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Mene Mene Tekel and Parsin
Mene Mene Tekel and Parsin
Daniel 5
Power is a dangerous thing. It has been said that 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Such appears to be so with the reading of Daniel. King Belshazzar is corrupt.
The son of Nebuchadnezzar is made king and thus all the power of the kingdom. For whatever reason, Belshazzar orders the vessels that were taken from the temple of God to be used to serve up a drunken feast of wine. Along with their drinking they praised the idols of their country. THEN, "the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote" (5.5). Mene Mene Tekel and Parsin. The reaction is exactly what you would picture: "the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (verse 6).
No one of the Babylonian enchanters, astrologers, or wise men could translate the message. Recalling that Daniel had been able to interpret the uninterruptable dreams of his father, Belshazzar calls for him to interpret this saying.
The meaning is revealed: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
Daniel explains that Belshazzar had seen God reduce Nebuchadnezzar to the state of an animal. His father learned from this that God rules the kingdoms of men. However, Daniel reproves Belshazzar for having seen such and NOT learning the lesson. "You have not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this. You have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored (vs. 22-23).
Again we are expressly taught our God rules in the kingdoms of men. God allows men to be kings but He also judges them for their actions. He removes them or establishes them. This time he removes the king and turns the whole kingdom business over to the Medes and Persians. Thus the Babylonian empire came to a whimpering end.
God not only judges kings, but He judges us all. As the Ecclesiastes writer wrote: "for all these things God will bring you into judgment" (Ecc.11:9). The Hebrew writer taught us that "it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the flesh (2 Cor. 5:10). Have we taken to heart this lesson or are we like Belshazzar?
Hugh DeLong
