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Teaching Text: Daniel 5
King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.
The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods.Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”
So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.
“Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled.But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.
“But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
“This is the inscription that was written:
mene, mene, tekel, parsin
“Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Medetook over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Cry of the Prophet
Fasted Life
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
The goal of the series is to look at the voices of the prophets and their impact as those who critique from the inside.
We look at the prophet as a “watchman,” whose job is to call for honesty and to stop the Israelites from relying on anything other than God
Richard Rohr says,
“In this way, they introduced a completely novel role into ancient religion: an officially licensed insider critic, a devil’s advocate who is tasked to call out and expose their own shadow side! Few cultures, if any, develop such a counterintuitive role.”
– The Tears of Things
Their work is sometimes labeled “Creating holy disorder” for confronting injustice and exposing abuses of power.
Rohr:
“Prophets, then, are full truth-tellers, not fortune-tellers. They pull back the veil to radically reframe our preferred storyline of history. “
We need this in the church because:
The Christian religion has sought to achieve its own innocence rather than act in solidarity with suffering and sinners.
“TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting”
– Daniel 5:27
King - has a moment of being measured
Will you honor the truth you have been taught about God and the true story of the world?
He says no…I’ll worship what I want, in fact, I’ll use the very things that were intended to affirm God’s sovereignty and drink from them while praising the idols that I have chosen instead of God to satisfy me.
But Daniel is also being measured in this moment
After 65 years of captivity and indoctrination - what would he do? He could be killed in this process if he tells the king the wrong thing.
He honors the God of his origin. He holds to the true story of the world. He calls out the king for neglecting to heed the warning of the past.
Memory is an engagement with fidelity from a God who takes endless initiatives in life-transforming, life-guaranteeing actions of generosity.
“It is inescapable if one's past tense is burdened by self-invention and one's future tense is limited to self-sufficiency. It takes no imagination to see that technological consumerism, unable to host past miracles or future promises, has given us a present tense of greed powered by anxiety and issuing in shameless brutality against our neighbor.”
– Bruggeman
For it is only when the past is brimming with miracle and the future is inundated with fidelity that the present can be recharacterized as a place of neighborliness in which
Scarcity can be displaced by generosity
Anxiety can be displaced by confidence
Greed can be displaced by sharing
Brutality can be displaced by compassion and forgiveness
The recovery of the true story of the world includes the daring, pervasive conviction that God's fidelity outlasts every circumstance.
Daniel was able to hold onto the truth for 65 years in a hostile pluralistic environment.
Honor the past (the king didn’t honor the lessons his grandfather learnt) Daniel held to the faith and devotion of his heritage
Trust God for the future - his fidelity will outlast every circumstance!!!!
Be courageous in our moment - order your life around that reality. God is faithful and will continue to be.
Daniel did this through forming daily life habits that immersed him in the truth. They connected him with God.
Here’s a practical outline for building these habits by Alice Bohn.
A Well-Ordered Life: Practical Steps – Daniel’s prophetic clarity was the result of a life oriented toward God. We are all "ordered" toward something—the question is whether it's anxiety, money, etc, or our Creator.
The Purpose of Ordering
We reorder our lives to plug into God, our ultimate Source, and join His work in renewing all things.
How to Start
Establish habits that seek Jesus’ presence. Lent serves as a communal opportunity to audit these routines with the support of the Church.
The First Step: Fasting
Fasting reminds us of our dependence on God and creates margin for other spiritual practices. Beyond food, consider fasting from social media, late bedtimes, or digital noise.
Pillars of an Ordered Life
Prayer: Use "in-between" moments like commuting, brushing teeth, or Emmanuel Prayer at bedtime.
Scripture: Try a verse a day, audio Bibles during chores, or family devotions.
Worship: Practice "Worship Walks," gratitude lists, or daily singing.
Confession: Schedule weekly friend calls, spouse check-ins, or pastoral confession/counseling.
Service: Integrate rhythms like trash pickup, meal trains, or plugging into TGC service opportunities.
Obedience: Be intentional; a well-ordered life requires a plan. Tithe.
We reorder our lives to live in the Presence of God. If this is daunting, start by asking God for help this Lenten season.
