Inquiring Minds… What Does ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin’ Mean?

Nathan Jones: Yeah, this is later in the Babylonian Empire’s history. So earlier in the late 500 BC, we had Nebuchadnezzar, the ultimate ruler. He destroyed Jerusalem and he took Daniel and his friends and other captives up to Babylon and Daniel, too.

The Lord pointed to Nebuchadnezzar as the great gold head, in other words, ultimate power. He was the king of kings at that time period. But as the Bible teaches in Ecclesiastes and all eventually your descendants might not be as talented or as powerful as you.

And by the time we get to his son and then grandson, we get Belshazzar, and Belshazzar is an entitled party boy. He’s like a frat boy. So while his father, he was co-regent with his father who was out of country, Belshazzar decides that he’s going to throw this great feast while his enemies, the Medo-Persians, are camped around the capital city of Babylon.

Tim Moore: Pretty foolish. As a matter of fact, he was self-indulgent, not only in having a drunken orgy, so to speak, but even self-indulgent to where he said, I’m going to take the things of God, the things that we took from the Temple in Jerusalem and use those as my party favors and gifts and things to drink of. And so he had total disrespect for the Lord God.

We know Nebuchadnezzar had come to respect the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of the revelations that he had given to Daniel. But Belshazzar not so much.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, and so while they’re having this great big party and they’re celebrating, even though the fact that, you know, they thought their walls would keep out the Medo-Persians, but they’re also using the ornaments and the accouchements made for the Temple, and they were worshiping idolatry, idols at the same time.

In verse 4, “They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron and wood.” In other words, they sacrileged what God had created. And God wasn’t going to allow this to happen.

Tim Moore: No, He certainly was not. So we know that God appeared in a mighty way to Nebuchadnezzar through dreams. In this particular case, He also appears in a very unique, we could say mysterious way, but unmistakable as a hand appeared in midair and began writing on the wall. So tell us a little bit about that account.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, so they’re having this wild party, they’re celebrating. Maybe they thought that let’s eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we’re going to die. But it says in verse 5, “Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand came out and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.”

Interesting the back of the hand. And then his reaction is that his face, it would terrify him. We’re not talking about just a regular old hand. This was kind of maybe like Thing from the Addams family. You know, it was a disembodied hand. It might’ve been really large. It might’ve been angelic. It might’ve been glowing. But it was enough to terrify. It wasn’t just some guy writing on a wall. It was, obviously it was divine.

Tim Moore: Obviously divine. I think you made a great point that he could only see the back of the hand. I’m reminded that Moses when asked to see the Lord’s glory, the Lord said, “My glory is too great for even you to witness face-to-face. I’ll let you see the back of my glory as I’m receding from your view and that’s all you can withstand.”

And so here we have the back of the hand that Belshazzar sees as the hand is writing. Well, like his father, you said the vision troubled him greatly and his face grew pale, his thoughts alarmed him, his hip joints went slack as Scripture says, and his knees began knocking together.

And so similarly to his father, he calls in all his conjurors, his magicians, his Chaldeans, all his wise guys as we would say, and ask them to define what the meaning of the words was. And he offered them great power and wealth if they would just tell him the meaning. But none of them could.

Nathan Jones: And this is, again, a parallel story to Daniel 2 where Daniel’s called to try to interpret, give the dream and interpret it that Nebuchadnezzar had. Well, Belshazzar likewise calls in all the conjurors.

Now at that time period, you didn’t just win on the battlefield, you had to win in the spirit world as well. And so they surrounded themselves with occultism, sorcerers and conjurors. And it must have been really difficult for Daniel. He was put in charge of all these occultic people.

But by the time Belshazzar, his grandson, had taken over, Daniel had fallen out of favor with the court. He was almost unheard of. And that’s when Belshazzar wife says, you know, “I remember this story of this guy named Daniel who used to serve your grandfather. He was able to accurately interpret visions and dreams. We should call him.”

Tim Moore: You know, I actually love that little detail because it wasn’t just Belshazzar who said, “Hey, I think I know a guy.” It wasn’t one of his conjurors and magicians who said, “Well, we can’t interpret but call this guy.” It was the queen. And I’m reminded that sometimes it takes the wisdom of a very wise and insightful woman to pull a man out of his ignorance and point him in the right direction.

You know, this whole series, the “Inquiring Mind” series, when we launched it, I used a phrase that we attributed to being Yogi Berra-like. And it was, “If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know.”

It was actually my mother who said that. So that hearkens back to my own mother who said, “If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know.” Great wisdom, Mom. So we are still looking for answers to questions we want to know. We are inquiring minds.

Nathan Jones: Go ask your mother. Is that your conclusion?

Tim Moore: Yes sir.

Nathan Jones: If you don’t know, go ask mom.

Tim Moore: Go ask mom, and she’ll usually give you a good answer.

