WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? - - WEEK 3

Welcome.                  

Daniel is offered money and power by King Belshazzar but turns it down. If you had

been Daniel, what should the king have offered instead in order for your iron will to

crumble?

Worship.        

Psalm 145

Word.                          Daniel chapter 5 – God’s Graffiti

The year is 539 B.C. The Babylonian empire was crumbling – many cities had fallen and the enemy were at the gates. In contrast to Nebuchadnezzar at the end of chapter 4, the beginning of chapter 5 shows Belshazzar to be far from God. His name means, “Bel, protect the king.” Bel is a name for one of the Babylonian gods.

 

Read Vv 1-5

1. To any Jew hearing of this event the king’s actions would have been outrageously blasphemous. How does blasphemy present itself today and how much does it matter?

2. Compare the first sentence of verse 5 with the first sentence of verse 33 of the previous chapter. Nebuchadnezzar had been warned of what was to come – can we assume that Belshazzar had too?

Read Vv 6-12

3. In Verse 7, Belshazzar promises to make whoever interprets the writing on the wall the third highest ruler in the kingdom. Ask whoever is leading this session who the first two were. I’m sure they’ll have the answer for you. And

who the queen was in verse 10.

Daniel, now in his 80s, is brought before the king who flatters him and begs him for information. Daniel refuses the king’s offer of reward.

Read Vv 17-24

4. Would it have been wrong for Daniel to have accepted rewards from the king? Compare your answer to a similar question asked about 2:38. How would you respond if you were in a similar situation?

5. Which key verse points to the difference between the way Daniel sensitively handled Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 4 and how he responds to this king?

6. Look at Romans 1:21-23 and think how Paul’s comments echo this situation and how they might reverberate through time into our own world?

Read Vv25-30

7. How would you interpret these verses if your neighbour popped over and asked what they meant?

{Two Extras if Required}

8. In chapters 4 and 5 we read of Daniel responding very differently to two secular kings – one received restoration and one destruction. We know from Daniel chapter 7 onwards that he was given more insights into the spiritual meaning of the affairs of his day than any of us are likely to “enjoy”. If God doesn’t give you Daniel’s insight - is that something of a relief to you?

9. Then and now, does it seem that God is quick or slow to judge such sacrilegious behaviour? (Psalm 90:4, Habakkuk 2:3, Luke 12:20.)

Witness.

“Though you knew all this” {v 22} refers to us too. Maybe one to weigh up in the quiet of our own hearts is how it might look if a video recording of “all that we know” from the bible was played on a split screen alongside “all that we do or don’t do” in spite of what we know. Pray into this for one another.