Daniel 5:25-28 “Weighed”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

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).

 

Daniel 5:13-16 “Timing”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Then Daniel was brought before the king. The king answering and saying to Daniel, “You [are] him Daniel who from the sons of the exiles of Judah whom my father the king brought from Judah? ¹⁴I have heard upon you that [the] spirit of [the] gods [is] in you and illumination and insight and wisdom extraordinary are found in you. ¹⁵And now, before me were brought in the wise men [and] the conjurers that this writing they might read and the meaning of it to make known to me and not ones able to declare the meaning of the word, ¹⁶and I have heard upon you that you are able meanings to interpret and problems to solve. Now, if you are able the writing to read and its meaning to declare to me, [with] purple you will be clothed and the necklace of gold upon your neck and third in the kingdom you will rule.”

Before I move on from these verses, there is a matter of wisdom I believe we can observe in this passage and hopefully profit from. It concerns our timing. What I mean is this: Daniel has to tell Belshazzar the truth. "The truth” is not pretty. Yet notice when Daniel tells him. Belshazzar is a very wicked man who has lived his life reveling in his wickedness. We’ve even seen him so insolent that he would deliberately desecrate the temple vessels of a god. Had Daniel walked into the middle of the feast and called him out for it all, Belshazzar would have scoffed and had him executed on the spot.

Yet, what do we see? Suddenly, this arrogant, pompous king is actually calling for Daniel to come and tell him the truth! Why the change? Because something profound has happened in Belshazzar’s life to bring him to a place where he actually wants all the charades to end and someone to tell him the truth. Daniel is about the give him  a message this man has refused his entire life to hear, yet now the man is asking him to tell it!

Clearly, from cover to cover in the Bible, there are times when people need to be told the truth whether they want to hear it or not. In Matt. 23, Jesus speaks a stinging rebuke to the Scribes and Pharisees, knowing full well it will only drive them closer to having Him killed. However, if we pay close attention, we will also notice there is often a wisdom demonstrated, a patience that can wait until a person is ready to hear.

The classic verse on this is of course I Peter 3:15, “…and be ready always to give an answer to any man who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you.” As you and I simply live our lives, work at our jobs, mow our grass, and buy our groceries, we don’t even realize that other people may be seeing we are people of hope and then actually want to know why. I would suggest that, for the entire Christian community in America, it would do us al well to realize this. We ought to all be repenting and begging God to raise us above ourselves in order that we might so live our hope in Him that someone else would actually see it and be moved to want it for themselves.

In II Cor. 2:15 it is said of us, “We are to God an aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” The question is, “Are we?” Are we that aroma? Is our life actually sending out the sweet smell of Christ or not? If it is not, our “talk” is probably useless. If it is, then we can fully expect sooner or later someone may come “asking.” I really believe a huge part of the church’s place in this world is to be softening people’s hard hearts so that, when they do hear the Gospel, they’re actually ready to listen. When they come to the end of themselves, they actually do “come and ask a reason” from one of those “Jesus” people they know. If I may inject, I strongly suspect that herein lies a great deal of the reason America has “gone to hell in a handbasket.” All through the 20^th century, the church has crowed about their evangelism, yet our country fell headlong into a massive moral abyss.

Why? It wasn’t because the Gospel wasn’t true. It wasn’t because the Gospel wasn’t “the power of God unto salvation.” The problem, I would suggest is that the ground was hard and dry and wouldn’t take a plow. There was little aroma and so there was little asking. The church should have been dispersed throughout the country softening the hearts of people with their love and kindness and hope. Our Daniel was known to have “an excellent spirit.” He had been faithful at his job, and so, when someone came to the end of themselves, they knew they could call on Daniel to help them.

Another case in point is the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. He wasted his father’s inheritance in wild, riotous living. While he was riding the wave of his sins, he couldn’t care less about his home or his father. But what happened? “…when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need…he longed to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” Only then did it happen that “…he came to his senses and said, ‘I will go back to my father…’” Only then did he say to his father, “I have sinned against heaven and against you.”

It was only when he came to the end of himself that he was able to see and value his father’s house. I guess I’ve always marveled how, when he asked for his half of the estate, the father actually gave it to him. I strongly believe the father was wise enough to know this was the only way his son could ever come to his senses. A proof of that is that the father saw him while he was “yet a long way off.” The father was expecting him home and when the boy came, he welcomed him with open arms.

