Daniel 5: Downfall of Babylon – The Writing is on the Wall!

Bible Study Series: Daniel, Babylon and the End Times

Daniel Chapter 5 Lesson: Downfall of Babylon – The Writing is on the Wall!

by I Gordon

Do you remember the story from a dark period in Israel's history when the Philistines battled Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant? If this is news to you, then I suggest you read about it in 1 Samuel 4. If you do remember then you may also recall how Eli's daughter in law gave birth to a wee baby and called her new born son 'Ichabod'. Lovely name, although strangely out of favor today for some unknown reason! Ichabod means 'no glory', for in response to the ark getting captured she said 'The glory has departed!' Well, Daniel chapter 5, that we are in today, is also about the glory departing. It is about 'Ichabod' being written, quite literally, on the walls of the greatest worldwide kingdom at that time - the Babylonian empire. So it is interesting to note some of the factors that led to the fall of Babylon because they have very valid and important lessons for our age as well. This study we will look at four things:

• The spirit of Babylon - what is it and do we see it again in our age?
• What God thought about Babylon - and what He thinks about similar powers today
• What God did about Babylon - and what He is soon to do with modern day Babylon
• Are you a Daniel? Can you not only see, but interpret, the writing that is on the wall?

The Spirit of Babylon - Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die... 

Dan 5:1-4 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. (2) While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. (3) So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. (4) As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

With the end of chapter 4 king Nebuchadnezzar, apart from some brief historical references in this chapter, departed from the pages of scripture. But you will remember that he went out on a great note. Daniel chapter 4 was his personal testimony to all the peoples and nations, of the Most High God. It was a testimony that involved God bringing him down... right down, to the point of being an animal in the field, before restoring his position and power once the king acknowledged the God of heaven and earth. The last words in scripture by this famous king were these:

'Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.' (Dan 4:37)

And that is a good way to go out! So between the end of chapter 4 and the start of chapter 5 there is a gap of over 30 years and that time saw normal business down in Babylon. It saw several assassination attempts and even the murder of a couple of kings. This chapter begins with a new king reigning, Belshazzar, who is believed to have been Nebuchadnezzar's grandson¹. Thus the timing of Daniel 5 aligns with the words of the prophet Jeremiah who before the Babylonian exile wrote that Babylon would rule until the time of Nebuchadnezzar's grandson:

Jer 27:6-7 Now I will hand all your countries over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. (7) All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for [the punishment of] his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.

So what do we see happening under Belshazzar's rule?² Well, unfortunately the humility and faith that King Nebuchadnezzar learnt (the hard way) had not carried on with Belshazzar. The saying that God only has sons, not grandsons, is true indeed and instead we see the spirit of Babylon at this time coming forth.  

Concerning this last point on their self-confident smugness, even while their enemies were right at their gates, Dr Renald Showers writes about the basis of their self-confidence: 

'Nebuchadnezzar had made Babylon into the world's mightiest fortress. The outer wall was so thick that no battering rams or instruments of warfare were able to knock it down. The presence of a second inner wall made any attempts to scale the walls suicidal. As a result, Babylon appeared impregnable... The walls of Babylon had been built over the Euphrates river. Thus, that river flowed through the city at all times, providing a constant source of fresh water. In anticipation of a blockade by Medo-Persia, the Babylonians supplied the city with enough food to maintain its population for more than twenty years. Ancient historians indicate that, in light of these great preparations, the people of Babylon laughed at the seige of their city by Medo-Persia.'
Dr Renald Showers, 'The Most High God'

So that was the spirit of Babylon - live for pleasure and live for today. Worship the gods of silver and gold while mocking the true God. Live in a smug self confidence thinking that nothing can happen to you. It is certainly not hard to see parallels with the world today! 

What God thought - Oh you wanton creature!

So with Babylon in this state near the end of its rule, and Western rule looking that it is heading in the same direction, let's have a look at what the true God thought about this attitude. We do not have to be in the dark at all about what God thought of this Babylonian spirit for it has been recorded for us through Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 47:

Isa 47:5-11 Sit in silence, go into darkness, Daughter of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms... (7) You said, 'I will continue forever-- the eternal queen!' But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. (8) Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.' (9) Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells. (10) You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.' (11) Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.

