God had exposed to Nebuchadnezzar the impotent nature and fraudulent character of all the gods of Babylon, and had brought the king to the knowledge of the true God. And this instruction was given in such a way that it reached all the people as instruction also.
The Lord next taught the king that however great was the power of kings over people and nations, yet they could of right have no power at all over the religion or worship of those whom they ruled. God showed him that the edicts of rulers must yield, that the words of kings must change, in the presence of the right of the individual to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience. This also was taught in such a way as to make it instruction to "all people, nations, and languages" (Daniel 4:1) in all the wide extended empire of Babylon.
Finally the Lord taught the great king that it is the Most High who rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will; that though Nebuchadnezzar had made the conquest of all the nations, and had become ruler over them all, yet it was the God of heaven who had given all these nations into his hand, and had made him ruler over them all. This great truth, too, was taught not only to Nebuchadnezzar direct, but through him, by official proclamation, to "all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth."
Though all this was known by the princes, and the lords of all the realm, yet at the death of Nebuchadnezzar, his son and successor made himself so profligate and so altogether vicious that his own relatives put him to death at the end of his second year's reign.
This man's successor held the power only four years, three of which were busily employed in preparation for the war that came in the fourth year, and in the first battle of which he was killed. He was in turn succeeded by a king who so "let himself loose in the utmost excess, without any manner of restraint whatever,"--Prideaux's Connexion, book II. that it was only nine months before his excesses became so unbearable that "his own people conspired against him, and slew him.--Ibid.
And this man was succeeded by a king who at last actually associated with himself upon the throne his son, the outbreaking Belshazzar, in whose riotous excesses in debauchery and blasphemy the Babylonian iniquity culminated, and brought upon the wicked city the swift judgment of God in the very night of this king's greatest drunken, lascivious, and blasphemous feast. "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 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: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." (Daniel 5:1-6)
The conscience-cowardly king, in his frenzy, "cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers;" (Daniel 5:7) and promised great rewards and the highest honor, next to the king, to whomsoever would explain the terrible writing. None could do it until the holy Daniel was brought. "Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. O you king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor: And for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appoints over it whomsoever He will. And you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this; But have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you, and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine in them; and you have praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, have you not glorified: Then was the part of the hand sent from Him; and this writing was written." (Daniel 5:17-24)
And now everyone who reads these lines likewise knows "all this." It has been told to you. It has been written in the holy Book and preserved to you by the Lord, "in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways." You have read it many a time; and it has been brought to your attention many more times. And what are you doing with it all? Knowing "all this," have you humbled your heart? or are you, like Belshazzar, going on, with a heedless heart and a high head, to swift destruction?
This was not made known to Belshazzar in his time in vain: no more in vain is it made known to you in this time of all the world in which it most applies. Knowing "all this," are you lifting up your heart "against the Lord of heaven"? Is it now true of you, as of him, that knowing "all this," "the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, have you not glorified"?
Take heed; for the writing that night was that once written for all time. Take heed lest you, too, knowing "all this," shall, when "weighed in the balances," be "found wanting." "And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; You are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting. Peres; Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. ... In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old." (Daniel 5:25-28,30-31)--Advent Review, April 19, 1898.