Contemplative Bible Reading

Daniel 5:23 (New Living Translation)

23 For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!

Daniel is talking to King Belshazzar of Babylon. This is part of the (hi)story of the writing on the wall in which a mysterious hand writes a message on the wall that no one can read. Daniel is called and he reads the message. Before reading the message of doom for King Belshazzar, Daniel says the above.

King Belshazzar was having a feast. That is a nice way of saying that the King and guests were becoming falling down drunk and engaging in all sorts of accompanying debauchery. As part of the lewd acts, King Belshazzar brings in the sacred cups stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem. The King used these cups to worship “gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone”—a bunch of junk.

Daniel chastises the King (a death-inducing practice). You King, you worship junk. You King, you do not honor the true God who gives you the breath of life. Do golden statues give the breath of life? Do rocks give the breath of life? Of course not. How could anyone so powerful have so little brain power? What is wrong with the King and those with him?

Idolatry leads to stupidity. I guess.

The fate of King Belshazzar was written on the wall. He was assassinated that night.