The Most High God Reigns

Certainly, it's a joy to sing praises to our King with you this morning. It's a privilege to bring God's Word with you. So if you could open up to, in your copies of God's Word, to Daniel chapter 5, as we'll spend a few minutes looking at that passage together this morning. I think it's 742 of the Pew Bibles, if you're using that. Before we look into that, would you bow and pray with me just one more time as we dive into God's Word? Almighty God, we praise you that we do have a Savior. We praise you that we can sing a song like we just sang. The reality that we can look back to the work that Christ has done on the cross for us, and that we can look forward to the day when he will come again, and gather his people, and bring them into eternity with him forever. And it's in his Son's name that we ask you now that you would help us to better know you through your Word this morning. Set our eyes on Jesus as we long for the day when he will return. We pray these things in your Son's name. Amen. he should have known or he should have seen the writing on the wall. I wonder what kind of situation pops into your head when you hear that phrase. Usually, it's a response to someone who something bad has just happened to them and they should have seen it all along. They just missed the signs of what was about to happen. So if I said, I should have seen the writing on the wall when I bought that house. You all would understand that what I meant was I now regret my decision. Something has gone wrong with the house and I should have seen it all the way. Well, this phrase has become a kind of a normal means to communication in our culture. And in fact, I don't know if you know, what do Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, James Bond, and Destiny's Child all have in common? They all have used this phrase in their various forms of media. They've all used this phrase, the writing is on the wall, or we should have seen the writing on the wall. And really, they're not alone. I mean, we can look at loads of pop culture icons, the politicians, poets, authors, singers, they've all taken this phrase and they've helped to make it just kind of a common English idiom. Now, although this phrase is common now, its origins are found in the fascinating story of Daniel chapter five that we're gonna look at this morning. In Daniel 5, we see a story of a proud king. who's warned, and he ignores this sign that is given and ultimately comes to a tragic end. It's a story that would make a wonderful movie as it goes throughout this process. Listen, just real quick, I'm not gonna read the whole thing yet, but just as we kind of set our feet in Daniel 5, we kind of parachute into the middle of the book of Daniel. I'm just gonna read verses 1 and 2, just to kind of get our bearings on this story real fast. Daniel chapter 5, 1 and 2. King Belshazzar made a great feast for thousands of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, be brought, and the king, his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Now, up until this point in Daniel, in the narrative of Daniel, up until the point of chapter 5, the story of Daniel really just focuses on one king. And it's not Belshazzar. It's Nebuchadnezzar. So here, even as we read, if you just kind of read Daniel from chapter 1 all the way to chapter 5, verse 1, the first two words, King Belshazzar, would come as a surprise. There's no transition or kind of no phrasing from chapter 4 into chapter 5. We're just kind of abruptly introduced to this new king. Now, if you remember quickly, at this point in human history, the nation of Israel, that's God's chosen people, had been conquered and they'd been taken captive by that king, Nebuchadnezzar, in the great nation of Babylon. And verse 2 tells us that this Nebuchadnezzar is the father of this new king, Belshazzar. So, on the surface, we're gonna just, okay, well, we can deduce from that that this just seems like it's kingly succession. One king had died, the father dies, and so the son takes over. Well, the problem is, verses 1 and 2 have actually caused a great deal of controversy. Well, for one, we know that Belshazzar was not the immediate successor of Nebuchadnezzar. Okay, so what do we do with that? Beyond that, we know that Belshazzar wasn't actually the biological son of, Belshazzar was not the biological son of Nebuchadnezzar. So the problem is, okay, what do we do with the story? It jumps all the way into this king and we were kind of given this, what are we gonna do with this king? Well, for those of us that come from a Western or an English-speaking context, when we use the word son to refer to anybody other than the people that I'm actually the father of, so I am the father of two sons, if I use that word for anybody else, it just seems wrong. Well, that word, using the word son, would not have been that case for the original readers. And it's not true for many cultures even today. Where Lisa and I and our kids live, it's very common for our friends to refer to their cousins as actually their brothers and sisters. They use the same word for their biological brother as they do for their cousin. It was extremely confusing when we first moved there and people would talk about, you know, my five brothers or my six sisters in a country that has a very strict one-child policy. Later, I realized that, well, no, actually those words that we use for family can be totally elastic. They can be used in different contexts, and I think the same is absolutely true here. Belshazzar is in the line of Nebuchadnezzar, and thus it's perfectly appropriate to use the word son. But, okay, well, let's pause real quick. So if he's, that makes sense, but he's in the middle. Well, who's in the middle between Nebuchadnezzar and then Belshazzar? Well, the immediate successor of Nebuchadnezzar we know from history is a guy by the name of Nabonidus. Nabonidus, we know