Daniel 5:5, commentary and pictures

In the height of Belshazzar's sacrilegious feast, when the wine-besotted king and his guests drank from the vessels consecrated to Jehovah and praised idols amid blasphemy, fingers of a bloodless hand guided by an unseen power suddenly appeared opposite the lampstand and traced fiery, mysterious characters on the palace plaster where the king could see them. The sight abruptly halted the revelry in terror, the king's face growing pale and his knees smiting together as conscience awakened, though the wise men could not read the writing until Daniel was brought to declare it. The hand made visible that God himself was present as unseen Watcher and witness of the profanation, pronouncing warning of impending judgment that the king had been weighed and found wanting and that wealth and walls could not protect him. That writing marked the beginning of Babylon's destruction, for that night of feasting Belshazzar's evil works came to full measure, he was slain, and his kingdom passed into other hands because its rulers forgot God. As his hand wrote then, his unseen hand now traces every word, deed and hidden motive in the books of heaven and weighs motives and character in the balances of divine justice, so that no secret impurity or careless pleasure gathering is unnoticed, what is now unintelligible to the reckless will soon be read, and the sinner must repent and be cleansed without delay.

Feast Setting and Writing

The verse belongs to the story of Belshazzar, whose pride and love of pleasure led him to disregard the lessons of Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation and restoration and the opportunities to learn God's will. His presumption and defiance continued until he crossed the limit of God's forbearance, and failing to receive and practice the light and instruction God had given brought judgment and coming calamity upon him and Babylon.

The setting is the sacrilegious feast in the palace at the height of wild revelry and wildest merriment, when the wine-besotted king with his princes, lords, thousand lords and guests drank wine from the gold and silver vessels consecrated to Jehovah and dedicated by holy consecration. They praised gods of silver and gold and wine and the idols of Babylon amid music and dancing and feasting and blasphemy, with carnal senses inflamed, reason gone and beclouded by wine, God forgotten and nothing held sacred. A messenger from heaven watched every movement, for God in heaven was present as an unseen witness to the profanation and unholy scene in the midst of their sacrilegious mirth.

In the same hour fingers of a man's bloodless hand, belonging to and guided by an unseen power, suddenly appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand and near the candlestick on the plaster of the palace wall where Belshazzar could see it. In one account an angel traced the characters over against the walls of the palace. The characters were fiery, mysterious and unintelligible to the awe-stricken revelers, with a light like lightning following the forming of every letter and lingering there to make them living characters of awful and terrible significance, yet clear and unmistakable as a sign making the divine witness visible.

The sight abruptly halted the celebration and silenced the revelry, filling the king and guests and courtiers with terror that could not be concealed. The cup fell from the king's nerveless hand, his countenance was changed and his face grew pale, his knees smote together and his strength left him, and suspicion, fear and alarm took hold on king and princes. As the hand wrote they saw their evil deeds as if displayed before God's judgment, and aroused conscience interpreted the flashing letters as denunciation against them. The sight awakened his conscience to recognize his privilege to know and do God's will and vividly remember his grandfather's history, yet though he knew no mortal power could evade it he could not read it. The kingdom's wise men and astrologers were called but could not read or explain the fiery-looking, unfamiliar writing, and Daniel was brought to declare its meaning and pronounce their doom.

Unseen Witness Pronouncing Doom

The bloodless hand that appeared and wrote upon the palace wall made visible that God Himself was present in the midst of the idolatrous feast as an unseen heavenly Watcher, witness, and party to it. He was there taking note of the profanation of sacred things, of the praising of gods of silver and gold while the consecrated vessels were misused, and of the dishonoring words, unjust proceedings and falsehoods spoken in self-indulgence. By that writing He caused His presence to be felt, bringing the celebration to a sudden halt and confronting king and guests with terror they could not conceal, as their evil deeds stood displayed before His judgment. In this way the hand showed that when God causes men to feel His presence, guilt is exposed and fear lays hold upon them.

That writing was His warning of impending judgment and His message of doom upon the king and his kingdom, announced while revelry was at its height. Its meaning, afterward declared, was weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting in motives and character, in sincerity, in true love to Christ and in brotherly kindness. Neither wealth nor strong walls and gates nor human achievement could protect the king, for hostile armies were already approaching and that night he would be slain and his throne pass to another. Babylon therefore passed away because in prosperity its rulers forgot God and ascribed the honor and glory of the kingdom to themselves, and the characters on the wall signaled the judgment that followed.

As His hand wrote then, His unseen hand now traces in the books of heaven human conduct, every word uttered, every deed and plan and hidden motive. The hand that traced the characters is everywhere writing that God is here and God is in every place, registering as a holy Watcher every word and action, every denial of self and every grasping covetous act, and weighing motives, words, plans and secret counsels in the balances of infinite justice and truth. By this men are accountable to Him for what they do, for He has declared all sin to be transgression of His law and cannot look upon sin with allowance. To serve Him is obedience to all His commandments, while to question and find fault with His rule and great moral standard of right is to sin against Him as Satan did.

Babylon's Fall Foretold

The sudden appearance of a human hand writing on the palace wall opposite the lampstand where the king could see it marked the beginning of the events that brought proud Babylon to its fall. That fall belongs to the account of Daniel 5, in which Babylon is swept with destruction and left a ruined city. It came in an hour of feasting and revelry, when the hand wrote upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. It came during a night of feasting and revelry.

That night's conduct in the palace brought the figures of Belshazzar's evil works to their full measure, so that God would no longer protect and shield him and the restraining power would no longer ward off evil from him. He did not know a messenger from heaven was watching his every movement during his sacrilegious feast in his palace. During that feast a hand from the unseen divine power wrote a message of doom on the palace wall, warning that the king and his kingdom could not be protected by wealth or strong walls. God's judgment suddenly appeared in the palace while he praised idols, and no wall or gate could keep that judgment out. Hostile armies approached, and Belshazzar was killed that night as a foreign ruler took his throne. That night Belshazzar was killed and a foreign king took his throne, and he fell with his kingdom passing into other hands and his body slain.

