God Writes The End

Transcript

GR1905
12/7/2014
God Writes the End
Daniel 5:1-31
Gil Rugh

We have another historical setting in chapter 5. We are going to meet a new king and Daniel comes to the fore again. The chapter opens up: “Belshazzar, the king held a feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.”

This chapter has made Belshazzar very well-known but for over two thousand years nothing else was known of Belshazzar except of what is in Daniel chapter 5 and many of those who did not believe in the inspiration of the Scripture took this as an example that the Bible could not be trusted for its historical accuracy because there was no king of Babylon named Belshazzar.

Let’s refresh our minds, if you would put up the kings of Babylon. There they are. They start with Nabopolassar. He was the father of Nebuchadnezzar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire because there was an older Babylonian Empire but the Bible is concerned with the empire before us. We are most familiar with Nebuchadnezzar, his son and he was by far the most outstanding ruler, one of the greatest rulers of all ancient history. He reigned over Babylon for 43 years so quite an impressive reign. He is succeeded by Evil-Merodach. They don’t give him the name evil because of, you know what we might think. He is also known as Amel-Marduk, the man of Marduk. Marduk being the Babylonian god. He comes to the throne on the death of his father, Nebuchadnezzar but he is only there for two years.

Maybe you ought to go back, 2 Kings chapter 25. He does appear in the Bible by name. 2 Kings chapter 25 because when he came to the throne he did something that was kind to the former king of Israel, of Judah who had been in prison for 37 years, ever since Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. So in 2 Kings chapter 25, verse 27: “Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. And he spoke kindly to him and set his throng above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon. And Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and had his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life” and given an allowance and so on. So this is the successor to Nebuchadnezzar. A fragment that has been found presents him not in very good light as a tyrannical kind of ruler but in the Bible he is given credit for this act of kindness.

Interestingly another vase was found, I think it is fascinating how the Lord directs men to discover certain things that go back but they found a vase in the palace with the inscription on it, “Palace of Amel-Marduk, King of Babylon, son of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon” which fits of course exactly with what the Scripture says.

Now you note, he did not reign very long, two years and then his sister’s husband assassinated him. Nice family. So in the second year of his reign his sister’s husband Nergalissar and you have him coming on the scene there. We will see him, he is the third and you have in line who these are. Evil-Merodach was the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Nergalissar was the son-in-law. So you see the connection of the family here running down through the line. Nergalissar, the son-in-law he had a previous post and was in a position of power and authority with the armies.

Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 39, Jeremiah chapter 39 and you read in verse 1: “Now when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the wall was breached, then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate” and you will note one of them, “Nergalsarezer” and he will be mentioned further down. “Nergalsarezer, the Rabmag.” That is the same man as named Nergalissar, the Nergalsarezer. So he does appear here and you see here the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s conquering of Jerusalem. He is there. He is in a position of power so he is a man who has been around power for a while and decided after the death of Nebuchadnezzar that his brother-in-law wasn’t the best choice so he killed him and took the reign himself. He’s going to reign from 560 to 556. He’s there for four years. It seems to be a prosperous reign from what we have about him but he dies in the prime of life. He leads the Babylonian armies over into Asia Minor to deal with some rebellion. On the way back he dies. Some accounts say it was a natural death, some comment that it was a mysterious death meaning you know, in those days people got poisoned and it was often difficult to tell since they didn’t have the whole way to analyze things like we do. He died. He got sick and he died. Maybe he caught a bug while they were travelling. Maybe someone put something in his drink. So there is disagreement. Did he die a natural death? Did something else happen? It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is he is gone and his son, Labashi-Marduk.

There are some names here that we don’t use very often. I always suggest you might want to draw one. I want to be careful about the gods. Labashi-Marduk, he gets nine months. He was a minor, he wasn’t old enough yet to ascend the throne and before he could get old enough he is removed. A nice way to say they killed him. Nabonidus from the military took care of that and assumes the throne himself. Now we are getting close you see here to the end of the Babylonian Empire.

