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A king of ancient Babylon was terrified when a man’s hand suddenly appeared, writing a warning message on his palace wall. What does it mean for us today?
The fifth chapter of Daniel records a noteworthy and revolting scene of lavish partying that occurred in 539 B.C. The place was Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean Empire.
The king (or coregent) of Babylon, Belshazzar, held a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and other guests. In a sacrilegious act of disdain for God, he and his guests toasted their pagan gods with the gold and silver vessels King Nebuchadnezzar had previously looted from the temple in Jerusalem. “As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (Daniel 5:4, New International Version).
At the height of the festivities, the king was terrified when, without warning, a disembodied hand appeared and began writing a message on the wall. “Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking” (verses 5-6, NIV).
Daniel is summoned
The king called for his wise men, but they were unable to explain the meaning of the words. On advice from the queen, the aged Daniel was summoned to interpret what the hand had written.
And why was Daniel called? Because he had a reputation as a man “in whom is the spirit of the Holy God,” and was endowed with “light and understanding and wisdom … an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas” (verses 11-12). For further information about this man of God and his ability to interpret dreams and visions, see the articles “Daniel the Prophet” and “Interpretation of Dreams.”
Daniel unravels the meaning of the words
Daniel then delivered a message of disaster and catastrophe for the king and the Babylonian Empire. Daniel explained that the hand was sent from God, thus identifying the message as coming from a divine source: “Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him” (verse 24).
The inscription contained four Chaldean (Aramaic) words: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN [the plural form of the singular word peres]” (verse 25). Each of these words had a dual meaning as both a verb and a monetary value (and one of them occurs twice). As such, it appears that God was giving a dual message to this king—a message regarding Babylon’s demise and a message for the king at that immediate time.
Next, Daniel told the king the meaning of the words:
- “MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it;
- “TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting;
- “PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians” (verses 26-28).
Lessons for us
Is there anything we can learn from this ancient incident?
Writing many centuries later, the apostle Paul attached importance to events of the Exodus and, by extension, all the events recorded in the Old Testament: “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition [margin, “instruction”], upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
It is up to each of us to take these incidents to heart, learn the lessons God has recorded for our learning and, most importantly, avoid repeating the same mistakes. Paul stressed: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
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About the Author
Andre van Belkum
Andre van Belkum currently serves as the pastor of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, in New Zealand and the Pacific region. Previously he pastored congregations in southern Africa, including South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.