“But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.” Daniel 5:20
Scripture tells us that God is the sovereign King. Christ is King. He raises up, and He puts down. If the nations are but a drop in the bucket for him, what is a kingdom? And what importance is it for the believer to know and realize this great truth, that God reigns, and His dominion is from everlasting to everlasting?
During the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, there seemed to be no height of success to which this king could aspire to and accomplish. His accomplishments were so great and renowned, that he was considered by many to be a god. This he also began to believe, as he had a massive statue of gold erected for his worship. However, in the reign of Babylon, there were key individuals, such as Daniel, who were used of God to warn this king of the peril he was treating so lightly. It was not the peril of men and armies, but concerning God, a defiance and rejection of God as sovereign. Proud, and with a heart that was hardened to all correction and exhortation to turn, he fell prey to the intervention of God who changed his heart from that of a man, to that of a beast. Seven years he would remain like this until, “…he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will.” (Dan. 5:21) As it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God, knowing that our God is a consuming fire, so it is a very foolish thing to fight against God, the knowledge of Him, especially as it pertains to His glory and truth.
The son of Nebuchadnezzar, whose name was Belshazzar, was a godless, perverse, immoral man, who deliberately defied the God of heaven by praising his gods of silver, gold, and brass, using the vessels of the house of the Lord which his father had deported from Jerusalem after his conquest of the city. Knowing clearly how God had dealt with his father and remembering his father’s confession of God as the Sovereign God, Belshazzar deliberately, in the presence of all his court, dishonored, defamed, and defied, the “…God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways,” not glorifying Him. (5:23) It was then that a part of a hand was sent to him, and wrote on the wall in front of him, but in a language which could be interpreted only by Daniel, God’s man in God’s place, and hour. The message was terrifyingly clear and powerful. He wrote that, “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” (5:26-28) In one moment, in one circumstance, in the midst of the great kingdom of Babylon, empires would change. On a single “dime” of time, God would intervene, after making known His will and the judgement that would follow, that He is, and will remain, the Sovereign God, whose dominion is forever, and who raises up kingdoms, and then brings them down. In this case, after the revelation of His will by the hand-writing on the wall, Belshazzar would be killed that night. The Babylonian empire would pass to the Medes and the Persians, and Darius the Median would take the throne. Unlike his father Nebuchadnezzar, who repented of his foolish concepts of himself and “his” prowess, and ability, to be “like god,” turning to God, and declaring: “I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom from generation to generations,” (4:34) Belshazzar’s brazen, godless irreverence for God, resulted in his kingdom ceasing in a night. It would be during the reign of Darius, that Daniel would see God’s revelation of the Messiah.
Dear Father, May Thy Kingdom come. In Jesus’ name, Amen.