Another King Needs Daniel’s Help

Another King Needs Daniel’s Help

Q: What happened during King Belshazzar’s banquet?

• a. The sky went dark.
• b. A hand wrote on the wall.
• c. The wine turned to water.

King Belshazzar held a feast for one thousand of his nobles. He called for someone to bring the gold and silver goblets Nebuchadnezzar had taken from God’s Temple. The people drank from those goblets while they praised their idols. This was a bad choice.

The people saw a hand writing on the wall of the room. The king called for his astrologers and fortune tellers, and he promised royal robes, a gold chain, and a position of third highest in the kingdom to whoever could tell him the significance of the writing. But no one could.

The queen mother knew about Daniel, a Jewish exile, who was in service to the king and had a gift for interpreting things, and she had him brought in. The king offered him the same reward he’d offered the others, but Daniel didn’t want rewards. He said he’d interpret the words without being paid.

The writing on the wall read, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” These words meant God had numbered the days of Belshazzar’s reign and that it would soon end. God had found him corrupt and would divide his kingdom between the Medes and the Persians. Belshazzar was killed that very night.

Daniel interpreted the words, but he wasn’t motivated by fancy things or an important job. Daniel had served God all his life, and doing what God wanted was his motivation for giving God’s message to Belshazzar.

For You

It’s important to do God’s work because it’s what God has called you to do, not for any reward. When you do things for God and others, let love for God and obedience to him be your motivation.

Answer: b

Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote.   Daniel 5:5

(The Whole Story: Daniel 5)