Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Daniel 5:23
But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast 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 thy breath [is], and whose [are] all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
23. and they have brought, &c.] See Dan 5:2-4.
which see not, nor hear, nor know ] Cf. Deu 4:28; Psa 115:5-6; Psa 135:16-17.
in whose hand thy breath is] who is the author of thy life and being. Cf. Gen 2:7; Job 12:10.
thy ways ] i.e. thy destinies. Cf. Jer 10:23.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven – The God who had so signally rebuked and humbled Nebuchadnezzar. The monarch had done this, it would seem, during the whole of his reign, and now by a crowning act of impiety he had evinced special disregard of him, and contempt for him, by profaning the sacred vessels of his temple.
And they have brought the vessels of his house before thee … – See the note at Dan 5:2.
And the God in whose hand thy breath is – Under whose power, and at whose disposal, is thy life. While you have been celebrating the praises of idol gods, who can do you neither good nor evil, you have been showing special contempt for that great Being who keeps you in existence, and who has power to take away your life at any moment. What is here said of Belshazzar is true of all men – high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, princes and people. It is a deeply affecting consideration, that the breath, on which our life depends, and which is itself so frail a thing, is in the hand of a Being who is invisible to us, over whom we can have no control; who can arrest it when he pleases; who has given us no intimation when he will do it, and who often does it so suddenly as to defy all previous calculation and hope. Nothing is more absolute than the power which God holds over the breath of men, yet there is nothing which is less recognized than that power, and nothing which men are less disposed to acknowledge than their dependence on him for it.
And whose are all thy ways – That is, he has power to control thee in all thy ways. You can go nowhere without his permission; you can never, when abroad, return to your home without the direction of his providence. What is here said, also, is as true of all others as it was of the Chaldean prince. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. A mans heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. None of us can take a step without his permission; none can go forth on a journey to a distant land without his constant superintending care; none can return without his favor. And yet how little is this recognized! How few feel it when they go out and come in; when they go forth to their daily employments; when they start on a voyage or journey; when they propose to return to their homes!
Hast thou not glorified – That is, thou hast not honored him by a suitable acknowledgment of dependence on him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Dan 5:23
And the God in whose hand thy breath is.
Providence, when it pleases, can soon humble the haughtiest, and alarm the boldest sinner.
I. Let us CONSIDER THE ACCOUNT GIVEN OF OUR DEPENDENCE UPON GOD: In his hand our breath is, and his are all our ways. We cannot imagine that this was particular to Belshazzar. It may as truly be affirmed of every other man as of him. Independence is not a quality that belongs, and can be applied, to a creature. It is the attribute of God alone, the Creator. We exist, for He gave us Being. We continue to be, because He preserves us. If we escape any of those numberless evils and dangers to which the constitution of our nature and our condition in this world expose us every day and hour, it is not to be ascribed to our own care and caution alone as its cause; no, our safety is from the power and goodness of God exercised towards us. We are secure while Providence graciously vouchsafes its protection, but not a moment without it. Let us ask ourselves, who guards us by day and by night, in perils at home and perils abroad? God is our shield (Psa 84:11). Who furnishes the food with which our bodies are supported: and refreshed? Who covers them with raiment for defence and ornament? These are gifts of God to men. Nothing is without the ordination or permission of His providence. Our breath, our life, our ways, all the events of life, and the right conduct of it, are His. The wide extended universe is His family, over which He exercises a constant government. He is the father and the friend of it. On the providence of God we all depend; a doctrine most acceptable and comfortable to His own children; to them who fear, and love, and obey Him. Sinners, if they believe at all, or think at all, must from hence discern in how foolish and how dangerous a course they are engaged. Can they bear the thought of having Him for their enemy who made and rules the world by His power? It is the fool only that refuses to fear and glorify God. Irreligion is destruction. Were I speaking to princes and nobles of the earth, who are too apt to be unmindful of it, I would, from the text, sound this doctrine in their ears: You who are the highest amongst men, depend upon Divine providence no less than the meanest subject and servant you have. Our breath, as the prophet expresses it, is in the hand of God. The breath is the life. And whence did we draw this breath of life at the first? The great God inspired it into the human frame. In like manner the succession of generations is maintained.
II. THE OBLIGATION WE ARE UNDER IN CONSEQUENCE OF OUR CONSTANT AND ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCE UPON GOD; we must glorify Him. Belshazzar did not. This was his sin. And it was both his shame and his ruin. It may be asked, perhaps, What can man do, by which God can be glorified? Can man be profitable to his Maker? Can our goodness extend to Him, and add to His honour? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that we are righteous, or is it gain to Him that we make our ways perfect?
1. In answer to this, it is proper to remark that there is a sense in which we may, and therefore ought, to glorify God. This would not otherwise have been made the subject of a Divine command; and yet such it is. The neglect of this could not, upon any other supposition, have been reproached.
2. Let me observe that the expression of glorifying God is not to be taken in the strictest and literal sense of it, but in some such manner as I am now going to describe. When our minds are possessed with proper and suitable sentiments of God, as the greatest, the wisest, the best of all beings, as righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works when, by converse with the word of God, the mind is enlightened with the knowledge of God, and of His will, and the heart is under an impression of the Divine attributes and excellencies; when we reverently bow to His majesty, are awed by the consideration of His justice and omnipotence; when we admire and adore His universal and infallible wisdom; when His mercy melts us into repentance; when we place our happiness, our greatest happiness, while we are in the world, in His favour; when, upon impartial examination of ourselves, we have reason to hope and believe that this is our case, then do we glorify God. In this temper, in this behaviour, we manifest a becoming reverence of those perfections which are the glory of the Divine nature. And who is there amongst us so insensible as to be doubtful one moment whether this be his duty or not? Let reason and conscience speak, and be heard, and conviction will follow.
III. THE GUILT AND DANGER OF NOT GLORIFYING GOD.
1. Let our thoughts dwell upon the guilt contracted by such a behaviour. What! O man, art thou forgetful of Him who made thee, who has distinguished and adorned thy nature with those intellectual and moral powers that render thee capable of knowing, contemplating, worshipping, obeying, imitating, enjoying Him for ever? Ingratitude to a sincere and generous friend we condemn, and with the justest reason.
2. From hence we may easily perceive and estimate our danger, if we live, not to God, but to ourselves; not to His glory, but to the lusts of our own hearts, or the vanity of our own minds. Sometimes it is seen that persons of this sort are overtaken by the judgments of God in this world, and they cannot escape; but miseries beyond all imagination await them in another, which are not to be avoided in any other way than by a timely and hearty repentance. Belshazzar was confident, presumptuous, insolent in impiety.
Lessons:
1. Learn from hence what should be the main view and end of all your actions; to wit, to honour God and please Him, that so you may enjoy Him. You were created to glorify God. The enjoyment of Him will follow. And in that consists the supreme and eternal happiness of mankind.
