#5 – “Faithful When the Handwriting is on the Wall”

Series: Living Faithfully in Babylon

I. The Wicked Feast of Belshazzar (5:1-4)

A. Those Who Oppose God are Indulgent (vs. 1)

B. Those Who Oppose God are Indifferent (vs. 1b)

C. Those Who Oppose God are Irreverent (vs. 2-4)

The Akkadin god sin/sv’en

Jeremiah – 150 years before Belshazzar

“Then I God, step in and say, I’m on your side, taking up your cause. I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge. I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs. Babylon will be a pile of rubble, scavenged by stray dogs and cats, A dumping ground for garbage, a godforsaken ghost town.”

(The Message – Jeremiah 50-51)

The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs, ravenous, roaring for food. I’ll fix them a meal, all right-a banquet, in fact. They’ll drink themselves falling-down drunk. Dead drunk, they’ll sleep-and sleep and sleep….and they’ll never wake up.”

(The Message – Jeremiah 50-51)

God’s Decree (Jer.51:36-39) I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them-princes, sages, governors, soldiers. Dead drunk, they’ll sleep-and sleep and sleep….And never wake up.

(The Message)

The King’s Decree. His name? God of the Angel Armies! God of the Angel Armies speaks: “The walls of Babylon-those massive walls! Will be flattened. And those city gates-huge gates! They will be set on fire. The harder you work at this empty life, the less you are. Nothing comes of ambition like this but ashes.

(The Message)

Jeremiah 51:57-58 “I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. [This is the king’s declaration; Yahweh of Hosts is His name. This is what Yahweh of Hosts says: Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished, and her high gates consumed by fire. The peoples will have labored for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves [only to feed] the fire.

II. The Writing on the Wall (5:5-9)

A. Notice the wall

B. Notice the weak-kneed King

C. Notice the Wisemen of the Day

D. Notice the Woman called the Queen Mother

MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN

M M T PE E E AN N K RE E E S

L IN

III. The Warning of Daniel (5:13-24)

A. Daniel’s Witness (vs. 13-17)

B. Daniel’s Warning

• Judgment came Suddenly

• Judgment came Significantly

IV. The Word of God Fulfilled (5:30-31)

A. The Will of God Always Prevails.

B. Don’t be Weighed and Found Wanting

C. Do Worship the Right God

“Among the saddest words of Scripture are those echoed three times in the first chapter of Romans: “God gave them up…”(Romans 1:24, 26, 28) The words remind us that sin is so awful that its worst punishment can simply be to let it run its course. God simply may let people have their way when they persist in sin”

--Brian Chapell