God Humbles the Proud Again

the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand

, so that it's visible. The lampstand there represents the light so that the king can see it. Now this is, they're all drinking, they're all partying, they're all having a great feast, and all of a sudden, a great hand appears and begins writing on the wall. And notice that the king saw it. As we've been going through Daniel, what appears, what they see, continue to stand out as kind of a motif of Daniel. And what's very clear is seeing does not lead to believing. What they see oftentimes will correct false beliefs and Nebuchadnezzar will kind of pull back some false beliefs, but, well, this seeing does not lead to believing. Here he sees the hand and at some level has a proper response. Verse six, his color changed. It seemed like, just white like a ghost, terrified. His thoughts alarmed him, his limbs gave way, his knees knocked, it's almost like the cartoons, right? They're knocking the knees, they're visibly shaken. In response, he does what Nebuchadnezzar did when he had a dream that frightened him. Let's call all the enchanters, magicians, let's call all the people who can know the magics and let's have them try to understand what this is and no one can do it. And so the end is verse nine, the king was greatly alarmed. color changed and the Lord's all the party is now perplexed well verse 10 introduces the Queen and 10 to 12 she she she seeks to help her husband you know there was this guy you're Your dad always brought in Nebuchadnezzar. He was full of wisdom. Look at the description of Daniel. He has the spirit of the gods, verse 11, light, understanding, wisdom like the gods. He has an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, solve problems. Remember back in chapter two, it was very clear when Nebuchadnezzar was so shaken by this dream, Daniel wanted to be very clear. I have no power of my own, but God has made mysteries known. Here, his reputation has gone before him and they believe he has this great power, and he does because God's given it to him. But as she sees her husband just completely perplexed as to what this writing on the wall could be, she suggests they bring Daniel in. Well, verse 13, Daniel comes in and, wait, he makes the same promise to Daniel that he made to the enchanters. If you can tell me what this says, I will exalt you. Remember the theme is God exalts the humble. Well, this king thinks he's the one who exalts. He promises Daniel, I'll make you third in the kingdom. I'll give you great clothes. I'll give you a great gold. I'll give you all these great things. He wants to bless Daniel. What we see here is God has brought a great disruption to the dishonor that is being brought to his name. He brings a great disruption to his holiness being defiled. He brings a great disruption to this kingdom with this finger writing something on the wall that, well, we'll find out more later. We should be thankful that God does disrupt our sin. Let's just be very clear, the most terrifying words in scripture is God giving us over to sin. That's Romans 1. When God gives us over to sin, we keep going after sin deeper and deeper, and it becomes more destructive, and we never learn. God disrupting our sin is a grace, is a mercy that we should want. Our second section, God corrects dishonor. The party stopped, Daniel's been brought in, he's been promised many things, but Daniel makes it very clear. Verse 17,

Daniel answered, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.

Daniel is confident in what God has given him as the ability to know these things. He also makes it clear, I don't need your gifts. I will make known what God has made known. Chapter four, when Daniel gives the king his final interpretation of what the picture of the tree being cut down means, remember, Daniel gives this pastoral kind of added, right, it's not part of the interpretation, break off sin. Daniel invites him to repentance beforehand. Well, this message toward Belshazzar has a whole different feel. Daniel knew King Nebuchadnezzar. They were in the court together. Daniel seemed to have even an affection, or at least an honor towards this king. Daniel seems to have a little bit of a different posture, well, a significant posture difference towards Belshazzar. Our author has a different posture towards Belshazzar. He front loads the Declaration before he interprets. The statement he makes, verse 18,

O king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty.