2. Let us examine ourselves that we may know ourselves, and the true state of our souls, upon a point of the clearest and utmost importance to us. Has God been in all our thoughts–or in great measure excluded from them? How have we lived?–to Him, or to ourselves? Have we glorified Him with our bodies and our spirits, which are His? Do not go on to provoke and defy the justice of an omnipotent God, jealous of His own honour, but humble yourselves before Him.
3. That we may maintain a just sense of our dependence upon God, and live to His glory, we must keep up the practice and the spirit of prayer.
Glorify God in this world, and you shall be glorified with Him in the world that is to come. (E. Sandercock.)
Dependence on God for Life
Though Belshazzar was a heathen, yet he ought to have known and realised his absolute dependence upon God, in whom he lived, and moved, and had his being.
I. I am to consider THAT GOD IS THE PRESERVER OF THE LIVES OF MEN. He is certainly the giver, and of consequence the preserver of life. We cannot conceive that God can give mankind independent life any more than independent existence. Life is sustained and preserved by secondary causes; and all the secondary causes of the preservation of life are under the entire control of God, who can make them the means of destroying as well as of preserving life. All the elements, the air, the earth, the water, and the fire, which serve to preserve life, may he and often are employed by God to destroy it. It appears from the whole course of providence that God constantly carries the lives of all men in His hand. And this truth is plainly and abundantly taught in Scripture. God is called the fountain of life. Job calls Him the preserver of man. David says He is the preserver of man and beast.
II. THAT MEN OUGHT TO MAINTAIN A REALISING SENSE OF THIS IMPORTANT TRUTH.
1. They are all capable of realising it. The horse and the mule, the crane and the swallow, and all the animal creation, are dependent upon God for life, and breath, and all things; but these mere animals are entirely destitute of capacity to know that God is their creator and preserver. This exempts them from all obligations to know and realise their entire and constant dependence upon their creator and preserver. But men are made wiser than the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven, and the inspiration of the Almighty has given them understanding to trace their own existence and the existence of all created natures up to the first and supreme cause. The sailor, the soldier, the infidel, will instantaneously cry to God to preserve their lives, when death or imminent danger appears near.
2. God requires all men to live under an habitual sense of their constant dependence upon Him, as the preserver and disposer of life. He has informed them in His word that He has determined the number of their months and days, and fixed the hounds of life, over which they cannot pass, He has told them, There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain it in the day of death.
3. Good men do realise their constant and absolute dependence upon God for the preservation of life. This is the language of some of the best men whose views and feelings are recorded in the Bible. Job speaks very freely and fully upon this subject. He says unto God, Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Thou has clothed me with skin and flesh, and and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and visitation hath preserved my spirit. David says, As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. Thy vows are upon me, O God; I will render praise unto thee; for thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Ezra and Nehemiah frequently acknowledged the power and goodness of God in the preservation of their lives. Paul used to make his promises under a sense of his dependence upon the preserving power and goodness of God. Unreserved submission to God always flows from a sense of absolute dependence upon Him.
4. Men ought to maintain a realising sense of their constant dependence upon God for the preservation of life, in order to form all their temporal and spiritual designs with wisdom and propriety. If God be the preserver and disposer of life, then He is the disposer of all things which are connected with and dependent on life. If the lives of all men are in the sovereign hand of God, then the world and the things of the world are in the sovereign hand of God; and while men view their own lives and the lives of all other men, and the world in which they all live, as in the hands of God, the world and all things in it appear very different from what they do when God the preserver and disposer of all is out of sight and out of mind. Their views, opinions, and conduct are greatly altered. And the reason is obvious. When they realise their own dependence, and the dependence of all men and of all things upon God, it fills their minds with a realising sense of His universal presence and providence. This cuts off all dependence upon themselves, and upon others, which sinks them and the world into their proper vanity and insignificance.
5. If men would consider how much God does for them to preserve their lives, they could not help feeling their obligation of maintaining an habitual sense of His power and goodness in their constant preservation. God must do a great deal to preserve the lives of such weak, feeble, careless creatures as mankind are. He must continue the regular succession of the various seasons. He must preserve the animal creation, to nourish, feed and clothe the human species, and preserve them from the snares, the arrows and means of death. He must constantly govern the winds and waves, and all the elements. He must watch over every individual person every moment. He must strengthen every nerve, and guide every motion of the body, and all the motions, affections and volitions of the mind. He must guide every step we take, and determine every circumstance of life.
6. What peculiar methods God has taken to make mankind continually sensible of his supporting and preserving hand. He has not only preserved their lives, but preserved them in such a manner, and under such circumstances, as are best adapted to make deep and lasting impressions on their minds of their constant and absolute dependence upon Him for life and breath and all things. He has preserved them from running into innumerable dangers into which they would have run had it not been for His internal or external restraints. He has preserved them from the same dangers which proved fatal to others. David was astonished at the preservation of his own long life, and exclaimed, I am as a wonder unto many! Jeremiah was deeply affected with the preserving goodness of God. He cried, It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed!
Improvement:
1. If all men ought to realise that God is the preserver and disposer of their lives, we have reason to think that they generally live in the neglect of this important duty. They generally cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. They do not call upon God in the morning or in the evening, from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year, unless something takes place to alarm their fears, and constrain them to realise their dependence upon Him in whose hand their breath is, and whoso are all their ways. They generally feel and act as though they were entirely independent of their creator and constant preserver. They feel sufficient to preserve their own lives and supply their own wants in time to come, as they imagine they have done in time past. Thus they boast of tomorrow, though they know not what a day may bring forth. Is this the folly, stupidity and presumption of only a few individuals of mankind? No. It is the folly, stupidity and presumption of the great majority in every heathen and Christian nation on earth. This world is full of rational and immortal creatures, who say in their hearts and by their conduct, there is no God for them to fear, or love, or glorify.
2. Since all men ought to realise that they are constantly and entirely dependent upon God for the preservation of life, they must be inexcusable for pursuing any modes of conduct which they know tend to banish such a realising sense of the Divine presence and preservation from their minds. According to this criterion, it is easy to see the criminality of loving and pursuing the things of the world supremely. Supreme love to the world must necessarily banish supreme love to God from the heart. Though all men ought to be industrious in their various useful and lawful callings, yet they ought to labour in such a manner, and from such motives, as shall not indispose or unfit them for any religious duties. What was it that banished from the mind of Belshazzar a realising sense of the preserving goodness of that God whom his father had known, and whom he had known, and in whose hand his breath was, and whose were all his ways? Was it not his vain company, his vain amusements, and abominable festivals? Similar causes will produce similar effects in every age and in every part of the world. Prodigality, profaneness, intemperance, vain amusements, and worldly-mindedness, will always lead men to forget God, their maker, preserver and benefactor.
3. If men ought to realise that God is their preserver then they ought to use those means which He has appointed to keep in their minds a deep and abiding sense of His supremacy and of their dependence. Reading the Bible has a happy tendency to bring and keep God in view. Prayer has a direct and powerful tendency to raise the attention and hearts of men to God, and give them a realising sense of His supremacy, and their dependence upon Him for life, and breath, and all things.
