Daniel 5:2 Commentary and Bible Study

This is really an extreme act. Through the Book of Daniel God has moved in a remarkable way to preserve the safety and security of the Jews, who had been taken out of Jerusalem and Judah, and are now living in various parts of the Babylonian Empire. How would they be treated? There have been various moves to exterminate them, even genocide, and to get rid of them or hurt them. Time after time the Lord through this book preserves them on behalf of the faithful remnant in a very remarkable way. But you see the increasing pride of first Nebuchadnezzar, and now you see it in Belshazzar his descendant with this great feast. But Belshazzar does what Nebuchadnezzar never did. He took these precious vessels that belonged to the temple in Jerusalem, and proceeded to pour scorn on them, and to insult the God of Israel by drinking the wine out of them with which they would praise their idol gods. So this is public contempt. What is recorded in this chapter is going to be a rejection of previous policy towards the Jews. Each time God has intervened in the history of the Chaldeans, there has been a distinct preservation as a result, and edicts made by the king forbidding harm to the Jews. But now all this is going to be reversed, it would appear, by Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar said, nobody must speak a word against the faith of the Jews, but now they are going to be publicly scorned. It's his way of reversing what Nebuchadnezzar did. This is not just a personal act of blasphemy – antagonism against the God of Israel, the one true God – but it indicates a whole new policy that could would mark a new era. Of course it won’t do so because Babylon is now coming to an end, but you read of how this was attempted. It seemed to this man to be a good idea to debase the Jews’ temple vessels made for the worship of God, and to use them for consumption of alcohol as a servant of his lust. There is no fear of God; no fear to desecrate the holy things.Nothing like this had ever happened before. The vessels had been taken from Jerusalem, but never debased before. Belshazzar makes this a centrepiece, an act of wilful arrogance. He boastfully set himself above the God of Israel. Their recent history had taught them about Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was rendered insane; this was well known. Nebuchadnezzar had respect for Daniel’s God, but now a new broom comes in and tries to sweep clean. The God of Israel had conquered Nebuchadnezzar in his heart. So all the more reason why Belshazzar sought to repudiate the God of Israel in the assertion of his own power.