The High-Handed Blasphemy of a Doomed King Text: Daniel 5:1-4
Introduction: The Arrogance of Oblivion
The book of Daniel is about one thing from start to finish: the absolute and universal sovereignty of the God of Israel over all the nations of men. Whether it is a pagan king's dream, a fiery furnace, a den of lions, or the grand sweep of rising and falling empires, the message is hammered home again and again. God is on the throne, and everyone else is not. This is the central, non-negotiable fact of all reality. To acknowledge this fact is the beginning of wisdom. To ignore it, or worse, to defy it, is the fast track to utter ruin.
We live in an age much like Belshazzar's. Our rulers and cultural elites are drunk, not just on wine, but on their own imagined autonomy. They believe they are the captains of their own fate, the authors of their own reality. They think that because God's judgment has not fallen in the last ten minutes, it will therefore never fall. They are having a great feast in Babylon, praising their gods of materialism, technology, and sexual liberation. They are, in short, arrogant with an arrogance born of oblivion.
But the silence of God is not the absence of God. The patience of God is not the approval of God. As we come to this chapter, we are coming to the end of the line for the great Babylonian empire, the head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty founder, learned his lesson the hard way. He was driven to his knees, made to eat grass like an ox, until he acknowledged that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men (Dan. 4:34-35). But lessons learned by the father are often forgotten by the son. Belshazzar inherited the throne, but he did not inherit the humility. He knew the story, but he did not learn the lesson. And so, he decides to throw a party. But this is no ordinary state dinner. This is a deliberate, high-handed act of sacrilege. It is a calculated blasphemy, a defiant fist shaken in the face of the God who holds his very breath in His hand.
This story is a stark and terrifying reminder that there is a point of no return. There is a line that, once crossed, invites immediate and irreversible judgment. Belshazzar is about to cross that line, and he is going to do it with a golden cup from God's Temple in his hand. He is a man who is spiritually dead, but does not know it yet. The corpse is still walking around, giving orders and drinking wine. But the sentence has already been passed in the courts of heaven, and the executioner is, quite literally, at the gates.
The Text
Belshazzar the king held a great feast for one thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.
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.
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.
They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
(Daniel 5:1-4 LSB)
The Drunken Boast (v. 1)
We begin with the setting, a scene of imperial decadence.
"Belshazzar the king held a great feast for one thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand." (Daniel 5:1)
The first thing to notice is the scale of this affair. This is not an intimate dinner party. It is a massive display of power, wealth, and self-importance. A thousand nobles are present. This is the ruling class of the most powerful empire on earth, gathered to celebrate their own glory. And at the head of it all is Belshazzar, drinking "in the presence of the thousand." He is the center of attention, the sun around which all these lesser planets revolve. This is a picture of man at the height of his pride.
But there is a deep irony here. While Belshazzar and his court are feasting, the Medo-Persian army under Cyrus is outside the city walls. Historical sources tell us that the Babylonians felt entirely secure behind their massive fortifications. They believed they had enough provisions to last for years. So while the enemy is plotting their demise, the leadership is getting drunk. This is what pride does. It makes you stupid. It blinds you to reality. Belshazzar feels invincible, but his sense of security is a complete delusion. He is celebrating on the brink of a cliff.
This is a permanent warning to every nation and every individual. When a people feel most secure, when they are most convinced of their own technological, military, or economic might, that is precisely when they are most vulnerable. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Belshazzar is a case study in that proverb. He is fat, happy, and doomed.
The Sacrilegious Command (v. 2)
The wine begins to work on the king, and a wicked idea comes into his head. His pride, lubricated by alcohol, now blossoms into open blasphemy.
"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." (Daniel 5:2 LSB)
This is not a random act. This is a calculated insult. These vessels were not mere museum pieces. They were holy objects, consecrated for the worship of Yahweh. They had been taken from the Temple in Jerusalem decades earlier by Nebuchadnezzar as a sign of his victory over Judah and Judah's God. But even Nebuchadnezzar, in all his pride, had the sense to put them in the temple of his own god (Dan. 1:2). He treated them as sacred objects belonging to a conquered deity. He put them away. Belshazzar does something far worse. He brings them out for a drunken party.
The text says he did this when he "tasted the wine." The wine did not give him the idea, but it removed his inhibitions. The sin was already in his heart; the alcohol just let it out. He wants to show everyone who is boss. He is not just the king of Babylon; he is making a statement that he is lord over the God of the Hebrews. This is a power play. He is saying, "The God whose cups these are is my slave. I can do whatever I want with His holy things."
