THE WRITING ON THE WALL
[p. 37] THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Daniel 5:1-6; Daniel 5:17-31; Song of Songs 5: 4, 5.
The thought I desire to bring before you is the effect that the sight of the Lord’s hand has on the apostate as compared with the believer, for there is a great difference. Belshazzar was an apostate, like many at the present time. We are living in a day which is marked by apostasy. We are living in times which are marked by a turning away from light previously vouchsafed; this is what marks the present time. One feels especially for young people, for this spirit being abroad affects the youth among the Lord’s people. We must remember that Belshazzar’s father was a converted man. He had light; he had wonderful light for his time, and he did not conceal it. Daniel 4 is a confession of his faith. It was not made to his family alone; it was a confession of his faith to his subjects as well. He had a very large congregation. He was really a preacher, and he addressed himself to his subjects, to the whole race of mankind, we may say. He was a preacher among the Gentiles; it was a remarkable testimony.
Nebuchadnezzar was an emperor; and imperialism, in the inception of it, was antagonistic to God. I am digressing in what I am about to say, but the idea of imperialism is to unify the nations, to bring all under one head, whereas in the Old Testament the line God pursued was to divide the nations. We are told in Acts 17 that God had set the bounds of their habitation. He had circumscribed the different races, setting each by itself to the end, that as thus shut up, they might turn to Him, “if haply they might feel after him”. Now that was the line God pursued, but imperialism as taken on by man was against that. Nimrod, as stated in Genesis 10, started it, and Nebuchadnezzar was his successor.
He was the emperor. He had brought all the [p. 38] nations which God had separated under one head. I am not speaking of how God met it, but imperialism in its inception and history was against the mind of God. I might add that God has met it in Christ. He has made Christ the Emperor. God meets every attack of the enemy on His purpose in Christ. Everything is met in Christ. Satan said in effect to the Lord, ‘I will make an emperor of you. All these kingdoms are mine; I will give them to you if you worship me’. If the Lord is to rule over the nations, it will be as divinely constituted. He is to receive His dignity from God, and He does receive it. He is the only Man equal to it. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. God made Him this, and He comes out of heaven. All the emperors who have risen on the earth have come from beneath.
In Daniel and Revelation we read of beasts that rose out of the sea. Beware of what comes from beneath! What comes from above is being gradually removed. It is well to warn people about this. The present trend is to remove all that comes from above. The democratic idea is that things come from beneath, but the divine Emperor comes from above with glorious majesty and armies attendant, not the Persian or Babylonish hordes. The Lord Jesus alone has title to unify the nations. What a glorious day for them when brought together under the influence of Christ! In principle, you have that in the day of Pentecost. God met Satan’s device by the gift of the Spirit from a glorified Jesus, and no other kind of unity will meet with divine approval; all else is from beneath. On the day of Pentecost, Jesus, the great Head of all the nations, gives the Spirit in the character of cloven tongues. This had reference to the different nations. The tongues meant the over throw of the barriers God had raised up. If God raises up barriers, He only can overthrow them. For anyone else to overthrow these barriers would [p. 39] be direct opposition to God, and this is the design of imperialism. How does God do it? By the gift of the Spirit. Cloven tongues as of fire appear. If the fire is present you need not fear the unity. If fire is absent the unity is corrupt. There shall be a unity ere long with no fire, no divine judgment in it.
As the Holy Spirit came we are told “it sat upon each of them”. A wonderful testimony was the result. “We do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God”. What did they speak about? The wonderful works of God. If we suppose that the Babel builders had sent out preachers, what would they have spoken about? The wonderful works of men. Doubtless they would speak about the great city and tower they were building; but look at what the Spirit of God introduces! The wonderful works of God. I have spoken of Nebuchadnezzar as an emperor, and in doing so turned aside to speak of imperialism; but I wished specially to speak of his faith. He had light from God, and was a preacher, as I said. Belshazzar was therefore the more responsible, for he was aware of this. Daniel said, “thou knewest all this”. The empire was passed on to him, but not the faith of his father.
Well, I have referred to this that you might have clearly before you the situation in Daniel, whose name signifies “God is Judge”. He does what He pleases, says Nebuchadnezzar, “in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth”. God is to be Judge. He is taking account of the history of the nations, of the emperors and kings of the earth, and of everything; not one thing escapes His notice. So in chapter 5 you have the fingers of a man’s hand writing down the deliberate judgment of God as to all that has gone on. Let us not be deceived, God is cognisant of everything. He knows [p. 40] what is going on in your heart, what kind of a father and mother you have, what kind of an environment you have been brought up in. He knows your opportunities and privileges, and He holds you accountable. God is Judge. He does what He pleases. He takes account of all, and in due time He writes it plainly on the palace of this world, with the fingers of a Man. Daniel set forth God as judging His people and men generally, but judging them in the Son of man. All judgment is in the hands of the Son of man.
If you saw His hand tonight, would it cause you terror? If you saw one of His features, would it trouble you? Would you recognise it? Many here would. It is one thing to recognise the hand of a lover, and another to recognise the hand of a judge. The former is seen in Canticles, although the same hand that wrote on the wall, in Daniel 5 — exactly the same hand. I go further, the Spirit that the Lord breathed into the disciples shall meet the Antichrist in the future and consume him, and yet that Spirit or breath is the life of our souls!
Now, look at the hand of the lover thrust through the hole in the door; there is myrrh on this hand; there was no myrrh on the hand that wrote on the wall in the palace of Babylon. Belshazzar was to be the sufferer; the apostate of today, too, will be a sufferer. But the hand thrust through the hole in the door was the hand of a lover, the hand of a suffering lover, and it was recognised. How many souls in this company and elsewhere gladly recognise the hand of the suffering Saviour! Every time that He puts out His hand, it is a suffering hand; it is the hand that suffered for us. It endears Him to us.
