Of this, Belshazzar is a remarkable instance. He was grandson to Nebuchadnezzar, and had an opportunity of seeing, in the divine dispensations towards his royal ancestor, how hateful pride is, even in royalty itself; how instantly God can blast the most blooming dignity of the brightest crown, and reduce him that wears it to a condition level with the beasts that perish; how quickly, when the divine decree goeth forth, a haughty rational can be converted into a brute, and a Nebuchadnezzar, in all the pomp of majesty upon his throne, be driven from human converse, and become a fit associate only for oxen that graze the field, and are wet with the dew of heaven; and how much, therefore, the prosperity of kings, and the stability of their thrones, depend upon acknowledging, that “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will—that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; that he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?—that his works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.” Dan. iv. 25, 35, 37.
But this instruction, though conveyed through a dispensation, calculated to write it upon his heart as indelibly as with a pen of iron, or the point of a diamond, seems to have been all lost on Belshazzar. In a depraved and debauched mind, the most striking memorials of divine interposition are soon buried in oblivion; and all the impressions, which the most tremendous judgments of God generally make in such a case, only resemble characters made in the sand, which the first flux of the tide totally obliterates. Belshazzar had undoubtedly often heard the memorable history of his royal grandfather, and could not avoid seeing in it the great outlines of that divine system of truth, which inculcates the evil of sin, and recommends the fear of the Lord as the supreme wisdom. The very sight of those fields, where Nebuchadnezzar once roamed, or of the animals with which he herded, when deposed from his throne, and deprived of his understanding, must have brought to his recollection the singular event, that so strongly marked God’s displeasure at all sin; especially that kind of it, which lifts up the heart with atheistic pride, and prompts arrogant worms of the earth to affect independence of Him, “in whom they live, and move, and have their being.” But Belshazzar, like libertines in all ages, buried the remembrance of these things in his cups, and company; or sought relief from any disquieting apprehensions, in the fulsome flattery of the civil and ecclesiastical sycophants, that herded round his throne, and constituted his levee. Thus soothed into a false security by court adulation or pulpit-daubing, he became a beast in sensuality, and indulged in every sordid gratification, that could make him hateful to God, and contemptible to man; in which we may suppose him to have been immersed the more deeply, for want of some faithful monitor near his person, to tell him the truth, like honest Micaiah, without dread of royal resentment. There was one man in Belshazzar’s kingdom, who was especially qualified for this important office; but he had not the opportunity, being a Jew, and a captive, till a singular event brought him out of his obscurity, and displayed the superiority of his wisdom above all the pretenders to it in Belshazzar’s court.
Upon a particular day, Belshazzar made a feast, to which were invited “a thousand of his lords.” Dan. v. 1. Being a lewd polygamist, like all the heathen princes of the East, “his wives and his concubines” formed a part of his guests; for, to an abandoned prince a palace hath no beauty unless it be a receptacle for prostitutes; the whole apparatus of a court appears incomplete without a seraglio; and in the esteem of the drunken king of Babylon, or the grand Turk with Mahomed’s Koran in his hand, there are no blessings comparable with the blessings of polygamy.—Belshazzar, thus environed with his concubines and his lords, pushes about his intoxicating goblet, and poured out libations, or toasted the memory of their “gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.” Verse 4. Proper deities, it must be acknowledged, to preside in such assemblies, in which the songs of the drunkard, and the conversation of the lascivious, render the scene perfectly worthy of all that indecency and excess, which idolatry ever promoted among its votaries. The king of Babylon, not content with blending idolatry and voluptuousness together, at his luxurious feast, where lords and whores unite to strengthen him in his wickedness, adds sacrilege to his other sins. “He commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein.” Verse 2. Thus this impious prince insulted the God of heaven by sacrilegiously profaning those vessels that had been consecrated to the service of his temple; as if his wine would be doubly sweet, when drank out of God’s sacred chalice, or the vessels of his holy sanctuary were only fit to be prostituted to the purposes of riot and excess. In the desecration of these vessels, the temple-worship was profaned, a captive people insulted, and an atrocious act of indignity committed against the Holy One of Israel.
While Belshazzar was thus employed in filling the vessels of the temple with intoxicating liquor, God was filling for him the phials of his indignation. He bent his bow and made it ready; and the moment was approaching in which the barbed arrow of swift destruction was to be directed by an unerring hand against Belshazzar and his kingdom. A most awful presage of this event is given, when least expected. In the midst of the entertainment, while the king and his guests are absorbed in pleasure; behold! a strange phenomenon arrests the solemn attention of the gay circle, and suddenly damps all their mirth. Every face turns pale, and every heart is filled with a horrible dread. Their festivity and carousings are changed into confusion and despair. The sumptuous entertainment entertains no longer; and the wine, sparkling in the glass, or mantling in the goblet, can yield no antidote against the chilling fears that seize the hearts of the disturbed guests. The mirth and gaiety of this festive assembly are changed into silence, solemnity, and distraction. But what occasioned so instantaneous a perturbation? Was it the appearance of some angry cherub, like him whom God appointed as the flaming guardian of the tree of life? or, was it the discovery of some instrument of death suspended from the ceiling over the king’s head, like that sword, which hanging by a hair over Damocles, the base flatterer of a Sicilian tyrant, disturbed his peace in the midst of a banquet? No; it was nothing more than “the fingers of a man’s hand, writing over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace,” verse 5, “and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” He saw, and trembled. But what ailed thee, O Belshazzar! that thy peace should be broken at the sight of an object, that carried nothing hostile in its outward appearance? Ah! it is not the first time that a sinner has been made to tremble at hand-writing, when the hand of God appears to hold the pen. Belshazzar’s conscience instantly commented upon the mysterious characters. The hand of God wrote his doom, and his own guilty fears anticipated it. “His countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” Verse 6. To what an abject and pusillanimous condition, a consciousness of guilt, and a dread of punishment, reduce often the most stout hearted! Nay, “the wicked fleeth, when no man pursueth, while the righteous is bold as a lion.” Prov. xxiii. 1.