Now he's wanting to go back. This is why chapter five is built off chapter four. They have the same theme. God humbles those who exalt themselves. But Daniel wants to give Belshazzar a history lesson, which It's gotta be somewhat frustrating for Belshazzar. Just tell me what the words say, right? Just tell me what's on the wall. Why are you giving me this lecture? Well, Daniel has a message for the king that is tied to the words. He has to give the background as to what these words mean and why they were given. Notice what we read earlier in Daniel 1 verse 2, same exact declaration. God Most High gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, kingship, greatness, and glory, and majesty. The one who exalts is the God Most High. He is the one who's able to give. And then notice verse 19, because of his greatness, he gave him all peoples, nations, languages. They tremble for him. The authority King Nebuchadnezzar had. He gave life to everyone. He let people live wherever he wanted. He killed whomever he wanted. Verse 20 is where the message really picks up, but that 18 and 19 is important, that God Most High rules over all the kingdoms of men. No one has any authority or rule unless God gives it to him, and God had given that authority to Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 20 is where he starts recounting what we read about last week in chapter four. But when his heart was lifted up, Remember, repentance is when his head was lifted up, he looked up to God. No, his heart is lifted. His heart is boasting. And his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly. I believe that's referring to he dealt proudly with the people that God had put under his rule. Then King Nebuchadnezzar, he was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. Here, verse 20, God humbles the proud and exalts the lowly. It's a full shorthand summary of what happened in chapter four. But remember, Nebuchadnezzar's testimony was that God had taken away his reason. Here, Daniel is saying God had taken away his glory. We can't reduce the image of God, what God has given to us as his image bearers, to simply reason. But we also see that God has made us glorious. Because, well, his images of God were supposed to be able to reflect his glory. There is a glory God has given man inherently that we reject when we decide to worship anything and everything but God. But here, the glory of being the king, the glory of being great, that was taken away from him, along with his reason. And so, verse 21, he was driven out like a beast. He ate like an animal. The dude was on his back because he lived like a wild animal out without shelter. Now, the significance is if we go back to chapter 4, verse 30, we can just turn over there. You went one page over in my copy of scripture. Remember, the king, he walks out and maybe he sees the hanging gardens. And he says,

is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence for the glory of my majesty.

" That's the boasting, look what I did for my glory. That's the event that then led to all of, that's the pride that led to this great humbling. Until he knew God most high rules. Now, if we go back to chapter four again, it opens That's King Nebuchadnezzar telling his own testimony. King Nebuchadnezzar, if we go to chapter four, verse one, he wanted all the nations, all the peoples, all the languages, everybody needed to hear about what God most high had done for him and praise that God for acting so justly towards him and making him live like an animal. Now, I'm certain Belshazzar knew that testimony. That is why Daniel is telling Belshazzar and reminding him of all that God had done for King Nebuchadnezzar, making him great, humbling him so that he would be truly great, so that he would remember the lesson that God most high rules. Notice it's repeated there in verse 21.

He was fed like grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven until he knew that the God, most high God, rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he wills.

He's been teaching this history lesson because it's a lesson that Belshazzar has not learned from. He knows of it, but he's not learned from it. Because verse 22, there's a turn. He goes from the history of what God had done with Nebuchadnezzar to, now you, verse 22,

and you, his son, Belshazzar, you've not humbled your heart, though you knew all this.

So we go back to how do we learn wisdom? If you refuse to learn from the lessons God has given you, if you refuse to learn from those who God has put in your life, here, a grandson or a king who's following in the footsteps of Nebuchadnezzar, he should be looking back and hearing, what is the great testimony of the one true God and what has he taught me? Well, this is a judgment. Verse 22, you've not humbled your heart even though you knew what God had taught King Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 23, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. Not only have you refused to humble your heart, but you've dishonored God. And here is referring to, I think, taking the vessels of gold and silver, the things that are meant for God's honor alone and using them for dishonorable purposes. You've lifted up yourself from heaven. You've not honored God. Let's just read 22 to 23 in its entirety here.

And you, a son of Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart.

There is a posture that you have had that's wrong towards God, even though you knew everything God had done.

But you've lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven and the vessels of his house and have been brought in before you. And you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. We should not see or hear, no. But the God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways, you've not honored.

