Daniel 5:17-29 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another… The value to a community of a wise and good man is not to be measured by rubies. The safety, welfare, and happiness of society hang upon him. I. THE GOOD MAN'S GENEROSITY OF MIND. Daniel does not refuse to come when sent for in haste by the king He might have taken occasion, teem the fright of the king, to remind him of past neglect. He might have accused the king of selfish inconsistency, in that he had dishonoured Daniel in the days of kingly prosperity, but was prompt to use him in the hour of dire adversity. But Daniel was too noble a man on such an occasion to think of himself. He speaks not of his good services to the king's grandsire, nor mentions the ill requital he had received. Nor will he permit the king to imagine that he is now moved to render fresh service by any prospect of reward. This very offer of royal reward had stung the mind of the prophet with pain. Pride and mercenary selfishness were ingrained in the nature of the king, or he would not, on an occasion like this, have spoken of rewards. His vile, base nature could not appreciate the generous nature of his Jewish subject. So Daniel declined the king's proposal with high disdain. They who are employed in the service of God are content with the rewards which their own Master gives. It would savour of treason if an ambassador from the British court should take the pay of a foreign empire. II. THE GOOD MAN'S RECOGNITION OF GOD. An ambassador to a foreign court will be forward to present his credentials, and will take every public opportunity of maintaining the rights of his sovereign. So, in the very preface of his address, Daniel requires recognition of the supreme authority of God. He reminds Belshazzar of the majesty and glory and dominion which Nebuchadnezzar enjoyed before him - a degree of power far superior to that wielded by Belshazzar - but even Nebuchadnezzar had been compelled to admit that this extensive sovereignty was but a grant from God - a trust delegated by the Most High. Even Nebuchadnezzar was but a vassal prince, and was required to bring his tribute to the supreme Monarch of the skies. To reject the jurisdiction of God is contemptible folly and weakness. III. THE GOOD MAN'S FAITHFUL REPROOF FOR THE PAST. The effect of God's judgments on Nebuchadnezzar ought to have been the exhibition of pious humility in Belshazzar. God's chastisement of a father is intended to benefit a son, and God's intentions cannot be frustrated with impunity. To despise the lessons of the past is wanton sin and irreparable loss. If Belshazzar's pride had only been equal to that of his grandsire, the guilt would have been greater, because he had inherited all the warnings of the past. In proportion to men's advantages are their responsibilities. Daniel, though a subject and a captive, does not spare his monarch's sins. No prospect of preferment, no fear of disfavour, weakens the severity of his reproofs. He charges the monarch with his haughty pride, with his blatant atheism, his sacrilegious profanation of sacred things, his insane trust in graven images. He arraigns his monarch, as if he were a prisoner at the bar brought up to receive sentence for his crimes. He accuses him of ingratitude to the God who had daily sustained him; accuses him of a wanton misuse of power; accuses him of a flagrant abuse of the gift of life. Now the edifice of his guilt has been crowned! Now the last element of aggravation has been added! God's sacred vessels have been desecrated for human debauchery. The die is cast; the hour has struck. "Because judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil." IV. THE GOOD MAN'S FORECAST OF THE DEBAUCHEE'S FUTURE. God is not so highly exalted that he cannot see what occurs upon the earth; nor is he so indifferent to human actions that he will pass by any sin with impunity. The hand that wrote the ten commandments on stony tablets - the hand that wrote Belshazzar's doom upon the palace-wall - records all our misdemeanours also. Never still is that Divine hand. The Chaldean monarch's days were all exactly numbered; the sands had nearly run out; there was but an hour or two for repentance. The Orientals had a belief in future rewards and punishments, and were accustomed to represent the supreme Judge as weighing, in the separate scales of a balance, men's good actions, and the bad. Here God accommodated himself to this prevalent belief, and represented himself as weighing in his balances the character of the king. Daniel plainly announced the result, "Thou art weighed, and" - oh! dread conclusion - "thou art found wanting." The final stroke was near and overwhelming. The thunder-cloud was, even then, gathering under the dark covert of night, and was about to discharge its fatal contents over the doomed city. Not another sun should rise upon Belshazzar's earthly life. His course was run; and in his ruin ten thousand others would be involved. We cannot sin alone; we entice others into the fatal way. We cannot suffer alone; we drag others into the whirlpool of destruction. "In that night was Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans, slain" - D. Parallel Verses KJV: Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. |
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