4. If God be the preserver and disposer of the lives of men, how fast must the guilt of those arise and increase who never glorify Him, in whose hand their breath is, and whose are all their ways! How many mercies have they received and abused! How many talents have they buried or perverted! How much have they injured God, their fellow-men, and themselves!
5. The patience of God towards this atheistical, guilty, and ungrateful world is astonishingly great. He is constantly displaying before their eyes His power, His wisdom, and His goodness, in preserving their lives, and loading them with the rich blessings of His providence and grace; and yet they overlook the hand and the heart of Him in whose hand is their breath, and whose are all their ways.
6. That all impenitent sinners are constantly and imminently exposed to temporal and eternal ruin. It is of the Lords mercies that they have not before now been consumed. His patience is not boundless, but limited. (N. Enmons, D.D.)
The Man Who Failed of His Lifes Purpose
Such, in one single sentence, brief, pregnant and inexorable, is the summing up of the case against a doomed man. There were a great many other things that might have been said; this in itself was enough. There is nothing said about his licentiousness; there is no mention of his cruelty; but the case against him is summed up in this single charge, The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. This is an offence that is taken cognisance of by no human tribunal, or else which of us should escape the judge? It is a sin that society itself by no means condemns severely, or else society would have to pronounce sentence neon itself. It is the distinguishing sin of the man who may justly and truthfully be called a man of the world; for when a man becomes a man of the world, he puts something else in the place of God. Again, it is perhaps the most frequent sin that is ever committed, a sin committed by a larger number of persons than any other sin. There are comparatively few murderers in the world; there are a large number of those who have committed other acts of immorality. Other things may be charged against each cue of us, but if this point can be proven, it is enough. It is all that will be required in the court of Heaven to seal the doom of the most soil-righteous and self-complacent Pharisee that ever walked on the face of this earth. Man exists for the glory of God. There is no professing Christian who would be disposed to deny that this is the final cause of mans existence; and yet while we are all ready to make the theological admission how few comparatively there are who have any adequate apprehension of the truth that is contained in these words. In what sense may it be affirmed that man exists for the glory of God? Now it strikes us, on first contemplating the subject, that whatever else man can do or cannot do, surely there is one thing that must be beyond his power. It is impossible that any of us can add to the infinite glories of the Divine Being. I mean to say we can neither diminish the lustre of His eternal glory on the one hand, nor can we add to it on the other. The character of God is and must be beyond our reach. How can we glorify Him if He is so far beyond our reach? You cannot increase the light of the sun. Do as you may, get up an illumination, accumulate all the light that this world can possibly give forth; let all the gas lamps, and all the electic lights, and all the other appliances of modern science be employed for the purpose, yet the sun is just as bright as it was before, and no brighter. All your efforts cannot make it brighter; but at the same time it is possible for you, in a certain sense, to extend the power of the sun. On the Continent of America, and even in our own land, there are vast subterranean caverns which the rays of the suns light have never reached. Now, if by some gigantic effort of engineering skill we can remove the superincumbent mass of earth and permit the rays of the sun to strike down into those vast recesses of the world, what should we thus be doing? Why, obviously, relatively to this world in which we live, we should be increasing the supremacy of the sun, so to speak; we should be extending its power to a portion of territory which had not hitherto been affected by it. Is it not even so with regard to God? We cannot increase Gods own absolute glory. But it is possible for us to pass that glory on into regions where its presence has not yet, at any rate, been realised. There may be hearts in this very congregation which are like those subterranean caves. Light has long been streaming down upon the fallen world. Saints have seen it in their generation, and that glorious light has illumined their whole life, and again and again there has proceeded from their lips the invitation to their fellow sinners, Come ye, and let us walk in the light of God. Now, just in proportion as this invitation is complied with, and one heart after another is opened up to the saving influence of the Divine grace, we may say that Gods glory is increased in this round world. Summing the thing up, we may say briefly that it is the blessed privilege of man, first of all, to glorify God by witnessing to the power of His grace to sustain, to defend and to exalt the soul that by faith commits itself to Him. What a marvellous thing it is that the power of the Everlasting God can lift the poor, frail Christian out of his weakness and place him above his temptation, make him a conqueror in the strife, even when he is striving against the fearful powers of hell! This is just what Gods saints have been testifying to in every age, and by this testimony the glow of God is continually being advanced. It is possible for man to glorify God by the voluntary acceptance of the Divine law as the law of human will. The character of God has been aspersed, and the authority of God has been challenged by fallen intelligences of evil. The child of God that accepts the will of God as the law of his conduct is a standing testimony to the perfection of that will. It is his own voluntary choice, and he chooses it because he discovers in it all that his own human nature most requires, all that is most necessary for the full development of that which is truest and noblest and best within him, and further, for the full and sufficient gratification of his creature-like nature. This leads us on to a further point; God is to be glorified by man in the ultimate and final destiny which He is preparing for man. Triumphant man shall bear witness for all eternity to the perfection of that Divine will, in submission to which he has attained to his own highest well-being. And thus, in the fourth place, man shall witness to the glow of God by bearing an indirect, though a most eloquent testimony to the perfections of the Divine character. It has always been the work of Satan, ever since he began to perform the part of the tempter, to endeavour to present to the human mind false views of God. What a triumphant answer will be returned to those slanders of the great enemy of God and man, by the fact that in the voluntary acceptance of the will of God, as the law of human conduct, man pays the very highest tribute that can possibly be paid by an intelligent being to the perfections of the moral character of that God from whom he originated. How is it possible for us to dishonour God, or at any rate, how is it possible for us to rob God of His glory? Obviously, we cannot dishonour Him more than by ignoring Him altogether. If I wanted to dishonour any one of you, that is probably the very first course I should adopt. If anyone wants to insult another with whom he is acquainted, the common way of doing it is to pass the man, to cut him dead, as we call it, in the street. How many persons there are who, throughout the whole course of their past lives, have been dishonouring God by ignoring Him! I want to ask you a question, a very plain one, that you will all be able to answer one way or another. I want to ask you how far your lives would have been different if from your early infancy you had been persuaded that there was no God at all? I can fancy some of you making answer, Well, of course, if I had not believed in God, I should never have attended a place of worship, I should never have said my prayers, I should never have attempted to study the Bible. Well, we are ready to make those admissions; but are they considerable? You attend church once a week; of course, that in itself is merely a mechanical performance that has exercised no considerable influence upon your life. I am not asking about the outward movements of your bodies, but of the effect produced upon your moral nature by your religious profession. Let us look at it again. Would you have been a very different person from what yon are if you had actually believed that there was no God? You have lived so many years in the world; ask yourself, with a determination to get a truthful answer, How many of those years