His hand reminds us of Calvary. He has been there for us. It moves our inwards; does it yours? How would that hand affect you if you saw it? It is the test as to whether you are a lover or a hater of Jesus.
[p. 41] Belshazzar was a hater. He was an idolater, turning aside from the light of his father. Daniel says, in effect, ‘You knew it; you knew all about it; you were not ignorant’. Neither have you been ignorant.
The light is round about you. You may not respond to it. “The light shone”, said Paul, “round about me and them which journeyed with me”. And so with you. Heavenly light shines all round about us.
Has it shone in? If not, why has it not shone in?
Are you resisting it? Are you turning away as Belshazzar did? Daniel said he knew it; “thou knewest all this”.
It is a dreadful thing to resist the light; it will lead to a deliberate turning away, and that turning away is apostasy, and apostasy brings a writing. Divine writing is a most interesting thing in Scripture. When you write you are more deliberate than when you speak. Before you write, you deliberate. Think of God; think of those fingers of a man’s hand! What actuated those fingers? What mind controlled them? The mind of God. It was the holy deliberate expression of God’s judgment of that man, and of the kingdom; and that kingdom and that man came to an end the same night. How would it be with you supposing those fingers came down? Could you discern the Lord’s hand if you saw it? As I was pointing out, the speaker in Canticles had already had an acquaintance with the Lord, and she recognised His features. Do you not think that in heaven we shall recognise the features of the Lord? Do you suppose we shall require an introduction? I do not.
The speaker in Song of Songs 5, though slothful, had the advantage of an acquaintance. She was so accustomed to see that hand that she knew it, and the sight of it moved her to give a complete delineation of the Lord’s Person. She gives a delineation of His Person from head to foot; and what a Person!
[p. 42] There is no deterioration; the legs are equal to the head. Such, beloved friends, is the Person of our Lord. Not like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, showing deterioration from head to foot, but the description given of the Bridegroom in Canticles shows that He is perfect throughout. His head is as fine gold, and His legs are set upon sockets of fine gold. With Jesus all is perfect. Such was the speaker’s acquaintance with the Lord that she could give a complete outline of His glorious features. That is the advantage Christians have. I would not excuse slothfulness or carelessness in Christians; but it is a great encouragement, that when the Lord presents Himself, He is recognised. That is the encouragement I have with erring Christians. Sorrowful it is to admit that there are such; but when the Lord presents Himself to you, you know Him. “I go a-fishing”, Peter said; that is an erring Christian, one walking after his own will. The others said, “We also go with thee”; but the Lord appears, and is recognised. “It is the Lord”; that is the beginning of recovery. If you do not recognise His features, there is no hope of you. A Christian goes to see you, and you shut the door in his face, there is no hope of you. You deny the Lord and His gracious consideration for you. If you recognise His features, it is the beginning of recovery; you knew Him before, and you are again in intimacy with Him. A period of darkness has intervened, but you remember the bright period. The Lord does and you will. You will remember what He is like; and now that He has drawn near in grace, you recognise Him, and that is, as I said, the beginning of recovery.
Now, look at Belshazzar. He was surrounded with light; and more than that, he knew it. “Thou knewest all this”. What a dark prospect lay before him, a fearful prospect! There is a sphere here on earth in which the light of heaven has been. The [p. 43] Gentile world was illuminated by Paul, and what kind of light did Paul have? Heavenly light; that was the light that visited the Gentile world. How are you regarding the light? As I was saying, if you resist it, it will end in your turning away from it, and that means that you espouse darkness, and will finally find yourself supporting apostasy. Awful prospect! If you turn away from light, you support darkness, and “God shall send strong delusion, so that they shall believe a lie”. There are those who make lies and those who love lies. Now those who make lies and those who love lies find themselves together. Where? Outside the gates of the heavenly city. It is bad enough to believe lies, but worse, I think, to make them, but maker and believer are found together. The literature of the present day is pregnant with made lies, deliberately planned, carefully thought out lies. I warn you that if you have anything to do with it, you may be found in the company of those who make the lies.
The Son of man takes up judgment. He is Head of the race, Heir of all that belongs to man. He has taken up every obligation, and discharged all to God’s glory; and He now proposes forgiveness and the gift of the. Spirit to everyone on earth. That is what He has secured for us. He is Head of every man. We should glory in the wonderful thought that we have such a Head. Suppose He takes up another position, that of judgment, and suppose He writes on the wall, across the plaster of the earth’s palace, what would be the writing? The entire system is weighed in the balance and found wanting, and the whole rule is to pass into the hands of Another. Glorious prospect for Christians! We delight in the termination of the present order of things, but we linger, every true Christian lingers, with Christ, who waits on man, that he might receive forgiveness of sins and the Spirit. That same hand [p. 44] is about to write. Christ has written in His death the love of God to man; but He is about to write on this world His estimate of it all. And O! what an estimate! He is the Judge of the earth! and everything is taken account of accordingly, and written down to be seen by all. The world shall tremble, as well it may; but the believer knows the hand, it brings no tremor to him. John trembled, but the Lord said, “Fear not”. All those emblems of judgment in Revelation had no reference to John; they had reference to those who had joined the world. So, true Christians, have no fear. We love that hand. It is a suffering hand; but the unbeliever trembles. Belshazzar’s knees smote each other; he trembled.
May God grant that you may tremble now in the day of salvation, while the door of repentance is still open-wide open. It is about to be closed. May God grant that if there is anyone here who does not know Christ, he may repent and receive from His hand, that suffering hand, forgiveness of sins and the Spirit.