Nabonidus is an interesting man. We know some about Nabonidus. He had a great interest, antiquities so he went about in Babylon restoring monuments and so. He was always careful to put on the base of the monument the original inscriptions giving credit to who put it there and the dates. He had that kind of concern for those matters. He was married to Nitocris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, a son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar. So you get all the tie-ins in family connections but he ended up leaving Babylon.

His interest in other things and his difference in the god he wanted to worship, moon god versus sun god. He ended up in the third year of his reign he turns over the rule in Babylon to his son, Belshazzar and they will be co-regents if you will until the Babylonian Empire comes to an end. In fact, Belshazzar will be killed by the Medo-Persians before Nabonidus meets his end. That’s how we get to Belshazzar. He left Babylon and went down in southwest into the Arabian Desert and in a town there, conquered it, killed the ruler, established himself there and basically was absent from Babylon until almost the end when he will return to try to defend the kingdom at the end. We will say something about that in a moment.

So what happens is Belshazzar is put in charge and he has the reign as king. He is appointed in effect, de facto king. We have an inscription that they have found. Like I said, there was no record of Belshazzar. Nabonidus was the last king of the Babylonian Empire so people thought the Bible must be wrong. It was 1861 when low and behold they found a reference to Belshazzar then other things have come.

Where that account, and you find these kinds of things if you are interested in antiquity you want the original things there is a whole couple of volumes in ancient near eastern text that you can go and read these things that have been republished so they are available. And here is what they have found concerning Nabonidus. He entrusted the camp to his oldest son, the first born. The troops everywhere in the country he ordered under his command. He let everything go, entrusted the kingship to him. He turned towards Teman. That is the town I mentioned down in Arabia in the west. He killed in battle the prince of Teman and he himself took his residence in Teman. He made the town beautiful; built there his palace like the palace in Babylon. He also built walls surrounding the town with sentinels. So you see as history comes we fill in and we find out how Belshazzar came to power. His Dad didn’t want to rule from Babylon. He had other interests and he goes down and is absent and appoints Belshazzar, really in effect, king of Babylon. Now as we will note that we will see repeated in Daniel chapter 5 on several occasions that he offers Daniel the position of third in the kingdom, down in verse 16, the last line in that verse of Daniel 5: “You will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.” Down at the end of verse 29: “He now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom,” because there was Nabonidus, there was Belshazzar, there’s Daniel. You see the power that Daniel has come to, something like Joseph in Egypt when you see how high God has brought him. You might wonder, well why is he third? Why didn’t Belshazzar appoint him second? Because he was second, because the true king of the Babylonian Empire is still Nabonidus but the king of Babylon was Belshazzar. He has really sole authority there.

Okay, now we pick up Belshazzar here in 539. That is where we are when we open up here because we are here on that night in the account here. Belshazzar is going to die and the city will fall to the Persians, the Medo-Persian alliance. The Persian ruler, Cyrus, is being the overruling king. Now I mention that because this is 539. When we started in chapter one of Daniel you will remember Daniel was carried to Babylon in the first captivity under Nebuchadnezzar in 605; 66 or 67 years have gone by so we meet Daniel in Daniel chapter 5. If he was 15 years old in chapter 1 when he was carried to Babylon he is a man over 80 now. Sometimes we read these accounts and the dates just read you go from one event to another and you think many years have gone by. We are at the end. The Babylonian Empire is over in chapter 5. What is recorded here will end with the Persians having conquered the city and bringing it to an end. So Daniel for 66, 67 years here so he’s a man who is past 80 years of age but here he will be demonstrating the same character, the same faithfulness to God.

