Prophecy 20 -- Hand writing on the wall

Daniel 5:1-5 1  Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. 2  Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. 3  Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. 4  They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 5  In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

 

Belshazzar was feasting when God interrupted the party with the writing on the wall telling of his future. The handwriting had to be interpreted to him by Daniel, the man of God, who was known for his relationship with God in the past. Daniel was called and interpreted the writing to the king and warned of hos coming judgment from God because he ignored facts spoken by God to his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar.  But Belshazzar ignored the warning and later that very night judgment fell upon him and the great city and empire of Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians.

The handwriting is on the wall today and many people are fearful of what is happening just as Jesus said in  Luke 21:26  Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: “ Belshazzar heard the verdict but like those today they think, “Surely I am not that bad that God’s judgment will fall on me.” So they ignore or invalidate the Christian’s interpretation of events and go on as usual.

The interpretation to Belshazzar could be related to us today.

  1. You kingdom is number and finished. The days are short before the coming of Christ and God has finished man’s rebellion.
  2. You are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Men and women are sinners and all have come short of God’s requirements. The only escape is thru the finished work of Christ.
  3. The kingdom is divided to the Medes and Persians. This world is being given over to that one world ruler – the anti-Christ – and he will rule for a while until Jesus returns to set up His kingdom.

The handwriting is all over the walls today – over-reaching government, corrupt news media, corrupt elections, lawlessness and more show us that the time is near – we need to be ready.