Commentary - Daniel 5:1-4

Bird's-eye view

In this chapter, the curtain rises on the last night of the Babylonian empire. The scene is one of arrogant, drunken debauchery, presided over by a king who has forgotten the hard-learned lessons of his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar’s feast is not simply a wild party; it is a deliberate act of theological defiance. By bringing out the consecrated vessels from God’s temple in Jerusalem and using them to toast his impotent pagan gods, Belshazzar is throwing down a gauntlet. He is publicly declaring the God of Israel to be just another vanquished deity, whose trinkets now serve the appetites of Babylon. This is high-handed blasphemy, a sin of profane contempt for the holy things of God.

But God is never mocked. As the party reaches its sacrilegious zenith, the living God, who needs no hands to build His kingdom, demonstrates that He needs no hands to write a death sentence. The disembodied hand that appears and writes on the plaster wall is one of the most dramatic intrusions of the supernatural in all of Scripture. It is the swift and terrifying response of a sovereign God to a tinpot potentate’s defiant idolatry. The message is clear: empires rise and fall at God's decree, and the day of reckoning for Babylon has come. This chapter serves as a stark reminder that God’s holiness is not to be trifled with, and His judgment on proud rebels is both certain and sudden.

Outline

Context In Daniel

Daniel 5 occurs many years after the events of chapter 4, which detailed Nebuchadnezzar's madness and subsequent restoration after he humbled himself before the Most High God. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty golden head of the statue in chapter 2, learned through harsh experience that "Heaven rules." His grandson, Belshazzar, clearly did not inherit this wisdom. This chapter marks the transition of power from the Babylonian empire to the Medo-Persian empire, a transition prophesied by Daniel in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The narrative serves as a hinge between the historical accounts of the first part of the book and the apocalyptic visions of the second. It is the final historical demonstration of God's absolute sovereignty over the affairs of Gentile world powers before Daniel receives visions that will detail the flow of that history for centuries to come. The fall of Babylon is not just a political event; it is a theological judgment, a direct consequence of the idolatrous pride detailed in this chapter.

Key Issues

Pride, Blasphemy, and the Party of Fools

A man is never more of a fool than when he believes his own press. Belshazzar is the regent of a superpower, but he is a second-generation ruler who has forgotten how the throne was secured. His grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, was a lion, a world-conqueror who learned the fear of the Lord the hard way, by eating grass like an ox. Belshazzar is a pampered cub who thinks the kingdom is a playground and history is a wine list. He is throwing this feast while the armies of the Medes and Persians are literally outside the city walls. This is not confidence; it is the hubris of a man who has grown soft and stupid on luxury.

The central sin here is not drunkenness or partying, though those are certainly present. The central sin is blasphemy born of pride. When a man takes what is holy to God and treats it as common, he is making a direct challenge to God Himself. He is saying, "Your claims mean nothing to me. Your holiness is a fiction. I am the one who defines reality." Belshazzar's use of the temple vessels is a calculated act of contempt. It is a public performance of idolatry, an assertion that his gods of metal and wood are superior to the God who had these vessels made. He is toasting his idols with God's cups. This is the kind of high-handed rebellion that invites swift and dramatic judgment. God will not have His glory given to another, nor His praise to graven images, and He certainly will not let a drunken fool use His sacred things to honor them.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Belshazzar the king held a great feast for one thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.

The scene opens with a display of royal decadence. A thousand nobles are present, a massive gathering designed to project power, wealth, and security. Belshazzar is not just hosting; he is performing. He is drinking "in the presence of the thousand," making a public spectacle of his indulgence. This is a king who needs an audience. The irony is thick; while he and his court are celebrating their supposed invincibility within the famously impregnable walls of Babylon, their doom is gathering just outside. Pride always throws a party right before the fall. The wine flows freely, dulling the senses and inflating the ego, preparing the king for the foolish blasphemy he is about to commit.

2 When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he said to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

The wine has its effect. The phrase "tasted the wine" suggests that under its influence, his judgment was impaired and his arrogance inflamed. It is in this state that he hatches his plan. He gives the command to fetch the holy vessels. Notice the text identifies them specifically: they are from the temple in Jerusalem, the house of the one true God. And it reminds us that it was Nebuchadnezzar, his "father" (a term that can mean ancestor, in this case, grandfather), who took them. This connects Belshazzar's sin to a history he should have known. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, but he also came to fear Jerusalem's God. Belshazzar remembers the conquest but has forgotten the lesson. His stated purpose is profane: that he, his lords, his wives, and his concubines might use them as common party cups. He intends to deliberately mix the holy with the profane, the sacred with the sensual.

3 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

The wicked command is carried out. The repetition emphasizes the gravity of the sin. These are not just any gold cups; they are "the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem." The Spirit of God wants us to feel the weight of this sacrilege. These objects were set apart, consecrated for the worship of Yahweh. They were symbols of His covenant with His people. Now, they are in the hands of pagan idolaters, filled with wine, and pressed to the lips of the king, his cronies, and his harem. This is an act of utter contempt. It is the physical enactment of a spiritual rebellion, a declaration that nothing is sacred to a man whose belly is his god.

4 They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Here the sin reaches its apex. The act of drinking is immediately tied to an act of worship. But they are not worshiping the God whose cups they are holding. They are praising their own gods, a pathetic pantheon made of the very materials from which their drinking cups were fashioned. The list of materials, from precious metals down to common wood and stone, mocks the impotence of their deities. These are gods that men have to carry, gods that can be bought and sold, gods made of stuff you can dig out of the ground. They are using the holy vessels of the living God to toast dead idols. This is the ultimate insult, a direct, frontal assault on the First and Second Commandments. Belshazzar is not just ignoring God; he is actively using the symbols of God's glory to glorify his own cheap substitutes. The party is in full swing, but the Judge of all the earth is at the door.

Application

The story of Belshazzar's feast is a perennial warning against the sin of profanity. To profane something is to take what God has declared holy and treat it as common. Belshazzar did this with physical objects, but we can commit the same sin in our hearts and with our lives. The New Testament teaches that the church is the temple of the living God, and our very bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is a holy vessel, set apart for the master's use.

When we take these bodies, consecrated to God, and use them for immorality, we are drinking from the Lord's vessels at a pagan feast. When we take the name of Christ, by which we are called, and live in a way that brings shame to it, we are praising gods of wood and stone. When we take the Lord's Day, a holy convocation, and treat it as just another day for commerce and entertainment, we are showing contempt for what God has consecrated. When we come to the Lord's Table, the most sacred feast of all, with an unrepentant heart, we are guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.

Belshazzar’s great sin was that he should have known better. He knew the story of Nebuchadnezzar. He had seen evidence of God's power. His sin was not one of simple ignorance, but of willful, arrogant defiance. We too must take care. We who have the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ, who have the Scriptures and the testimony of the saints, are without excuse. We must not grow so familiar with the holy things of God that we begin to treat them lightly. God is a consuming fire, and His holiness demands our reverence and awe. Let us therefore cleanse ourselves from all defilement, and serve Him with gratitude, lest a hand should appear and write a judgment against us.