have I consciously spent for Gods glory? How many days in those years? How many hours in one single day? Have I ever recognised Gods glory as the end of my being at all? Have I ever definitely put it before me as the thing for which I live? Where has God been in your conversation? How many of you are there who would have to confess, if you told the truth–Nowhere! Have you ever talked about Him in your life? In your daily conduct, in your dealings with your fellow-men, how much of your labour has been consciously undertaken with a view to advancing the glory of God? Now the very first thing needed is that we should be convicted of our sin in dishonouring and ignoring God who now calls us back to Himself. Yet again, we dishonour God when, even if we do not ignore Him, we repudiate the means of salvation which He, at an infinite cost, has provided for us. In other words, we dishonour God when we act as though we could dispense with His assistance. Now, then, we come to enquire holy many of us have accepted that which has been purchased for us at such a price? Are you saying in your heart, My life has bean one of such earnest religion, that I really do not require this provision of Divine love; I can get on tolerably well without it; though my life may not have been absolutely perfect, yet it has been such a good sort of life that I do not think that God can have anything considerable against it; therefore I am content to take my chance. Now, if any of you in your hearts are talking in that way, I just want to ask you what you are doing? Is there any way in which you can more effectually dishonour the wisdom, and love, and mercy of God than by turning your back on His unspeakable gift? Practically, you are pointing to the Cross of Calvary, and saying, There is something altogether ridiculous in that display of Divine love; it was never needed; why should God have given His Son? Would it not be quite enough if God had sent His Son to preach righteousness to us? If He had been content with delivering the sermon on the mount, and a few other moral precepts, and there had left the matter, it would have been all right. It is quite possible for as to mend ourselves, to improve our own way, and gradually to become fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Why should He have given His Son to die? In other words, you are doing all that in you lies to stultify the wisdom and the love of the Most High God. Again, we dishonour God (and this point finds a special illustration from the narrative with which our text is connected) when we appropriate to some other use that which has been designed for Himself. Know ye not, says the apostle, that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost? This ought to be the ease with every one of you. Our manhood has been given to us in order that we might render it back to God, and in order that it may be inhabited by God. Now, let us gauge ourselves by this. Are those bodies of yours temples of the Holy Ghost? Whether you will or whether you will not, you do belong to God. You may ignore His claim, you may sin against His right, you may defraud Him of His due, you may profane His sanctuary, you may take His sacred things and dedicate them to the service of His great rival, you may become a devout worshipper at the shrine of the god of this world–your whole life may be sacrilegious in the truest and deepest sense of the word–yet you cannot get away from the awful responsibility which rests upon you in virtue of the fact that whether you will, or win not, you do belong to God. Even at this moment, while I speak, that which was true of Belshazzar is true of you. God holds your breath in His hand; all your ways belong to Him; at any moment He may open His hand, and your breath is gone; at any moment He may lay claim to those ways of yours, and because they have been ways of perversity instead of ways of obedience, He may be and will be justified in calling you to account for them. Every moment of your time is His; every possibility of influence that you possess is His; every affection of your heart is His; every operation of your understanding is His; your position and rank is His. Wherever you look you are surrounded by Gods claim, and you cannot get away from it. Those golden vessels of the sanctuary are, as it were, within your hand, but instead of the consecrated wine, instead of the sacred offering, instead of the holy use, ah! what do we see? One life-long profanation. And now I come to the awful and overwhelming thought of what lies before you if you continue in your present career. Will God be baffled? Will His purposes be defeated? Having created you for His glory, shall you exist only for His shame? Not so. The everlasting God will have His need of glory out of every one of us. He desires to have it in your voluntary offering of yourself to Him. But if He may not have it so, He will have it otherwise. (W. Hay Aitken M.A.)
Mans Absolute Dependence Upon God
I. THAT MANS EXISTENCE IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD. In whose hand thy breath is. Reason teaches this. All existence is either conditioned or unconditioned–dependent or independent. The latter implies the former. Man and all creatures belong to the former. The Bible implies this. It is full of the doctrine that in him we live, and move, etc. Religion realises this. A practical consciousness of our dependence upon God is the spirit of religion. There are at least two practical conclusions deducible from this the most obvious and the most solemn of truths.
1. That if our existence is thus absolutely dependent upon Him, we should be ruled in everything by His will. Since every breath we draw is in His hands, to do anything from our own mere choice, without consulting Him, is at once presumptuous–rebellions–hazardous.
2. That if our existence is thus absolutely dependent on Him, we should seek to love Him supremely as the chief good. Dependency upon a being whom we dislike is a state of misery. The greater the dependency and dislike, the greater the misery. The poor slave is miserable on this account. Still death relieves him. But nothing can relieve me from my dependency upon the Eternal. His eye will be on me through eternal ages; every pulse, every breath, of my being will come from Him.
II. THAT MANS ACTIONS ARE UNDER THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. Whose are all thy ways. Not only is our existence His, but our ways, actions, are, in a sense, His. Our thoughts, utterances, movements, are under His absolute control. There are only two classes of actions amongst all his intelligent creatures
1. That class which originates in His will. Created goodness everywhere instinctively ascribes itself to God.
2. That class which originates against the Divine will. Such are all sinful actions. The instincts of conscience, the principles of the decalogue, the history of providence, the mediation of Christ, the tendency of the Gospel, the work of the Spirit, all show that sin is against the will of God. The question for a creature to determine is not, whether he shall serve his Maker or not, for serve Him he must; but whether he shall serve Him against his will or by his will, as an angel or as a demon.
III. MANS GRAND OBJECT SHOULD BE TO GLORIFY GOD. What is it to glorify Him? It includes reception and reflection. There must be a right reception of Him. The glory of God is in giving, not in receiving; and man glorifies Him by receiving all that He offers with a spirit of reverence, gratitude, and love. There must be a right reflection of Him. What He gives should be manifested. The heavens, the ocean, the landscape, glorify God; they show forth to the reasoning universe what He has given them. God has given man intelligent, moral, immortal, mind; and there is more of Him to be seen in one such mind than in the whole material creation. But what God has given must not only be shown forth, but shown forth according to His will. Hobbes, Byron, Dryden, Napoleon, and thousands of others have shown forth in striking aspects the wonderful nature with which their Maker endowed them; but they did not do so according to His will, and, therefore, they did not glorify Him. To glorify God is rightly to receive from Him, and rightly to reflect what you receive. Souls should be to Him what planets are to the sun; catch his glowing beams, and then fling the radiance on the whole sphere in which they move. On every sinners brow you may inscribe the words–The God, in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. Thou hast, perhaps, built up a fortune, mastered the sciences, distinguished thyself in every branch of polite learning, gained a high position in the social scale, and won a splendid name; but the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified; and everything else thou hast done goes for nothing. Shouldst thou pass through this brief life, and enter eternity With this sentence written against thee, better thou hadst never been. (Homilist.)
