The Handwriting on the Wall

In the fifth chapter of the book of Daniel, we read a very human, though tragic story. It is the story of a man who exhausted God’s love to its limit.

Belshazzar was the king of Babylon, and grandson of the great Nebuchadnezzar who had built Babylon to its glorious greatness. The same Nebuchadnezzar who had been used of God to punish the apostasy of Judah and who had taken young men of Judah’s royal line, like Daniel and his three friends, captive.

But Belshazzar was not the man his grandfather, or even his father, Nabonidus, had been. On a prayer tablet from the hand of Nabonidus, archaeologists have found these words:

“As for Belshazzar, my first born son, place in his heart fear of Thy great divinity, let him not turn to sinning; let him be satisfied with the fullness of life.”

Apparently, Nabonidus was concerned about