also that he spent most of his time actually outside of Babylon on foreign expeditions and outside expanding the kingdom. Well, Belshazzar, his son, remained inside Babylon. And he was set up as the role of kind of a regent. He was keeping the fort while the king, his dad, was gone. So if we look closely at verses 1 and 2 of this, as we kind of set our feet in this passage, we see that actually there's no problem at all. It's just we need to look very closely and ask good questions. And really, verses 1 and 2 should kind of perk our interest. We say, why did Daniel seem, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, why did Daniel seem wise to jump from Nebuchadnezzar all the way to Belshazzar? What's going to happen to this regent king? This guy that all of a sudden finds himself at the top of a powerful, powerful kingdom in human history. Well, I think what God, and certainly Daniel, is trying to teach us from this passage is this. So, if you're taking notes this morning, you're going to want to write down this one sentence that I think is the main idea of Daniel chapter 5, and we'll see that as we walk through it. I think the main idea that God is teaching us from this passage is this. While man is fragile and foolish, the Most High God reigns forever. While man is fragile and foolish, the Most High God reigns forever. All right, we're gonna walk through just a three-point outline that's gonna follow right along with that sentence. So point number one, the fragility or the fragileness of man. Listen as I read verses 1 to 12 of our chapter 5 in Daniel. Verses 1 to 12. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. And they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem. And the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall in the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. And the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. The king called aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers. the king declared to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third and a ruler in the kingdom. And all the king's wise men came out and they could not read their writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed and his color changed and his lords were perplexed. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall. And the queen declared, O king, live forever. Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. All right, so point number one, the fragility or the fragileness of man. This story is set in verses one to four with this new king, this regent king, Belshazzar, throwing just a massive party. He's, now this is not just kind of a nice celebration among friends where he kind of gathers together. No, this is a pagan king doing exactly what he wants and doing exactly how he wants to do it. He gathers thousands. Verse three, it says that he uses the golden vessels that were stolen from the temple in Jerusalem back when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel, and he uses these things that were intended for the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He uses them, and they're now used to be in praise of who? Verse four says that the gods of gold. Silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. So here, what we see in verses 1 to 4, we see a pagan king throwing a party to just showcase his authority. I'm in charge, guys, and I can do whatever I want and exactly how I want to do it. And he wants to display that my gods are actually ruling. We do all of this, you thousand people gather in praise of my gods. He's on top of the world, and he wants everybody to take notice of him. But the story changes, verse 5. What happens? Immediately, all of a sudden, the party is interrupted, and the king's confidence is absolutely shattered. Verse 5, a mysterious hand writes a message on the wall, and notice real quick, just look closely, notice the details that we see of this really strange event. One, we don't really know what's written. We just have the details of the, we see a hand and we see it writing on the wall. But we also know the exact location of the wall. We see that it's in the king's palace, it's opposite the lamp stand. Verse six, he brings in all of these magicians, enchanters, astrologers to try to read it, and presumably they could see it. They kind of came in, they saw a wall, and they saw writing on the wall, and they could see it, but they had no power or no ability to read it. So from all this, we see that this wasn't just a vision. This wasn't just a strange dream that Belshazzar had. Now, verse 6, we see that Belshazzar is absolutely petrified. The king that was just a minute ago, kind of on top of the world, is now, Daniel goes to great lengths to describe his physical terrifiedness. Verse 7, we see that nobody can offer help, even though he offers a great prize. Notice how quickly he says, third in the kingdom. Well, that just reminds us that number one was his dad, Nabonidus, number two, Belshazzar, and so he's offering, hey, somebody can be number three, if they can just help me. Well, despite the reward, absolutely nobody can help. So what happens? Well, Belshazzar, his anxiety, his terrifiedness is just increased. A king who just a moment ago was absolutely untouchable, was at the top of the world, is now in complete desperation. An unshakable king is now shown to be completely fragile, completely broken. Note just one small event. It wasn't a long, there wasn't an army that came. There wasn't a massive kind of build up to this. No, all it took was one small event to expose the fickleness, the fragility of this supposedly extremely powerful king. But, well, the story doesn't end yet. Verse 10, what happens? Well, hope comes from an unexpected place. The queen, presumably Belshazzar's mom, reminds him of the past. As moms do, they remind their sons that they're not the greatest, but that they should seek help. His mom comes