Mans Chief End
Misfortune makes some men wise and sober-minded, but others it only stirs up to folly and madness. Belshazzars folly seems to have reached its height when already the enemy were knocking at the gates. Suddenly, however, in the midst of the revelry, the king is startled by a strange and ominous sight. Instantly the king is sobered, is almost paralysed with fear, and summons his wise men to read the writing end explain its meaning. But the wise men are baffled, and their perplexity only adds to the terror of the king. Now, it seems to me that the words of our text, in which the venerable seer sums up the lifes wickedness of the Babylonian king, are words which sum up the life-story of every unsaved man. They lay no stress upon the form of evil, which is largely accidental; they throw all the emphasis upon the essence of sin, which consists in mans failure to glorify God.
I. MANS CHIEF END, OR THE GREAT BUSINESS OF LIFE. The prophet reminds the king that life and position are the gift of God. He setteth up one and putteth down another. In His hand is mans breath, and mans condition in life is fixed by His appointment. Man comes into the world without any volition of his own, and he goes out of it when Gods time comes, whether he will or not. Now, every child born into the world is born for a purpose, and in the case of all who die in infancy one may safely say that purpose has been fulfilled. Are there not multitudes of men and women who have never realised that man has a chief end–who have never sought answers to such great questions as these: Whence came I? Why am I here? Whither am I going? The God in whose hand thy breath is has given thee life for a purpose; He has protected thee in infancy and childhood, and has preserved thee until now for a purpose. And not only is ones breath in Gods hands; the prophet reminds the king that all his ways–that is, not the mode in which he has spent his life, but his worldlyposition and circumstances and destiny–have all been determined by the will of God. And that is true of every man. God assigns to each the home in which he shall be born and brought up; He has determined the social position and circumstance of every one of us, and on His will, too, does our final destiny depend. And this, too, He has done for a purpose, and has given to each of us opportunities of usefulness that are available to no others but ourselves. If, then, man depends on God, if life and position be His gift, if mans final destiny be in the hands of God, and if God has sent each man into the world for a definite purpose, surely it is the business of a wise man to find out what that purpose is, and to seek to realise it. The king has failed of his lifes purpose, and is condemned because he has not glorified the God in whose hand his life and destiny are. Clearly, then mans chief end is to glorify God. But we must not be content with merely saying that the great business of life is to glorify God. We must make sure that we understand what these words mean, and we must accept all the light that is thrown upon them by the teaching of the New Testament, and especially by the words and example of Jesus Christ. Belshazzars life was summed up in the words, The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. Christs life was summed up in these other words, I have glorified Thee on the earth, having finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. Belshazzar had paid no heed to the voice of God. Christ had done the will of God perfectly in all things. The motto of the one life was, Not Thy will but mine be done; the motto of the other, Not My will but Thine. To glorify God is to honour God, and God is honoured only by those who acknowledge His glory, and do His will in their daily life. For God is not glorified by those who set apart an hour on the Sabbath for His worship, and who forget Him and His will during the rest of the week. If Christs life teaches anything it surely teaches this, that He glorified God just as worthily in the workshop at Nazareth as in teaching and preaching the things of the kingdom. It is not enough to know the will of God, for God is glorified only by those who do His will. To read the Bible is a good thing only if the knowledge there gained be wisely used. What is the good of knowing that he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, unless that knowledge leads a man to faith in Christ? Surely there is no folly like the folly of the man who prides himself on his knowledge of the Bible, and is yet not restrained by that knowledge from acting contrary to the will of God. What would you think of the workman who was continually breaking some of the printed regulations if he met the foremans rebuke by the statement that he read over the regulations every meal hour, and knew more about them than any other man in the shop? He glorifies God who in all simplicity and earnestness accepts the will of God as the rule of faith and conduct.
II. BELSHAZZARS FAILURE TO FULFILL LIFES PURPOSE. The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. That is a startling summary of this mans wickedness–all the more startling because of its severe simplicity. If man had drawn up the indictment against the king who was already on the threshold of eternity the charge against him would have been a different one. It would have consisted of many counts, and would have condescended on many particulars. And, in sober truth, in the ease of Belshazzar, there was room enough for many a charge. He was a man about whom history has nothing good to say. An Oriental despot who slew whom he would; a vain, tyrannical king, whose will was law; a licentious ruler, who used his power to gratify his own desires–such was the character of the man who had been weighed in the balances and found wanting. But the Lords prophet does not condescend on particular crimes; for that there is no need. He fulminates against him this great solemn charge: The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are are thy ways, thou hast not glorified. In mans judgment that does not seem a very serious crime, and yet, in the judgment of God and of Gods prophet, it is the very essence of sin. For sin consists not so much in definite acts of wickedness as in a wrong relation towards God. Judge thyself as in the light of eternity and the presence of God. Can you look hack over your past life, blameless as it is in the judgment of men, without being forced to make this confession: The God in whose hand my breath is I have not glorified ? You, too, have failed in the great purpose of life if you have not made it your business to glorify God. In the opinion of the world your life may have been a success; you may have risen from poverty to wealth, or have gained a succession of social victories, yet in the judgment of Heaven your life has been a dismal failure, if the God in whose hand thy breath is thou hast not glorified. Are you perplexed as to the first step in this now and nobler life? Then let me point you to the cross of Christ. He who rejects the salvation which God at infinite cost has provided thereby dishonours God. Let God this day have the glory of saving thee, and seek, through fellowship with Jesus Christ, strength henceforth to glorify God, in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways. (A. Soutar, M.A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord] And the highest evidence of this rebellion was, the profaning the sacred vessels of the Lord’s house.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He instanceth in three or four things.
1. They have brought the vessels of his house before thee to drink wine in them, to profane them in your idolatrous feast, and ye have all polluted them with your filthy, blasphemous mouths, concubines and all.
2. Ye have praised the idol gods of metal, wood, and stone, which cannot hear, nor see, nor know.
3. And hast not glorified the true God, in whose hands thy breath is, and all thy ways. Yea, thou hast highly dishonoured, and affronted, and reproached him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. whose are all thy ways(Jer 10:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven,…. Who made it, and dwells in it; from whence he beholds all the actions of the children of men, and will bring them to an account for them; and yet, though so high and great, such was the insolence of this king, that he dared to lift up himself against him, as if he was above him, and greater than he; and indeed so it may be rendered, “above the Lord of heaven” x; which showed his great pride and vanity, his want of knowledge, both of himself, and of the true God. This name of God is the same with Beelsamen y; by which the Phoenicians used to call him:
and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee; that is, his servants by his orders had brought the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, which Nebuchadnezzar had took from thence, and set them upon his table for him and his company to drink out of; which is an instance of the pride of his heart, and of his daring boldness and impiety; see Da 5:2:
and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drank wine in them; even that very day or night: this Daniel had knowledge of by some means or another; and his intelligence was so good that he could with great certainty affirm it:
and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone; see Da 5:4:
which see not, nor hear, nor know; no more, than the various metals and materials of which they are made; and therefore it must be great madness and folly to praise such as gods that are below men, and even brutes; have neither the sense of animals, nor the knowledge of men; see
Ps 115:4:
and the God in whose hand thy breath is; who gave it to him at first, and as yet continued it in him, and could take it away when he pleased: and whose are all thy ways; counsels and designs, works and actions; under whose direction and control they all are; the events, issue, and success of which all depend upon him; see Jer 10:23:
him hast thou not glorified; by owning him as the only true God; ascribing all he was and had unto him, and giving due worship, adoration, and honour to him; but, on the contrary, setting up his idol gods above him, and treating him, and everything belonging to him, with ignominy and contempt.