So let’s pick up and read a little bit further here about what happens. You are familiar with the account, one of the more familiar accounts in the Old Testament probably. Belshazzar has a great feast. Let me tell you what has happened. I’ve got to tell you another historical thing. We can track what went on here. Remember Nabonidus has been out of Babylon but with the rolling in of the Persian armies, the kingdom is collapsing. Nebonidus in April of 539, I can even give you the date, April 14 of 539. Nabonidus came to Babylon for the New Year’s festival. In September of 539 the armies of Cyrus defeated the Babylonian armies in a town about 30 miles from Babylon, October, the battles go on and they continue. The towns are falling, cities are falling as you know the armies progress and close in on Babylon and it will be October 12, 539 that they enter Babylon and kill Belshazzar. So what has happened is that Nabonidus returns and the armies outside they do battle but as Nabonidus realizes the dire situation he takes some of the armies and flees and will hold out a little longer until he is chased down. So he is not in Babylon now. He had returned but then he leaves. During the battle, the Babylonian armies did battle outside the walls. You know there are these huge, high thick walls remember around Babylon. One set of the thick walls, very high then that open space we talked about earlier and then another series of thick walls. And it has got to be impregnable. The Babylonians in Babylon, Belshazzar included, know they are in for a long siege because what happens if they’re defeated. Pretty soon they go in and they close the gates and they are in the city. Well they have stocked the city with food to hold out for years. So they think they can outlast them because the Persian army is sitting out there. Pretty soon they are going to get hungry and want to go home. They had plenty of water because the Euphrates River ran right through the city of Babylon. So we’ve got food to hold for years and ample water so let the Persians sit out there if they want. It gets hot. We will be in here and we will eat well. So “Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles.” Those size feasts are not unusual in these old empires. Later Alexander the Great will have a feast for 10,000 that’s recorded and there are other records of these. It is demonstrating the power and riches and splendor of the king. So here he is.

You talk about dense. You’ve got the Persian armies sitting outside and you are partying in the city but you think well you know, we can hold out for years and they can’t get in so let’s party. Incidentally, I should tell you when Nabonidus did return to Babylon he brought the gods that he had gotten in other cities back with him hoping that you assemble the gods in the city, these statues and so on., maybe together they would defend the city and protect it. At any rate, he’s got a feast going and there is always a lot of drinking. The wine is flowing.

Verse 2: “When Belshazzar tasted the wine he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar, his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem so that his kings, his nobles, his wives, his concubines might drink from them. They brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God.” You note that repeated there, which was in Jerusalem. The kings, his nobles, his wives, his concubines drank from them. “They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.” This just wasn’t a decision, you know we need more vessels to drink from. Obviously you’ve got plenty of drinking vessels. You bring these that you know were connected with the God of Israel and the worship of Him and you disrespect them. You honor your gods and show that the God of the Jews was nothing by just turning them into drinking cups while we honor our gods. So it is an open act of defiance against God and there you see we are at the final day of the Babylonian Empire and a final display. At least Nebuchadnezzar showed respect in bringing these items back to Babylon and storing them if you will, in the store house. Belshazzar wants to show his total disrespect for the God of the Jews, the God of Israel.

I think this is interesting. We will read history and find out Nebonidus had brought all these extra gods back into Babylon but there is one God who will not be honored. It is the true and living God and Belshazzar is doing what he can do display that disrespect.

So they are eating, drinking in verse 5. “Suddenly the fingers of a man, a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.”

And if you read some archeological books or even some commentaries that go into more detail, it is amazing. In their archeological work in the ruins of Babylon they think they have found the very room that would have been this throne room. It had this huge wall that would have been plastered but it is in disrepair but they can reconstruct the size and tell from the finish that is left what it was. And it would have been the ideal kind of setting with this huge plastered kind of wall but here and the lampstand is there so light reflects off this wall because in these rooms, remember they don’t have the natural light and it’s night and you are having a party so you have that white wall which helps reflect light and shine in the room. But now all you have, it’s almost like a movie.