The first accusation and the last one, very important. No humility, no honor. Those two go together. Two sides of the same coin. Without humility, there is no honor. We see their actual accusations of what it looks like, but humility leads to honoring God. A humility that is, well, we described last week as sanity, just a right recognition of God and who we are. It leads to honoring God. There's something interesting here in that you've lifted up your heart against the Lord of heaven. Well, he gives all these explanations of you, you only took the things of God, but then you praise their gods. The way he describes the gods is so interesting. You praise the gods of silver, gold, or bronze, iron, and wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or know. All right, let's just think about this. This is very kind of Isaiah 42. You're worshiping gods that have less ability than you do. All right, you see here and know, but you're worshiping gods that don't see here. Let's just throw out a basic principle of worship. You should not worship something dumber than you. Now, oh, we're laughing. We all worship stuff dumber than us. We all worship things dumber than us. And we make God in our own image, we cannot worship a God who's smarter than us. That is the dangers of false worship. We're constantly wanting something we can manipulate. That's why we think we like things that are dumber than us. We can manipulate it. We can control it. We have some kind of feeling of a sovereignty over it. True worship is supposed to be fully dependent, fully underneath. The danger is you're worshiping a God that's no smarter than you. It's impossible if we're making that God in our own image. Now, this is a stern, hard, straightforward rebuke. You're worshiping gods that cannot hear, know, speak. What good is this? Then the contrast. But the God in whose hand is your breath, in whose are all your ways, You have not honor. You praise these dumb gods, but the true God who is giving you right now the breath for you to live, you dishonor. The God in whom we live and move and have our being, the God whom we fully depend upon. If you want a memory verse from this text, the God in whose hand is your breath. The God in whom we do not have any life unless He sustains and gives and sustains it. What a fantastic challenge to just consider how much we depend upon our Creator. And that's important for us because we really think we're independent. Every breath is from the hand of God. Every way is ruled by Him. We have a class on money going on right now during Sunday school, and as I was meeting with the teachers, obviously just the theme kept coming up, stewardship, stewardship. We think of stewardship as the things we have, but you have breath. Your life is meant to be stewarded under the God who created you, meant to be stewarded under the God who's redeemed you. He's not distant. You're dependent upon his very hand right now. The very hand that's written the judgment against King Belshazzar is the very hand that's giving him breath. And he's dishonoring him. This is the God whom we should completely depend upon. And we dishonor him. We want to pause here before we keep going with the text, and I really want to think through humility and honor because these two things are so necessary and important for the Christian life. Humility and honor, again, the two sides of the same coin. True humility honors God by worshiping him as he deserves, True humility is sanity, seeking to know who we are as His image bearers, seeking to know what He designed us to be, what He designed us for, how we are to live, how we can rejoice greatly in Him. True humility builds a great confidence. And I want to say that again, because we too often think of humility as just another form of pride that is self-pity. Humility is not beating yourself up in ways that is just unbecoming of you, that denies the true greatness of what God has given to you. We too often think of humility as somebody who walks around saying, I'm a failure, I'm worthless, or a yes man who disagrees. Humility gives us a great confidence before God because we know Him. Humility is fully dependent upon God and therefore grows confident in God. Humility is simply receiving what God has said is true. God has given man an incredible greatness. And we forsake that greatness for every other kind of greatness that we think is better. We can look around and we can see, wow, it's amazing how God created us and what man can do with our abilities. And then we can look around and say, it's amazing what we can do with our sin in destroying the things we create. We are a glorious ruin. Humility sees that it is God who has given us breath It is God who gives us dignity. It is God who gives us any kind of real greatness. And if you think about that humility and honor, you might be thinking, I would never take the golden cup of the Lord from the temple and use it in such a way. But we no longer have those golden cups because we ourselves are that temple. You are the temple of God if the Holy Spirit indwells you. We are the temple of God being built up on the living stone, Jesus Christ to be the temple of God. As we think about how ridiculous it is that he would take the golden cup in such a way and use it in such a defiling manner. What are we guilty of this week of how we've used the temple that God has made us in not honoring him the way he deserves or giving him thanks the way he deserves. Humility of the heart is practiced by honoring. There's an activity of how we honor and our words are a significant test of how we, how humble we are. Do we honor with our words or do we tear down? Do we seek to build up or do we seek to destroy? Here we've seen the theological lesson The history lesson and the theology lesson, the personal rebuke before getting to the interpretation. God dealt greatly with your father. He brought down the proud so that he would be a good king. You have not learned this. You have not humbled your heart. You have not honored the one true God. Now, our last point, God judges dishonor. It's important we see this connection that he is dishonored, the God in whose hand is your breath, and then verse 24, then from his presence. That is the hand that has terrified you with what it has written, even though you don't know what it is. That hand came from the true God's presence, whom you depend upon for breath and who determines all your ways. That that hand was sent by him and the writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed.

