Daniel 5:3, commentary and pictures

The vessels of gold taken from the temple of God at Jerusalem were brought into Belshazzar's feast, and the king with his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank wine from them in the last revelry of declining Babylon while the city stood under siege. To drink from vessels consecrated to sacred service was contempt and irreverence toward what God had set apart, done in proud defiance and idolatrous revelry while praising gods of gold and silver. God was present as an unseen Witness hearing every dishonoring word, and in the midst of the drunken scene a bloodless hand wrote judgment on the palace wall announcing the doom of the king and his kingdom. That night filled up the measure of evil and passed the limit of forbearance, so Belshazzar was weighed and found wanting, to be slain that night and his kingdom given to others. As Babylon fell in an hour of feasting and revelry, so it will be at the end of the world, when the same Witness beholds modern mirth, pleasure-seeking, and turning of consecrated devotion toward earthly things, and records it for judgment.

Feast's Setting and Action

The golden vessels taken out of the temple of the house of God at Jerusalem were brought to Belshazzar's feast, and the king, his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank in them. Those vessels had been consecrated to sacred service in God's temple, and to turn them to drinking use at an intoxicated, idolatrous revel profaned what belonged to God and set apart as sacred. Their misuse was irreverence toward holy things, contempt for what was sacred, and part of the king's idolatry. The drinking belonged to indulgent merriment, drunkenness and gluttony in which God was dishonored and forgotten, and that gluttony and drunkenness were the foundation of Babylon's sins and causes of its fall.

The feast belongs to the final period of Babylon's rule after Nebuchadnezzar's death, when his successors governed unwisely and the kingdom was declining. Belshazzar feasted and reveled while the city was under siege, feeling secure inside its fortifications and abundant stores.

The fall of Babylon came in an hour of feasting and revelry, when doom closed the night's dishonoring of sacred things under God's witnessing presence. The account belongs to Babylon being swept with destruction and left a ruined, desolate city.

Profaning the Sacred Vessels

Belshazzar and his court had the golden vessels consecrated to the temple at Jerusalem brought in and drank from them at the feast, turning objects set apart for sacred service to common drinking use. That misuse profaned what belonged to God and what He had chosen as sacred to Himself, treating holy things with contempt, irreverence, and sacrilegious mirth. The king with his thousand lords, his princes, his wives and his concubines joined in making light of the sacred, and their profaning of even soulless vessels of Jehovah brought certain punishment.

The drinking was not mere revelry but proud defiance of the God of heaven and blasphemous presumption against Him. While drinking wine from the vessels consecrated to Jehovah, the king and his nobles, wives and concubines praised the gods of gold and silver and the idols of Babylon, profaning the true God in an intoxicated, idolatrous revel. That contempt for what is sacred, joined with praise to false gods, completed the sacrilege that called forth the announcement of judgment and the fall of the kingdom.

The profanation took place amid gluttony and drunkenness, revelry and excess, sensual indulgence and disregard for God. The wickedness of Babylon was her gluttony and drunkenness, displayed when king, princes, wives and concubines drank wine from the vessels taken from the temple of God at Jerusalem. That indulgence of appetite and passion formed the foundation and basis of her sins, the cause identified with her fall, and the same spirit of drunken pleasure and sensual indulgence that marked Israel's idolatrous feast brought shame and impending judgment.

Under the influence of wine with beclouded reason Belshazzar forgot God and dishonored His name, taking the lead in riot and blasphemy. He ignored the lessons and heaven-sent light and the opportunities for knowing God's will given through Nebuchadnezzar, choosing defiance instead. In praising gods of silver and gold and even praising the vessels themselves, the revelers took honor to themselves, and such human self-glorification dishonors God and offends Him. The same feasting and drinking with worldly companions that makes men forget God and dishonor His name is reproduced by the fascination of the clubroom, the suppers, and world-loving associates.