Years ago when I was a kid, but it always stuck in my mind, there was a movie called The Hand. I don’t know what this has to do with anything but this hand would do all kinds of things. I always thought that was the weirdest, spookiest thing I ever saw, this hand show up doing different things. Well here, all of a sudden, these fingers come and they are writing on the wall. It is not just writing. The fingers are there doing it. “The fingers of a man’s hand emerge and began writing opposite the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.” I love the description. “Then the king’s face grew pale. His thoughts alarmed him. His hip joints went slack. His knees began knocking together.” This idea, you know you sometimes you’ve seen that when a person is almost going faint. You know, they just start to buckle. That is where he is. He is terrified. “The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans, the diviners.” You know, all kinds, the magicians, the wise men, bring them in. You’ve got to find somebody to tell me what this means. Its impact on him, he’s got a sense this can’t be good. They bring all these.

“Any man who can read this inscription (in the middle of verse 7), and explain its interpretation to me will be clothes with purple, and have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority,” here we are, “as third in the kingdom,” which would be second in the city of Babylon but kingdom wide he is third. And all the king’s wise men come in and they couldn’t read this inscription. They couldn’t make known its interpretation. They can’t make it out. They are perplexed.

Then verse 10: “The queen entered.” It doesn’t seem that this is one of Belshazzar’s wives. Verse 2 tells us that his wives and his concubines are already there. They are part of the party. They are in the drinking fest. It seems probably here who we have and the woman’s name is Amytis and she was the wife of Nebuchadnezzar. So it would be the queen mother in all probability and as you might expect Nebuchadnezzar would have had wives significantly younger so it wouldn’t be amazing that she is survived because the Babylonian Empire only survives 23 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s death. So the rest of the rulers have short times. So she would be the queen mother and you get the sense of dignity here. “The queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles.” There is a sense of urgency and that comes to it seems to be the queen mother and so she comes and you wonder here how this all connects with Daniel because she is going to tell Belshazzar all about Daniel. And going back to the wife of Nebuchadnezzar how much did she experience of Daniel and over the years what kind of contact was there? We are not told but she is fully confident in Daniel. Perhaps she became a believer when Nebuchadnezzar did. We don’t know but the “queen spoke and said, ‘O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale.’” There is a certain dignity and calmness and assurance in her even as she speaks. “There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods.” Or it could be as you have in the margin, “The Spirit of the holy God.” “And in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.” What you are looking for in the other gods is found in this man, and the God that he represents. “And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners.” She calls him “your father, your father the king.” That word Aramaic here, is similar to Hebrew. They don’t have a word for grandfather, father, and that’s why it’s father Abraham. It doesn’t matter whether you were the son of Abraham or the grandson or the great, great grandson. It’s father Abraham kind of thing’ so here, “your father, the king.” Well, he’s not the immediate son but he is in a connected descendant as a connected descendant because as you saw the kings, they were connected back to Nebuchadnezzar one way or another through marriage, whatever.

“This was because of an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation.” You see he’s able to share some details about the abilities of Daniel and how God has blessed him and provided for him. This goes beyond just one event but he is able to explain enigmas, the solving of difficult problems. It’s just one. He’s a man given extraordinary wisdom by God and powers beyond just normal wisdom. So it’s just interesting. You know details but you just wonder. Here Daniel has been here for over 60 years and here is a queen mother who has been part of the ruling family for back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar. We don’t know when she married Nebuchadnezzar. I don’t have the date on it anyway here. I probably could find that since we have a name but has she had contact with Daniel? Being the queen mother and the wife of Nebuchadnezzar and having the position of honor, respect and even it seems the dignity that she could enter the hall here and address the king in this setting. Has she had connect with Daniel over the years? Having Nebuchadnezzar getting saved we think his wife would have experienced the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar and perhaps she did and faced it. Being the wife of Nebuchadnezzar she could call for Daniel anytime she wanted. So we don’t know but here is Daniel.

