Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 B.C. after a reign of 43 years. He was followed by his son, Evil-merodach (562-560), and then his brother-in-law Neriglissar(560-556). Following a two month reign by Labashi-marduk in 556 B.C., the Babylonian Empire continued from 556 to 529 B.C. under the command of Nabonidus. Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus. He co-reigned with his father from 553 to 539 B.C..
• Considering the number of changes in rulers since Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel is unknown to King Belshazzar.

So, this is the setting for Chapter 5. King Belshazzar hasn’t continued the faith in God that King Nebuchadnezzar had found. The kingdom had returned to worshipping false idols. You would think that they would learn from history! They forgot about God - but God did not forget about them! God decided to insert Himself directly into their lives in an interesting way!

Respond

1. Can you think of a time in your life where you should have learned from someone else’s mistakes, but didn’t?
2. Why did God decide to become involved in King Belshazzar’s life?
3. Why do you suppose King Belshazzar didn’t know about Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar’s experiences?

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