Whenever you hear the phrase, “the handwriting is on the wall”, you know that whatever is about to happen, whether good or bad, is inevitable. Today we will learn where that phrase came from, and we will also know that it is only when God is the One Who writes on the wall that it will surely come to pass.

We saw in Daniel 4 that because King Nebuchadnezzar took all the credit for Babylon’s prosperity and political and military accomplishments, he lived like an animal until he knew “that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” (v. 32) His grandson Belshazzar saw how God humbled him. He also saw how God allowed him to be restored when he repented and acknowledged that all blessings and good gifts come from above. When Belshazzar inherited the rule of Babylon, the city was still prosperous, but outside the walls of the “impregnable city” was the Persian army, who would soon take over the city and dethrone the king and become the next world power, just like God said.

In an act of defiant sacrilege, Belshazzar ordered that he be brought the sacred vessels that his grandfather took from the temple of Jerusalem and used them to drink wine and give praise to the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. He crossed the line. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. Troubled and disturbed in his conscience, at the bequest of the queen, he called for Daniel to give him the interpretation. “This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:26-28) King Belshazzar did not learn a thing from his grandfather’s defeat. “And thou …, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; … and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:” (vv. 22-23).

Who has hardened his heart against The Lord and prospered (Job 9:4)? Nobody. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) Selah