in and she reminds him that, hey, remember that Jewish exile. Remember that guy Daniel, who was such a help to Nebuchadnezzar. And she confidently says, he will show the interpretation. Now, if we just pause real quick right here, just notice how quickly this story has changed. It begins with this overconfident, proud, arrogant, on top of the world king, doing exactly what he wants and doing it exactly the way that he wants to do it. And now, all it takes is this slight handwriting on the wall, something that he doesn't even know what it says, to bring this king to his knees. Now he's brought to, the only hope he has is in this Jewish exile that he's apparently completely forgotten about. In one small moment, Belshazzar goes from the height of a king to the lowly hope of a captive. I think that this is a story, as we dive into this, is one that we can all relate to. The reality is that we're all like Belshazzar. We like to act as though we're in control of everything. We're not going to throw a party with thousands and things like that, but we can totally understand the core problem that Belshazzar had. He thought he was in control of everything in his life. He liked running things the way that he wanted to and doing things in the way that he wanted to do them. Now, most of us haven't been interrupted literally by a handwriting on the wall. If you have, I'd love to hear about it. But we've all experienced something that reminds us of our own fragileness. We've all been knocked down from our pedestals that we try to build up. When our confidence is in ourselves and our ability to control the things around us, all it takes is one small thing. All it takes is one mistake at work that causes us to disappoint our coworkers or our boss, and we're absolutely crushed. All it takes is just one hurtful word from a good friend that just destroys our spirit. Or as parents, all it takes is that seeing our kids continue in a pattern of disobedience that we thought we had done and we're just left to be broken. We can all agree that if our confidence is placed in ourselves, our own ability, or even people, it doesn't take much to expose that we are a fragile people and that our confidence has been misplaced. This past week, Lisa and I, we were at a U.S. immigration office in Louisville, Kentucky, getting the last paper to prove our adopted son Joseph's citizenship. Now, while we were waiting there, it was incredible to see, I mean, just person after person come in from various countries, all seeking citizenship in this land. But, you know, what was even more fascinating was to notice that no one comes into a U.S. immigration office acting like they own the place. Nobody comes into a place like that saying, I've got this under control. Just everybody line up and meet my needs. No, anybody that comes into that office is completely at the mercy of an institution. They know that they have no power in themselves even if they bring all the right greatest credentials ever. They don't enter before an immigration officer and say, hey, here's what I need, meet my needs. Now, they recognize that their status is fragile. With one piece of paper, with one sign of a name, their entire world can change. Well, this is exactly what Belshazzar simply didn't realize. He was living, though, as though he had everything at his fingertips, and that that reality wasn't going to change. And sadly, if we're honest, we can all see ourselves in Belshazzar. You know, we love reading the book of Daniel and associating ourselves with Daniel. I'd be like that. I'd be the brave guy that, you know, defies the lions. I'd be the guy that, or, you know, his three friends that survive in the fiery furnace. Well, no, I think as we read the book of Daniel, we should often actually more associate ourselves with the villain of the story. We like to trust in the God of self, just like Belshazzar did. And we are crushed when that God is challenged, just like he was. You know, this first section of our story, it doesn't give us a lot of answers. It doesn't give us a lot of hope for the future, but what it does do is it exposes a deep problem inside of each and every one of us. Same as in Belshazzar. The reality that we all want to rule our lives on our own, apart from the God that made us. Now, that's a problem because we are by nature under the authority of the God that made us. We want to flip that upside down and say, well no, actually I get to run my life the way I want to. This is a problem of sinful, sinful self-deception. Ultimately, we all have to recognize that by ourselves we are fragile and finite. When we're confronted with that reality, when that one event reminds us of our fragility, how we respond tells us a great deal about ourselves. How we respond to our humbling tells us a ton about who we are as a person. In our next section, we see that Belshazzar responds in the exact wrong way. He persists in his pride and ultimately exposes the foolishness of what he's believing. Listen as I read our second section of this passage, verses 13 to 23. 13 to 23 of chapter 5. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, you are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom my father, the king, my father, brought from Judah. I've heard that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I've heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me the interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, 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. O king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship. greatness and glory and majesty and because of the greatness that he gave him all peoples, nations, languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would he killed and whom he would he kept alive. Whom he would he raised up and whom he would he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind and his mind was made like that of the beast and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox and his body was met with the dew of heaven until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And this And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this. But you've lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you. And you, your lords, 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, which do not see, or hear, or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath. and whose are all your ways you have not honored. Our second point this morning, the second truth that we see here is the foolishness of man. The foolishness of man. So the story goes, verse 13, Belshazzar takes his mom's advice, always a wise thing to do for sons, and he calls in Daniel. But what we see is interesting is that Belshazzar, he doesn't beg for help. The king that just a minute ago was trembling, white with fear, his knees knocking together, somehow composes himself. He kind of puts on a proud face and stands up, and then he begins to size up Daniel. Verse 18, he says, oh, you're that Daniel. Hey, don't forget, you're before me, the king, but don't forget, you're in exile. Don't forget, my father, remember, he captured you. Verse 14 and 16, he says, I've heard. I've heard about you. I don't believe yet, but I've heard about you. He never, in this passage, he never asks for help. He proudly just kind of sizes up Daniel and says, kind of doubtfully, you know, if you can read the writing, I'll reward you with what I have. Belshazzar is completely unwilling to show himself as vulnerable. He's unwilling to show that he's in need of help from someone. So he musters up all the arrogance and pride that he still has left, and he, that he can, and addresses Daniel. Not as a king who needs help, but he pretends as though he still has got everything in control. He tries to go back to verse 1. You know, Belshazzar is really putting on an incredible show of self-deception. And it's a show that ultimately proves to be incredibly foolish. Daniel sees right through it. He doesn't believe it for a minute, and he sees right through the act. He's completely unimpressed. And he responds to this self-deceived king by beginning to expose his foolishness one by one. Notice, just look at verse 17 to 23. So Daniel, this passage is just Daniel shellacking Belshazzar. Because one after another of exposing his wrong. He begins by rejecting the offer for rewards. He says, no, no, no. I don't want it. Give it to somebody else. And then he confirms that he's going to answer the king's need. He's going to be able to read it and respond and interpret it. But he says, before I do that, I've got something to say. Belshazzar, I'm going to help you out. But before I do, you need to listen to me. Verse 18 to 21, Daniel just begins to tell him his own family history. He retells the story of Nebuchadnezzar, his grandfather, but he does so highlighting the work of God over and above the work of men. He gives Belshazzar a theological retelling of his own family history. He says, verse 18, gave Nebuchadnezzar his kingdom and his power. That is, the kingdom that Nebuchadnezzar has and now that Belshazzar has is ultimately not his. It can be given by a higher authority and it can be taken away by a higher authority. And notice the use of the phrase a couple of times in this passage, Most High God. This is a title for God that's strung throughout the book of Daniel. points to the fact that there is none greater than the God of heaven. There's no greater power, there's no greater authority, there's no greater king than Yahweh, my God. But Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebuchadnezzar, he certainly failed to realize that point, just as his grandson Belshazzar did. So verse 20 to 21 is a quick summary of Daniel chapter 4, where God humbles the most powerful king in the world. But notice that that humbling had an end. It had a purpose. It wasn't just to show that God is more powerful. No, the humbling was to the ends that he would know that the Most High God rules. Now, if you want just a quick summary of the entire book of Daniel, the last part of verse 21 is wonderful. It's perfect. He says, the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. If you're somebody that writes in your Bible, you can just kind of bracket that off, and that is the summary, certainly up to this point, of the book of Daniel. And this is a truth that Belshazzar was completely unwilling to accept. Daniel warns him of the foolishness of that decision. I'm going to tell you all this, but you're going to continue to reject it. Let me tell you how foolish that is. Look at verse 22 to 23. Notice just real quick, 15 times Daniel uses the personal pronoun you, or your. 15 times he says, you know, Belshazzar, you knew all of this, and none of this was hidden from you. You chose to harden your heart and persist in your pride. So much so that you worship the gods that you know can't see, You worship the gods that you know have no knowledge. They can't hear anything because they're made by human hands. Belshazzar, Daniel says, in your pride you've proven to become a complete fool. You know, Belshazzar is really the kind of the perfect example of Romans 121. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. Well friends, pride is foolishness. We saw that in the beginning. If our confidence is in anything other than the Lord who reigns supreme, that confidence, that pride, is complete foolishness. because it seeks a false reality. It seeks to ignore the reality of who is actually in charge and put place in its place, a false reality. Saying that, no, actually I'm in charge or I can create reality for myself. This summer, I had the opportunity to visit the border of North Korea. As we approach the border, just me and the friends that I was with, we just made a couple of observations. One, we noticed the lots of military personnel around with big guns. We also noticed that there is a lot of barbed wire right on the border. We also noticed as we looked over into the shore into North Korea, we saw little huts with guards all over the place. Now, as we walked up to the border, we had a choice to make. We had a choice. We could either recognize the authority and the reality around us and, you know, act accordingly, or we could act proudly and just kind of do as we please. I'm here to visit here. I want to do what I want to do. Now, thankfully that moment, God gave me grace and I chose wisdom as I wanted to, you know, see my wife and kids that night. But so often, we walk up to borders like that in our life and we completely ignore reality. We choose pride over wisdom and humility. Well, Daniel wants to tell Belshazzar and tell us the same thing, that that is just as foolish as me diving into the river on the border of North Korea and just going for a swim because I wanted to. Proverbs 18.12 tells us that before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. So here we see an arrogant king at the beginning, and we see that arrogance just continue to persist no matter who comes out, comes to warn him. We see a hand writing on the wall, and we see a friend in Daniel come to warn him, and he just persists in that humility. So, what do we learn from this? How do we avoid persisting in pride that only leads to destruction? How do we see the reality that is around us and act accordingly? Well, the Bible makes very clear that we avoid pride by cultivating humility. Somebody prayed that even this morning. Let me just real quick pause here and give a couple of quick applications on how we can cultivate humility so that we can learn from the foolishness of pride in this story. One, simply ask God to grow your view of who He is. Ask God to grow your view of Him. CJ Mahaney helpfully says, So true humility doesn't just come from, you know, as the world might think, I just think less of myself. I think less of myself and who I am. Well, no. Biblical humility is actually elevating our view of who our God is, so that we can see ourselves rightly. So this week, as you spend time just reading your Bible, Do one thing. Just pray and ask God to show you who He is in His Word. If you're like me, you can often just, in the morning, open up your Bible and just kind of stumble into the Bible. A much wiser thing to do would be to pause and ask God, God, you've given us your Word to reveal to us who you are. God, would you this morning, as I read, no matter, you know, anywhere I am in the Bible, teach me more of who you are. Teach me about your character. Well, friends, if you pray this prayer to God, I can say with absolute confidence, this is a prayer that God loves to answer. He loves to show Himself to His people, especially as we come to Him to know Him through His Word. Second, how do we cultivate humility? The second is, use the Church. Use people around you to cultivate humility. The reality is that God doesn't need to send us a hand writing on the wall to humble us. He certainly could, but one of our jobs as a church is to simply be a church. He doesn't have to send a hand to the wall because he's given us a church. Our job as a church is not always to just kind of point fingers at one another and say, oh, look at that, look at that, look at that. Let me, let me show you where your sin is. But no, our role as a church is to speak the truth in love to one another. to help each other point out areas of potential sin in our lives. And naturally, we're all self-deceived. We need help to see our blind spots or those areas in our life that we would fall into sin. One way that we genuinely exercise our love and care for each other is to warn each other of areas of pride in our life. So I simply ask you this morning, do you have relationships like that in your life? Do you have relationships where you've given people the opportunity to speak into your life and to point out sin? I'd encourage you that this week pray and ask God to give you the courage to invite another brother or sister into your life to be able to have that kind of relationship. Don't let pride stand in your way of you seeking someone's help to see pride in your life. When we cultivate a posture of humility, we're in a better position to recognize that it's not us, but God who reigns forever. That's our third and final point this morning. Listen as I read our last section, verses 24 all the way down to 31. 24 to 31. Then, this is Daniel continuing to talk, then from his presence, the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed, Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Pyresin. This is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Pyres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Then, Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. That very night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. The last point this morning is the forever reign of God. Finally, we're given revelation into this mystery. We see in verse 5, and we have to wait all the way until verse 24 to get what is going on here. But Daniel, he has no trouble reading this. He waltzes in and he reads it clearly and gives an interpretation of it. And the interpretation is a solemn reminder of who is actually an authority. We see here that it's the reminder of the authority of the Most High God. He says, Belshazzar, remember first that God has authority over the events of the world, the mene. He knows and He numbers the days of His creation. He's created it, and He's created everything in it. He's in authority over it. Second, Belshazzar, remember that God has the authority to judge. Tekel. Because he is holy. He can weigh and he can measure things against himself, and he can rightly judge those who don't meet his good standard. Third, Belshazzar, remember God has the authority to act. The perison or peris, it's the same Aramaic word, but the