January 27th 2008

Daniel Chapter 5

The Banquet
At the start of the chapter it talks of the great banquet Belshazzar threw for all his nobles. Belshazzar was only acting King as his Dad King Nabonidus was in the desert Tema and had appointed Belshazzar this position. Therefore Belshazzar was able to throw this huge expensive banquet and not have to face consequences as technically he was not number one.

The Hand
The words MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN were written in Aramaic and so the congregation should have been able to read the words. So why did they need someone else to help them? Was it because the hand was covering up the words? Was it because they could read the words but didn't understand what they meant up on the wall like that? Or was it because they were so drunk they couldn't understand? We discounted the latter as we felt that seeing a hand write on a wall was enough to sober anyone up! Anyway, we are unsure and can only consider different theories.

Daniel's Response
In verse 17, Daniel tells the King he doesn't want any of the gifts/power offered to him. To refuse something the King has offered would be seen as a big offence and quite rude. We came to the conclusion that Daniel refused them because he knew what was about to happen and so the gifts/power would be worthless by the end of that day.

Verses 18 - 24, King Belshazzar basically gets a telling off from Daniel. He is reminded of his Grandfather's (King Nebuchadnezzar) experience and eventually acknowledgment of God's great glory in verses 18-21.
Verses 22-24 Belshazzar is told:

• He did not sin through ignorance (because of his Grandfather) but through disobedience and pride.
  

• He had defied God by drinking from the goblets of the temple.

• He had worshipped idols instead of God.

These are risky things to tell a King when his party has just been ruined by a terrifying encounter. However, these things needed to be said and Daniel, knowing the Kingdom was about to be destroyed by the Medo-Persians had faith in God.

Many MENE MENE
It was suggested by someone that whenever something is repeated twice in the bible, it means the fulfillment is imminent as was shown here. Unfortunately we didn't have time to investigate further but perhaps it's something to bear in mind.

The final lesson of the class was:

"The one lesson we learn from history is that we don't learn from history"
Professor Jon Gill 2008 (stolen from someone else)