August 31 2024

As a result of this lesson, we want the students to learn that God is in charge of history, and will bring justice to a broken world.

Needed: Pen/pencil and paper

Present a message for your students to decode. One of the easiest is a simple Shifted Alphabet Code, in which, for instance, each letter is replaced with the letter that comes after it. Such as:

Choose a few of those, or make up your own, and challenge your students to figure them out. This can be a great activity to do while waiting for more students to join you. If you’d like to give your students a bit more of a challenge, try a Reverse Alphabet Code, in which:

Use that code for messages like:

When you trust God, His showing up can make even the worst situation wonderful—as Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego discovered in a scorching furnace. But when you’ve rejected God, His presence can be downright terrifying—as Belshazzar discovered the night he died.

While most translations of Daniel 5:2 describe Nebuchadnezzar as the father of Belshazzar, the original text can more accurately be translated “predecessor.” Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, who in 556 B.C. overthrew Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson Labashi-Marduk and took over the throne. Nabonidus ended up more focused on religion than ruling, though, as he spent the last decade of his reign traveling outside Babylon, conducting some of the world’s first archaeology, excavating and restoring ancient temples. While away, he left Belshazzar to rule as regent in his place—which explains why Belshazzar promised whoever could interpret the message would be “third in the kingdom.”

It also explains why everything about Belshazzar in the Bible sounds like a kid playing at power. Belshazzar was nearly 50 years old, but in the shadow of both Nabonidus and the forty-year reign of the great Nebuchadnezzar, he’d still never grown up.

With the Medo-Persian army thundering toward them that night, it may seem like a particularly bad time to throw a party, but Belshazzar may have had several excuses for this. Whether it was to celebrate ten years of his reign, his coronation as his father abdicated the throne, or just to boost everyone’s spirits, it was an event that would go down in history—and take the empire with it.

Nabonidus was controversial in Babylon for preferring the moon god, Sin, to Babylon’s main god, Marduk. Belshazzar’s idea of a spiritual experience was raiding the royal treasury for the gold and silver goblets Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the temple in Jerusalem. With the kingdom falling around him, Belshazzar decided it would be a good idea to remind Babylon’s gods of one of their greatest triumphs. Praising “the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone,” Belshazzar and his fellow revelers drank themselves drunk from goblets dedicated to the God of the Hebrews—until a disembodied hand writing on the wall knocked them back to some semblance of sense.

In today’s chaotic world, it can seem like nothing ever really changes. It’s easy to forget that even when God allows disasters to happen, He’s still in ultimate control. The story of Belshazzar, ruling an empire that had conquered a nation God had established, yet finding himself judged by the God he mocked, reminds us that before it’s all said and done, God will bring justice.

The woman described as “queen” in this section is, based on her knowledge, clearly the queen mother, not Belshazzar’s wife. Thus, she was quite likely Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, still exercising influence in the kingdom. She joined the party after Belshazzar’s official advisors and magicians were as clueless as he was.

Read Daniel 5:1-17.

1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

7 The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. 9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

10 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! 11 There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. 12 He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”

13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? 14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. 15 The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. 16 Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

Read Daniel 5:18-30.

18 “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. 19 Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. 20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21 He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.

22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. 23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. 24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin

26 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. 28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

The words on the wall all related to money. In Secrets of Daniel, Jacques Doukhan writes that “we are dealing with measures of weight. Mene (the mina, 600 g.), Tekel (the shekel, 10 g.), Upharsin (a half mina, 300 g.). It was a message any street vendor at the marketplace could have shouted to inform his clientele of the different weight values of his merchandise. Belshazzar gets the hint: It is a liquidation of stock sale and therefore the end of his business” (p. 83). Zdravko Stefanovic writes, “Daniel read then four words as numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided” (Daniel: Wisdom to the Wise, p. 196). In other words, Babylon was going out of business, and taking Belshazzar down with it.

Some scholars have believed that the book of Daniel is pure historical fiction—especially because it claims to predict the future. One of the major reasons for this belief was that Belshazzar was completely unknown from any historical record, so people assumed he was invented. However, in the late 1800s multiple inscriptions mentioning Belshazzar were discovered, including the Nabonidus cylinders and the Nabonidus chronicle. Suddenly, Belshazzar was an indisputably real figure in world—and prophetic—history.

LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.

You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.

Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.

Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.

The first four chapters of Daniel show a progression in the conversion of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 

As a tool in the hand of God, Nebuchadnezzar brought judgment on God’s people for their repeated breaking of the covenant and continued worship just like everyone else around them—idol worship. Nebuchadnezzar may have considered himself stronger than the people of Judah, and his gods stronger than their one God, Yahweh. But in Daniel 1 we saw how Daniel and his three friends remained faithful to Yahweh while they were in captivity, and God blessed them and advanced them in the Babylonian kingdom.

In Daniel 2 God really got Nebuchadnezzar’s attention with a dream which Nebuchadnezzar forgot, as well as any potential meaning. When the wise men of the kingdom couldn’t help, the king ordered their execution. Daniel stepped in, asked for one day, and then prayed to Yahweh and received the dream and its interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged and praised Daniel’s God, as well as Daniel.

