The Divine Audit: Weighed and Found Wanting Text: Daniel 5:17-28
Introduction: The Party's Over
Every tyrant, every godless regime, every proud man, believes that the party will never end. Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, is throwing a feast. It is not just any party. It is a calculated act of cosmic defiance. He is not merely drunk on wine; he is drunk on pride. He commands that the sacred vessels, stolen from God's temple in Jerusalem, be brought out so that he, his lords, his wives, and his concubines can drink from them. This is the ancient equivalent of spitting on the altar. It is a public declaration that he has conquered not just the Jews, but the God of the Jews. He is toasting his own glory with the cups of God's glory.
This is the central sin of fallen man. We take the good gifts of God, the vessels of His creation, our lives, our minds, our resources, our breath, and we use them to praise the gods of silver and gold, of wood and stone. We use them to toast ourselves. Our modern, secular world is in the middle of its own Belshazzar's feast. We have taken the inheritance of Christendom, the vessels of law, liberty, science, and morality, and we are using them to get drunk while praising our new gods of autonomy, technology, and sexual revolution. We think the party will last forever. But in the middle of the feast, a hand appears, and it begins to write on the wall.
The story of Belshazzar is a stark and terrifying reminder that God is not mocked. There comes a point for every man and for every nation when the music stops, the laughter dies, and the divine audit begins. God keeps the books. And when He calls the accounts due, no amount of earthly power can prevent the foreclosure. This passage is not just ancient history; it is a prophecy of the end of every man-centered enterprise. It is the story of a king who knew better, who saw what God did to his proud grandfather, and who chose to defy God anyway. And for this sin, the sin of sinning against the light, judgment comes swiftly and without appeal.
The Text
Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts remain with you or give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the writing to the king and make the interpretation known to him. O king, the Most High God granted the kingdom, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father. And because of the grandeur which He bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue feared and were in dread before him; whomever he wished he killed, and whomever he wished he kept alive, and whomever he wished he raised up, and whomever he wished he made low. But when his heart was raised up and his spirit became so strong that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken away from him. He was also driven away from the sons of men, and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his place of habitation was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of the sky until he knew that the Most High God is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and that He sets up over it whomever He wishes. Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not made your heart lowly, even though you knew all this, but you have raised yourself up against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear, or know. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not honored. Then the hand was sent from Him, and this writing was inscribed.
“Now this is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ This is the interpretation of the message: ‘MENE’, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. ‘TEKEL’, you have been weighed on the scales and found lacking. ‘PERES’, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
(Daniel 5:17-28 LSB)
The Unbought Prophet (v. 17)
Before Daniel delivers the message, he establishes his authority, and it is not an authority that can be purchased.
"Then Daniel answered and said before the king, 'Let your gifts remain with you or give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the writing to the king and make the interpretation known to him.'" (Daniel 5:17)
Belshazzar had offered wealth and power to anyone who could read the writing. This is how the world operates. It believes everything has a price. Every man can be bought. But Daniel is not of this world. He serves a different King. His refusal of the gifts is not false humility; it is a declaration of independence. He is saying, "You cannot buy God's truth. You cannot bribe God's prophet. I am not on your payroll."
This is the necessary posture for any true servant of God. The moment the church begins to desire the king's rewards more than the King's approval, its prophetic voice is neutered. When we trim our sermons to keep the big donors happy, or soften our stance on sin to gain cultural favor, we have become court magicians, not prophets. Daniel's integrity gives his words weight. He is a free man, and therefore he can speak freely, even to a king who holds the power of life and death.
A History Lesson in Humility (vv. 18-21)
Daniel does not immediately interpret the words on the wall. First, he preaches a sermon. He lays the foundation for the judgment by reminding Belshazzar of a history he knows all too well.
"O king, the Most High God granted the kingdom, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father... But when his heart was raised up... he was deposed... until he knew that the Most High God is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind..." (Daniel 5:18-21 LSB)
Notice the source of Nebuchadnezzar's power. It was not his military genius or his political skill. "The Most High God granted" it to him. This is the fundamental truth of reality. All authority is delegated. No man, no king, no president is autonomous. They are stewards, holding their power on a lease from the sovereign God of heaven. And what God gives, God can take away.
The sin that brought Nebuchadnezzar down was pride. "His heart was raised up." He began to believe his own press. He looked at the kingdom God had given him and said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?" (Daniel 4:30). He forgot the Creator/creature distinction. And for that, God humbled him in the most profound way imaginable. He stripped him of his reason and turned him into a beast of the field. The judgment was fitting. If you refuse to act like a man made in God's image, you will be made to act like an animal.
