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<p>We have here Belshazzar the king very gay, but all of a sudden very gloomy, and in straits in the fulness of his sufficiency. See how he affronts God, and God affrights him; and wait what will be the issue of this contest; and whether he that hardened his heart against God prospered.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. See how the king affronted God, and put contempt upon him. He <i>made a great feast</i>, or <i>banquet of wine</i>; probably it was some anniversary solemnity, in honour off his birth-day or coronation-day, or in honour of some of their idols. Historians say that Cyrus, who was now with his army besieging Babylon, knew of this feast, and presuming that they then would be off their guard, <i>somno vinoque sepulti—buried in sleep and wine</i>, took that opportunity to attack the city, and so with the more ease made himself master of it. Belshazzar upon this occasion invited <i>a thousand of his lords</i> to come and drink with him. Perhaps they were such as had signalized themselves in defense of the city against the besiegers; or these were his great council of war, with whom, when they had well drunk, he would advise what was further to be done. And they were to look upon it as a great favour that he <i>drank wine before</i> them, for it was the pride of those eastern kings to be seldom seen. He drank wine before them, for he made this feast, as Ahasuerus did, to show the <i>honour of his majesty</i>. Now in this sumptuous feast, 1. He put an affront upon the providence of God and bade defiance to his judgments. His city was now besieged; a powerful enemy was at his gates; his life and kingdom lay at stake. In all this the hand of the Lord had gone out against him, and by it he called him to <i>weeping, and mourning, and girding with sackcloth</i>. God’s voice cried in the city, as Jonah to Nineveh, <i>Yet forty days</i>, or fewer, <i>and Babylon shall be destroyed</i>. He should therefore, like the king of Nineveh, have proclaimed a fast; but, as one resolved to walk contrary to God, he proclaims a feast, and behold <i>joy and gladness, slaying oxen, killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine</i>, as if he dared the Almighty to do his worst, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.22.12,Isa.22.13" href="/passage/?search=Isa.22.12,Isa.22.13"><span class="bibleref" title="Isa.22.12">Isa. 22:12</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Isa.22.13">13</span></a>. To show how little fear he had of being forced to surrender, for want of provisions, he spent thus extravagantly. Note, Security and sensuality are sad presages of approaching ruin. Those that will not be warned by judgments of God may expect to be wounded by them. 2. He put an affront upon the temple of God, and bade defiance to his sanctuary, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.5.2" href="/passage/?search=Dan.5.2">Dan. 5:2</a>. <i>While he tasted the wine, he commanded to bring the vessels of</i> the temple, that they might drink in them. When he tasted how rich and fine the wine was, “O,” said he, “it is a pity but we should have holy vessels to drink such delicious wine as this in,” which was looked upon as a piece of wit, and, to carry on the humour, the vessels of the temple were immediately sent for. Nay, there seems to have been something more in it than a frolic, and that it was done in a malicious despite to the God of Israel. The heart of his people was very much upon these sacred vessels, as appears from <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.27.16,Jer.27.18" href="/passage/?search=Jer.27.16,Jer.27.18"><span class="bibleref" title="Jer.27.16">Jer. 27:16</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Jer.27.18">18</span></a>. Their principal care, at their return, was about these, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.1.7" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.1.7">Ezra 1:7</a>. Now, we may suppose, they had an expectation of their deliverance approaching, reckoning the seventy years of their captivity near a period; and some of them might perhaps have given out some words to that purport, that shortly they should have the vessels of the sanctuary restored to them, in defiance of which Belshazzar here proclaims them to be his own, will keep them in store no longer, but will make use of them among his own plate. Note, That mirth is sinful indeed, and fills the measure of men’s iniquity apace, which profanes sacred things and jests with them. This ripened Babylon for r
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<p class="tab-1">II. See how God affrighted the king, and struck a terror upon him. Belshazzar and his lords are in the midst of their revels, the cups going round apace, and all upon the merry pin, drinking confusion, it may be, to Cyrus and his army, and roaring out huzzas, in confidence of the speedy raising of the siege; but the hour had come when that must be fulfilled which had been long ago said of the king of Babylon, when his city should be besieged by the Persians and Medes, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.21.2-Isa.21.4" href="/passage/?search=Isa.21.2-Isa.21.4">Isa. 21:2-4</a>. <i>The night of my pleasures has he turned into fear to me</i>. The mirth of this ball at court must be spoiled, and a damp cast upon their jollity, though the king himself be master of the revels; immediately, when God speaks the word, we have him and all his guests in the utmost confusion, and the end of their mirth is heaviness. 1. There appear the <i>fingers of a man’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall</i>, before the king’s face (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.5.5" href="/passage/?search=Dan.5.5">Dan. 5:5</a>), “the angel Gabriel,” say the rabbin, “directing these fingers and writing by them.” “That divine hand” (says a rabbi of our own, Dr. Lightfoot) “that had written the two tables for a law to his people now writes the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall.” Here was nothing sent to frighten them which made a noise, or threatened their lives, no claps of thunder nor flashes of lightning, no destroying angel with his sword drawn in his hand, only a pen in the hand, writing upon the wall, <i>over-against the candlestick</i>, where they might all see it by the light of their own candle. Note, God’s written word is sufficient to put the proudest boldest sinners into a fright, when he is pleased to give it the setting on. The king saw <i>the part of the hand that wrote</i>, but saw not the person whose hand it was, which made the thing more frightful. Note, What we see of God, the part of the hand that writes in the book of the creatures and the book of the scriptures (<i>Lo, these are parts of his ways</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Job.26.14" href="/passage/?search=Job.26.14">Job 26:14</a>), may serve to possess us with awful thoughts concerning that of God which we do not see. If this be <i>the finger of God</i>, what is his arm made bare? And what is he? 2. The king is immediately seized with a panic fear (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.5.6" href="/passage/?search=Dan.5.6">Dan. 5:6</a>): <i>His countenance was changed</i> (his colour went and came); <i>the joints of his loins were loosed</i>, so that he had no strength in them, but was struck with a pain in his back, as is usual in a great fright; <i>his knees smote one against another</i>, so violently did he tremble like an aspen leaf. But what was the matter? Why is he in such a fright? He perceives not what is written, and how does he know but it may be some happy presage of deliverance to him and to his kingdom? But the business was <i>his thoughts troubled him</i>; his own guilty conscience flew in his face, and told him that he had no reason to expect any good news from Heaven, and that the hand of an angel could write nothing but terror to him. He that knew himself liable to the justice of God immediately concluded this to be an arrest in his name, a summons to appear before him. Note, God can soon awaken the most secure and make the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there needs no more to do it than to let loose his own thoughts upon him; they will soon play the tyrant, and give him trouble enough. 3. The wise men of Babylon are immediately called in, to see what they can make of this writing upon the wall, <a class="bibleref" title="Dan.5.7" href="/passage/?search=Dan.5.7">Dan. 5:7</a>. The king <i>cried aloud</i>, as one in haste, as one in earnest, to bring the whole college of magicians, to try if they can <i>read this writing</i>, and <i>show the interpretation of it</i>; for the king and all his lords cannot pretend to
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