Daniel Lesson 12 - Fairhaven Baptist Church

Daniel

Lesson 12

Text: Daniel 5:25-31

Translation of the Writing on the Wall,
1. The End of A Kingdom,
  1. ME-NE
    1. First, God is not limited to or by our understanding,
      - the people of Babylon thought their city was secure, and nothing could be done to defeat them.
      - But, as we will discover, not only were they wrong, they were very wrong.
    2. Ephesians 3:20 “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”
      - Don’t Limit God.
    3. Back to the word, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it,
      - The word comes form the root meaning to count, or to appoint, Ordained, or Set.
      - See Hebrews 9:27
  2. TE-KEL
    1. Thou art weighted in the balances and found wanting,
      - from the root to suspend, such as a balance. Thoroughly weighed.
        
        It comes form the idea of 1 pound of wheat for 1 oz of copper.
        
        And when you put the wheat on one side and the copper on the other side, there is a difference and it is found wanting.
      - This is basically God telling them, you have not lived up to what you were suppose to.
  3. U-PHAR-SIN
    1. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
      - This seems very specific.
        
        How can you take one word and use it to mean something very specific.
        
        First, we are talking of the Spirit of God giving interpretation to Daniel,
        
        But Secondly,
        
        The word it’s self chad dual meaning.
        
        Remember when we were looking at the Hebrew Alphabet,
        
        one of the things we learned was there were originally no vowel markers, the language was largely orally passed down.
        
        For instance my name JHN, we could infer the O for John, the A for Jahn, the I for Jihn, the E for Jehn
        
        The word UPHARSIN, depending on the vowel you infer means either Divided, or Persian.
        
        So looking at the word, and interpreting, you can literal have Divided by the Persians.
    2. So how was this done?
2. In that Night, it all came Down,
  1. Belshazzar killed,
    1. Vs.30.
      - This was what I was pointing to earlier, when I was talking about not limiting God. How was the kingdom defeated, and how did it take place that night.???
  2. A Look at the City,
    1. it was built for Protection,
      - The wall surrounding Babylon was constructed of brick,
        
        Where do you think they got the brick from? Remember the kiln, or the fiery furnace?
      - Not only was it a single wall, it was a double wall.
        
        The height is estimated between 80 and 100 plus ft high. The reason there is uncertainty, first depending where the measurement took place, the second is who did the measuring. People want to pad their stats. To make it look like more of a conquest, we overcame walls of 100 ft. etc.
      - Not only was it a double wall, it was surrounded by a mote.
        
        The Euphrates river went through the center of the city, but it was also diverted to a mote around the city making it difficult for any army to even get to the walls.
    2. In the ancient world, we have some misconceptions of the way a castle was siege.
      - It was costly, to have a full frontal attack, like we see on movies.
        
        It resulted in high casualties, and put the attacking army at a huge disadvantage.
      - In order to build catapults it took time and resources,
        
        I read that some of the larger ones would take up to three months to build, and still had a limited range.
        
        It wasn’t like “Lord of the rings” where there would be hundreds, hurling thousand pound rocks at the wall.
        
        It also required the lumber, which cost money.
    3. So the most common way to defeat a city was to siege it,
      - to send a army to camp around the city, basically trying to starve them out.
        
        This could take weeks and even months.
        
        Until finally either the city gates opened, and they attacked, or they surrendered.
    4. However Babylon proved to be a difficult city to do this to,
      - having a large water source, and ample room for food production. This could cause a siege to go on for a long period of time.
        
        And this is why the city was such a hard city to attack.
    5. Also it had about 7 gates around it, but only one of them was the main gate.
      - Meaning all the others could be easily defended, they were small, and easily closed off.
      - The main gate would be the focus of an attack,
  3. So with all this defense, how did Persia take them in one night?
    1. It tells us that Belshazzar was killed that night,
      - there is also historical documents that tell us the city was taken in one night, as well as without a battle.
    2. In fact, Herodotus said that some people of the city didn’t even know the city was taken until three days later when Cyrus came in.
    3. It’s one weakness was exploited,
      - the water coming under the wall into the city,
        
        it took a large opening for all that water to flow through.
      - So, Cyrus had his army to dig a trench to divert the river,
        
        dropping the water level to the point where the solders were able to simply walk in under the wall.
      - Isaiah 44:26-45:3 “That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: 27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: 28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; 2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
        
        there are many things here that 150 years before the entry of Cyrus,
        
        It speaks of the river being dried, the gates of brass, the name of Cyrus
3. Cyrus or Darius,
  1. Who is Who,
    1. We have spoken a lot about Cyrus over the past few weeks,
      - we have made reference to how Cyrus defeated Babylon,
      - How Isaiah 44 & 45 both prophesy about Cyrus.
    2. But, then...vs.31 “And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. ”
      - So who is Darius?
      - Most Scholars think this is one of Cyrus the great’s generals
      - Gobryas,
        
        the conquest of Babylon was an agreement between Gobryas and Cyrus, that whoever was able to successfully defeat Babylon would be allowed to rule until their death.
      - So when Gobryas/ Darius as General was the one leading the siege on Babylon defeated it , he was promoted to “Co-regent” over Babylon.
    3. This would last about two years until his death.
      - Darius is the one that was friend to Daniel, the one that would be tricked to putting him into the lions den,
      - However, it would be Cyrus that would be the one that issues the decree to allow Israel to return to their home.
    4. So Darius was 62 when He took command of Babylon, and die at 64