Daniel 5:20, commentary and pictures

The verse describes Nebuchadnezzar, whose heart was lifted up and whose mind was hardened in pride until he was deposed from his kingly throne and stripped of his glory. It teaches that all power and honor come from God, that the Most High rules over human kingdoms and sets up their rulers, and that Nebuchadnezzar remained humbled until he acknowledged this rule. Belshazzar knew that history of banishment and restoration, yet he did not learn from it, humble himself, or take it to heart. His own pride and disobedience brought the same end upon himself, when in the midst of his sacrilegious feast with his lords in idolatry and revelry a hand wrote his doom on the wall, for God weighed his motives, character, and life in the balances of heaven and found him wanting. As Babylon then fell in an hour of feasting, so it will be at the end of the world when the careless are unready, while the faithful record of every injustice remains until the books are opened.

Words and Historical Setting

The words speak of Nebuchadnezzar, whose heart lifted up and mind hardened in pride brought his being deposed from his kingly throne and his glory taken from him. His humiliation continued until he recognized that the Most High rules over human kingdoms and appoints their rulers, showing that great power and honor come from above and that prideful rulers who fail to humble themselves can be brought low. His banishment and restoration stood as a known warning by which knowledge of divine dealings should teach humility, yet Belshazzar knew this history and did not learn from it, humble himself, or take it to heart. The same is true whenever the heart is lifted up and the mind hardened in pride, for kingly rule is forfeited and glory removed, as Belshazzar repeated at his sacrilegious feast when he turned praise belonging alone to the Most High toward gold and silver and toward sinful human beings and desecrated vessels dedicated by holy consecration to profane and licentious use.

The account belongs near the end of Daniel's life, after Nebuchadnezzar's death, when Babylon stood under the weak rule of his successors and was moving toward decline.

Nebuchadnezzar had received light through Daniel, including things foretold in prophecies against Babylon and other kingdoms and the interpretation of his dream exalting Jehovah as more powerful than earthly kings. He perverted that light by reading the interpretation according to his own idolatrous mind and ambitions. He set up a golden image representing the glory of himself and his kingdom, and his pride led on toward the fall of Babylon, which came in an hour of feasting and revelry.

Belshazzar had everything to flatter his pride and indulge his passions, for as a man of power and an absolute monarch he held at his command the property of lords and nobles, with princes as servants and his own will as law. His lifted heart was void of self-control, hasty and violent in temper, molded as wax by flatterers and gracious only to those who flattered him and did not oppose his will, while ferocious as a tiger and cruel as the grave to those who provoked him, with anger aroused at the slightest provocation. His hardened mind was self-indulgent, gluttonous and drunken, corrupt at heart and swayed by the basest passions. Wine beclouded his reason and led him to forget and dishonor God, taking the lead in riot and blasphemy while drinking with his princes from vessels consecrated to Jehovah and praising gods of gold and silver amid music, dancing, feasting, and idolatrous sacrifice.

God's Rule and Judgment

Great power and honor come from God, and the Most High rules over human kingdoms and appoints their rulers. Nebuchadnezzar's heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, and for that he was deposed from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. His humiliation continued until he recognized God's rule, and his loss of wisdom and humbling taught God's power to create and destroy. Rulers who forget God and credit human achievement for their glory face humiliation and the penalty of disobedience.

In prosperity Babylon's rulers regarded themselves as independent of God, forgot God, and ascribed the glory of their kingdom to human achievement. Neglecting and failing to practice God's instruction brings judgment, for Babylon's coming calamity resulted from disregarding the light God had given through Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar therefore lost the benefit he could have received by obeying that light, and by presumption and defiance he crossed the limits of God's forbearance. Nebuchadnezzar had received light through Daniel, including things foretold in the prophecies against Babylon and other kingdoms and the interpretation of his dream exalting Jehovah above earthly kings, but he perverted that light by reading it according to his own idolatrous ambitions and set up a golden image representing the glory of himself and his kingdom.

Babylon was shattered and broken and passed away in literal fulfillment of divine prophecy, and its pride led on to a fall that came in an hour of feasting and revelry. At Belshazzar's sacrilegious feast God witnessed disregard for sacred things, idolatry, and desecration of vessels dedicated to Him by holy consecration. Belshazzar with his thousand lords drank from vessels consecrated to Jehovah while praising gods of gold and silver amid music, dancing, feasting, and idolatrous sacrifice, turning praise belonging alone to God to gold and silver and to sinful human beings. Although the revelers forgot God, God did not forget them but heard and saw the desecration, and judgment came with terror so that the king's countenance changed and his knees smote together. In the midst of their mirth a bloodless hand traced mysterious characters upon the palace wall, Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin, and filled with terror the king and courtiers heard their doom pronounced. God weighed his motives, character, life, and soul in the balances of His sanctuary and pronounced him wanting.

Warning and Present Application

Nebuchadnezzar's pride, with heart lifted up and mind hardened, brought his deposition from his kingly throne and the taking of his glory from him, and his banishment and restoration stood as a known warning that great power and honor come from God. His humiliation continued until he recognized that the Most High rules over human kingdoms and appoints their rulers, and that prideful rulers who fail to humble themselves can be brought low. That knowledge of God's dealings should teach humility, yet Belshazzar knew this history of his grandfather and did not learn from it, humble himself, or take it to heart.

The same deposition illustrates Belshazzar's own end, for his pride and disobedience brought his removal from the throne and loss of royal glory. By presumption and defiance he crossed the limits of God's forbearance, and his fall belongs to the warning of the sacrilegious feast where God witnessed disregard for sacred things and idolatry and judgment followed. As Babylon fell in an hour of feasting and reveling, so it will be at the end of the world when many live as if the Lord delays His coming and all things remain as from the beginning of creation. Only the wise virgins prepared with oil in their vessels with their lamps will then be ready to meet the Bridegroom.

Belshazzar repeated that lifted heart and hardened mind against God at his feast, when he and his thousand lords profaned the golden vessels of Jehovah in sacrilegious mirth and praised the idols of Babylon. Vessels dedicated by holy consecration were put to profane and licentious use, and praise belonging alone to God was turned to gods of gold and silver and to sinful human beings. The God they defied was witness of the unholy scene, hearing and seeing the desecration, and in the midst of their mirth a bloodless hand traced mysterious characters upon the palace wall, Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Filled with terror, with the king's countenance changed and knees smiting together, the king and courtiers heard their doom pronounced by the servant of the Most High.

The same sin is repeated whenever the heart God requires in pure devotion, with lips and affections and powers solemnly consecrated to His service, is turned away to worship a man or woman and to minister to lust. That is degrading idol worship that dishonors God and ruins the actors, showing how God punishes those who make light of what He has chosen as sacred. To trace words of calumny and falsehood against the servants of Christ profanes the characters of those whom Christ purchased by His blood, which is worse than profaning soulless vessels, and God is witness of the deed. The hand that wrote on Belshazzar's wall keeps faithful record of every act of injustice or oppression committed against God's people. God weighed his motives, character, life, and soul in the balances of His sanctuary and pronounced him wanting, and left his record to stand to the close of time when the books of heaven are opened.