So “Daniel is brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, ‘Are you that Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?’” And we are going to find out we read down here further, Belshazzar knows about these events. You know the empire hasn’t been that long and these would be striking events that would have been recorded; so clarifying, “are you that Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? Now I have heard about you that a spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight, and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you. Just now the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me,” but they could not do it.

Verse 16: “But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as third in the kingdom. Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Keep your gifts for yourself, or give your rewards to someone else.” He’s not being disrespectful. He’s saying, “I am not here to earn a higher position.” The wearing of the gold necklace was restricted honor to someone of significant power. I am not looking for rewards. I serve one greater than you so you are welcome to give your rewards to others. He will be rewarded at the end but makes clear at the front end that’s not what he’s looking for.

“I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.” I just love the confidence that comes when your confidence is in God and you know you are in the center of where He wants you to be. Here you are in before the king. You’ve got everybody who is anybody who has been here as part of the thousands who have gathered for this feast. And Daniel stands there, “you give your rewards to someone else. I will tell you what it means.” Nobody else could do it. Daniel doesn’t think well I will see what I can do. Give me a shot. No, it’s “I’ll read the inscription to the king and I will make the interpretation known to him.”

“O, king, the Most High God,” now he is going to tell him. You get a theological lesson before you get the interpretation. “O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty.” Right away you know where we are, who’s in charge. “The Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father.” Who is sovereign? Your father wasn’t sovereign. The God who put him on the throne was sovereign and gave him all the glory.

“Because of the grandeur which He bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, and men of every language feared the trembled before him.” You will note here. You see something of the character of Nebuchadnezzar. “Whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished he spared alive, and whomever he wished he elevated, and whomever he wished he humbled.” Before his conversion you see the character of Nebuchadnezzar. You lived and died at his word. He decided you weren’t satisfying to him, you lost your position; you became a nothing. He had the sovereign power but God granted him that sovereignty.

“But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken away from him. He was driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes.”

I love the way Daniel handles this and the wisdom God gives him because he starts out, verse 17 after telling the king to keep your rewards or give them to someone else. “I will read the inscription for the king and make the interpretation known to him” but, so now the king has to listen to the theological history lesson about what happened and your father, really your grandfather and the line there had to be reduced to animal status.

And you will note the next line, verse 22 which they say is important here. “You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.” Belshazzar’s act of defiance against the God of Israel was not just a random act and Daniel just like when Nathan came, ‘you are the man;” the boldness of Daniel. You knew all of this. I haven’t told you something you didn’t know. You knew it and even though you knew all this, you really stubbornly refused to humble yourself before God, “but you have exalted yourself 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 understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.” I mean there is no pulling punches here. There is a boldness here. There is a fearlessness here. Daniel has not changed. In his character he is a man faithful to God. It will continue on and there is no beating around the bush. You are guilty and the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.

What a terrible statement about the rebellious heart of an unbeliever. You hear the truth. You despise and reject the truth, you don’t honor the God. Every breath that you take comes from Him.

So, we are ready for the interpretation. After confronting him with his guilt, his arrogance, his sin against the sovereign God, “then the hand was sent from Him, and this inscription was written out. Now this is the inscription that was written out; MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the message.” They couldn’t understand it. You know these Hebrew and Aramaic they don’t use vowels.

It’s sort of like that we have gotten into now. You want to abbreviate things. You leave the vowels of some letters when you are, I don’t know, sending a text or an e-mail. You just put the consonants in. Well that’s the way all Hebrew was. They didn’t have any vowels at all. You just had to know in pronouncing. So somebody sends you something and says thnks, you know its thanks, even though the ‘a’ is not there. So you just had to know that. You grew up with the language you knew.

Later on, much later, they went in and inserted vowels because with the passing of time you know, people lost the way to pronounce them so they put the vowels in. So here you would have just had the letters that becomes significant in a moment, numbered, numbered, way, divided that is what it is. Numbered, numbered, way, divided. “God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it;” and that repeating of numbered, numbered puts emphasis there of having been evaluated, your actions as head of this kingdom.

TEKEL – “you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. PERES – your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.” And it’s interesting because the Peres and you may have in your margin, I think it’s in this Bible, in your Bible, depending on the vowels you put in there the same word can mean divided or it can mean Persians. So basically it’s divided and it’s going to the Persians. It’s been given over to the Medes and the Persians. They have those in alliance. First the Persian king defeated the king of the Medes but then they joined in an alliance and so then you have a kingdom that was the joining of the two, the Medes and the Persians but the Persians are the dominant ruling power. Cyrus who is the leader of the Medo-Persian army that conquers Babylon is the king. Darius the Mede will receive the king but he is appointed. Cyrus is the Persian king that this happens under.

So he tells him. Belshazzar is excited to have the answer. He “gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.” That is great. I mean, don’t go to bed because you won’t wake up with any power. “The same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.” He’s the one given authority.

Cyrus’ armies, and you are familiar with how it happened; we have an account written about 100 years after this event, Herodotus gives the account. Cyrus then advanced against Babylon. The Babylonians having been taking the field awaited his coming. When he had advanced near the city the Babylonians gave battle, being defeated, were shut up in the city. So they are outside the city. They battle and then they fall back, get into the city and close the gates. But as they had long been aware of the restless spirit of Cyrus and saw that he attacked all nations alike they laid up provisions for many years. So they were under no apprehensions about a siege. On the other hand, Cyrus found himself in a difficulty since much time had elapsed and his fares were not all advanced. In other words, you know, you take your armies out and you travel over these large expanse, you are stretched out there and now you’ve got a city, a huge city with impregnable walls, he’s not in a good situation. You just can’t park your army here for the next three or four years waiting. You know, you’ve got supplies to bring in. You’ve got the army to take care of. You don’t want to have a situation where the army gets restless or whatever. At any rate, whether someone else made the suggestion to him in his perplexity or whether he devised a plan, we don’t have a record or who came up with the idea. What he did, having stationed the bulk of his army near the passage of the river where it enters Babylon, having stationed another division beyond the city where the river makes it exit, he gave orders to his forces to enter the city as soon as they could ford the stream.

What he did is he diverts the Euphrates River into a marsh land. Then he tells the army where it would exit when the water gets low enough and Herodotus goes on. I won’t go on, it’s an extensive description here. It was up to their thighs. Then they wade into the city and the Babylonians were so confident they had gates they could have lowered into the river and trapped the Persian army between the two walls in the water but they didn’t lower the gates. It’s party time. Anybody who is anybody, I take it the military commanders, would have been at the party too. You’ve got the armies that have driven the true king of the Babylonian empire out of his places and he’s retreated from Babylon and you’ve got Belshazzar in here having a party. So when the water got down to about thigh level Herodotus says they waded into the city. I’m going to read you this statement. “If however the Babylonians had been aware of it before hand or had known what Cyrus was about they would have not suffered the Persians to enter the city but would have utterly destroyed them. For having shut all the little gates that led to the river and mounting the walls that extended along the banks of the river they would have caught them as in a net; whereas the Persians came upon them by surprise.” It is related by the people who inhabited this city so you know, only being a hundred years removed, they have been passed along. By reason of his great extent Babylon was so big that when they were at the extremities those who were in the center city didn’t even know the Persians had already taken control of that part of Babylon, such an extensive city. They knew nothing of the capture for it happened to be a festival. They were dancing at the time, enjoying themselves and they received certain information of the truth. Now Babylon was taken for the first time.

