Great changes were taking place in the land to which Daniel and his companions had been carried captive more than sixty years before. Nebuchadnezzar had died, and Babylon had passed under the unwise rule of his successors. Gradual but sure decline was resulting.2TC 258.2

Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, gloried in his power and lifted up his heart against the God of heaven. He had known that God’s decree had banished his grandfather from human society. He was familiar with Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion and miraculous restoration. But he allowed pleasure and self-glorification to erase the lessons he should never have forgotten. He neglected to use the means within his reach for becoming better acquainted with truth.2TC 258.3

It was not long before reverses came. Cyrus, commanding general of the Medes and Persians, put Babylon under siege. But within its massive walls and gates of bronze, protected by the river Euphrates and stocked with abundant provisions, the pleasure-seeking monarch felt safe and passed his time in merriment and partying.2TC 259.1

In his pride and arrogance, with a reckless feeling of security, Belshazzar “made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.” Beautiful women with their enchantments were among the guests. Men of genius and education were there. Princes and statesmen drank wine and partied under its maddening influence.2TC 259.2

With reason dethroned through drunkenness and with lower impulses and passions controlling him, the king himself took the lead in the riotous orgy. He “gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which ... Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem.” The king would prove that nothing was too sacred for his hands to handle. “They brought the gold vessels ...; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.”2TC 259.3

A Sign of Doom to the King and Guests

A divine Watcher, unrecognized, looked on the scene, heard the sacrilegious mirth, saw the idolatry. Soon the uninvited Guest made His presence felt. When the partying was at its height, a bloodless hand wrote on the palace walls characters that gleamed like fire—words that foreshadowed doom.2TC 259.4

The boisterous mirth was hushed while men and women watched in terror as the hand slowly traced the mysterious characters. As if in panoramic view, the deeds of their evil lives passed before them. They seemed to be on trial before the judgment bar of the eternal God whose power they had just defied. Where a few moments before had been hilarity and blasphemous joking, were ashen faces and cries of fear.2TC 259.5

Belshazzar was the most terrified of them all. His conscience had awakened, and “his knees knocked against each other.” Now he realized that he could offer no excuse for his wasted opportunities and defiant attitude.2TC 260.1

In vain the king tried to read the burning letters. He turned to the wise men for help. His wild cry rang out in the assembly, “Whoever reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck; and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” But heavenly wisdom cannot be bought or sold. “All the king’s wise men ... could not read the writing, or make known to the king its interpretation.” They were no more able than the wise men of a former generation had been to interpret the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.2TC 260.2

Then the queen mother remembered Daniel. “O king,” she said, “do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar ... made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. ... Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.”2TC 260.3

“Then Daniel was brought in before the king.” Making an effort to regain his composure, Belshazzar said to the prophet, “I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”2TC 260.4

Unmoved by the promises of the king, Daniel stood in the quiet dignity of a servant of the Most High. “Give your rewards to another,” he said, “yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.”2TC 260.5

Daniel Holds the King’s Sin Up Before Him

The prophet first reminded Belshazzar of Nebuchadnezzar’s sin and fall, of the divine judgment for his pride, and his subsequent acknowledgment of the power and mercy of the God of Israel. Then in bold, emphatic words he rebuked Belshazzar for his great wickedness and pointed out the lessons he might have learned but did not. Belshazzar had not heeded the warning of events so significant to himself. He was about to reap the consequence of his rebellion.2TC 260.6

“You ..., Belshazzar, ... have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone ...; and the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written.”2TC 261.1

Interpretation of the Writing on the Wall

Turning to the message on the wall, the prophet read, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” The hand was no longer visible, but these words were still gleaming with terrible distinctness; and now, holding their breath, the people listened while the aged prophet declared: “This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”2TC 261.2

God’s Restraining Hand Removed

In that last night of insane folly Belshazzar and his lords had filled up the measure of the Chaldean kingdom’s guilt. No longer could God’s restraining hand hold off the impending evil. “We would have healed Babylon,” God declared of those whose judgment was now reaching unto heaven, “but she is not healed.” Jeremiah 51:9. God had finally found it necessary to pass the irrevocable sentence. Belshazzar’s kingdom was to pass into other hands.2TC 261.3

When the prophet stopped speaking, the king commanded that he be awarded the promised honors.2TC 261.4

More than a century before, Inspiration had foretold that “the night of ... pleasure” (Isaiah 21:4, KJV), during which king and counselors would blaspheme God, would suddenly be changed into a time of fear and destruction. And now, while still in the festival hall, the king is informed that “his city is taken” by the enemy. Jeremiah 51:31. Even while he and his nobles were drinking from the sacred vessels and praising their gods of silver and gold, the Medes and Persians, having diverted the Euphrates out of its channel, were marching into the heart of the unguarded city. The army of Cyrus now stood under the walls of the palace. The city was filled with the soldiers of the enemy, “like a swarm of locusts” (verse 14, NRSV), and their triumphant shouts could be heard above the despairing cries of the astonished party-goers.2TC 261.5

“That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain,” and a foreign king sat on the throne.2TC 262.1

Prophecy Fulfilled

The Hebrew prophets had spoken clearly concerning the manner in which Babylon would fall:2TC 262.2

“Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.” “The Lord is the God of recompense, He will surely repay. ‘And I will make drunk her princes and wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,’ says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.” Jeremiah 51:8, 56, 57.2TC 262.3

So “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,” became like Sodom and Gomorrah—a place forever accursed. “It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation; nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of owls; ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will caper there. The hyenas will howl in their citadels, and jackals in their pleasant palaces.” Isaiah 13:19-22.2TC 262.4

Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter Babylon!
Sit on the ground without a throne... .
You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.
Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”—
both these things shall come upon you in a moment, in one day:
the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure... .
You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.” Isaiah 47:1, 7-10, NRSV2TC 262.5

Prophecy has outlined the rise and progress of the world’s great empires—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each, as with nations of less power, history has repeated itself. Each has had its period of test; each has failed, its glory faded, its power departed. Nations have rejected God’s principles and have brought about their own ruin, yet a divine, overruling purpose has been at work throughout the ages.2TC 263.1

A Power Overrides Human Affairs

This is what the prophet Ezekiel saw when before his astonished gaze God portrayed symbols that revealed a Power overruling the affairs of earthly rulers. Wheels intersecting one another were moved by four living beings. High above all these “was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man.” Ezekiel 1:26.2TC 263.2

The wheels, so complicated that at first sight they appeared to be in confusion, moved in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings were powering those wheels. The complicated play of human events is under divine control. Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He that sits above the cherubim still guides the affairs of this earth. To every nation and individual God has assigned a place in His great plan. By their own choices, men and nations today are deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all to accomplish His purposes.2TC 263.3

The prophecies that the great I AM has given in His Word tell us where we are in the procession of the ages. Everything that prophecy has foretold until the present time has been recorded on the pages of history, and all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its time.2TC 263.4

The signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. The Savior prophesied of events to precede His coming: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. ... Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” Matthew 24:6, 7. Rulers and statesmen recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.2TC 264.1

The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of events that already are casting their shadows before. The sound of their approach is causing the earth to tremble and people’s hearts to fail them for fear. “Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste, distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants.” “Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate.” Isaiah 24:1, 5, 6.2TC 264.2

“Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” Jeremiah 30:7.2TC 264.3

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Psalm 91:9, 102TC 264.4

God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest danger. He has promised deliverance. All beneath the sun will honor the principles of His kingdom.2TC 264.5

Nebuchadnezzar’s Seven Years of Madness

Daniel in the Lions’ Den