Judgment Day • May 12, 2024 • Eric Stillman

NewLife Christian Fellowship's Podcast

Judgment Day • May 12, 2024 • Eric Stillman
This morning, I am in the sixth week of a sermon series through the Old Testament
book of Daniel that will take us up until the summer. To recap, God has allowed
Israel to be conquered by Babylon as discipline for their sins. The main characters
in this story are Daniel and his three friends, commonly known as Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, who are attempting to remain faithful to their God
despite being in exile and being faced with the attempts of the Babylonian King to
reprogram them into loyal Babylonian servants. Let’s dive into chapter 5:
Daniel 5:1–31 - King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles
and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave
orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had
taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and
his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that
had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles,
his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they
praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
If you’ve been following along, you know that there has been a change in the king
of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar dies in 562 BC, and after some revolts and
assassinations, Belshazzar becomes king around 553 BC and rules until 539,
which, not coincidentally, is when Daniel 5 takes place.
5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the
wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it
wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak
and his knees were knocking. 7 The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and
diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing
and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed
around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell
the king what it meant. 9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his
face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled. 10 The queen, hearing the voices of
the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!”
she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! 11 There is a man in your
kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he
was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your
father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters,
astrologers and diviners. 12 He did this because Daniel, whom the king called
Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding....