RHBC 160: Living Faithfully In Babylon

1. #5 – “Faithful When the Handwriting
is on the Wall”
Series: Living Faithfully in Babylon

3. I. The Wicked Feast of Belshazzar
(5:1-4)
A. Those Who Oppose God are
Indulgent (vs. 1)
B. Those Who Oppose God are
Indifferent (vs. 1b)
C. Those Who Oppose God are
Irreverent (vs. 2-4)

4. The Akkadin god sin/sv’en

5. Jeremiah – 150 years before Belshazzar

6. “Then I God, step in and say, I’m on
your side, taking up your cause. I’m
your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge.
I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her
springs. Babylon will be a pile of
rubble, scavenged by stray dogs and
cats, A dumping ground for garbage, a
godforsaken ghost town.”
(The Message – Jeremiah 50-51)

7. The Babylonians will be like lions and
their cubs, ravenous, roaring for food.
I’ll fix them a meal, all right-a banquet,
in fact. They’ll drink themselves falling-
down drunk. Dead drunk, they’ll sleep-
and sleep and sleep….and they’ll never
wake up.”
(The Message – Jeremiah 50-51)

8. God’s Decree (Jer.51:36-39) I’ll get
them drunk, the whole lot of them-
princes, sages, governors, soldiers.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep-and sleep and
sleep….And never wake up.
(The Message)

9. The King’s Decree. His name? God of
the Angel Armies! God of the Angel
Armies speaks: “The walls of Babylon-
those massive walls! Will be flattened.
And those city gates-huge gates! They
will be set on fire. The harder you work
at this empty life, the less you are.
Nothing comes of ambition like this
but ashes.
(The Message)

10. Jeremiah 51:57-58 “I will make her princes
and sages drunk, along with her
governors, officials and warriors. Then
they will fall asleep forever and never wake
up. [This is the king’s declaration; Yahweh
of Hosts is His name. This is what Yahweh
of Hosts says: Babylon’s thick walls will be
totally demolished, and her high gates
consumed by fire. The peoples will have
labored for nothing; the nations will
exhaust themselves [only to feed] the fire.

11. II. The Writing on the Wall (5:5-9)

12. A. Notice the wall
B. Notice the weak-kneed King
C. Notice the Wisemen of the Day
D. Notice the Woman called the
Queen Mother

13. MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN
M M T P
E E E A
N N K R
E E E S
L I
N

15. III. The Warning of Daniel
(5:13-24)
A. Daniel’s Witness (vs. 13-17)

16. B. Daniel’s Warning
• Judgment came Suddenly
• Judgment came
Significantly

17. IV. The Word of God Fulfilled
(5:30-31)
A. The Will of God Always
Prevails.
B. Don’t be Weighed and Found
Wanting
C. Do Worship the Right God

18. “Among the saddest words of
Scripture are those echoed three
times in the first chapter of
Romans: “God gave them up…”
(Romans 1:24, 26, 28) The
words remind us that sin is so
awful that its worst punishment
can simply be to let it run its
course. God simply may let
people have their way when they
persist in sin”