events of the world, are not distant from the creator of the world. God doesn't just create the world and then just kind of let it spin off in its own existence. No, he's active at work. And the Babylonian Empire came to an end. It came to an end not because there was a more powerful army that came, but ultimately because God was working to bring that kingdom to an end. God wrote on the wall, not simply to display that he can do miraculous things in the world, but he wrote on the wall as a warning, boldly declaring that he is actually the supreme authority over all things. And sadly, we see in this passage that Belshazzar completely missed it. He completely missed this warning in the writing on the wall. Verse 29, we see Belshazzar, he's true to his word. I guess we can give him that. He's true to his word and he rewards Daniel with what he's promised, but there's no humility. There's no brokenness, there's no repentance, there's no despair at the interpretation he gives. But what ultimately is, and then he, Belshazzar gives to Daniel what ultimately is not his. There's no recognition of the truth that has just been revealed to him. He acts as though he's kind of still in charge of this place. But that act didn't last long. God's warning came true that very night, with the death of Belshazzar and the end of the Babylonian kingdom. God acted swiftly to bring about judgment on Belshazzar, and really, God had been working all along in human history to raise up Darius, or Cyrus the Great, the same person, who ruled immediately following the Babylonian Empire. We see one king rise and we see another fall, but what we see consistent through this entire passage is that there's one king that remains the same. There's one king whose kingdom doesn't change and who remains forever on his throne, and it's the kingdom of God. Friends, verse 21 that we read a minute ago, the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will, that really was true in Daniel's day. And it's completely true in our day as well. Our God really does reign forever, and he reigns forever over everything. And we can praise him because he's not content. As he reigns, he's not content to simply just raise up and tear down earthly kingdoms. The God of heaven, his ultimate purpose is not simply to set up a perfect political system here on earth. We can certainly be thankful when he rises up good leaders and we can enjoy peace and prosperity here, but the God of heaven is far too loving. He's far too gracious. He's far too good to only give rulers in this world. Our God, the Most High God, in whose hand is our breath in all our ways, that God has set up an eternal kingdom. He's exercised his forever reign by setting up a kingdom that will have no end. A kingdom whose enemies are absolutely no match for it. A kingdom that has no racial or ethnic borders to it. He set up a kingdom, and he's placed on top of that kingdom a king whose reign will never end. King Jesus. Jesus who came not in pride, but in humility. The eternal Son of God became man, that he might live a perfect life. Live as the way that we were supposed to live, and completely and always honoring God. And he won his kingdom, not with military might, not with a bigger army, but he won it with a sacrifice. He died the death that we were supposed to die, so that in him we can have true forgiveness. Taking all of our punishment on himself for our sin, And He died on the cross for us, for His kingdom. And now He rules over His kingdom, and one day will come to gather His people, His kingdom, and enjoy eternity with Him under His throne. When God rose Him from the grave, He gave Him the name that is above every name. So that what? So that every knee should bow and recognize His ultimate authority. Our God reigns forever, and friends, we can joyfully live under his reign if we abandon our pride, abandon our selfish rule, and humbly come to him seeking forgiveness. Really, what we're given in Daniel 5 is a glimpse into the choice that we all face. We do so try to protect our own little self-made kingdoms, or do we submit to the king who has come? In Daniel 5, we see a proud king who is ultimately destroyed. He was shown his fragility, and he was shown his foolishness, and he was shown it for what it was. And it was ultimately shown that the Most High God reigns forever, and that his reign is no match to the Most High God. Well friends, the same is true for the little kingdoms that we are trying to build for ourselves here. I think the author Jonathan Lehman sums it up extremely well, and we'll close with this. Here's how the story goes. It begins with a sham king, sitting upon a sham throne, convinced that all the glory and rule are his. That's all of us in our fallen nature. Then, an ambassador for the real king enters the cardboard throne room and speaks a simple word. The real king is coming. He's willing to forgive, surrender. This is the all-important moment. This is where the battle is won or lost. Truth is staring untruth in the face, and everyone watching wants to know, will the sham king listen or won't he? If the Spirit electrifies his ears, his eyes, and his heart so that he can hear and see and love, then yes, that sham king will listen, repent, and believe. He'll climb out of his paper chair and bow down with unfeigned love and worship the true king. Friends, let's pray that God would give us the grace to run away from our fragile and foolish pride and run humbly to the King who reigns forever. Let's pray. Almighty God, we give you praise as the Most High God. God, there is none greater than you, and we give you praise that you In your ultimate authority, welcome us who have rebelled against you to come and worship you. God, we praise you for the glimpse that we see in Daniel 5, ultimately, of Jesus, the King who rules and reigns forever. God, give us the grace to follow Him. And it's in your Son's name that we pray. Amen.