While they were prosperous, Babylon's rulers forgot God and credited human achievement with the kingdom's honor and glory, and Babylon consequently passed away. The writing on the palace wall signaled the judgment that followed their disregard of God. The fall of Babylon came at an hour of feasting and reveling, as shown in the prophecies against Babylon and other kingdoms given through Daniel to the king of Babylon. That sudden fall during careless revelry will be repeated in the end of the world. In this period of peculiar momentous importance students of God's Word must work away from the customs and appointments of the world's great counselors, must not say the Lord delays His coming or that all things remain as they were from the beginning of creation, but must be prepared like the wise virgins with oil in their vessels with their lamps to go forth to meet the Bridegroom.

Heavenly Books and Veil

The hand that wrote on the wall keeps a faithful record of every act of injustice and oppression committed against God's people. It traces words of calumny and falsehood spoken against the servants of Christ, and it records deeds and words that bring shame before Christ. To defile by such speech the character of those Christ purchased with His blood is a greater profanation than defiling soulless vessels of gold and silver.

God had not forgotten the revelers but was making a history to testify against them to the close of time, carrying their words and deeds into the books of final accounts. The hand that traced the characters is everywhere writing that God is here and God is in every place, with a witness in every room noting as a holy Watcher every word and action of life. It registers with exact accuracy blasphemous words, jesting and sarcastic remarks and unkind speeches against God's messengers and message, as well as false words and misrepresentation, every denial of self and every grasping, covetous act. The same unerring witness reads the intents and purposes of the heart and weighs motives, plans, words and secret motives in the balances of infinite justice and truth, and was present unseen in the secret counsels against Christ and in the judgment hall at His trial. All dishonorable deeds so registered will confront the sinner in the day of judgment, except he repent and the Lord heal his transgression.

The writing testifies to a person's true moral condition and declares weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and of divine justice, in motives and character, in sincerity, in true love to Christ and in brotherly kindness. Human weighing may pronounce men all right and of full weight and measure, but God's weighing never makes a mistake. He still writes Wanting, fearfully wanting, against the guilty. That verdict will confront the sinner in the grand reckoning when the Judge sits upon His throne and names and life-accounts are balanced from the book of life, where no respectable sinners will be passed by.

The same bloodless divine hand that wrote Belshazzar's sentence and the words of doom and the end of the Babylonian kingdom later rent the temple veil from top to bottom at Christ's death. That rending exposed the most holy place, formerly entered by human feet only once a year. It marked the end of the earthly sanctuary service and its former role. It marked the Jewish nation as separated from God and unchurched, and opened a new way for all people to come to God without a human priest or ruler. It showed that God's presence no longer overshadowed the earthly mercy-seat nor appeared in the high priest's breastplate stones.

Warning for Present Life

The same watching and recording seen at Belshazzar's feast reaches to the present, for no carelessness or neglected duty goes unnoticed. Heaven keeps a witness in the palace then and in every room now, writing in the books of heaven the words and acts of irreverent gatherings, including jesting and sarcastic remarks and unkind speeches against God's messengers and message by those who know not what manner of spirit they are of. That witness is present at pleasure gatherings where God is forgotten and feasting and hilarity and wit are indulged, and such conduct is seen and recorded as intemperance. When those who claim to be Christians set their hearts on worldly pleasure and worldly gain, God is present as a witness in all their scenes of mirth and revelry, and in a moment He can change the features of the scene as He did on that night.

The handwriting means weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting in motives and character, in sincerity, in true love to Christ who died for the lost, and in brotherly kindness and love to brethren redeemed by His blood. Human weighing may pronounce men all right and of full weight and measure, but God's weighing never makes a mistake, and His verdict of Wanting should fill the soul with terror as it did the guilty king. That same condemnation falls now on instigators and leaders of mob-spirited, unchristian transactions, pointing to the grand reckoning when the Judge sits upon His throne and names and life-accounts are balanced from the book of life, where no respectable sinners will be passed by. Reckless people insensible to the results of sin and heedless of warning are like Belshazzar in that they cannot read the handwriting on the wall and cannot see their peril, but soon what is now unintelligible to them will be read and understood. The verse therefore calls sleeping members of churches and institutions to be aroused by a straight testimony.

No hidden impurity is unseen, for the same God who was present as a silent, ever-present witness at the godless, sacrilegious feast and whose own hand traced the characters upon the wall is present where sinners think no eye sees, watching defilement and hidden pollution of soul and body. Secret sin is open before God and angels, His judgments are abroad in the earth and Christ is coming, so sin must be confessed and forsaken and cleansed without delay before pardon is forever too late. Every secret case must pass in solemn review before the Judge of all the earth who stands before the door, requiring thorough confession and repentance and cleansing without delay before it is forever too late. The same Witness is present when the heart required in pure and holy devotion is turned away to worship a human being, and those living in these last days who repeat Belshazzar's feast and worship by giving solemnly consecrated powers to lust are far more guilty than Belshazzar.

When God's Spirit reveals the full meaning of the law, a person reads the Almighty's handwriting intelligently, with conviction taking hold of the heart, startling from spiritual lethargy to plead for mercy in Jesus' name. That divine witness who traced the characters when God was mocked and blasphemed is the One who says, I know thy works, and who is witness to all secret works. He is present when God's law is desecrated, and all dishonorable deeds are registered in the books of heaven to confront the sinner in the day of judgment, except he repent and the Lord heal him of his transgression.