Again the scene of our lesson is laid in Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency." (Isaiah 13:19) Still she sits, the "lady of kingdoms," (Isaiah 47:5) comforting herself with the thought, "I shall be a lady forever; I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children." (Isaiah 47:7-8)
But just then it was that she should no more be called the lady of kingdoms, and just then it was that there should come upon her that which had been spoken of her: "These two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon you in their perfection for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments. ... Therefore shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from whence it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know." (Isaiah 47:9,11)
The events noted in this lesson occurred about forty-four years after those of the lesson for last week.--See Article 5 in this section, "The Fiery Furnace," Signs of the Times, January 28, 1886. The great king Nebuchadnezzar had been dead about twenty-three years, and with him had departed the greatness and the real glory of the kingdom.
Nebuchadnezzar himself had finally been brought to a full acknowledgment of the true God, and had published a decree to that effect to all the nations of his dominion; (See Daniel 4) but it seems to have had no discernible impression on any that followed him in the kingdom, and iniquity culminated in his grandson, Belshazzar, the subject of the present lesson. Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son, Evil-Merodach; but: his lusts, and his other wickedness, made him so intolerable, that at length even his own relations conspired against him and put him to death,--Humphrey Prideaux, DD, The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews, Book II. after his having reigned two years, and Neriglissar, his brother-in-law, reigned in his stead. Neriglissar reigned nearly four years, and was succeeded, but merely in name, by Laborosoarchod, "a mere boy," who was suffered to remain only a few months when Nabonadius, the father of Belshazzar, took the throne, 555 BC, and held it till the end of the empire, 538 BC. Nabonadias sometime, we know not just how long, before the ruin of the kingdom, had associated his son, Belshazzar, with himself in the rule of the kingdom.
In the year 539 BC, Cyrus, at the head of a heavy army of Medes and Persians, left Ecbatana in an expedition against Babylon. In the spring of 538 BC he crossed the Tigris, and came within sight of Babylon itself before he met any opposition. Nabonadius had drawn out an army to meet the invader a short distance from the city. The Babylonian forces were defeated, and King Nabonadius took refuge in Borsippa about six miles from Babylon. Cyrus shut him up there, left enough soldiers to hold him, and he with the main army laid siege to the glorious capital. The defeat of Nabonadius, and his flight to Borshippa, left to the young Belshazzar the sole direction of affairs in Babylon.
Cyrus carried on the siege for some time with no prospect of success against its "mountain-high" walls, and its brazen, iron-barred gates, protected by an impassable moat. But midsummer coming on, and with it the grand Babylonian festival in honor of the god Tammuz, Cyrus determined on a stratagem. Knowing of the boundless license in which it was the wont of the Babylonians to indulge in that celebration, Cyrus went up the Euphrates a considerable distance, and dug channels by which to turn its waters from their course. As the Euphrates flowed through the city under the great walls, Cyrus's plan was to draw the water down so shallow that men could wade without difficulty, and have them march into the city by the river-bed.
But even that would have been of no avail, had not the Babylonians given themselves up to utter heedlessness in their wild orgies. For on each bank of the river, within the city, stood walls about a hundred and fifty feet high, with double gates of solid brass; and if only these gates had been shut or even watched, the Persians in the bed of the river would have been certainly caught in a trap. However, no such precaution was thought of in the proud, wicked city. "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." (Daniel 5:1)
Then he called for the sacred vessels of Jehovah, which his grandfather had brought from the house of God in Jerusalem, "and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. ... 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. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." (Daniel 5:3,5-7)
But none of all these could tell him a word. Then his mother came in, and told him of Daniel's ability to interpret secrets. Daniel was immediately sent for; and he came, and told the king the writing and the meaning of it. "God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. You are weighed in the balances and are found wanting. Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." (Daniel 5:26-28)
The drunkenness and lascivious carousals in the palace were copied to perfection in all parts of the city. Drunkenness was everywhere, and men and women mingled together in the awful obscenity of that heathen revelry which was the most acceptable worship of Venus and Adonis.
Meanwhile, outside the city, in silence and darkness, the Persians watched at the two points where the Euphrates entered and left the walls. Anxiously they noted the gradual sinking of the water in the river-bed; still more anxiously they watched to see if those within the walls would observe the suspicious circumstance, and sound an alarm through the city. Should such an alarm be given, all their labors would be lost. ...
But as they watched, no sounds of alarm reached them--only a confused noise of revel and riot, which showed that the unhappy townsmen were quite unconscious of the approach of danger.
At last shadowy forms began to emerge from the obscurity of the deep river-bed, and on the landing-places opposite the river-gates clusters of men grew into solid columns. The undefended gateways were seized; a war-shout was raised; the alarm was spread; and swift runners started off to show the king of Babylon that his city was taken at one end. In the darkness and confusion of the night a terrible massacre ensued. The drunken revelers could make no resistance.
The king, paralyzed with fear at the awful handwriting upon the wall, which too late had warned him of his peril, could do nothing even to check the progress of the assailants, who carried all before them everywhere. Bursting into the palace, a band of Persians made their way to the presence of the monarch, and slew him on the scene of his impious revelry.--Rawlinson, The Fourth Monarchy, chap. 8. "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 5:30-31)
With this lesson read Rawlinson's Fourth Monarchy, chap. 8, par. 52-55. Jeremiah 50 and 51; Isaiah 21:1-9; 47:1-15; 45:1-4.--Signs of the Times, February 4, 1886--Notes on the International Lesson, February 14--Daniel 5:1-12, 25-28
A.T. Jones