Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
1Belshazzar the king made a great feast to his one thousand nobles and to the one thousand [he was] one drinking the wine. 2Belshazzar said in tasting the wine to bring the vessels of the gold and the silver which Nebuchadnezzar his father had brought from the temple which [was] in Jerusalem and they drank in them, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines. 3Then they brought the vessels of the gold which they brought from the temple which [was] the house of God which [was] in Jerusalem and they drank in them, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines. 4They drank the wine and they praised the gods of the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the wood, and the stone
Some more thoughts on this passage: So now we understand the historical background and the Jewish prophecies leading up to this night. In my earlier thoughts, I said I believe the history actually serves to highlight the lessons we all can take from this chapter. In the first post, I noted Belshazzar’s arrogance. This whole party and the desecration of the temple vessels are acts of complete arrogant defiance on the part of Belshazzar—defiance against Cyrus and the Persian army which is surrounding the city, and defiance against the Jewish prophecies that the Seventy Years are up and that Babylon’s rule has come to an end. Belshazzar refuses to believe it even possible that Cyrus could enter the city, and he is mocking the God of Israel who has prophesied his end.
What can we learn from this? It would be very easy to condemn this arrogant fool and then move on. Many, if not most, of the commentators I’ve read did exactly that. That is always easy to do, especially with the “bad” men of the Bible, however, when we do that, we need to realize we’re passing up the opportunity to learn ourselves. If we would learn anything at all, we need to hear Nathan saying, “You’re the man!” What the Lord has painted on the canvas before us is your face and mine, if we’re willing to see it.
I may not be a king. I may not be fabulously wealthy. I may feel I have never, nor would ever be this arrogant and defiant. However, that is only because our evil hearts are “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.” As I have noted before, pride is an insidious sin that hides itself from our vision. The whole world may see we’re arrogant, but we’ll be the last to ever know it. Only the Lord Jesus Himself can deliver you and me from “this body of death.” We may think we’re “rich,” and “don’t need a thing,” but Jesus would have us to know that without Him, we are “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” His counsel is “to buy from Me gold so you can be rich, and white clothes to wear, and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (all from Rev. 3:17,18).
“Salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” That is precisely what this passage calls for. If you and I would learn anything, we need Jesus to open our eyes so we can see our own faces in the mirror of His Word. Belshazzar is none other than the fallen man lurking inside each one of us. He was the fallen man lurking inside his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar and it took a terrible calamity, but Nebuchadnezzar did see it. He finally saw his arrogance and concluded, “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” (4:37).
All that said, here’s my take on it all: Belshazzar is really nothing more than simply “a man without God.” What do I mean? He is a real man, living in a real world, without the slightest clue why he’s here or what he should be doing. Why is he really throwing this party? Is it not because, in one way or another, he thinks this will make him happy? He thinks if he guzzles wine, it will light up his life. He thinks somehow it proves what a great man he is if he can have 1,000 nobles sit before him and acknowledge his greatness. He thinks everyone else will be impressed that he defies Cyrus and his army. Then he thinks they will all marvel at his power, that he can actually defy the God of Israel, who predicted his doom. He is surrounded by wives and concubines whom he has cruelly enslaved because he thinks too that keeping them all as his toys will make him happy and impress everyone else with his greatness.
Belshazzar is an empty shell of a man, trying desperately to make himself happy, to make himself significant. He utterly does not comprehend what Jesus will later say, “For without Me, you can do nothing.” Nothing. Here is the first place where I believe you and I should see our own faces in the mirror. We all, including Belshazzar, were very specifically created by God. He is our Creator and we are His created beings. He made us to need Him, to know Him, to live in an on-going personal relationship with Him all day every day. It is the fruit of His Spirit that will give us “love and joy and peace.” Our only “significance” is found as we would acknowledge Him and live our lives to serve Him, to please Him, and to walk according to His Word.
To whatever extent you and I fail to see this, we’re really no different than Belshazzar. Is that not right? I was not born to be “independent,” to be the “master of my own fate.” In this world, I may enjoy some measures of happiness, a sun to shine and rain to fall, but they will always be but flitting shadows, unless we realize what Jesus said, “For this is eternal life, that they might know You…” (John 17:3). Is He your God? Can it be said that your “faith” itself is really all about a personal relationship with Him? Belshazzar refused to see it and he’ll be dead before this night is over, but, for you and I, if we still have breath in our lungs, we have the opportunity to repent of our evil independence and to fall into “the Everlasting Arms.”
Even if we have done that, even if we are sincerely trying to walk with God, still there will be rooms in the palace of our own hearts where our Belshazzar still rules. You and I need to see ourselves as just as foolish and arrogant as this man and heed Jesus’ counsel to buy from Him salve so our eyes can see.
May the Lord help you and I to be in His Word, to be walking with Him, and to be asking Him to show us our pride, asking Him to show us where we are still trying to “be” or “have” something without Him. As the years go by, may those citadels of arrogance fall, may the Belshazzars inside us die, and may we more and more enjoy the freedom and the life, the significance and the happiness that only the Lord God of heaven can give us.
May the Lord actually make you and me better because we paused to consider this man Belshazzar.
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