Deeper Reflection
Belshazzar “held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles”, “drinking wine” together (v.1). At this point, the Neo-Babylonian empire was under threat from the Persian army (cf. Dan 5:31). Holding such a lavish feast, “especially in the face of an enemy army…is probably meant to underline the king’s careless hubris”⁵⁵ .Belshazzar ignored with indifference not just a political danger, but also a spiritual danger. When he “tasted wine” – “under the influence of”⁵⁶ wine ‒ he gave orders to bring “the gold and silver vessels” which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple of God to be used for drinking wine (vv.2-3). This incurred the wrath of the holy God immediately: “Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged…” (v.5). When Nebuchadnezzar took these holy vessels from God’s temple (Dan 1:2), there was no such response from God. When Belshazzar was drinking wine with these holy vessels, he “praised the gods of gold and silver…” (v.4). Such a sacrilegious act was no different from Nebuchadnezzar’s act of putting these same holy vessels in “the house of his god” (Dan 1:2). But the same holy God just let it go.God is not inconsistent. The two contrasting divine responses to two similar sacrilegious acts point to the sovereign holiness of God. God in His anger struck a Levite dead for touching the ark of the covenant (2 Sam 6:6-7). But this did not happen when the uncircumcised Philistines captured the ark with their unclean hands (1 Sam 4:10-11). God is always holy, but He can act in any way, at any time in His sovereign freedom. Such sovereign acts of God are His holy acts.

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⁵⁴ Hebrews 12:29 ⁵⁵ Ernest C. Lucas, Daniel, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (Apollos, IVP, 2002), 128 ⁵⁶ John E. Goldingay, 100, Notes 2.a-a