Belshazzar, distracted and amazed, cries aloud to bring in the astrologers and soothsayers. A considerable reward is offered to those, who should read and interpret the writing. They try, but in vain. The queen advises to consult Daniel. He is brought before the king. The honest Hebrew tells him of his pride, idolatry, and sacrilege. He reads the writing, and gives the interpretation; which was, that “God had numbered his kingdom and finished it; that he was weighed in the balances and found wanting; and that his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Verse 26–28. The interval between the writing of this awful prediction, and the accomplishment of it, was very short. For “in that night” was Belshazzar surprised by an army headed by Cyrus, “and slain,” and the kingdom of the Chaldeans transferred by conquest to that of the Medes and Persians. Thus judgments tread close upon the heels of guilt, and are sometimes as swift in their progress, as they are sure in their arrival; the commission of sin, and the infliction of punishment, happening, not seldom, at the same instant.
Let us now, first, make some practical observations on the history referred to in the text; and, secondly, accommodate the images in it to the purpose of forming a scrutiny into the hearts and lives, the principles and pretensions, of sinners.
I. 1. The profanation of things sacred is highly affrontive to the Divine Majesty; incurs great guilt, and exposes to danger in proportion; because God himself is virtually dishonored in the abuse or contempt of what relates to his service. The men of Bethshemesh only look into the ark, and Uzzah only touches it, and God instantly punishes the presumption of the one, and the profane curiosity of the other, with judicial chastisement. And it is not so much the act as the intention of the agent, that God regards in such a case. Under circumstances of peculiar necessity, David “eats the shewbread, which it was not lawful for any to eat but the priests.” And yet this infringement of a positive ceremony passes with impunity, because God considered the nature of the case, and saw the purity of David’s intention. But when the king of Babylon sent for the vessels of the temple, it was evident, that he meant studiously to affront the God of the Jews, and to make the people and their religion objects of malicious triumph, and “cruet mockery.” By thus blending the cup of the Lord with the cup of devils, Belshazzar filled up the measure of his iniquity, and provoked Jehovah to make his punishment as conspicuous as his impiety was public. As sacrilege is a sin of very comprehensive application, let us beware how we rob the Most High of the honor due to his truths, his ordinances, his name, and his own day. And particularly, let us see to it, that we profane not that sacred institution, which is commemorative of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; when we reflect, what judgments this species of profanation brought upon the Corinthian Church. And, as public feasts are too often scenes of voluptuousness and intoxication, where the sons of riot sometimes amuse themselves with ridiculing religion and its advocates; and instead of partaking of such mirth, which is perhaps made up of the obscene jest, or the horrid oaths and imprecations, of the indecent and profane; let us fly from the place, as from the very confines of hell. And, be assured, that “only fools make a mock at sin;” and that, though God in general is patient, though provoked every day, yet he sometimes strikes offenders dead upon the spot, and calls them to his bar, just as the lie or the blasphemy was issuing from their mouth. [311]
2. Sensuality and security in sin, are the certain presages of impending ruin. When the wicked say in their hearts, “Tush, God careth not;” or the worldling counting his riches, and wrapping himself in false tranquillity, breaks out into that sordid soliloquy, “Soul take thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up in store; eat, drink, and be merry;” then the storm is at the blackest, and the angry cloud ready to burst. Transgressors take occasion to sin, because “vengeance against an evil act is not speedily executed;” and the people of the world often draw flattering inferences respecting one another from outward prosperity or inward gaiety; measuring their interest in the divine favor by the extent of their rent-roll; or, the degree of their happiness, by the height of their levity. But, alas! they consider not that the ox is fattened to the slaughter, and that “the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” The world, like a true Delilah, makes a soft lap for her votaries to sleep on; but it is only to render them a more easy prey to the enemies that lie in wait, and consign them over to drudgery more servile than that of Sampson deprived of his sight, shorn of his locks, and grinding in a mill at Gaza. Besides, it is not considered, that God’s judgments, though long protracted, are sure; and are the more tremendous, for being delayed. They are often conducted, and operate, like the mine, which is sprung in the dark, and which never discovers its subterranean progress, until it involves all around it in darkness, uproar, and ruin. A sensualist is never nearer the verge of destruction than when he speaks peace to himself; and a “foolish virgin,” assuming the appearance of happiness, while a life of perpetual thoughtlessness and dissipation destroys time, and unfits for death and judgment, is only like the moth that is at last consumed in the flame that attracted it.
3. See how easily the carnal repose of the wicked may be disturbed, in the height of their voluptuousness and festivity! This may be effected at any time by a variety of incidents or instruments. God need only drop a slight sensation of wrath upon the conscience; suffer that faithful vicegerent to assume the office of severe remonstrance; or let loose Satan with his train of accusations upon the sinner, and immediately all is tumult and disquietude within. For, “when he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only?” Job, xxxiv. 29. Let God but give a reverse of fortune, and touch that mountain of prosperity on which the proud and opulent elevate their hopes so high; and down fall all their imaginary peace and bliss in a moment. How low they build, who build beneath the skies! when the fabric and the builders of it may be crushed together before the moth.
O ye dissipated and profane, consider, before it be too late, that he, who surprised the king of Babylon at his feast, and called him, unprepared, from his cups to a tribunal; will one day come suddenly as the thief in the night, and put an end to your mirth, by the summons of the archangel’s voice, and the trump of God.