“While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king, and his officials, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.”
— Daniel 5:2

“Babylon the great.” The name is significant. It is reminds us of every nation-state that has raised itself against the true God, of every nation that down through the centuries has persecuted the people of God. And King Belshazzar was the avatar, or incarnation of that very spirit of Babylon, which mocked the true God and looked contemptuously upon the rest of the people of this world.

There was never before, and perhaps never since, such a city as “Babylon the great.” Its walls were 14 miles on each side and the walls rose to a height of 300 feet into the air, with towers rising higher than that and at their base the walls of Babylon were 187½ feet thick.

Years before, the Babylonians had conquered the Hebrews, carried many of them off to Babylon (including Daniel), raided the temple of its silver and gold and burned it. At this drunken feast, Belshazzar and guests drank from silver goblets from the Lord’s temple.

God judged them that very night as the Medes and Persians figured out a way to attack despite those massive walls. Belshazzar learned too late that God will humble the exalted and exalt the humble. God is not mocked.

Everlasting God, we see mockers all around us. May we never be found in the “seat of mockers.” May we always honor and revere You as the only true God. Please bring salvation to the mockers before it is too late.

IN GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
ENDURE THE MOCKERS.