Daniel 5

"King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While 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. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.

Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, '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, nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means. O king, 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 people and nation and men of every language dreaded and feared him. When his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all the kingdoms.'

'But you his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription which means; God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.'

Then Daniel was clothed in purple and a gold chain was placed around his neck and he was proclaimed the 3rd highest ruler in the kingdom.

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of 62.

Important Message

Be careful to learn from those who have fallen.

Daniel said, "you have not humbled yourself,

though you knew all that had happened to your father.

Instead, you have chosen to bow to your own gods."