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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ003112S
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00:24 It was the 12th of October in the year 539 B.C. just under 550 00:30 years ago and it was during the reign of the Babylonian monarch 00:36 Belshazzar. And this king, well he knew how to party. He loved 00:42 to party and one night he organized a big party and what a 00:47 party it was. The king's lords, his wives, his concubines, over 00:53 a thousand of them. Not only drinking wine but drinking it 00:57 from the sacred vessels that had been part of the ancient Jewish 01:01 temple in Jerusalem 01:02 pillaged decades earlier by his grandfather 01:06 Nebuchadnezzar. Amid all the sacrilege and revelry and event 01:11 occurred that brought all festivities to an immediate halt 01:16 A mysterious hand appeared and in fiery letters wrote a 01:21 chilling message on the wall of the king's palace. If you ever 01:25 wondered where the phrase "the handwriting on the wall" 01:30 originated well here it is. No question this was strange 01:35 and it was shocking. Who wrote this message and what did it 01:40 mean. Join me as we investigate the amazing story of the 01:45 handwriting on the wall that rocked an ancient empire and 01:49 brought about the demise of its insolent king. 01:53 ♪ ♪ 02:16 King Nebuchadnezzar, the great warrior king of Babylon ruled 02:20 his kingdom from 605 B.C. He was powerful and he was invincible. 02:25 He had no peers. He was the uncontested ruler of the world. 02:31 Soon after he ascended the throne Nebuchadnezzar went on 02:36 the war path. He set out to invade the walled city of 02:40 Jerusalem. In fact, historical records and the Bible tell us 02:45 that this ancient king made three invading trips to 02:50 Jerusalem. Three times he led his mighty army 1500 kilometers 02:56 from Babylon across the fertile crescent to Jerusalem. And each 03:01 time he attacked he inflicted severe punishment and 03:05 tribulation on the city and its inhabitants. On this first trip 03:11 in 605 B.C. he took home with him many of the precious golden 03:17 vessels that he found in Solomon's magnificent temple. 03:21 And in addition, he and his troops took hostage a selected 03:25 number of young people including Daniel to be trained in the ways 03:31 of Babylon. In 597 B.C., just eight years later Nebuchadnezzar 03:36 returned to Jerusalem. This time he took most of the remaining 03:41 golden vessels and temple treasure and about 10,000 03:45 prisoners. By this time the Jewish king Jehoiachin 03:50 had abandoned any semblance of rebellion and 03:54 surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar. But 11 years later in 586 B.C. 04:00 Nebuchadnezzar invaded a third and final time. This time he 04:05 completely destroyed Solomon's temple, just leveled it to the 04:10 ground and took most of Jerusalem's remaining population 04:15 as captives back to Babylon with him. Now Nebuchadnezzar's 04:19 capital city of Babylon, located near the modern city of Baghdad 04:24 in Iraq is situated in a flat desert environment. Although 04:28 Nebuchadnezzar's wealth and power were legendary and he was 04:32 known as a mighty conqueror like most husbands he wanted to 04:37 please his wife, Amytis. She came from the mountainous 04:41 region to the north. 04:43 Babylon was flat and dry, desert and she yearned 04:48 for the green gardens of her mountain home. So Nebuchadnezzar 04:53 arranged to build the beautiful hanging gardens of Babylon for 04:58 her. These gardens are considered to be one of the 05:02 seven wonders of the ancient world. King Nebuchadnezzar's 05:06 power was legendary. He had finally conquered Egypt and 05:11 extended his empire and now his capital city, Babylon, was 05:15 the most magnificent and the dominant city of the world. 05:20 Its population reached about two million. It rose out of the 05:25 desert plain with a spectacular skyline. It boasted temples, 05:30 terraces and palaces. In fact Nebuchadnezzar built three 05:35 luxurious palace complexes in the city and ensured there were 05:41 massive double and triple walls for protection. We're told these 05:46 walls were over 100 meters high and 30 meters wide. Four 05:51 chariots abreast could ride on them. Nebuchadnezzar was proud 05:56 of the beauty of his palaces. In fact he was so proud of all he 06:00 had achieved and the great city that he built that he ordered 06:05 his initials to be printed on the building bricks. At this 06:10 time Babylon was an advanced and highly developed innovative 06:15 and sophisticated society. Way back in those days they knew all 06:21 about solving quadratic equations, reciprocals, squares 06:25 and square roots, cubes and cube roots. They were the world 06:29 leaders in numbers, facts and figures. In fact, they 06:35 were so