x “super Dominum coeli”, Montanus; “super Dominum scelorum”, Michaelis. y Sanchoniatho apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. c. 9. p. 34.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet continues his own sentence, and confirms what I have said, namely, King Belshazzar was intractable and willfully blind to God’s judgment. For thou hast raised thyself, says he, against the Lord of heaven. If he had raised himself thus insolently against men, his sin would be worthy of punishment; but when he had provoked God on purpose, this arrogance neither could nor ought to be borne. Again, therefore, the Prophet increases the guilt of the king’s pride by saying, he raised himself against the King of heaven He also expresses the manner of his doing so, by commanding the vessels of the temple to be brought to sight; he drank from them This profanation was an indecent sacrilege, but Belshazzar was not content with that indignity; he used these vessels for luxury and foul debauchery, abusing them in the company of concubines and abandoned women; and added a yet greater reproach against God, in praising his gods of silver and gold, brass and iron, wood and stone, which cannot feel. This had not been said previously; but since Daniel here sustains the character of a teacher, he does not relate the events so shortly as at first. When he said at the beginning of this chapter, Belshazzar celebrated that impure banquet, he spoke historically; but he now executes, as I have said, the office of a teacher. Thou, says he, hast praised the gods made of corruptible material, who neither see, nor hear, nor understand; but thou hast defrauded the living God of his honor, in whose hand is thy life, on which thou dependest, and whence all in which thou boastest proceeds. Because thou hast so despised the living God, who had been so gracious unto thee, this ingratitude was both base and shameful. We see, therefore, how severely the Prophet reproves the impious tyrant of sacrilege, and mad rashness, and foul ingratitude towards God. I pass over these things lightly, since they have been treated elsewhere. It now follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) Gods of silver . . .Comp. Deu. 4:28. Belshazzar had exceeded those limits of authority over Israel which he had by right of conquest. The Israelites were, indeed, his subjects, but he had no right to blaspheme their God. For similar instances of men exceeding the limits of their authority while acting as ministers of Gods chastisement, see Isa. 10:5-18; Jer. 51:20-25; Hosea 14, 5.
Not glorifiedi.e., dishonoured.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 1128
BELSHAZZARS IMPIETY AND OURS COMPARED
Dan 5:23. The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.
WHEN we look around us, and see what iniquity prevails in the earth, we are ready to imagine that God does not notice the affairs of men, or take any interest in their conduct. But, when we open the inspired volume, we find that, on many occasions, the sins of men have been so strongly marked in their punishment, as to bear ample testimony to a superintending Providence, and to constrain us to say, Verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth [Note: Psa 58:11.]. The judgment inflicted on Nebuchadnezzar so exactly accorded with the prediction which had been uttered respecting it, that no doubt can be entertained of the hand from whence it came. Nor was the hand of God less visible in the punishment of the impious Belshazzar. In the midst of his drunken revels, there came forth, as it were, the fingers of a mans hand, and wrote on the plaister of the wall where the king was sitting. The words he could not understand: nor could any of his astrologers or soothsayers interpret them. But, on his application to Daniel, the import of them was declared unto him. The prophet first set before him, and reproved, his impiety: and then denounced the impending destruction of himself and his whole empire; which accordingly took place that very night.
The charge which is here exhibited against Belshazzar is more or less applicable to all the children of men, even to ourselves, as well as others; and will give me occasion to shew,
I.
How far our conduct has resembled his
Belshazzar was as dependent upon God as any of his subjects could be
[He received his breath from God; by whom also his sold was upheld in life [Note: Psa 66:9.]. His times were altogether in Gods hands [Note: Psa 31:15.], who could prolong or cut them short, as he saw fit. Nor was Belshazzar ignorant of this. He could not but feel his dependence on a Superior Being: and he had an evidence, in the dispensations with which his father (his grandfather) had been visited, that this Being was God.]
Yet had he not glorified God, in any part of his conduct
[He had not acknowledged his supremacy, or regarded his authority, or rendered thanks to him for his mercies, or dreaded his displeasure. On the contrary, he had, with daring impiety, profaned the vessels of Gods sanctuary, drinking out of them, together with his wives and concubines; and praising his gods of gold and silver, of brass and iron, of wood and stone [Note: ver. 3, 4.] and thus provoking the Most High to jealousy, and setting him at defiance. In this, he not only had not glorified God, but had greatly and impiously dishonoured him.]
And we, too, like Belshazzar, are dependent on God
[In him we live and move and have our being [Note: Act 17:28.]. In his hand, says Job, is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind [Note: Job 12:10.]: and, if he take away our breath, we die, and return again to our dust [Note: Psa 104:29.]. So jealous of his own honour is God, in this respect, that he characterizes himself as much by the preservation of all things, as by their first creation: Thus saith the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein [Note: Isa 42:6.]. He sees our ways, and counts all our steps [Note: Job 31:4.] Nor does he leave man to walk at large without controul: I know, O Lord, saith the prophet, that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps [Note: Jer 10:23.] In a word, it is as true of us, as it was of Belshazzar, that our breath is in Gods hands; and his, even under his governance, are all our ways.]
Yet, like him, have we also forgotten to glorify our God
[Though we have known God, yet have we not glorified him as God [Note: Rom 1:21.] We have not a given him glory by repentance though that would have honoured him in a very especial manner [Note: Jos 7:19. Jer 13:15-16.]. Nor have we honoured him by the exercise of faith though that also would have greatly redounded to his glory [Note: Rom 4:20.]. Nor have we endeavoured to honour him in a way of holy obedience though our blessed Lord has so expressly told us, that by our fruitfulness in good works his Father would be glorified [Note: Joh 15:8.] Had we acted, in any respect, as we ought to have done, we should have laboured that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in us [Note: Joh 17:10. 2Th 1:12.]. But, in having altogether neglected this, we are obnoxious to the very same charge as the impious Belshazzar.]
But as our opportunities of instruction have greatly surpassed any that that unhappy monarch ever possessed, I shall go on to shew,
II.
How far our guilt has exceeded his
To whomsoever God has committed much, of him will much be required: and our demerits are aggravated in proportion to the advantages which we have enjoyed. As a heavier condemnation was denounced against the cities of Bethsaida and Capernaum, because of the special mercies which they had abused, so will God regard us as more guilty than Belshazzar himself; because,
1.
