25This [is] the writing which was written:
MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN
26This [is] the meaning of the thing: MENE—God has counted your kingdom and He has finished it. 27TEKEL—You have been weighed in the scales and you were found deficient. 28PERES—Your kingdom has been divided and it has been given to [the] Medes and Persians.
How fun is this? I have read this story a million times, but now I finally get to pause and actually ponder over the MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN. I am so thankful the Lord allowed me to study Hebrew, which then at least gives me a window into the very similar Aramaic, the language in which Daniel 5 and these words are written. In the commentaries that have come down to us through the centuries, scholars have stewed over these words and offered seemingly a million different conjectures concerning them. It is a measure of comfort for me to know exactly what is written, to be able to understand what it is they are suggesting, then to be confident I can form my own opinions.
If anyone wishes to study this passage, you can rest assured there is plenty of commentary out there written on it. For myself, I dissected the Aramaic and now I’ve been pondering on it for at least a couple of weeks. I want to record what I suppose are my lasting impressions from it all.
Of course one can only admire Daniel (again). NO ONE in their right mind would talk like this to an oriental king. This young man Belshazzar has lived his entire life surrounded by sycophants who always told him exactly what he wanted to hear, flattered him, and feared in any way to displease him. Read once again everything Daniel says to him and I will say again, these very words are a death warrant. “Your kingdom is finished. You’ve been weighed and found lacking. Your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians.”
That last statement would even be considered treasonous. The Medes and Persians are the enemy army just outside the gate. Daniel is predicting their victory! Jeremiah had the same problem when Belshazzar’s grandfather laid siege to Jerusalem. Jeremiah told the people then, “This is what the LORD says: This city will surely be delivered into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.” The Jewish officials responded then: “This man should be put to death! He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.” (Jer. 38:3,4).
So what can Daniel expect now, 70 years later, when it’s the Babylonians inside their walled city, under siege by the Medes and Persians? Just as with Jeremiah, these words seem treasonous! We should all realize Daniel may have actually been assuming they would execute him as soon as the words left his lips – but he spoke them anyway in faithfulness to his Lord. Actually we should note this message is also given in faithfulness to this king and all these nobles and the people of the city. Like Jeremiah, he is, in fact, “seeking the good of these people.” Daniel is living out his lifelong determination to love God and love people. He’s faithful right down to what could have been the end.
Now, think about the message. Is not this exactly the message everyone of us
will hear, unless a Redeemer should intervene? “So then, every one of us shall
give an account of himself to God.” “It
is appointed unto every man once to die and then the judgment.” Think about it:
“MENE: Your days are numbered.” That is true for each of us. In fact, the Lord
knows exactly the second date that will be engraved on my headstone: “Born April
18, 1957, Died…” My days are numbered and when they’re finished, they’re
finished. I don’t know when that will be for me, but that day will come for
each of us, just as it did for Belshazzar.
“TEKEL: You’ve been weighed in the balances and found lacking.” We all need to hear the Bible tell us, “There is none righteous, no not one.” “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When we face the Law, what happens? “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world stand guilty before God.” When we each are “weighed in the balances,” we will be found lacking.
As I was studying this, it was curious to me to note verses like Prov. 11:1, “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but an accurate weight is His delight.” This is true in commerce all day every day, yet why? Why should it be so important to the Lord that scales be accurate? Obviously there is the issue of personal honesty and love to our fellow man, but I would like to suggest it actually goes much deeper than that. It is a fractal of our reality: The Lord would have us all live our lives assured that scales are accurate, at least in part because one day each one of us will have our own lives weighed by Him!
We’ve all seen the statues of
Lady Justice holding up her scale, yet she is blindfolded. That is the same
idea, is it not? The statue itself is infusing into our minds the assurance
that justice will be fair and accurate. I suspect we Americans take this for
granted, but it is actually very important to each one of us to know that,
should we ever land in court over anything, justice will be fair and accurate. Once
again, where is all this coming from? I suggest it is coming from the Lord
Himself. He is a God of perfect justice.
The problem for us sinners, however, is the outcome for each of us will be the same as Belshazzar’s. “TEKEL: You’ve been weighed in the balances and found lacking.” People’s natural mindset is to think that is how the final verdict will be determined—that the Lord will place their lives in the balances, weigh the good against the bad, and, because they were “basically good people,” the outcome will be to the good. It is true, the Lord in His infinite kindness and justice will in fact measure their lives. We see in Rev. 20:11ff, “Then I saw a Great White Throne…and the books were opened…the dead were judged according to what they had done.”