Mene, mene, tekel, parsim. And this is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

That was repeated, I believe, because that's the grand theological declaration that really just goes along with the lesson, know that God most high rules the kingdom of man. God has counted. That's what Menem means. God has numbered. God has decided how many days you will have because that's what God has the authority to do.

Tekel, you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. And Perez, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians

, in the context, are right outside. Now this is the interpretation. Daniel has led up to this with a grand history lesson, a grand theological lesson. God has numbered your days. Know that you are under the sovereign God, just like King Nebuchadnezzar taught you, but you've refused to listen. Tekel's the one. You've been weighed. You've been put under the measure of God. You have been put under His ways. And as He invites us to think of ourselves in light of what He says, well, now He's saying God is measuring you based upon what He has said. And you've been found wanting. You've not lived up to everything God has given you, not only as an image-bearer, but as a king. There's a judgment here. to how you've lived your life, how you've oppressed the poor, how you've refused God, honor, you have not measured up to what God has declared. Regarding sin, this is a declaration of a sin. It is important, we see God does bring judgment on evil kingdoms. We saw this with Nebuchadnezzar earlier, we'll see it throughout scripture. We too often have a limited view of sin. Here, he's telling the king he's deficient, right? He has deficient funds. It's as if you were to go buy a car, and they look at your account, and you say, you don't have the funds. You found wanting. There's not enough. There's a deficiency. We too often think of sin as simply activity of rebellion. And so we could say, well, I've never dishonored God. I've never cursed God. I've never taken the golden vessels and done something, you know, gross with them. Those are sins of omission, but there's also the significant sin of, I'm sorry, the sin of commission. There's also the sin of omission. We haven't done what we ought. This passage really parallels Romans 1. The judgment of Romans 1 is that they did not honor God or give thanks. The judgment for all mankind is for not worshiping God as he ought. The judgment of God is that we will be found wanting when measured because we did not give him thanks for all the breath he gave us from his hand. We didn't honor him with all the ways he has given us the good things of this life and life itself. All humanity is guilty of this most basic sin. The only salvation is that God himself And Romans 1 also has brought about the power of the gospel that can save us from our sin against God. God's own son, Jesus Christ, came to pay the penalty for our not giving thanks and not honoring God. By laying down his life, by dying in our place, so that the measure of God's judgment is exercised towards him that we deserve. So that God is righteous. The only hope we have for the way we have dishonored God is that Jesus would pay our penalty. This is an incredible interpretation. If we just go back, remember the color change, knees knocking. You would think that a guy who's that scared would become more scared. What's terrifying in this passage is he just goes about business afterwards. Remember the judgment earlier, King Nebuchadnezzar, he testified and you knew it and you still hardened your heart. The testimony he now has received from the very hand of God, there's no declaration of any repentance. At least Nebuchadnezzar rightly would stop and say, wow, this is truly the God of gods in some way. He just says, all right, let me get my purse out and let me give Daniel his nice purple cloth and some gold and you'll be great. That's what's terrifying about this passage. He didn't learn, he didn't learn, he didn't learn. The last night of his life, he doesn't learn. There's a hardness of heart. There's a lack of humility. There's a continual dishonoring. The fear God blessed him with in the first part of the book, in verse 5, as the hand comes, that's somehow dissolved, which doesn't make any sense. Last week was an exhortation. Trust the God who can humble the proud. This week is a warning. Don't be like this king who refuses to listen or learn. As we looked at last week, there's a way in which Daniel gave the exhortation to Nebuchadnezzar. There's a judgment of God and you can break off sin. And if you repent, God will relent. That's a true statement that is true of God's character throughout scripture. But God is also just. He will and must punish every sin. Nebuchadnezzar is brought to a repentance. Belshazzar goes about business as usual. Let me think about this. How eager are we seeking to learn from God His wisdom from above? As we discuss God's Word with each other? As we seek to fear Him, that's the beginning of wisdom? As we seek to be the tree planted close by the very Word of God so that we're growing strong in confidence in knowing Him and His goodness and His mercy and His grace? That's the remedy for the hard heart that would continue to refuse God over and over and over again. If you're a youth, a young adult, a child, the book of Daniel is oftentimes used to challenge you to think about, will you be ready to stand like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or Daniel next week? And I hope it does that. I hope it prepares us all to think about what it means to be elect exiles. We might have to stand in persecution. But children, please learn from our testimonies to believe in Jesus Christ now and trust Him now. Well, one of my favorite things on Wednesday nights, we share testimonies and sometimes we'll get like six in a row and it is just, it just blows my mind. because it'll be the same gospel that changes six different lives that are completely different. There's this one time, it still stands out, I think it was yesterday, there was about eight of them in a row, but there was two back to back that God just sovereignly put together. One was,

