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Royalty and Ruin
vessels ...; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines
drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold
and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.”
A Sign of Doom to the King and Guests
A divine Watcher, unrecognized, looked on the scene, heard
the sacrilegious mirth, saw the idolatry. Soon the uninvited Guest
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made His presence felt. When the partying was at its height, a
bloodless hand wrote on the palace walls characters that gleamed
like fire—words that foreshadowed doom.
The boisterous mirth was hushed while men and women watched
in terror as the hand slowly traced the mysterious characters. As if
in panoramic view, the deeds of their evil lives passed before them.
They seemed to be on trial before the judgment bar of the eternal
God whose power they had just defied. Where a few moments before
had been hilarity and blasphemous joking, were ashen faces and
cries of fear.
Belshazzar was the most terrified of them all. His conscience
had awakened, and “his knees knocked against each other.” Now he
realized that he could offer no excuse for his wasted opportunities
and defiant attitude.
In vain the king tried to read the burning letters. He turned to the
wise men for help. His wild cry rang out in the assembly, “Whoever
reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed
with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck; and he shall
be the third ruler in the kingdom.” But heavenly wisdom cannot
be bought or sold. “All the king’s wise men ... could not read the
writing, or make known to the king its interpretation.” They were
no more able than the wise men of a former generation had been to
interpret the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.
Then the queen mother remembered Daniel. “O king,” she said,
“do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance
change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of
the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understand-
ing and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him;
and King Nebuchadnezzar ... made him chief of the magicians, as-