Chapter 43—Belshazzar’s Feast: Babylon’s Last Night
This chapter is based on Daniel 5.
(SS 272)
Great changes were taking place in the land to which Daniel and his companions had been carried captive more than sixty years before. Nebuchadnezzar had died, and Babylon had passed under the unwise rule of his successors. Gradual but sure dissolution was resulting.
(SS 272.1)
Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, gloried in his power and lifted up his heart against the God of heaven. He had known of his grandfather’s banishment by the decree of God from the society of men. He was familiar with Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion and miraculous restoration. But he allowed pleasure and self-glorification to efface the lessons he should never have forgotten. He neglected to use the means within his reach for becoming more fully acquainted with truth.
(SS 272.2)
It was not long before reverses came. Babylon was besieged by Cyrus, commanding general of the Medes and Persians. But within its massive walls and gates of brass, protected by the river Euphrates and stocked with provision in abundance, the voluptuous monarch felt safe and passed his time in mirth and revelry.
(SS 272.3)
In his pride and arrogance, with a reckless feeling of security, Belshazzar “made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.” Beautiful women with their enchantments were among the guests. Men of genius and education were there. Princes and statesmen drank wine and reveled under its maddening influence.
(SS 272.4)
With reason dethroned through intoxication and with lower impulses and passions in the ascendancy, the king himself took the lead in the riotous orgy. He “commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which ... Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem.” The king would prove that nothing was too sacred for his hands to handle. “They brought the golden vessels ...; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone.”
(SS 273.1)
A divine Watcher, unrecognized, looked upon the scene, heard the sacrilegious mirth, beheld the idolatry. Soon the uninvited Guest made His presence felt. When the revelry was at its height, a bloodless hand traced on the palace walls characters that gleamed like fire—words which were a portent of doom.
(SS 273.2)
Hushed was the boisterous mirth, while men and women, seized with terror, watched the hand slowly tracing the mysterious characters. Before them passed, as in panoramic view, the deeds of their evil lives. They seemed to be arraigned before the judgment bar of the eternal God whose power they had just defied. Where a few moments before had been hilarity and blasphemous witticism, were pallid faces and cries of fear.
(SS 273.3)
Belshazzar was the most terrified of them all. Conscience was awakened, and “his knees smote one against another.” Now he realized that for his wasted opportunities and defiant attitude he could offer no excuse.
(SS 273.4)
In vain the king tried to read the burning letters. Turning to the wise men for help his wild cry rang out in the assembly: “Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” But heavenly wisdom cannot be bought or sold. “All the king’s wise men ... could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.” They were no more able than had been the wise men of a former generation to interpret the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.
(SS 273.5)
Then the queen mother remembered Daniel. “O king,” she said, “let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed: There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar ... made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; ... now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”
(SS 274.1)
“Then was Daniel brought in before the king.” Making an effort to regain his composure, Belshazzar said to the prophet: “I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.”
(SS 274.2)
Unmoved by the promises of the king, Daniel stood in the quiet dignity of a servant of the Most High. “Give thy rewards to another,” he said, “yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.”
(SS 274.3)
The prophet first reminded Belshazzar of Nebuchadnezzar’s sin and fall, of the divine judgment for his pride, and his subsequent acknowledgment of the power and mercy of the God of Israel. Then in bold, emphatic words he rebuked Belshazzar for his great wickedness and showed him the lessons he might have learned but did not. Belshazzar had not heeded the warning of events so significant to himself. He was about to reap the consequence of his rebellion.
(SS 274.4)
“Thou ..., O Belshazzar, ... hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone ... : and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: then was the part of the hand sent from Him; and this writing was written.”
(SS 275.1)
Turning to the message on the wall, the prophet read, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” The hand was no longer visible, but these words were still gleaming with terrible distinctness; and now with bated breath the people listened while the aged prophet declared: “This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
(SS 275.2)
In that last night of mad folly Belshazzar and his lords had filled up the measure of the guilt of the Chaldean kingdom. No longer could God’s restraining hand ward off the impending evil. “We would have healed Babylon,” God declared of those whose judgment was now reaching unto heaven, “but she is not healed.” Jeremiah 51:9. God had at last found it necessary to pass the irrevocable sentence. Belshazzar’s kingdom was to pass into other hands.
(SS 275.3)
As the prophet ceased speaking, the king commanded that he be awarded the promised honors.
(SS 275.4)
More than a century before, Inspiration had foretold that “the night of ... pleasure” (Isaiah 21:4), during which king and counselors would blaspheme God, would suddenly be changed into a season of fear and destruction. And now, while still in the festal hall, the king is informed that “his city is taken” by the enemy. Jeremiah 51:31. Even while he and his nobles were drinking from the sacred vessels and praising their gods of silver and gold, the Medes and Persians, having turned the Euphrates out of its channel, were marching into the heart of the unguarded city. The army of Cyrus now stood under the walls of the palace. The city was filled with the soldiers of the enemy, “as many as locusts” (Verse 14, RSV), and their triumphant shouts could be heard above the despairing cries of the astonished revelers.
(SS 275.5)
“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain,” and an alien monarch sat upon the throne.
(SS 276.1)
The Hebrew prophets had spoken clearly concerning the manner in which Babylon should fall:
(SS 276.2)
“Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken.”“The Lord is a God of recompense, He will surely requite. I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.” Jeremiah 51:8, 56, 57, RSV.
(SS 276.3)
Thus did “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” become as Sodom and Gomorrah—a place forever accursed. “It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate towers, and dragons in their pleasant palaces.” Isaiah 13:19-22.
(SS 276.4)
Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne ... . You said, “I shall be mistress forever,” So that you did not lay these things to heart Or remember their end. Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, Who sit securely, Who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow Or know the loss of children”: These two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day; The loss of children and widowhood Shall come upon you in full measure ... . You felt secure in your wickedness, You said, “No one sees me.” Isaiah 47:1, 7-10, RSV
(SS 277)
Prophecy has traced the rise and progress of the world’s great empires—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each, as with nations of less power, history has repeated itself. Each has had its period of test; each has failed, its glory faded, its power departed. Nations have rejected God’s principles and have wrought their own ruin, yet a divine, overruling purpose has been at work throughout the ages.
(SS 277.1)
It was this that the prophet Ezekiel saw when before his astonished gaze were portrayed symbols that revealed a Power overruling the affairs of earthly rulers. Wheels intersecting one another were moved by four living beings. High above all these “was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness as it were of a human form.” Ezekiel 1:26, RSV.
(SS 277.2)
The wheels, so complicated that at first sight they appeared to be in confusion, moved in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings were impelling those wheels. The complicated play of human events is under divine control. Amidst the strife and tumult of nations He that sits above the cherubim still guides the affairs of this earth. To every nation and individual God has assigned a place in His great plan. Today men and nations are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.
(SS 278.1)
The prophecies which the great I AM has given in His Word tell us where we are in the procession of the ages. All that prophecy has foretold until the present time has been traced on the pages of history, and all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.
(SS 278.2)
The signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. The Saviour prophesied of events to precede His coming: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars ... . Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:6, 7. Rulers and statesmen recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
(SS 278.3)
The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of events that already are casting their shadows before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men’s hearts to fail them for fear. “Behold, the Lord will lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.”“For they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.” Isaiah 24:1, 5, 6, RSV.
(SS 278.4)
“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” Jeremiah 30:7.
(SS 278.5)
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, Even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Psalm 91:9, 10
(SS 279)
God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest peril. He has promised deliverance. The principles of His kingdom will be honored by all beneath the sun.
(SS 279.1)