I could note many, many such examples from the Bible where God brought people to a place where they were ready to listen. What I want to suggest is that you and I should recognize the wisdom of timing, that we should trust God enough to sometimes let people run their course, let them come to the end of themselves. It can be extremely painful to watch loved ones and friends essentially self-destructing, yet we need the wisdom of God to realize when what’s going on is that He is at work.

I realize what I’m saying calls for great wisdom and, in fact, a wisdom far beyond you and me, but I want to believe if we sincerely walk with God and try to know His heart, try to see the world through His eyes, He will help us to sense when “timing” is an issue. I also want to point out again how this highlights the importance that you and I actually live our faith all day every day. In America, I’m afraid “church” only happens on Sunday morning. Having “been to church” American Christians basically think they’re done. Instead, God help us to realize faith, hope, and love, and walking in the Presence of God are all day everyday matters. He wants our lives to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

May the Lord allow you and me to so live His grace that we really are an aroma of Christ in our worlds, that our lives might be softening the fallow ground of people’s hearts. Then may He give us the wisdom to discern when people are ready and the patience sometimes to wait for that time.

Surely if you and I would pray to that end, the Lord would be more than happy to grant our request!

 

Daniel 5:17-24 “Like Daniel”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁷Then Daniel [was] one answering and one saying before the king, “Your gifts be to you and your rewards give to another, yet I will read the writing to the king and the meaning I will make known to him.” ¹⁸You, the king, the Most High God gave to your father Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom and the greatness and the honor and the majesty, ¹⁹and from the greatness which He gave to him, the all of the peoples, the nations, and the languages were ones trembling and fearing from before him. Whom he was one pleased he was one killing and whom he was one pleased he was one letting live and whom he was one pleased he was one exalting and whom he was one pleased he was one humbling, ²⁰and when his heart lifted up and his spirit grew hard to be insolent, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom and honor was taken from him, ²¹and from the sons of the man he was driven and his heart with the animals was like and with the wild donkeys [was] his dwelling. The grass like oxen they fed him and the dew of the heavens his body was wet until he knew that ruler the God Most High in the kingdoms of the man and to whomever He pleases He appoints over it. ²²And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart although the all of this you knew, ²³and upon the Lord of the heavens you have exalted yourself and the vessels of His house have been brought before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines ones drinking the wine in them and gods of the silver and the gold, the bronze, the iron, the wood and the stone which not seeing and not hearing and not knowing, you (sing.) praised and the God which your breath is in His hand and the all of your ways, Him you did not glorify. ²⁴In then, from before Him was sent the palm of the hand and the writing this was written.

I continue to be amazed by our man Daniel. There are mountains of truth to be learned from Belshazzar’s bad example, but I would suggest there is also much to learn here from Daniel. We’re back to seeing this world as in a sense “the Tale of Two Cities.” There is Babylon, the city of this world, and Jerusalem, the City of God. Belshazzar is everything worldly and superficial which Babylon has always represented, but Daniel is the Jerusalem. Daniel is the City of God, that place on earth where the true God is worshipped and things eternal matter most. Belshazzar ignores and defies the Lord, just as they did at Babel. Daniel lives for that same Lord’s glory. If you and I would be wise, we should realize we ourselves are one of the two.

I want to ponder intently on our man Daniel here, but first a few thoughts on Belshazzar. Everything about him is summed up in vv. 22,23: “But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this…you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your breath and all your ways.”

“You his son.” Belshazzar wasn’t born into a spiritual vacuum. His very own grandfather had set an example he could have and should have followed. The problem was that “A fool has no desire to gain wisdom…” (Prov 18:2). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (1:7). Belshazzar was a fool. To live in this world and learn nothing from those who went before us is simply to be a fool. One way or another everyone of us comes into this world surrounded by a history that would tell us God rules. Whether it is our own parents/grandparents or perhaps other extended family members, members of our community, our nation’s history, or even Bible passages like the one before us, there is much to learn and profit from. However, like Belshazzar, everyone of us must make that choice—to be wise and learn or to be a fool and shipwreck our lives and our eternal souls.

I once visited a man who was living in one of those $5/night rental rooms. He had a bed and a microwave and shared a common bathroom with all the other people living in the building. He was obviously, from every indication, an old alcoholic, probably in this 50’s. What was shocking was to see this shell of a man then to see all around the room were pictures of his family. One picture was obviously a much younger him with a very pretty wife and several children. Then there were pictures all around of his kids, now young adults. One couldn’t help but notice they had grown to be a very attractive bunch. And yet here he sat in his $5/night hole in the wall, estranged from it all. I was floored with the realization he had traded that beautiful family for a glass of liquor. So, so, so sad to see, but his bad example wasn’t wasted on me. It deeply struck me to realize every choice I make could be the end of everything I ever cared about. Many, many times through the years, I have been faced with temptations, but that realization would fill my mind. What horrified me was the thought that I could make that one bad choice, then basically wake up 20 years later lying in my vomit in some gutter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that I could wake up realizing I’d lost all that every mattered to me. I wasn’t born into a spiritual vacuum. There was history to learn from (even from old alcoholics!) and, fortunately for me, at least in this one case, the Lord helped me to learn and profit from that history.

Belshazzar did not. Before the night is over, he’ll be dead, and all the great kingdom his grandfather had built will be lost. “Though you knew all this.” What an awful indictment. However, Daniel goes to the root of it all when he says, “You did not honor the God who holds in His hand your breath and all your ways.” This is the classic downfall of the human race, “Though they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, and so their foolish hearts were darkened…” (Rom. 1:21). It is the pits of folly to live in this world and to refuse to acknowledge the very God who made us, sustains us, who completely controls every moment of our lives. It is the ultimate “untruth” which humans buy and upon which they shipwreck their entire existence. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Belshazzar missed this one single all-encompassing reality and now, as far as we know, all he has to show for his life is a bad example while his soul stokes the fires of hell. So, so, so sad.

Then there is our Daniel. As I read this passage over and over, what amazes me most is Daniel’s courage. He’s called suddenly in the middle of the night and now here he stands before his king and 1,000 nobles, and what he must do is write his own death sentence. NO ONE talks like this to Belshazzar. At the slightest provocation, history tells us he was a man who would shout, “Off with his head!” Yet our Daniel doesn’t hold back. He stands up and tells Belshazzar exactly what he needed to hear.

And notice what Daniel tells him: the truth. As I observed earlier, the world of Babylon (like our own) is a swirl of lies. Everyone in the room is playing “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” telling Belshazzar whatever he wanted to hear, lying to each other, lying to themselves. Everyone in that room values above all else pleasures, possessions, and applause, and they will say and believe anything they think can get them what they want. Today we call it “Politically Correct (PC)” and things are no different. You’d better agree with them…or else! Yet everything is a swirl of lies.

And in that swirl of lies, what does Daniel say? The truth. Plain, simple truth. Go back and read his words, realizing they are a death warrant. Read them realizing, he could be immediately executed for saying these things. And yet what does he say? The truth.

One thing that amazes me is how simple the truth is. Always. Living in a swirl of lies is very complicated. Nothing adds up. Nothing really makes sense. What they said yesterday isn’t true today, and they won’t care if something completely different is “true” tomorrow. But the truth just stands there. Life is so much calmer and simpler if you just build it on truth. It makes my life much easier at work when I don’t have to worry about remembering what I told someone yesterday. If I’ve been lying, I’d better remember who I told what, and who knows who that I told it to. However, if I have tried hard to only tell the truth, I don’t have to remember anything—I just keep telling the truth. Very, very simple. And yet, like Daniel, I have to live my life of truth realizing it may get me in a LOT of trouble.

Many people read into Daniel’s words that he has no respect for Belshazzar, that he is disgusted with him, perhaps that he’s even enjoying “telling him off.” They note that Daniel’s address definitely does not include what seemed like the respect, loyalty, and even affection which he had showed earlier to Nebuchadnezzar. It is true that his words are only hard, cold truth. However, I would suggest that when what we see here is disrespect, we’re reading into the text our own gross immaturity. I think Daniel is just being faithful to say what God wants him to say, no more and no less. The Lord wanted to offer Nebuchadnezzar grace and so Daniel urged him to repent (4:27). However, Belshazzar’s day of grace is over. Someone once observed that God is very patient—and yet His patience only goes so far. Sadly, there is no message of grace for Belshazzar tonight, and so Daniel’s words offer no grace. At this point, Belshazzar’s life is good for nothing but a bad example, and that is how Daniel presents it.

Again, what amazes me is Daniel’s courage to do exactly that—to stand before this king and tell him the truth. Unlike Belshazzar, Daniel does humble himself. Daniel does honor the God who holds his life in His hand. Daniel isn’t living for pleasures, possessions, and applause. “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish it,” were the words of Jesus, yet it would seem that is what Daniel is thinking too. And that is what gives him the courage to be faithful.

I want to learn more and more to be like Daniel. I want to be guided by the Lord’s glory, not by my fears. I pray I would learn from the history recorded for us right here in Daniel chapter 5. Lord give me a heart to see you above it all and help me to be faithful no matter what—like Daniel.