In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar, in defiance of the dream Yahweh had given him, built an image of himself in all gold. Without Daniel being present, would Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stand up for Yahweh instead of bowing to the king? They stood firm, and then found God walking in the fire with them. Nebuchadnezzar was beginning to catch on to just who Yahweh is.

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar received another dream from God. Daniel interpreted it for him. It called for humility rather than pride, but Nebuchadnezzar remained proud. “Is this not great Babylon I have built” he boasted (Daniel 4:30). And with that he became an animal for seven years. At the end of those seven years he returned as king of Babylon, but his last words were praise, submission, and worship of Yahweh. We don’t hear anything more about Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible.

According to Babylonian history, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Amel-Marduk, reigned next, but only for two years. (Marduk was the highest Babylonian god.) Amel-Marduk’s brother-in-law, Neriglissar, usurped the throne and reigned for four years. His son, Labashi-Marduk, came next, but only for one year. And then came Nabonidus, who reigned for 17 years. It’s possible that Nabonidus was a son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar (the kings reigned for a relatively short time during that period). Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, which meant he occupied the throne when Nabonidus was out of town, such as during military campaigns. That explains why Belshazzar offered Daniel the position of third in the kingdom (Daniel 5:16), since Nabonidus was first and Belshazzar was second. It also explains why the queen mother, who was Belshazzar’s grandmother and a wife of Nebuchadnezzar, would refer Belshazzar to Daniel. She certainly knew of Daniel’s unusual giftedness from Yahweh, while grandson Belshazzar might have been somewhat oblivious, especially if Daniel’s role in the Babylonian leadership may have evaporated with the short-lived rulership of these interim kings.

It is in this setting that we enter Daniel 5. 
 

When were you caught doing something wrong? What happened next?

Read Daniel 5:1-30.

The Writing on the Wall

5 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. 

5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. 

7 The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” 

8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. 9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled. 

10 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! 11 There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. 12 He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.” 

13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? 14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. 15 The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. 16 Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” 

17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means. 18 “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. 19 Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. 20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21 He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes. 

22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. 23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. 24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. 

25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin 

26 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. 28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 

29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. 

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two. 

1.  Why did Belshazzar call for the gold and silver goblets?

2.  What would have been your reaction to the handwriting event?

3.  What does the wise men’s inability to decipher the message tell you?

4.  Who was able to help King Belshazzar?

5.  What would Daniel get if he could interpret the writing on the wall?

6.  What was Daniel’s message to Belshazzar?

7.  When have you seen the high and mighty brought low?
 

8.  Does what you do give honor to God, to idols, or neither? What do you expect as a result, and when?
 

It’s like a completely new world with Belshazzar as the ruler instead of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet we see a repeat of what happened previously. The pagan king lived in a pagan manner—partying with nobles, wives, and concubines, drinking generously, and mixing this with worship of various gods while demeaning the one true God, Yahweh. In this moment of revelry, a hand wrote on the wall a riddle with a message no one present could decipher. But the impact was so real that King Belshazzar basically fell apart. None of Babylon’s best could help him. It was in this moment of utter vulnerability that the queen mother brought Daniel back into the picture. 

The message was simple, direct, and truly transformational. Belshazzar was judged and he came up short—very short. As a result, the mighty Babylonian kingdom would be lost that very night. And it was. Daniel reminded the king he had received adequate history about Yahweh from his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar and the stories in Daniel 1-4. Even the queen mother could quickly bring this to his attention. Yet Belshazzar opted instead to worship the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone rather than the one true God, Yahweh. What an awful and sober judgment. It had played out in Belshazzar’s life, and he got it all wrong. That is the last we hear of Belshazzar; yet Daniel, amazingly, continued in a leadership role in the next kingdom.

Most of us get some things right and some things wrong. Ideally, we learn from our mistakes and make better choices in the future. But the early training in one’s life often gets tested during the teen years and beyond as a young person obtains the power and opportunity to make more and more personal choices.

These questions pertain to how you will relate to God as well.
 

Who have been your role models so far in your life? For many it’s their parents, guardians, or other influential adults in their life. Later teachers and church leaders often play a role. During one’s teen years, the influence of peers increases. You might have regular contact with your role models, and maybe your role models include public figures whom don’t know, but you admire (for example, athletes, musicians, movie stars, tech giants, successful business people, and artists).

Building a Great Team
By Steve Case & Hubert Cisneros

Are you an area youth director or maybe a youth leader in a church? Are you just beginning or highly experienced? Are you a young person who is ready to be a leader right now? Use the principles, ideas, examples, and plans as tools for what you create with the inspiration that only God can give you. Use all six chapters to cover many areas as a youth ministry “intensive” over one day or over a weekend. Or pick one session to share with others. Try it out, adapt it, try it again. Many youth leaders have found these elements to be vital for their youth ministry.

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