The LORD had declared through Isaiah that Babylon would be destroyed “in a moment in one day” Isaiah 47:9Waiting for response for Isaiah 47:9 and this occurred in the days of Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, as recorded in this chapter. He held a feast which became a drunken orgy during which he blasphemed the God of heaven by drinking from the golden vessels taken from his house in Jerusalem.v.2Waiting for response for Daniel 5:2 Suddenly, in the midst of this feast, fingers of a hand appeared and wrote a message on the wall of the palace.v.5Waiting for response for Daniel 5:5 Naturally, this terrified Belshazzar and his fellow revellers and they sought an explanation.
MENE MENE TEKEL U PERESIN
i.e. NUMBER NUMBER WEIGHT AND DIVIDE.
“MENE” means “number“. “TEKEL”, more familiar to us as “SHEKEL”, means “weight”. The conjunction “and” is represented by the letter “U” placed at the beginning of a word. “PERESIN” means “divide” and begins “PERES” which is also the name for Persia in the Chaldean language. The message was in these common Chaldean words but the Babylonians could not determine its significance. Daniel, inspired by God, enlightened them, explaining that the judgments of God were about to come upon Belshazzar and Babylon because of their pride, idolatry, wickedness, and blasphemy.vs.17-24Waiting for response for Daniel 5:17-24
Belshazzar should have learned from the experience of his grandfather whom God had driven to madness because of his foolish pride v.20Waiting for response for Daniel 5:20 “till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will”.v.21Waiting for response for Daniel 5:21 Belshazzar had not learned the lesson and therefore the judgment of God was to descend upon him and the city, for the Medes and Persians would take Babylon and kill Belshazzar that very night.v.30Waiting for response for Daniel 5:30 This was the meaning of the writing on the wall: “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”.vs.26-28Waiting for response for Daniel 5:26-28
This chapter shows that God controls the nations and has predetermined their territories and duration, Acts 17:26Waiting for response for Acts 17:26 just as he has numbered the days of the present kingdoms upon earth which will soon come to an end. God is the judge, not only of nations, but also of individuals, weighing them in the balance to assess their righteousness. Soon the judgment of God will come upon the nations and they will be divided to make room for his Son who will rule the world: “God now commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead”.Acts 17:31.Waiting for response for Acts 17:31