“While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” Daniel 5:2-4
The vessels had once been in the Temple in Jerusalem, and had served in the worship of Jehovah, and were in fact, the only Holy Vessels in the entire world; therefore, this wicked Monarch had absolutely no idea as to what he and his lord and ladies were holding in their hands.
While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he ordered the vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem to be brought to the party. From these holy vessels, Belshazzar and his guests guzzled down drink after drink as they “praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone”. In his book “Voices from Babylon”, Joseph Seiss writes, “Not only their ill-timed merriment, their trampling on the customary proprieties, and their drunkenness, but even their foolhardy and blasphemous insult to the most high God, is veiled over and cloaked up with a pretence of devotion!” This was as far as it was possible for human daring and infatuation to go. It was more than the powers of Heaven could quietly endure. The divine resentment broke forth on the spot. Belshazzar didn’t know it, but he was celebrating at his own funeral.
“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26-27) We see this today, the world is falling apart and the world continues to party and leave God out of their lives. We need to wake up and turn to God so that He can heal our nation. God is our only hope!