The Writing on the Wall (Part 1)

Gilbert House Ministries

The Writing on the Wall (Part 1)

November 1, 2024 • Daniel 5

THERE IS MORE to the story of the supernatural writing on the wall of the king of Babylon’s palace than you’ve been told.

This week, we begin examining one of the most mysterious and spectacular events of the Old Testament—the message from God to the regent of Babylon, Belshazzar.

According to ancient records, Babylon was captured by Cyrus II, king of the Medes and Persians, in 539 BC on the eve of the 17th of Tashritu on the Babylonian calendar. Belshazzar’s father, King Nabonidus, had ruled Babylon for about seventeen years. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar, who died in 562 BC, Nabonidus was not Chaldean. He was an Assyrian from the northern Mesopotamian city of Harran who’d seized the throne in 556 BC.

More important, Nabonidus was a devotee of the moon-god Sîn. Historical records suggest that he wanted to elevate Sîn to the top spot in the Babylonian pantheon, replacing the chief god Marduk and overturning about 600 years of religious tradition.

The drunken feast held by Belshazzar described in chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel is usually described as evidence of the decadence of Babylon, and that the kingdom’s fall to the Medes and Persians was a just reward for the sinful ways of the Chaldeans. It certainly was that—but it was much more.

The army of Cyrus had defeated Nabonidus at the Battle of Opis, about sixty miles from Babylon, about two weeks before Belshazzar’s feast. The regent must have known that Cyrus was outside the walls of the city. The timing of the feast coincided with an annual festival in honor of the moon-god held in Nabonidus’s home city of Harran, where his mother was a priestess of Sîn. The 17th of Tashritu falls during the Hunter’s Moon or Harvest Moon, two of the brightest full moons of the year.

So, it’s possible that Belshazzar and his nobles weren’t recklessly partying while the Persians were at the gates of Babylon—they may have been trying to summon the protection of the moon-god when he was at full power.

But Belshazzar made a fatal mistake. He “commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father [meaning his predecessor on the throne of Babylon] had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.” (Dan. 5:2, ESV)

The real significance of the writing on the wall is this: the 17th of Tashritu is 17 Tishri on the Hebrew calendar. That’s second day of the most important feast of Yahweh, Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. And during this time sacred to God, Belshazzar ordered that vessels sacred to Yahweh be used in a ritual meal for the moon-god, Sîn.

Boom. Babylon fell that very night.

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The Writing on the Wall (Part 2)

November 8, 2024 • Daniel 5

GOD DELIVERED a message of doom to the regent of Babylon, Belshazzar. And He did it in a way everyone in Babylon would understand. We continue our analysis of Daniel 5 and the writing on the wall, an episode so famous that it’s become a catchphrase for something so obvious that it can’t be missed. Last week, we explained how God’s divine intervention of Belshazzar’s drunken feast was not only directed at the rulers of Babylon, but at the moon-god Sîn, who was the patron deity of Babylon’s last king, Nabonidus. This week, we explore another aspect of the supernatural handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace. One of the two most important deities in Babylon in the 6th century BC was Nabû, the patron deity of scribes. Most people in Babylonia were illiterate, so when one needed to draw up a contract, make out a will, or even write a letter, a scribe was hired. Scribes were a special class, essential to the government, temples, merchants, and financiers. In short, Nabû was the god of lawyers, bankers, and priests—more or less the people who still run the world today. So, when a hand materialized and began to write on the wall, Belshazzar and his nobles may have thought it was one of their chief gods appearing before their eyes. In truth, it was Yahweh, the Creator, using Nabû’s best-known characteristic to tell Belshazzar that his gods—Nabû, Marduk, Ishtar, and Sîn—had failed him. And is it possible that the fall of Babylon in 539 BC is a template for the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset?

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