Yep! Chapter 5 follows 7 & 8 sequentially....
It relates the story of Belshazzar seeing the handwriting on the wall. It is a chapter that leaves me wanting more information. "Details, please," I want to implore. I find it very interesting that Nebuchadnezzar's son is named Belshazzar, and the name he gave to Daniel is so similar - Belteshazzar. I also find it somewhat curious that it was his queen who reminded him of Daniel when he certainly knew what happened to his father - - and Daniel reminds him of that when he speaks to him prior to interpreting the writing on the wall.
Reading between the lines informs me as well.... Daniel had been placed in high esteem in Nebuchadnezzar's palace, but obviously not in Belshazzar's palace. It reminds me that things don't necessarily continue going well or fairly after a period of victory or adulation, even though Daniel remained faithful to the LORD. Good note to self....
But - beyond my piqued curiosity, this is a dramatic story. Belshazzar invites 1,000 of his lords for a party. That's some kingdom he inherited! After he'd had some wine, he ordered that the vessels his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought to be used by his lords, his wives and his concubines. Apparently the Queen was not there at that point - or they were in separate rooms.... I don't know how all that played out. Again, details would be nice....
Anyway, the golden vessels were brought and as they drank wine from them, they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Oops. Bad choice! Immediately the fingers of a hand began writing in the plaster on the wall of the king's palace. That got his attention! He turned white as a sheet, his knees buckled and shook. He was terrified! He called for everyone he could think of, but none of them knew what he writing said, let alone what it meant.
Then the Queen came in, and she recommended Daniel. Her compliments to Daniel's skill and knowledge were impressive - and it is interesting she remembered all this, but her husband didn't....
Daniel wasn't impressed by the kings offer of position in exchange for interpreting the writing, but he did tell the king what God said...well, after a brief history lesson that would have been a curt reprimand to a king who so easily forgot what his own father learned about the sovereignty of God. (Let alone obviously forgetting Daniel, which Daniel didn't point out.)
"MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN." Daniel's translation: "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
And that very night Belshazzar was killed, and Chapter 5 reports that his kingdom went to Darius the Mede, age 62.
Just one little aside: Before he died, Belshazzar kept his promise to Daniel. Daniel was clothed with purple, a golden chain was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. It doesn't appear that would mean much since the reign ended that night, but as the story unfolds, it will....
God had shown Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom was the head of gold - and that his kingdom would be followed by another empire with a chest and arms of silver. In 539 B C, that part of Neb's vision came true.... The Medo-Persian Empire would last until 331 B C - a total of 308 years...but it began the night a king defied God by misusing objects from His temple!
God reigns! That is the bottom line! He gives power and takes it away. Anyone who defies him should pay attention to this story! He is patient. He extends grace. But not forever.
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