Our knowledge of him has been more clear
[It was but little that Belshazzar knew of God. He did know that Jehovah was above all gods, and that he was able either to save or to destroy, He had seen this, in the degradation to which his grandfather had been reduced, and in the mercy that had been vouchsafed unto him [Note: ver. 2022.]: and he knew it, from the testimony which that restored monarch had borne to the honour of Jehovah [Note: Dan 4:34-37.]. But we have a revelation from God himself; a revelation, wherein he has made known to us his nature and perfections, his works and purposes. There is not any thing respecting him which we are concerned to know, which he has not clearly revealed unto us: so that it is not an unknown God that we are called to serve, but one with whom we may acquaint ourselves, and be at peace [Note: Job 22:21.]. The precise nature of Ins will, too, he has declared unto us; so that we are informed respecting every thing which he would wish us either to forbear or do. We cannot plead ignorance in any respect: and therefore knowing, as we have done, our Masters will, we have contracted greater guilt by our disobedience; and deserved a heavier punishment than he ever did, who knew it not [Note: Luk 12:47-48.].]
2.
Our obligations to him are more abundant
[Belshazzar was indebted to God for all the blessings both of creation and providence: but we are made partakers of the infinitely higher blessings of redemption. O! what tongue can declare the obligations we owe him for the gift of his only dear Son to die for us, and to redeem us to God by his blood? This as far exceeds all other mercies, as the radiance of the noon-day sun exceeds the glimmering of a twinkling star. By the consideration of this, we should have been impelled to the most strenuous efforts in his service. The surrender of our whole selves to him, in body, soul, and spirit, has been our reasonable service. Yet have we not given to him the glory due unto his name; but have set up idols in our hearts; and in the whole course of our lives have worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for evermore [Note: Rom 1:25.]. What then do not we deserve at his hands? we, who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and done despite to the Spirit of Grace? If by this we have incurred a far sorer punishment than they did who despised the law of Moses [Note: Heb 10:28-29.] much more must our guilt and punishment exceed that of the impious Belshazzar.]
3.
Our responsibility to him is more manifest
[Of a resurrection from the dead, and a future judgment, that unhappy monarch must have had a very indistinct notion. But we are as assured of these things as if they were at this moment exhibited before our eyes. We know that God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he has ordained, even by the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has raised from the dead. We know that he will then call, not our overt acts only, but every secret thing, into judgment; and recompense us according to what we have done, whether it be good or evil. Hence we have been concerned to take especial care to our ways; and so to order them before him, that we may find acceptance with him in that day. What guilt, then, must attach to us, for our neglect of him, and for our numberless violations of his holy laws! What excuse shall we have, when we stand at his judgment-seat? Belshazzar, though he can never excuse, may palliate, his guilt, by saying, Lord, I knew not what a judgment would await me: but we must stand self-condemned, as having set at nought our God and Judge, and, in defiance of his justice, have treasured up for ourselves wrath against the day of wrath [Note: Rom 2:5.].]
Address
1.
Those who are insensible of all the guilt they have contracted
[The greater part of mankind, though they live altogether as without God in the world, are as unconcerned about their state as if there were no God to call them into judgment But, Brethren, this is a most awful infatuation. You do not wonder that King Belshazzar trembled, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another, when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall: but do you not wonder at your own insensibility, when ten thousand heavier judgments are written against you in this book? And what is written against you, there is no need of a prophet to interpret: it is expressed in terms plain and intelligible to the meanest capacity. Take but that one sentence: The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God [Note: Psa 9:17.]. Will you not tremble at such a word as this? Know ye assuredly. that, whether you will believe it or not, it shall be fulfilled in its season; and that, if it ever be executed upon you, it would have been better for you that you had never been born. You may possibly be distinguished amongst men for rank; and learning: but, if you were as great as ever Belshazzar was, yet should you find no protection from your greatness: for Gods declaration is, that though hand join in hand, and there were a confederacy of the whole world to protect you, the wicked shall not pass unpunished.]
2.
Those who are trembling for fear of the Divine judgments
[Others may pity you because of the terror that has seized your mind: but I will congratulate you from my inmost soul. Not that terror constitutes repentance: for, in truth, it is no part of true repentance; but it is often introductory to it: and the man that is pricked to the heart, and led to cry out, What shall I do? is not far from the kingdom of heaven. Only let your sorrow for sin become more ingenuous, so as to feel like those of old: We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God [Note: Jer 3:25.]; and you need not fear but that the handwriting that is against you shall be blotted out [Note: Col 2:14.], and your iniquities also be blotted out as a morning cloud [Note: Isa 44:22.]. Hear what God himself has spoken for your encouragement: To this man will I look, even to him that is of a broken and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word [Note: Isa 66:2.]. Yes, God himself will look upon you with complacency, and all the angels around his throne rejoice in your behalf. Be of good comfort, then: and look to that Saviour whose blood will cleanse you from all sin: and fear not, but that in Him you shall be justified from all the iniquities that you have ever committed [Note: Act 13:39.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Dan 5:23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast 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 thy breath [is], and whose [are] all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
Ver. 23. But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven. ] As did also Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Herod, Act 12:21-23 whose acts were set forth with false and flattering praises by Nicholas Damascenus, as Josephus a complaineth; but so are not Belshazzar’s by holy Daniel, who yet is almost his only historiographer.
And whose are all thy ways.
a Antiq., lib. xvi. cap. 11.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the Lord. Chaldee. mare. The equivalent for the Hebrew Adonai. App-4. Compare Maran in “Maranatha” (1Co 16:22).
which see not, &c. Compare Psa 115:4-8; Psa 135:15-17. Isa 37:19; Isa 46:6, Isa 46:7.
in Whose hand, &c. Compare Gen 2:7. Job 12:10; Job 34:14, Job 34:15. Psa 104:29.
breath. Chaldee. nishma’. Same as Hebrew. neshamah. App-16.
and Whose, &c. Compare Job 31:4. Psa 139:3. Pro 20:24. Jer 10:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Dan 5:23
Dan 5:23 But hast lifted up thyselfH7313 againstH5922 the LordH4756 of heaven;H8065 and they have broughtH858 the vesselsH3984 ofH1768 his houseH1005 beforeH6925 thee, and thou,H607 and thy lords,H7261 thy wives,H7695 and thy concubines,H3904 have drunkH8355 wineH2562 in them; and thou hast praisedH7624 the godsH426 of silver,H3702 and gold,H1722 of brass,H5174 iron,H6523 wood,H636 and stone,H69 whichH1768 seeH2370 not,H3809 norH3809 hear,H8086 norH3809 know:H3046 and the GodH426 in whoseH1768 handH3028 thy breathH5396 is, and whose are allH3606 thy ways,H735 hast thou notH3809 glorified:H1922
Dan 5:23
But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast 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 thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
Belshazzar knew exactly what those vessels were when he ordered them brought to the feast. He also knew about Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion, especially in light of the fact that he was a direct descendant of him. Belshazzar knew of the one true and living God and he knew the things that happened in the past to his not so distant ancestor. Daniel indicated that by doing what he done, he had lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven. Belshazzar had no excuse whatsoever for the conduct he had displayed.
