Wednesday, January 11, 2023

A Mysterious Hand Appears!!! (Dan. 5:5)

 

v. 5a: “Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged…”

 


“Suddenly…” Note the striking parallels to Daniel 4:30-33!

 

o   Even as Nebuchadnezzar finds himself stricken by the powerful Hand of Divine Judgment for unduly assigning the credit for his great prosperity and imperial achievements—which rightfully belonged unto God—unto himself (4:30), so too is the arrogant Belshazzar judged for misascribing Babylon’s political and military triumphs unto the power its false deities and unto the genius of its royal house (5:4, 23).  

 

o   Like Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar had crossed a line of no return—a spiritual Rubicon that rendered judgment inevitable!

 

o   “Suddenly…” As with Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar’s judgment was sudden and immediate!

 

4:31: "While the word was in the king's mouth…”

4:33: “Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled…”

 

The Aramaic term shâ‛âh (translated variously as “suddenly, “in the same hour,or “at that moment”) is employed in both 4:33 and 5:5, inviting comparison between the two accounts.

 

The immediacy of God’s response serves to clearly & unmistakably connect the act of judgment unto the offending deed, establishing a cause/effect relationship that might otherwise have been lessened in the eyes of men had there been a significant time interval. Thus, the mysterious handwriting appears immediately—as soon as the sacred vessels are dishonored by the Babylonians.

 

o   Both Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar became the beneficiaries of obvious and unmistakably supernaturally-directed special revelation with regard to the matter of their judgment: Nebuchadnezzar, through the means of the audible and disembodied heavenly voice, and Belshazzar, via the strange phenomenon of the spectral hand and its message.

 

Dan. 4:31 (ISV): As the words were being spoken by the king, a voice came forth from heaven: "King Nebuchadnezzar, this is declared to you: 'The kingdom has been taken from you!’”

 

Dan. 5:5 (ESV): Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.

“…the fingers of a man's hand emerged…”

o   A night of revelry is suddenly transformed into a night of horror! The strange and transcendent phenomenon of the disembodied portions of a human hand was deliberately designed by God to instill terror and instantly sober the profane and riotous assembly.

 

v. 5b: “and began writing opposite the lampstand…”

o   “and began writing.” The precise form or manner in which the written characters manifested themselves (e.g., engraving, dark lines, glowing light, etc.) is left unspecified—and is ultimately irrelevant. The significant fact is that the letters were conspicuous and seen by all!

 

o   “the lampstand.” While some have speculated that this may have been the sacred Menorah of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:31-40) that was housed within King Solomon’s Temple, or perhaps the sacred Lamps constructed by Solomon (2 Chron. 4:19-22; Jer. 52:19), there can be no definite confirmation of these proposals. Others would counter that these suggestions are improbable owing to the fact that the sacred articles were brought in after the feast’s commencement as opposed to its outset, when provisions for proper lighting would have already been made.

 

o   If the sacred Menorah was in fact utilized, it would indeed be most ironic that the desecrated article would be employed as an instrument to better illuminate the message of the king’s impending doom!

 

v. 5c: “on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace…”

o   Recall that we had previously observed that modern archeological excavation has unearthed the probable site of the Great Hall within the king’s palace where this event occurred, confirming its huge dimensions (see notes on 5:1c). Archeology has also served to confirm the details supplied by Daniel concerning the application of plaster upon walls of the Royal Throne Room! Note this comment from Walvoord regarding this great hall:

 

“Midway in the long wall opposite the entrance there was a niche in front of which the king may well have been seated. Interestingly, the wall behind the niche was covered with white plaster as described by Daniel, which would make an excellent background for such a writing.”—John Walvoord, Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation

 

o   The illumination supplied by the lampstand and the white gypsum background provided by the wall-plaster would present the ideal conditions for the clear revelation of the Divine Message of certain doom!

 

“When the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against unrighteousness, he would have it to be well noted and noticed by all.”—John Trapp commentary on Dan. 5:5

o   The handwriting on the gypsum-coated wall (the plaster being thus constructed of ground stone) has also been viewed by some commentators (e.g., Tony Garland) as a reminder of the Ten Commandments—a standard of Divine evaluation which in like manner was written by the finger of God upon tablets of stone (Ex. 31:18), and which functions as a bill of indictment against a sinful humanity that has failed to meet its inscribed requirements. Note this function of the Law as described in Col. 2:13-14:

 

Col. 2:13-14: And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

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