I was raised in a Christian home, I do not remember a time where I did not know Christ, or know of Christ, trust Christ, or believe I was a Christian.

Praise God. The next testimony.

While I was tripping LSD, I saw Jesus. So I decided to take up the pursuit of knowing who God is through his word.

Praise God, he saves all different sinners in all different ways. But the folks who have that former testimony, well, let me be very clear. We all want our children to have that former testimony. What bothers me about the folks with that former testimony is they look at us with that latter testimony. And they think, wow, I wish I had something more to say. No, we wish we didn't have the baggage. Children, please do not delay. If you hear his voice, believe in him. Believe in him. Do not presume upon the grace of God or presume there's another day. Do not presume there's a time waiting for you to believe later. Practice now how to hear wisdom from your parents, from your church, from God's word, from Christ. Verse 30 and 31.

That very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed.

This was a judgment. There's no question about what's happening here. There's no declaration of God. There's no declaration of repentance. There's a judgment. God has, he did hear the full testimony of what he could have known and what he could have believed. And he could have even responded there with Perez. But he died. And it's pretty amazing what's happening in this passage because one of the great civilizations and kingdoms is ending. And the second stage of the dream we saw in chapter 2 is beginning, and Darius and Mede receive the kingdom, being about 62 years old. Again, there's no promise of tomorrow. The key here is if you hear the voice of God, if you hear the invitation, I do have these sin problems. I do have these desires that don't make any sense. I do have these desires I cannot tame. I do have this sin problem, this guilt that I cannot quench. You cannot fix it yourself. You need help from outside. Jesus Christ, who died and rose, He alone can and will help you if you ask Him. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone in our misery of a world where we do not give you thanks or honor, but only just make gods that are as foolish as we are and seek to order our lives around them. We thank you that you have revealed your glory. We thank you that you've revealed yourself in your grace to invite us up to know you. And so we can know who we are so we can know your son and the salvation you've given us. Lord, if there's anyone here who does not know you and is burdened with sin, Lord, I pray they would not leave without talking to someone. To find the power of your salvation by believing in you, Father, and your Son, Jesus Christ, and the gospel you've given us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.