The Sabbath-school lessons have been discontinued. The Lesson Quarterly may be obtained, containing three months' lessons and notes, for five cents. Address, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal. The Sunday-school lessons will continue.
INTERNATIONAL SERIES THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON I.—OCTOBER I.—DANIEL AND BELSHAZZAR.
Lesson Scripture, Dan. 5:17-31, A. R. V.
(17) "THEN Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. (18) O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty; (19) and because of the greatness that He gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him; whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. (20) But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him; (21) and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; until he knew that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he setteth up over it whomsoever He will. (22) And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, tho thou knewest all this, (23) but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine from them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. (24) Then was the part of the hand sent from before Him, and this writing was inscribed.
(25) "And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. (26) This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end. (27) TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. (28) PERES; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
(29) "Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
(30) "In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. (31) And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old."
Golden Text.—"The face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Ps. 34:16.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) Before what king was Daniel summoned? For what purpose? What inducement had been offered him? Note 1. (2) What did Daniel say about the proffered rewards? Nevertheless, what did he promise to do? Verse 17. Note 2. (3) What did Daniel say God had given Nebuchadnezzar? Verse 18. Note 3. (4) How did this greatness affect other peoples and nations? How did Nebuchadnezzar use this great power? Verse 19. (5) What was the result of his pride? Verse 20; Prov. 16:18. (6) To what extent was Nebuchadnezzar humiliated? For what purpose was his humiliation? Verse 21. (7) In view of all this, what had Belshazzar failed to do? Verse 22. Note 4. (8) Instead of heeding the lesson of Nebuchadnezzar's experience, what had Belshazzar done? Verse 23. (9) Because of this blasphemy, what had been done? Verse 24. (10) What was the writing that had been inscribed? Verse 25. (11) What was the interpretation of "mene"? Verse 26. (12) Of "tekel"? Verse 27. (13) Of "peres"? Verse 28. Note 5. (14) Then what command was given by Belshazzar? Verse 29. (15) What occurred that very night? Verse 30. (16) And who succeeded to the kingdom? Verse 31. Note 6.
NOTES.
1. Belshazzar was associated on the throne of Babylon with his father, Nabonadius, who was absent from the capital in command of the army. The combined armies of the Medes and Persians, under Cyrus, were besieging Babylon. Belshazzar, deeming the city impregnable, had made a great feast; had brought out the sacred vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and was using them in his impious carousal. A mysterious hand had appeared, and written words upon the wall. The king was terribly frightened, tho neither he nor any of his Chaldean astrologers could read the writing. In vain he offered great reward, even to the position of third ruler in the kingdom, to any one who would read the writing. Then the queen reminded the king that a man named Daniel had special wisdom, and no doubt could read the writing. So Daniel was sent for, and the king's rewards were offered to him, if he could tell the meaning of the mysterious writing.
2. Daniel could well afford to disregard the proffered honors on the ground of their lack of intrinsic value, if for nothing else. He knew by the Spirit of prophecy, as well as by the writing on the wall, that Belshazzar's kingdom was ended, and any honor that he could bestow would be of short duration. It is probable that Daniel also knew that Cyrus' army would enter the city that very night.
3. Nebuchadnezzar is here called the father of Belshazzar, but he was really the grandfather, as Nabonadius, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, was the father of Belshazzar.
4. Babylon had been set up as mistress of the world, under Nebuchadnezzar, by the God of heaven, because His own people had so apostatized that He could not give them the position that had been designed for them. Belshazzar knew all this, yet he failed to learn the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar had learned under great humiliation—that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." Dan. 4:17, 25, 32.
5. "Peres," of verse 28, which means "divided," is the root of the word "upharsin," in verse 25. This accounts for the use of the two words.
6. The uncertainty of all things pertaining to this world is aptly illustrated in the fall of Babylon. Just when Belshazzar was feeling so secure in his walled capital that he ventured on an unusually extravagant holiday feast, the whole city being given up to hilarity, his downfall was suddenly precipitated. It was because of the debauchery of the occasion that some of the gates were carelessly left open, through which Cyrus' army gained entrance even to the king's palace. Isaiah had prophesied this very thing about one hundred and seventy-five years before, and it all worked out for the welfare of the Lord's people, and for the honor of His own great name. See Isa. 45:1-6.
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