Don’t you just love this? That’s why it’s hard to study something like Daniel. You can get taken up with reading all this other stuff and I think, “yes, we have to move along but I’ve got to tell you about the cylinder of Cyrus.” In fact I even have a picture of it but I didn’t get it to the men so they could put it up for you. They have discovered the cylinder of Cyrus. It’s like a barrel. It looks like an, oh you know, a wine barrel or something like that in shape but it’s a clay cylinder. They call it the cylinder of Cyrus and Cyrus records about his capturing Babylon. Marduke the great lord, a protector of his people, worshippers he held with pleasure; his, referring to himself, Cyrus’ good deeds. His upright mind and he was ordered to march to Babylon so he gives credit to his god. So when he came, his troops that are numbered like that of the water of the river could not be established and he strode along their way. Without any battle they entered into the town of Babylon without any calamity and Nabonidus was delivered into his hand. Now Nabonidus isn’t delivered into his hand personally at Babylon at this time but with the fall of Babylon and Babylonian Empire is over, it’s just a matter of chasing down the remnants with Nabonidus so interesting you have the cylinder of Cyrus that records that. No battle. Instead he’s taken.

You get an idea of what Daniel has lived through? We looked at the different Babylonian kings. You wonder what’s going on in Daniel’s life through all of this; from a young man, perhaps 15 to an old man in his eighties. And he’s not done because we are going to be talking about Daniel in the third year of Cyrus, three more years alone. How has he functioned? What has he been doing, the impact and all the intrigue that has gone on when these men of influence because of their wisdom, the wise men. You know the king was murdered and we have another king and all the intrigue going on; Daniel still notable. Queen mother can come in and say you want somebody who can interpret for you, who can tell you what the true and living God has to say? You want Daniel, so his reputation has remained strong until the very end.

So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about age 62. You maybe have it marked there in your Bible, 539, October 539 B.C. The empire is over. Daniel’s ministry is over.

Now we are going to make a change. We are going to have not just a different king, we are going to transfer from the Babylonian Empire to the Medo-Persian Empire. Daniel will have much more to say about that in revelations given to him in the coming prophetic portions of the book. We saw a little bit of it back in Daniel chapter 2 and the coming empires, Babylon, Medo-Persian and so on. The Persians are here. Daniel will still maintain a position and have a testimony. Kings come and go; Nebuchadnezzar, one of the greatest rulers of the ancient world. Who’s the most important man in Babylon? Not Nebuchadnezzar, but Daniel. These kings come and go. They exalt themselves, they build palaces and they do wonderful things. Who’s the most important person there? Daniel. He just has to keep his perspective. I serve the living God. He serves the king, very respectful. We have seen through the pattern. We will see that continue on. He carries out his duties obviously well but he is there as a representative of the true and living God, encouragement to us.

You know you want to start well but you also want to finish well. We want to wear out, get tired. Daniel was over 80 years of age and his commitment to the Lord, his faithfulness to Him, nothing has changed in that sense from being a young man. It’s not the idea well I am old you know, I’ve served. Perhaps some of his friends have died. We don’t know where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are. Maybe they have passed on. It doesn’t matter. He finished the way he started because his God has him there. What a good testimony. Finish well and Daniel’s not finished. He’s just old. We don’t know how he dies. He will just pass out of sight because what God wants to reveal through him will be done but we know he is getting into his middle eighties and he is about God’s business. You know we have the song, “Dare to be a Daniel” and there is a pattern established, an example for us.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the record of your sovereignty, of Your faithfulness and of Your servant Daniel. Lord what an encouragement to have seen him as a young man but demonstrating maturity in You and a commitment to be faithful whatever the situation and then to see him again before the king in his elderly years but with the same faithfulness, the same confidence in You and the same testimony given to a godless king on the brink of eternity.

Thank You Lord for the way You use us. May we be faithful wherever You put us, however You choose to use us. May we be ready to speak for You, to be used of You because we are committed to be faithful to You in all that we do. Bless us in the week before us. Use our testimony as we share with others the beauty of the message of Your Son, the Savior of the world in whose name we pray, Amen.