advanced 06:36 that some of their systems have come down to us today. They were 06:40 the ones that came up with 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes 06:44 in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle. The Babylonian 06:50 astronomers were also the world leaders in the study of the 06:54 heavenly bodies, the planets and stars. They carefully recorded 06:59 eclipses and knew how to interpret and predict them. 07:03 And in the area of commerce and economics they introduced bills, 07:08 promissory notes, receipts, letters of credit, compound 07:13 interest and even a system of checks. But Babylon was also a 07:17 leader in some other kinds of knowledge and practices, the 07:23 dark arts, the occult magic, pagan mythology, astrology, 07:28 divination and 07:29 sorcery had permeated their society. The king even had an 07:35 elite group of wise men with its magicians and astrologers who 07:40 advised him. Nebuchadnezzar had desperately sought advice from 07:45 this group of wise men and seers. When he'd been able to remember 07:49 his dream about a giant metal statue made of gold, silver, 07:54 brass and iron. When the wise men couldn't tell the king his dream 07:59 much less interpret it, he angrily ordered them all to be 08:04 executed. This execution order included the young Jewish 08:09 noblemen Daniel and his friends. Daniel requests an audience with 08:14 the king and tells him there is a God in heaven who can show him 08:19 and interpret the dream. Then under God's guidance he tells 08:25 tells king his dream and provides the interpretation 08:27 that outlines the 08:29 future of the world right through to the climax of history 08:33 and the introduction of God's kingdom that will last forever. 08:37 Now about 35 years later King Nebuchadnezzar has another 08:43 dream. This time it's about a tree and he wants to know what 08:48 it means. So again, he calls in his wise men, the wizards, the 08:54 astrologers and magicians and asks them to interpret his 08:58 dream. Well the same situation happens again. The wise men 09:04 can't explain the dream to the king. They fail again and then 09:10 Nebuchadnezzar remembers the honest and reliable Hebrew 09:14 Daniel. So he summons Daniel and this is what Daniel says: 09:33 It's unbelievable but that's exactly what happened. This 09:38 powerful monarch of the world's leading empire goes mad just as 09:43 the dream had predicted. For seven years the king lived a 09:47 pathetic, deranged life eating grass in a field like an animal 09:51 until he finally responded to the message from God. 10:14 Nebuchadnezzar recognizes, exalts and praises God and 10:18 resumes his monarchy until his death in 562 B.C. at the grand 10:24 old age of 104. After Nebuchadnezzar's death 10:29 his son Amel-Marduke but ironically known by the name 10:35 Evil Marodak ruled the kingdom for two terrible years until he 10:39 is assassinated by his own brother-in-law. Then he dies 10:44 after just four years on the throne leaving a young son. Some 10:49 of the court conspirators got together and killed the young 10:54 boy king and installed their own choice on the throne. His name 11:00 was Nabonidus, a royal prince. But sadly Nabonidus is a very 11:05 ineffectual ruler. In a short time, only 23 years since the 11:11 great king Nebuchadnezzar has died, the golden era for Babylon 11:16 has faded. And then after about six years as king Nabonidus 11:20 decides to transfer his headquarters out of the city of 11:24 Babylon to the distant oasis Tema in Arabia. Nabonidus then 11:31 installs his son Belshazzar on the throne in Babylon as a 11:37 coregent or second king. History reveals that he did not worship 11:42 Babylonian patron God Marduk but was an avid worshiper of the 11:47 moon god. Now, this is unbelievable. The name of the 11:51 deity the moon God was Sin. Now Nabonidus, even though he was 11:56 the first king was living 1000 kilometers away from Babylon 12:02 and for the last 10 years had not even returned once to 12:08 celebrate the popular New Years festival. In addition, Nabonidus 12:13 became very unpopular when he forced some of the high class 12:17 citizens of Babylon to work in labor gangs for the state. Many 12:22 of the Babylonians became extremely dissatisfied and even 12:26 joined the enemy, the growing Medo-Persian army in her 12:31 rebellion against Babylon. This caused Nabonidus to lose 12:35 military battles against the Persian general Cyrus at Opis 12:40 about 182 meters away from Babylon and then at Sippar 80 12:46 kilometers north of the city. Historic accounts are very 12:51 detailed about these battles and he recorded that the last 12:56 battle happened on the 10th of October 539 B.C. Just two days 13:01 later on the 12th of October 539 B.C. the Persian troops 13:08 are camped outside the city walls and besiege Babylon itself 13:13 Now Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus and the second king of Babylon, 13:18 decided that this was a perfect time to host a huge party. 