The problem for us, again, is the outcome of that judgment will not be good. If that is all we have to offer the Lord, we will hear Him say to us exactly the same words He said to Belshazzar, “TEKEL: You’ve been weighed in the balances and found lacking.” However, if we look very carefully there at Rev. 20, we’ll see a strange thing happen in the middle of that judgment. Even after people’s lives have been (very) accurately measured in the scales and even though the conclusion for each is “Guilty,” yet it goes on to say, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire” (v.15). What is this? The “books” condemned me, yet there is another book that actually determines my fate?
Yes, there is another book. It is elsewhere called “the Lamb’s Book of Life.” It is the record showing the names of all those who, in life, belonged to Jesus. “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Yes, if I’m weighed in the balances, I will be found lacking, but there is One of whom it is written, “He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:4,5). This One of course is none other than Jesus, whose very name means “Savior.”
Because of Him, it is possible for the Lord to promise us that ours will be a very different judgment than that of those who demand “justice,” who insist their lives be weighed in the scales. For those who, in life, realized our case was hopeless and turned instead to Jesus, we will be called rather to what is named the Bema Seat of Christ (I Cor. 3:12-15; II Cor. 5:10). There our lives will indeed be weighed, but all the bad, “the wood, hay, and stubble,” will simply be burned up. It “doesn’t count,” and why? Because “Jesus Paid it All.” Instead, the outcome of that judgment will be only a measurement of the good I actually did do, the “gold and silver and precious stones" of my life. Granted some will have a whole lot more than others, but with Jesus on my side, that is the only “measurement” necessary because Jesus already paid for all the bad. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our iniquities from us!”
Pardon me if I seem to be belaboring this point, but, as I have pondered Belshazzar’s fate and realized I’m no different, my heart swells in gratitude to Jesus. Because of Him and only because of Him, I’ll never have to hear the words “TEKEL: You’ve been weighed in the balances and found lacking.” Instead, I will hear Him say, “Come! See the place I’ve prepared for you. Enter the joy of your Lord!” To Daniel, the Lord will say later in this book, “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance” (12:13).
To finish out our study, the last thing the Lord says to Belshazzar is, “PERES: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Belshazzar has built his “kingdom.” It is a kingdom of lies and arrogance, immorality and murder, but it is his kingdom, his life, all that has ever mattered to him. And where does it get him? Here we see him lose it all. All. He built his house on the sand and now the storm will wash it away. He is about to drop into hell and he’ll take none of his gold, none of his harem with him. At the end of his life, he loses everything.
Such will be the case for everyone of us who counts on the scales, who thinks somehow I can pull off being “good.” “There is none righteous; no, not one.” If we would have our lives to “count,” in the end to matter, we must be found under the blood of Jesus. Someone else will have to have paid for our sins, and the good news is that there is such a Someone! Jesus.
In a sense, what an awful chapter this is. It is the bleak, horrific story of a man who supposedly gained in this life everything anyone could ever dream of, yet in the end, lost it all. I should inject here, we do not know how Belshazzar responded. We will see in the next verse, he was true to his word and did reward Daniel (rather than having him executed!), but we will only know in heaven whether he somehow acknowledged the truth of Daniel’s words and repented. Just as with every other human being, none of us knows what transpires between a person and God in those last few minutes of life. I’ve been asked before, “Do you think they’re now in hell?” to which I reply, “There is no way for us to know.” Especially in those last few minutes, salvation will be a heart business and we may or may not see its working.
That said, we don’t know what became of Belshazzar. We only know that if he did not repent, he did in fact “lose it all.” If that is the case, again, what a horrific story. The wonderful grace for you and me is that it was written down. It was recorded. It is not only the story of a wicked king, but the story of your life and mine. If we would learn anything from history (which apparently Belshazzar did not), all of us should flee for refuge to the Cross and say, “I don’t want to be weighed in the scales! I already know the outcome! May the blood of Jesus cover my sins!”
For those who do, Jesus has a wonderful promise, “He who believes in Me has everlasting life!” (Jn. 6:47).
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