But the discipline had a purpose. It was not merely punitive; it was remedial. It lasted "until he knew." God's judgment was a severe mercy, a divine education to teach this pagan king the first lesson of the universe: God is God, and you are not. The Most High God rules.
The Indictment: Sinning Against the Light (vv. 22-23)
Now Daniel turns from the history lesson to the personal indictment. This is where the sermon gets sharp.
"Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not made your heart lowly, even though you knew all this, but you have raised yourself up against the Lord of heaven..." (Daniel 5:22-23 LSB)
The damning phrase is "even though you knew all this." Belshazzar's sin is compounded by his knowledge. He is not ignorant. He grew up with the story of his grandfather's madness and restoration. He knew the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar himself, who praised and honored the King of heaven. To know the truth and to willfully suppress it is the height of rebellion. This is the sin described in Romans 1. It is to look at the clear evidence of God's power and righteous judgment and to spit in His face anyway.
His rebellion took a specific, blasphemous form. He "raised himself up against the Lord of heaven" by desecrating the temple vessels. This was a direct assault on God's holiness. He took what was set apart for worship and used it for a drunken party. In doing so, he praised his dead, impotent idols, gods "which do not see, hear, or know." And here is the final, devastating charge: "But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not honored." You are alive only because He sustains you. Every breath is a gift. Every heartbeat is a mercy. And you have used that borrowed breath to defy the very One who gave it to you. This is the indictment against every unrepentant sinner.
The Verdict and Sentence (vv. 24-28)
Having laid the foundation and made the indictment, Daniel now delivers the verdict from the Judge of all the earth.
"Now this is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’... ‘MENE’, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. ‘TEKEL’, you have been weighed on the scales and found lacking. ‘PERES’, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians." (Daniel 5:25-28 LSB)
The message is simple, stark, and financial. God is conducting an audit of Belshazzar's kingdom and his life, using the language of commerce. MENE means "numbered." God has counted the days of your reign, and the number is up. Your lease has expired. God sets the boundaries for all nations and all men (Acts 17:26). Your time is finished.
TEKEL means "weighed." God has placed you on His divine scales of justice, and you are found lacking. You are a spiritual lightweight. You have no substance. Your pride, your power, your feasting, it all amounts to nothing. You are morally and spiritually bankrupt. This is the condition of every man outside of Christ. When measured against the perfect holiness of God, we are all found wanting (Romans 3:23).
PERES (the singular of Upharsin) means "divided." Because you are bankrupt, your assets are being liquidated. Your kingdom is being broken apart and given to your creditors, the Medes and Persians. This is not a distant prophecy. That very night, the armies of Cyrus entered Babylon. That very night, Belshazzar was slain. The divine audit was followed by immediate collection.
The Gospel on the Wall
This is a grim story. It is a story of pride, blasphemy, and swift, terrible judgment. And if that were the end of it, we would all be without hope. For who among us could stand up to such a divine audit? Who among us, when weighed on God's scales, would not be found lacking? The handwriting is on the wall for all of us.
But the good news of the gospel is that God has provided a way for the verdict to be changed. Another King was weighed in the balance for us. Jesus Christ, the only man with true spiritual substance, the only one who was not lacking, stood on the scales of God's justice in our place.
He was numbered (MENE) with the transgressors. His days were numbered and cut short on the cross. He was weighed (TEKEL) and, though He was found perfect, He took our lack, our moral bankruptcy, upon Himself. As the prophet said, "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." His kingdom was divided (PERES). His garments were divided by the soldiers. His body was broken. He was forsaken by the Father so that we might be accepted.
Because of what Christ has done, when a believer is weighed on the scales, God does not see our deficiency. He sees the infinite weight and worth of His Son, credited to our account. The judgment has already fallen on our substitute. The debt is paid in full.
The choice before us is the same choice that was before Belshazzar. We know the story. We have seen God's power and we have heard of His judgment. We know that He is the God in whose hand is our breath. The question is, will we humble ourselves, or will we, like Belshazzar, continue the party, sinning against the light? Do not wait until the hand appears on your wall. The party will end. Flee to Christ now, in whom the terrible verdict has been nailed to the cross, and in whom we are counted, weighed, and accepted as righteous in the sight of God.