“and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified”
What chilling words these must have been to the drunken despot who had just witnessed the writing on the wall to hear that the God he had ridiculed and dishonored with the violation of the temple treasures, learned that the very air he breathes is in the hands of the God of Heaven.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
lifted: Dan 5:3, Dan 5:4, 2Ki 14:10, Isa 2:12, Isa 33:10, Isa 37:23, Jer 50:29, Eze 28:2, Eze 28:5, Eze 28:17, Eze 31:10, Hab 2:4, 1Ti 3:6, Rev 13:5, Rev 13:6
the Lord: Dan 4:37, Gen 14:19, Psa 115:16
and they: Dan 5:2-4, 1Sa 5:1-9
hast praised: Jdg 16:23
which: Psa 115:4-8, Psa 135:15-17, Isa 37:19, Isa 46:6, Isa 46:7, Hab 2:18, Hab 2:19, 1Co 8:4
in whose: Gen 2:7, Job 12:10, Job 34:14, Job 34:15, Psa 104:29, Psa 146:4, Isa 42:5, Act 17:25, Act 17:28, Act 17:29
and whose: Job 31:4, Psa 139:3, Pro 20:24, Jer 10:23, Heb 4:13
hast thou: Rom 1:21-23
Reciprocal: Exo 7:17 – thou shalt Exo 20:23 – General Exo 32:18 – but the Jdg 9:27 – the house Jdg 16:24 – praised 1Sa 5:2 – of Dagon 1Ki 17:17 – that there was 1Ki 18:26 – no voice 1Ch 10:9 – tidings 2Ch 4:19 – all the vessels 2Ch 24:7 – did they bestow 2Ch 32:25 – his heart 2Ch 36:10 – goodly vessels 2Ch 36:12 – humbled 2Ch 36:23 – All the kingdoms Ezr 1:2 – Lord God Ezr 1:7 – Nebuchadnezzar Neh 9:10 – they Job 15:25 – he stretcheth Psa 10:4 – will not Psa 69:12 – drunkards Pro 18:12 – destruction Pro 24:12 – that keepeth Isa 5:12 – the harp Isa 13:11 – and I will cause Isa 40:20 – chooseth Isa 44:8 – ye are Isa 44:9 – and their Isa 47:8 – I am Jer 27:22 – carried Jer 48:26 – for he Jer 50:28 – to declare Jer 50:32 – the most proud Eze 16:49 – pride Eze 28:9 – say Eze 31:14 – the end Dan 3:1 – made Dan 8:11 – he magnified Dan 11:12 – his heart Hos 2:8 – her corn Hos 7:5 – with scorners Hab 1:16 – they Hab 2:5 – he transgresseth Luk 16:25 – remember 1Co 4:7 – why 2Co 10:5 – and every Heb 10:26 – if Rev 9:20 – and idols Rev 16:9 – and they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
FAILURE TO GLORIFY GOD
The God in Whose hand thy breath is, and Whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.
Dan 5:23
Such, in one single sentence, brief, pregnant, inexorable, is the summing up of the case against a doomed man. This in itself was enough. Nothing is here said about the licentiousness, cruelty, or other vices of that Oriental despot: this accusation was enough for him, and it will be enough for us.
There does not appear to be anything so very criminal, after all, in this. It is the sin most frequently committed. There are comparatively few murderers in the world; a large number, undoubtedly, of the dishonest and impure, and so forth; but this is the most common. Whatever other charges may be brought against us, if this one point be proved, it will be enough: the man will stand before his Judge convicted of having utterly failed to accomplish the very end for which he was called into existence.
I. Man exists for the glory of God.This is a theological assertion which no professing Christian would challenge, though few have an adequate apprehension of its truth. In what sense, then, is the glory of God the end and object of mans existence? (1) By witnessing to the power of His grace to sustain, defend, and exalt the soul that by faith commits itself to Him, Who is thus seen perfecting His strength in human weakness. (2) By the voluntary acceptance of the Divine Will as the law of human conduct. To such a challenge the child of God responds by accepting the Will of God as the law of his life, and is himself a standing testimony to the perfection of that Will. (3) By so submitting himself here to the Divine Will that he may hereafter triumphantly bear witness, for all eternity, to the perfection of that Divine Will. (4) By the voluntary acceptance of the Divine Will; thus bearing an indirect but eloquent testimony to the perfections of the Divine character, and giving a triumphant answer to Satanthe slanderer of God to man.
II. We shall, perhaps, best understand the full force of the accusation against Belshazzar, and against many now, by considering, How it is possible for us to dishonour God, or to rob God of His glory.(1) We cannot dishonour God more than by ignoring Him altogether. The worst form of insult is to cut a man dead as you pass him. How many there are who are dishonouring God by ignoring Him! (2) We dishonour God when we repudiate the means of salvation which He, at an infinite cost, has provided for us. We are then acting as though we could dispense with His assistance. Thus you are practically calling the Cross of Calvary a superfluous display of Divine love, and despising the mercy of God by turning your back on His unspeakable gift. (3) We dishonour God when we appropriate to some other use that which He has designed for Himself. Know ye not, says the Apostle, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? This ought to be the case with every one of us. Our manhood has been given us in order that we may render it back to God, that it may be inhabited by God the Holy Spirit, that He may dwell in us, conforming us to the image of Christ. Claimed, then, by the Holy Spirit those bodies of yours most certainly are; but are they His temples? Does he inhabit them?
III. Remember, God will not be baffled.He holds your breath; all your ways belong to Him. Will His purposes be defeated? Having created you for His glory, shall you exist only for His shame? Shall there be a stain upon the escutcheon of the Divine honour by your sin, your failure? Not so! The everlasting God will have His meed of glory out of every man. He desires it in the voluntary offering of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, to Him; to have it in the joyful, holy dedication of our whole nature to Him, to Whom it belongs. But, if He may not have it so, He will have it otherwise.
It is not the preachers province to pronounce judgment. But he is bound to point out what must be the end of a life that does not glorify God. As by the saints in Heaven, so by the lost in Hell; as by the songs of the redeemed, so by the wailing of the wickedGods truth shall be vindicated, and God shall be glorified. Which shall it be with you? You must do one of two thingseither glorify God by accepting His salvation; or dishonour Him by refusing it. The decision rests with you: which shall it be?
Rev. Canon Aitken.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Dan 5:23. In conducting t.he kind of feast that was being done on this night, Belshazzar was in rebellion against the Lord of heaven. The king did not need to be informed of what was actually done on that night, but Daniel enumerated the items so as to make the contrast stand out. He and his family and royal group had given praise to gods that have no intellect of any kind, but had no glory to give to Him from whom even his breath was derived.