Over The Whole Kingdom

Daniel has explained the second dream to Nebuchadnezzar and a year passes. Then, as he is complementing himself on all he has accomplished, the dream happens, he is expelled, living with the animals. Until he lifts his eyes, seven years later, and says, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the king of heaven”. The book of Daniel forwards to Belshazzar, now king, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar who throws a feast and takes the gold from the temple in Jerusalem to drink from. Suddenly there is a hand writing on the wall and no one can read the message. Daniel has fallen into obscurity but one remembers and he is called. He reminds Belshazzar of what happened with his grandfather and explains the message, “God has numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end … you have been found wanting”. Belshazzar promotes Daniel to be third in the kingdom just before the Medes and Persians take the city and Belshazzar is killed. Did you get that, as Darius the Mede enters the city, Daniel is third over the whole kingdom.

The Kingdom Has Departed From You

Daniel 4:28–33
“At the end of twelve months …” in Daniel 4:28-30 the king is complementing himself on all he has done, so self satisfied. Then in Daniel 4:31 “a voice from heaven came, saying, ‘To you, King Nebuchadnezzar, it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you” and the details included in vs. 32 are the same as those revealed in the dream (see Daniel 4:25). And in Daniel 4:33 “immediately the word was fulfilled and he was expelled from human society …”.

The twelve month delay may have been Daniel’s advice “having mercy on the oppressed, in case there might be a prolongation of your prosperity.” (see Daniel 4:27)

External Evidence:
A recently published Babylonian cuneiform text seems to shatter the silence about Nebuchadnezzar’s illness. See the article by Siegfried H. Horn ‘New light on Nebuchadnezzar’s madness’ in Ministry Magazine at https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1978/04/new-light-on-nebuchadnezzars-madness

An Everlasting Sovereignty

Daniel 4:34–37
Nebuchadnezzar does “at the end of that period … lift up his eyes” in Daniel 4:34-37 and says “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the king of heaven”. He is completely restored to his position “and abundant greatness was added to me” but there isn’t any further record of him in Daniel.

They Took From the House of God

Daniel 5:1–6
Belshazzar is introduced in Daniel 5:1-6. The history of Babylon is not recorded, only the intervention of God in defense of the Jews. So here, the now king of Babylon is feasting and went beyond all previous limits and called for the gold taken from the temple in Jerusalem and they all “drank from them” in vs. 3. Then, in Daniel 5:5 “Immediately human fingers … wrote … on the plaster of the wall” and in vs. 6 the king was terrified.

What isn’t immediately clear is that “his city was at the time being besieged by Cyrus. The fortifications and abundant provisions in the city made the king despise the besiegers. It was a festival day among the Babylonians … drank … before the thousand—The king, on this extraordinary occasion, departed from his usual way of feasting apart from his nobles (compare Es 1:3).¹

Tell Me Its Explanation

Daniel 5:7–12
In Daniel 5:7 “The king cried aloud to bring in … the wise men … tell me its explanation” and in vs. 8 none could and in vs. 9 the king was “greatly terrified … and his lords were perplexed”. Then in Daniel 5:10-12 “the queen spoke up and said, … there is a man … let Daniel be called and he will tell the explanation”.

“As Daniel was probably, according to Oriental custom, deprived of the office to which Nebuchadnezzar had promoted him, as “master of the magicians” (Da 4:9), at the king’s death, Belshazzar might easily be ignorant of his services.”²

You Are Able

Daniel 5:13–22
The king offers wealth and position and knows Daniels reputation as one that is “able to produce interpretations and to solve riddles” in Daniel 5:16. Daniel though, knows the city is under siege and the kings offer is meaningless. Even so, he answers the kings request beginning in Daniel 5:17. Daniel honors king Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 5:18. Then he rehearses in Daniel 5:19-21 the time of his arrogance when the kingdom was taken from him “until he acknowledged that the most high God is sovereign over the kingdom of humankind”. And then speaks the truth, which this king may not have heard from anyone in some time, in

Daniel 5:22 “But you his successor, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this.

Belshazzar was not mentioned before this but he was alive and witness to the things that had happened in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar his grandfather “that Belshazzar was son (grandson) of Nebuchadnezzar is corroborated by Jeremiah” (Je 27:7)³

You Have Exalted Yourself

Daniel 5:23–31
Daniel explains that the king and all with him have, in Daniel 5:23 “exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven” and this writing in Daniel 5:24-28 says “God has numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end … you have been found wanting … your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians”.

The king doesn’t blink, in Daniel 5:29 he rewards Daniel and proclaims him third ruler in the kingdom.

Daniel 5:30–31 (LEB) That same night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.

“Cyrus diverted the Euphrates into a new channel and, guided by two deserters, marched by the dry bed into the city, while the Babylonians were carousing at an annual feast to the gods.”⁴

As it was told, the kingdom was split with Darius the Mede and Cyrus who “As a matter of history Cyrus headed up the Medo-Persian empire when he conquered Babylon in 539 BC.”⁵