Page 149 - Daniel

lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his
house have been brought in before you, and you and 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.”

Daniel’s reply to the king is properly called a sermon, and as King
18
says, “What a great sermon it is!” Daniel began by disavowing any
interest in the gifts or rewards that the king offered. This was not
prompted by disrespect or by the evident fact that they would be short-
lived. Daniel was simply saying that he would give an unprejudiced
interpretation with no attempt to seek favor from Belshazzar. Daniel

promised both to read and to make known the interpretation.
Daniel did not address the king as he did, for instance, in connection
with Darius (Dan. 6:21). No doubt Daniel held Belshazzar in contempt

for his desecration of the sacred vessels. However, the narration here
must be considered a condensed account, and probably Daniel addressed
the king in a formal way. Parallels are found in Daniel 2:27 and 4:19,
where Daniel addressed Nebuchadnezzar without a formal greeting. This
was hardly a time in any case for Daniel to greet Belshazzar as he did
Darius, “O king, live forever!” when as a matter of fact, Belshazzar’s

hours were numbered. Instead, Daniel recognized Belshazzar as king but
then immediately delivered his prophetic message of condemnation.
In 5:17 Daniel announced he would read and interpret the writing for

the king. However, he did not begin doing so until 5:24. Between these
verses Daniel shared a history lesson from the life of Babylon’s first great
king. It is the Most High God who sets up, and takes down, human
rulers, and those human rulers need to acknowledge that the Most High
God “rules the kingdom of mankind.”

Daniel first reminded Belshazzar that God gave Nebuchadnezzar his
great kingdom and the honor that went with it. In verse 19, Daniel
described graphically how Nebuchadnezzar was feared and had absolute
authority of life and death over his people and, accordingly, was an
absolute sovereign. As Young points out, however, the very character of

this absolute authority delegated to Nebuchadnezzar by God also made