Firstly, God calls them a 'wanton creature'. The word wanton means 'sexually loose, senseless, extravagant'. We see again here that their attitude was to say to themselves that 'I am...', 'I have no need...', 'Nothing can ever touch me'. 'I don't even need God!' Does that remind you of anything? As well as large parts of the Western world, it also reminds me of the attitude of the Laodicean church in Revelation chapter 3 where Jesus is pictured outside the church while those inside revel in their wealth saying 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' It is truly sad when the spirit of Babylon reminds us of a church! Thus the worship of the gods of gold and silver isn't just a thing of the past, nor is it just restricted to the pagans! Sadly, 'Ichabod' is written over many wealthy self-sufficient western churches in our modern 'Laodicean' age where Jesus is no longer within the church. And note also what this prophecy says concerning Babylon - 'Disaster will come upon you and you will not know how to conjure it away'. It would come upon them in a single day. Well, in the book of Daniel we have reached that day. It is the day of judgement upon this world kingdom. Let's now have a look at what God did.

What God did - The Writing is on the Wall!

Dan 5:5-9 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. (6) His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. (7) The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to be brought and said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom." (8) Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. (9) So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

As king Belshazzar and his guests wined and dined, the Medo-Persian Empire sat outside the Babylonian walls. Did they know this? Yes. Did they care? Not really. They were confident that they had done everything necessary to ensure their victory. 'Nothing could spoil this party' they thought. The name Belshazzar means “Bel has protected the king.” And no doubt he thought his gods would protect him. But if Belshazzar had known scripture he would have realized that nearly 200 years earlier the true God had spoken of this very night and had even named the king that would come (before he was even alive) and conquer Babylon!  

Isa 45:1-6 This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: (2) I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. (3) I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (4) For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. (5) I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, (6) so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.

So God not only mentioned king Cyrus of Persia, who would conquer Babylon, by name, but he also said that He would open Babylon's gates and give Cyrus 'the treasures of darkness'. So with that as the background, and having come to the exact time that God had spoken of, we read of a 'suddenly' while the party was in full swing. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand wrote on the wall. Ok, that's a tad creepy! 

Some important 'Suddenlies' in scripture

As a little side note, this word suddenly is an important word. It gives the thought of something happening all at once, without warning. We have a 'suddenly' in this verse where 'suddenly the fingers of a hand wrote on the wall'. And suddenly this party wasn't so funny or enjoyable. There are some important mentions of 'suddenly' in scripture, especially in relation to pride, sin and judgment. Here are a few to ponder: 

• Suddenly without remedy: Scripture tells us that 'A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy.' (Pro 29:1)
• God's judgment is likened to a cracked wall, suddenly collapsing: Isa 30:12-13 Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, (13) this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
• Babylon's fall would be sudden! The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that 'Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed. (9) 'We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the clouds.' (Jer 51:8-9)
• And there is a critical 'suddenly' for our day: The day of the Lord will come suddenly in the last days: 'For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (3) While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.' (1Th 5:2-3)

But Belshazzar didn't know scripture nor that judgment was right at the door and thought nothing was going to stop this fabulous party! But when a strange little hand with creepy fingers appeared the laughter turned to fear. The king didn't find this hand at all funny. In fact, he was so frightened that his knees even knocked together! Have you ever had such a shock or fright that your knees or other parts of your body literally shook? The only time I can think of when my body was literally shaking is when I came home and found my father dead. The shock literally caused an uncontrolled shaking in my body. If you have experienced your whole body shaking you have a small glimpse into the king's experience right about now. The writing was now on the wall for this king and his kingdom.

The warning for nations

Just going a little deeper in the message of this chapter for all nations, the preparations for this study took me into some passages and quotes from Edward Gibbon's 6 volume work on the fall of Rome. That's obviously a different empire from what we are studying today but it is very relevant. Historians that have studied these things tell us that nations and empires have births and deaths like people do. In fact, the following cycle has been discovered about the birth and death of nations. It has been noted that nations go...

'From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence to bondage.'

That being the case, where would you say the United States of America and many other Western nations are on that cycle? It's quite scary really. Here are the main reasons Gibbons gives for Rome's fall (as quoted in the book 'Is America committing suicide?')

1. The rapid increase in divorce and the undermining of the sanctity of the home
2. The spiraling rise of taxes and extravagant spending
3. The mounting craze for pleasure and the brutalization of sports
4. The building of gigantic armaments and the failure to realize that the real enemy lay within the walls with the moral decay of the people.
5. The decay of religion and the fading of faith into a mere form leaving the people without a guide.

Read those five points again for they are eerily reminiscent of the age in which we live. In connection to this, consider the following quote from Abraham Lincoln concerning the USA - 'If this nation is to be destroyed it will be from within and not from without.'

So back to your story and it is clear that king Belshazzar should have known better. He would have heard of the tremendous testimony of his grand-father Nebuchadneszzar about all that the Most High God did for him. But unfortunately, Belshazzar had rejected the light that he had received. He obviously learned nothing from the stories concerning Nebuchadnezzar, and again turns to the threefold 'dummies' of his enchanters, astrologers and diviners. They were offered the position of being the third highest in the kingdom⁴ and again prove themselves to be as 'on to it' as their predecessors had been in the days of Nebuchadnezzar... Yeah, not at all! Of course we knew it would be this way because Isaiah's prophecy quoted above said that when the disaster struck they would not be able to conjure it away. God has seen and heard enough. The light given to these Babylonians had not only been rejected but was now being used to mock the very God who gave them life. The humility and acknowledgment of the true God shown by king Nebuchadnezzar, was not on the lips of his grandson Belshazzar. So this passage ends with the king 'even more terrified and his face grew more pale'. And he has reason to be. God's word, whether written in stone, scrolls, paper or the wall of Babylon, is like a two-edged sword bringing great conviction to the souls of those walking in their own wicked ways.

Can you interpret the writing on the wall? 

Dan 5:10-16 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. "O king, live forever!" she said. "Don't be alarmed! Don't look so pale! (11) There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your father--your father the king, I say-- appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. (12) This man Daniel, whom the king called Belshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means." (13) So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, "Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? (14) I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. (15) The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. (16) Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom."

It is interesting that many people, like the king, can see that the writing is on the wall and it often makes them fearful... but they don't know what it means or what to do about it. It seems that we are in that position now. Fear and anxiety abounds in society. There is great concern over the financial markets and job security. There is fear over the rise of Islam and immigration. Some in the world have been led to be fearful over CO2 emissions and so-called global warming. Others are fearful over the threat of war breaking out... possibly even WWIII. Most can see the signs but do not know what to do. God is allowing unsolvable problems to be heaped up one upon another. So what is needed? What is required is a 'Daniel' who can not only see the writing on the wall, but can also interpret the signs for the people. Bible believing Christians should be that people.⁵ God's word makes us wise so that we can not only see what is happening, but what will happen and what to do about it.

Now the king may have been a dead loss but at least the queen (likely the queen mother) had some wisdom and in the moment of crisis she remembered that 'there is a man' who could help. It is interesting that in the time of a crisis people start looking for answers! From the above passage it seems that Daniel hadn't been consulted for some time. Not in the reign of this king at least. He had been forgotten and yet, when real trouble comes to town, he is sought for again. It seems in the west at least that we have hit that part of the cycle where our abundance has led to selfishness, and selfishness has led to apathy towards spiritual matters. Is God now shaking things up? Each new day seems to bring forth more world crises. Is He allowing this to shake people out of their complacency? I believe so. 

Conclusion

So that's where we'll end it for now. We'll see in the next study what became of Babylon but as we conclude this first part... 

• Consider the day in which we live remembering that the spirit of Babylon is still well and truly alive- yet will come to a dramatic end as shown in the book of Revelation.
• Consider those around you who do not know the Lord. Are they beginning to see the signs? Are they starting to see the writing on the wall for this world? Or are they oblivious and just living for today, with life just one big party, as this king did?
• Consider your own relationship with the Lord. Have you been sucked in by the Babylonian spirit that pervades much of the world? 
• Consider also Daniel... Firstly he was a man set apart who didn't go along with this Babylonian, worldly spirit, and as such he was someone who could speak into the situation.  Secondly he was someone that could not only see the writing on the wall, but interpret what it meant. And may we too be like him as we see and interpret the signs mounting in the world around us.  

We'll finish the chapter and message in part two next time where we will see what the message meant and what happened to this king and kingdom. And while this message focused more on nations, the next will zero-in on the individual, especially with the precarious position of the unbeliever. Until then...

Blessings!

FOOTNOTES