Notice also the company he keeps. He wants to drink from these cups with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. This is a complete profanation. Holy things are being brought into a context of drunkenness and sexual immorality. He is deliberately mixing the sacred and the profane, dragging what is holy through the mud of his own debauchery. This is the essence of sacrilege: treating holy things as if they were common, or worse, as if they were contemptible.
The Defiant Act (v. 3)
The king gives the command, and his servants obey. The point of no return is reached.
"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." (Daniel 5:3 LSB)
The text emphasizes where these vessels came from: "the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem." This is not just any god Belshazzar is mocking. This is the God, the one who had revealed His name and His law, the one who had demonstrated His power over all the gods of Egypt. This is the God who had humbled Belshazzar's own father, Nebuchadnezzar.
Belshazzar knew this history. Later in the chapter, Daniel will explicitly tell him, "you knew all this" (Dan. 5:22). This makes his sin all the more heinous. This is not a sin of ignorance; it is a sin of high-handed, defiant rebellion. He is sinning against the light. He knows who this God is, he knows what this God has done, and he is spitting in His face anyway. He is taking the symbols of God's presence and worship and turning them into party toys.
This is a profound violation of the Creator/creature distinction. God is holy, which means He is separate, distinct, and "other." His things are to be treated as holy. By taking these vessels and using them for a common purpose, Belshazzar is attempting to pull God down to his level. He is treating the Creator as though He were just another created thing, another tribal deity whose trinkets could be used for a laugh. This is the fundamental error of all idolatry and all pride. But God will not be mocked. He will not allow His glory to be trampled underfoot by a petty, drunken tyrant.
The Idolatrous Praise (v. 4)
The act of sacrilege is immediately followed by an act of idolatry. The two always go together.
"They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone." (Daniel 5:4 LSB)
Here is the climax of the blasphemy. They use the holy vessels of the true God to toast their own false gods. This is the ultimate insult. They are taking the instruments of true worship and using them to facilitate false worship. They are declaring, in effect, that their man-made gods are superior to the God of heaven.
Look at the list of their gods: gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. This is a direct echo of the great statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2. That statue represented the succession of pagan empires, with Babylon as the head of gold. By praising these gods, Belshazzar is praising the foundation of his own power. He is praising the state. He is praising the military. He is praising the economy. He is praising the very materials from which his idols and his kingdom are made. In short, he is worshipping himself and his own accomplishments.
And what are these gods? They are dead. They are material. They cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot speak, and they cannot act. Later, Daniel will contrast them with the true God, "the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways" (Dan. 5:23). Belshazzar is trading the living God for dead matter. He is praising the creature rather than the Creator. This is the great exchange of folly that Paul describes in Romans 1. And the God who is being ignored, the God whose vessels are being profaned, is the very God who is sustaining Belshazzar's life at every moment. The king's blasphemous toast is made with breath that God Himself is loaning him.
Conclusion: The Party's Over
This scene is a microcosm of our modern world. Our civilization is throwing its own Belshazzar's feast. We have taken the good gifts of God, the "vessels" of creation, family, sexuality, law, and language, all of which were created for His glory, and we are using them in a drunken festival of self-worship. We use the gift of sexuality to praise the gods of personal fulfillment and autonomous identity. We use the gift of technology to praise the gods of progress and human ingenuity. We use the gift of prosperity to praise the gods of materialism and consumerism.
We have taken things that were meant to be holy and we have made them common. We have forgotten the God who gives us our very breath. Like Belshazzar, our culture knows the story. We are a post-Christian nation. The remnants of the Temple vessels are all around us, in our laws, our holidays, and our moral intuitions. We know the story of the God of the Bible, but we have chosen to ignore Him, to mock Him, and to praise our own gods of wood and stone instead.
But the story of Daniel 5 does not end with verse 4. The party is about to be interrupted. While the music is playing and the wine is flowing, the fingers of a man's hand are about to appear and write on the wall. The judgment of God is not an abstract concept for the distant future. For Belshazzar, it was hours away. The Medes and Persians were at the gate.
The message for us is clear. You cannot defy the living God forever. You cannot use His world, His gifts, and His breath to praise other gods and expect to get away with it. The writing is on the wall for every individual, every institution, and every nation that sets itself up against the Lord and against His Christ. The party will end. The question is whether we will be found, like Belshazzar, weighed in the balances and found wanting, or whether we will be found in Christ, who drank the cup of God's wrath for us, so that we might be welcomed into the marriage supper of the Lamb, a feast that will never end.