13:24 The Bible says 1000 people are invited to imbibe and celebrate 13:29 with him. Let's read what the Bible says in Daniel chapter 5 13:35 and verse 1. 13:47 Amazingly the Babylonians did not fear the enemy troops 13:51 outside their walls. They knew that their city was well 13:55 fortified. There were those two sets of double walls and there 13:59 were enough provisions to last for months. Even water was in 14:04 good supply. The great Euphrates River flowed through heavily 14:08 guarded gates right into the city. But on this night the 14:12 gates weren't guarded. Let's read the record of this night. 14:16 It's found in Daniel chapter 5 verses 2 and 3: 14:39 The Bible account opens on Belshazzar who remembers his 14:44 heritage. The English Bible calls Belshazzar the son of 14:48 Nebuchadnezzar but as we have described in this messy royal 14:53 line, Belshazzar was not his son but rather a successor, a 14:57 grandson which is how the original Aramaic words can be 15:02 translated. It is, in fact, pointed out seven times in the 15:06 chapter. In defiance, Belshazzar ordered his servants to bring to 15:12 him the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from 15:16 the temple in Jerusalem. He wants to commemorate the victory 15:20 of Babylon over Jerusalem, the triumph of the god of Babylon 15:25 over the God of Israel. Let's read what's recorded in Daniel 15:29 chapter 5 and verse 4: 15:39 Notice that these are the same metals as those on the great 15:44 statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream and they are listed in the 15:50 same order. Through this gesture this intoxicated monarch 15:55 deliberately and publically showing contempt and 15:59 scorn for the 16:01 predictions that Babylon would come to an end one day. Suddenly 16:06 the party crowd goes silent. They are stunned as they watch a 16:11 hand appear. It comes out of nowhere and it is writing in 16:16 fiery letters on the wall. The people watch in awe as the 16:20 the handwriting slowly makes words, but nobody can read 16:25 the message and so nobody knows what it means. However, 16:30 even in their drunken state they know that these words of fire 16:35 mean trouble. A feeling of fear and trepidation sweeps over the 16:40 party crowd. Terrified the defiant king goes pale and his 16:45 his knees knock together. Immediately Belshazzar cries out 16:50 for the Babylonian wise men, astrologers and magicians of 16:54 the kingdom and in his desperation makes this 16:58 extravagant promise: 17:13 Remember Belshazzar is only the second ruler of the kingdom 17:18 after his father. So in desperation he offers the 17:24 highest position he can, third ruler, to anyone who can read 17:29 and interpret the handwriting. But no one can. Now Belshazzar 17:34 is greatly troubled as he stares at the fiery words. His 17:39 suppressed memories haunt and disturb him. And then the Queen 17:44 Mother enters the banquet. She encourages Belshazzar to 17:48 remember that his father, grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar 17:52 believed in God and to consult the old prophet Daniel: 18:41 Daniel, an old man now, is still standing for his faith in God. 18:47 He enters the courtyard and walks up to the king. Belshazzar 18:52 is shaking and begs Daniel to read the fiery words. He offers 18:57 the aged prophet the riches and gifts that the third person in 19:01 the kingdom would be entitled to. What was Daniel's response 19:06 to the king? Well Daniel's usual tact and respect is replaced by 19:12 his stern answer: 19:29 And then Daniel, in front of those thousand people, told the 19:34 king how his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had to learn the 19:38 hard way that the God of heaven ruled over everything and 19:43 everyone including kings. He reminded Belshazzar that 19:48 Nebuchadnezzar had gone mad for seven years before he learned 19:53 that lesson: 20:34 And then Daniel reads and interprets the handwriting 20:38 on the wall: 21:02 That very night the 12th of October 539 B.C. while 21:07 Belshazzar and his friends partied, the enemy attacked. The 21:12 ancient historian Herodotus and Xenophon record this: The 21:16 river was low after the hot summer and the invaders 21:20 cleverly lowered it further by diverting some of the water. 21:25 The Persian soldiers waded into the now knee-deep stream. When 21:30 they came to the mighty river gates they found them unguarded 21:34 and open just as the prophecy in Isaiah predicted 200 years 21:39 before. Cyrus took the city of Babylon with scarcely a fight 21:45 and that very night King Belshazzar lost his life and his 21:50 kingdom. No wonder when Daniel first stepped before he 21:55 drunken king, he didn't bother with the usual niceties and 21:59 greeting for the king, O King live forever. As Daniel read the 22:04 writing on the wall he knew that the king as doomed, that the 22:08 king was going to die in just a short time, and that's exactly 22:13 what happened. Here's the Bible account: 22:29 The kingdom of Babylon came to an end that very night. 