Nathan Jones: She will, yes.

Tim Moore: But in this case, the queen says, “I know a guy and you should call on Daniel.” So sure enough, Daniel came, and just like the other magicians and wise guys, Belshazzar offered him great wealth and power if he would just interpret the dream. But Daniel said, “I don’t want your wealth. I don’t want your power. You can keep it. But I will interpret the writing on the wall.”

And so there’s just a three verse account that he provides of Nebuchadnezzar’s humbling. And it’s going to be a contrast to Belshazzar who is not humbled. He is sort of resigned to his fate as we’ll describe or talk about in a moment. But he’s not humbled. And I think that’s a great contrast.

Nathan Jones: And you can feel the tension in Daniel that he’s disgusted with Belshazzar. You know, even though Nebuchadnezzar had driven him from his home and burned down his home and brought him, there was a process where Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel actually became friends.

And there was a respect that Daniel had for Nebuchadnezzar. So much so that when the king was going to be banished for seven years, had the mind of an animal because he praised himself rather than God, that Daniel was really concerned for him.

Well, after that seven years and Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself, I believe when we go to Heaven we will see Nebuchadnezzar there. He came to faith in God. We’ll find out. But there was a relationship that was important. But we see that generationally that didn’t go on.

The things that Daniel went through with Nebuchadnezzar, then Nebuchadnezzar learned to humble and understand Yahweh God were lost on Belshazzar who only wanted to party and all to the point where Daniel wasn’t even in his mind to call on, even though Daniel was the only one who could interpret visions and dreams.

Tim Moore: You know, it’s interesting that Daniel immediately upon coming into the king’s presence immediately admonishes him…

Nathan Jones: Yes.

Tim Moore: …for not exhibiting humility even though he knew or should have known everything that had happened to his grandfather. You know, I’ve got to make a slight rabbit trail here because you just made a great point, Nathan, that even though Daniel had been brought into this pagan kingdom, even as he was serving initially against his will, clearly, he still did so faithfully and he developed a relationship with this pagan king.

I know too many Christians who in our deep dark moments of aggravation would wish God’s judgment on those who have rejected him instead of having the heart of Daniel to have compassion even for this pagan king who had subjected him, essentially, to slavery.

And I think Daniel being a prefigure of Christ shows that the mercy of God flows even to those pagans who do spitefully use us. And we would be wise to follow in the footsteps of Daniel in terms of having Christ’s love, even for those who at least at this point have rejected Him.

Nathan Jones: And you could go back to Ezekiel who was a generation before Daniel, and he was told to tell the Jewish people, “Hey, you’re going to Babylon. It’s going to happen. There’s no changing it back. Acclimate, set up homes, be the best Jewish people you could be.”

And Daniel did the same thing. He went up there, and even though he could have like, you know, thrown a pity party or he could have tried to stage a rebellion, he did what the Lord told him to do. And even surrounded by idiots like Belshazzar, and I’m going to call it, the guy was just an arrogant fool. Still, Daniel did his job.

But I love what you pointed out here. He’s going to give the history of how Nebuchadnezzar was humbled before the Lord before he tells him you’re going to be humbled before the Lord.

Tim Moore: He sure is. You know, it was not only future prophets, it was Jeremiah in chapter 29 who does say, “Bless the land in which you live even as exiles because in its blessing you will be blessed.” And Daniel certainly lives up to that.

Well, the final words of Nebuchadnezzar as recorded in Scripture contain his last testimony if you will. And this is in chapter 4:37 when Nebuchadnezzar says, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

You’d think that that word would’ve gotten down to the grandson Belshazzar, but clearly not. And so Daniel is going to admonish him and, obviously, he didn’t get the message. So we get to this actual inscription, “Mene mene tekel upharsin.” What does that mean as Daniel interprets those mysterious words?

Nathan Jones: Yeah, it’s not like that God put a message on the wall that was easy to understand. He used three different code words. He used mene, which means God has numbered your kingdom or put it to an end. And a mina was actually 50 shekels or a weight of shekels. It also meant to number. So he wasn’t talking just about the money, he was talking about weighing value.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: And he says it twice. “Mene mene,” in other words, “I am weighing you; I am weighing you.” In other words, God is judge. He’s going to, He’s about to judge him for his worth.

Tim Moore: Yeah, and then we get to tekel, which just reaffirms that very concept because tekel means your kingdom has been weighed on the scales and found deficient. That’s a pronouncement of judgment. You say, “Well, who is Daniel to pronounce judgment?” Daniel’s not pronouncing judgment.

Nathan Jones: No.

Tim Moore: Daniel is saying, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” He didn’t just say it; He wrote it on the wall. And so people today will sometimes criticize, “Well, who are you to judge me?” I’m not the judge, but I can read what the Word of God reveals. And God is the judge, and He has made very clear what He requires of man. So I’m not the judge, I’m just reading what He has provided.