Heaven's Witness and Judgment

Belshazzar did not feast unwatched, for God Himself was present in the palace as an unseen Witness, observing every movement of the king, his thousand lords, his wives and his concubines as they drank from the golden vessels taken from the temple at Jerusalem. He heard the idolatrous praises bestowed upon the gods of gold and silver and upon the vessels themselves, and He marked every dishonoring word spoken against Himself while His sacred things were desecrated. What was seen and heard was not left to pass away, for He made a faithful history and record of the sacrilege to testify against the revelers to the close of time, taking account of their actions as He takes account of all injustice and oppression against His people.

In the very midst of that unholy scene the revelry was broken by the appearance of a bloodless, divine hand tracing mysterious characters upon the palace wall. That writing was a warning and pronouncement of doom upon the terrified king and his court, announcing judgment for profaning what God had set apart as sacred. It declared the fall of the kingdom, that Babylon's rule would pass into other hands.

That night's performance brought the figures of Belshazzar's evil works to their full measure and crossed the limits of divine forbearance. Protection and shielding were therefore withdrawn and the restraining power no longer warded off evil, so that he was to fall, his body to be slain and his kingdom to pass to another. He was weighed in the balances of heaven and found wanting, for God weighs character in the sanctuary and records the deeds of those who rush into sin and indifference. The same hand that recorded his blasphemy records carelessness and neglect of God-given duty, and his calamity came because he disregarded heaven-sent light, ignoring the lessons given to Nebuchadnezzar and losing their benefit.

Warning for Later Generations

The fall of Babylon came in an hour of feasting and reveling, and so it will be at the end of the world. The same sin is repeated whenever men and women under vows of consecration, with powers devoted to God's sacred service, drag the sacred vessel from its lofty sphere to administer to debasing lust. This turns pure devotion, affection, praise and adoration belonging alone to God toward a sinful human being or earthly thing, which supersedes God, dishonors Him, and ruins the actors. Those living in the last days, upon whom the ends of the world are come, who do this are far more guilty than Belshazzar, who took the gold and silver vessels consecrated to God in the temple at Jerusalem and used them for drinking and praise in a sacrilegious, licentious feast of desecration and idol worship while God in heaven was present as an uninvited witness hearing the praises bestowed on the vessels.

The same Witness is present in all scenes of mirth and revelry in the fallen churches today, where there are true worshippers and false worshippers who set their hearts on worldly pleasure and worldly gain and indulge a false hope, just as God was present as a witness in that night of sacrilegious mirth and revelry and in a moment changed the features of the scene. Belshazzar's feast was a pleasure gathering of merriment and feasting and indulgence in the wine cup, with men absorbed in the pleasures of the table, hilarity and witticism, written in His book as intemperance, which does not blend with eternal realities and cannot be joined with the sacred worship of God, while Christ, the center of the world's hope, was grieved to see men put Him out of their thoughts for such indulgence. Feasting and drinking with worldly companions led to forgetfulness of God and dishonoring of His name, the same result produced by the fascination of the clubroom, the suppers, and the world-loving associates. The scene shares the spirit of Israel's idolatrous feast, where revelry and excess dishonored God through drunken pleasure, sensual indulgence, and disregard for God bringing shame and impending judgment, though God still gave the guilty an opportunity to turn from sin.

Treating what God has set apart as sacred with contempt brings His judgment, for Belshazzar and his thousand lords profaned the sacred golden vessels taken from God's temple in Jerusalem by drinking from them and praising Babylon's idols, and God witnessed this sacrilege and announced judgment on the king and his court by writing on the palace wall, keeping a faithful record of injustice and oppression against His people. Profaning even soulless vessels brings certain punishment from a witnessing God who keeps faithful record, and how much more does He witness and record slander, injustice and oppression against the characters of those whom Christ purchased by His blood. The hand that recorded the king's blasphemy also records carelessness and neglect of duty, so that failing to fulfill God-given obligations brings condemnation. The idolatrous revelry when the sacred vessels were used in a drunken feast stands as an example of dishonoring the Redeemer, witnessed by angels. The same ever-present God is present where sinners think no eye sees, watching pollution of soul and body, with pure angels veiling their faces and turning away as spectators, and every secret case must pass in solemn review before the Judge of all the earth.