22:34 Belshazzar was the last of the Babylonian monarchs. A new king, 22:40 Darius the Mede ascends the throne. Darius the Mede ruled 22:45 the city for just over a year until his death and then Cyrus 22:49 the Great became the king of the Medes and Persians just as 22:54 Bible prophecy had predicted. The head of gold truly had been 23:02 toppled. Just as had been predicted in King 23:04 Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great metal image so many years 23:09 before. When Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar that God was 23:13 giving him a glimpse into the future. In fact, God was showing 23:18 him the broad sweep of history right down to the climax of 23:24 earth's history. The image represented the future 23:28 succession of empires from Babylon to Medo-Persia to Greece 23:33 to Rome and then to the time of modern Europe. That stone 23:38 represented the kingdom of God which will never be destroyed. 23:42 This is one of the most remarkable prophecies in the 23:46 Bible. It tells us thousands of years of world history and it 23:51 pictures the succession of world empires with amazing accuracy. 23:55 Amazingly even though Daniel the prophet was an old man he 24:01 became a trusted advisor to first Darius and then Cyrus the 24:06 Medo-Persian king. And he did it by proclaiming his faith, by 24:11 standing true to his values. He did it by showing people around 24:16 him that God has answers. There's a lesson here for us in 24:22 the writing on the wall. In a sense the handwriting on the 24:27 wall is still there even though those flaming letters have faded 24:33 And today they're still saying turn to God. Turn to God while 24:38 there is still time. There is no better time to make this choice. 24:43 There is no point in waiting until tomorrow. The day for 24:48 choosing God is right now. The writing on the wall is a 24:51 reminder that we need to live our lives with the knowledge 24:55 that God is watching what we do. Now for some that will produce 25:01 sudden fear. For others it will provide comfort. For most it may 25:06 not change anything. The question is if God was to write 25:11 something on your wall what would it be. Would it be well 25:16 done you good and faithful servant? Would it be depart from 25:21 me. I never knew you. Maybe it would be I've given you so much 25:27 I wish you would spend more time with me and do more for me. One 25:32 day the writing will be on the wall and we will give an account 25:38 of the decisions we made and the life we lived. Sometimes we can 25:43 feel overwhelmed when struggling with the challenges of life in a 25:47 hostile and secular world. But God has the answers to the 25:53 deepest problems of the human heart. Why not choose to believe 25:56 and trust in God just like Daniel did. If you'd like 26:01 to get closer to 26:02 God then I'd like to recommend a free gift we have for all our 26:07 Incredible Journey viewers today It's the booklet Armageddon The 26:13 Final Battle for Your Heart. This booklet is our gift to you 26:18 and is absolutely free. I guarantee there are no costs nor 26:22 obligations whatsoever. So make the most of this wonderful 26:27 opportunity to receive the free gift we have for you today. 26:32 Phone or text us at 0436333555 in Australia or 26:39 0204222042 in New Zealand or visit our website TiJ.tv to 26:45 request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally 26:51 free of charge and with no obligation. So don't delay. 26:58 Call or text 0436333555 in Australia or 0204222042 in 27:05 New Zealand or visit our website to request today's offer. Write 27:09 to us at: Don't delay. Call or text us now 27:27 If you've enjoyed today's journey to ancient Babylon 27:31 and our reflection on the handwriting on the wall then 27:36 be sure to join 27:37 us again next week when we will share another of life's journeys 27:40 together. Until then let's pray to the God of Daniel who 27:45 controls the future and who has a plan for our lives. 27:50 Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the example of 27:55 Daniel and how he kept his faith in the courts of Babylon. When 27:59 we feel pressured or challenged to keep our faith strong, help 28:03 us to keep our eyes on you. We want to find meaning and 28:08 stability in our lives. We know you are the answer to life's 28:12 problems and we want to learn to trust you completely. 28:16 In Jesus' name we pray, Amen 28:21 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2020-07-09