Nathan Jones: And that’s where we get to upharsin, or it’s a derivative of peres, which is a half shekel or to divide. So basically he’s saying, God is taking your value, found that you don’t have value as He weighs you on the scales, and so He’s going to divide your kingdom. And so it’s obvious who’s He’s going to divide and give the kingdom over to. The Medes and Persians are camped right outside the city ready to attack it.

And so God’s basically saying, “This is done. You’re done as a king.” Which why? I wonder if Belshazzar hadn’t taken the objects from the Temple, if he hadn’t misused them, if he hadn’t used them for idol worship, if maybe God would’ve protected the Babylonian Empire a little longer. But I mean, obviously, he was very arrogant because he believed that the kingdom, the Babylonian kingdom was impenetrable.

And what’s interesting strategically, and I love this, is that the Medo-Persians knew they couldn’t break through the walls to get into Babylon, but the river ran through the city to provide water. So they diverted the river, and they just walked right in the city through the wet riverbed and took over the city that night.

Tim Moore: You know, it’s the hubris of man to think that we can create a fortress that is impregnable, to create any kind of institution that cannot fail. You think about the Titanic. They called that unsinkable. And yet on its maiden voyage, it sank.

And so over and over again throughout human history, we have the audacity of mankind saying, “We can build. We can create something that God cannot tear down, that other men cannot destroy.” And that’s proven wrong time and time again.

And, obviously, Daniel, to his credit, did not hesitate to speak truth to power. And he did that throughout his life, through all the earthly masters that he served. Whether it was Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius or Cyrus later on. And so now we come to the idea that when you read these accounts of Belshazzar, you think, “Well, he must have only reigned a very short period of time.”

But actually according to the writings of Daniel alone, it was a fairly long period of time because in chapter 7:1, Daniel talks about a night vision.

We’ve spoken about that with the four great beasts that happened in the first year of Belshazzar the king, the first year of his reign. In the very next chapter, chapter 8:1, he says, “In the third year of Belshazzar the king, he was given a vision of a ram and a goat.” So these visions happened over the course of Belshazzar’s reign. It wasn’t just a fly-by-night kinghood.

Nathan Jones: No, and you look at the history after Nebuchadnezzar had passed on, there was a false leader who rose up and he was quickly dispatched, and Nebuchadnezzar’s own son became the king. But his son Belshazzar was co-regent. And that was popular in that time period.
If the king was on and going, and war would take years. So if they went off to war for years, whatever, the son, the heir would take over. So at this time, Belshazzar is actually co-ruling with his father who’s totally out of the picture.

So it’s like leaving your teenage son the keys to the car, and he’s going out to have a keg party. That’s exactly what Belshazzar is here. And I do have to give one credit to Belshazzar. Remember, he promised Daniel, “I’m going to make you great in the empire. I’m going to give you all this money,” and stuff like that. And Daniel said, “Keep it, you’re going to die anyway.”

And Belshazzar still said, “Bring Daniel in. I’m going to give him all that I promised him.” Even though he was resigned to his fate, he was willing to give it to Daniel. Of course, what would it matter in a few hours? It wouldn’t matter if Daniel had a high position again or not.

Tim Moore: No. Well, we know that the inscription that was written as a charge and a sentence of Belshazzar itself has application beyond just that one man’s life. So I think the Lord would have us study this particular episode. That’s why we’re talking about it on “Inquiring Minds.” How does this possibly apply to me or to our world today?

So if you think of just the word mene like that pagan king, the days of our lives are numbered and will come to an end. And the haughty and proud will have their shame exposed.

You know, Nathan, as this program first airs, we’re in a month that in the United States is celebrated as pride month. And not pride in anything godly or upright, but pride in our absolute rejection of God’s moral code, at least in the United States. I say ours, not yours and mine, not followers of Jesus Christ, but those who reject the true and living God and His Word. And so they flaunt their wickedness.

Nathan Jones: You wrote a good article in the Lamplighter magazine a few years ago that really changed my perspective on pride month. Because you think of the blatant sexuality, especially the homosexuality and trans that goes on. But you pointed out that behind all that is pride. And so pride month is, pride is an abomination to God. God always honors the humble, and he brings low the prideful. And so you helped me understand better that’s really the issue that we’re dealing with.

And that’s the issue that Nebuchadnezzar had to deal with. And that’s the issue that Belshazzar had to deal with. Now, you would think that Belshazzar would’ve, you know, humbled himself before the Lord, but he was resigned to his fate and he didn’t humble himself.

And I think that’s a good example to us is that, hey, God is always going to be a judge. He’s not going to let evil keep going forever. The pride of the nations will be brought low. Jesus Christ will return. He’s going to set up his kingdom of peace, righteousness, and justice. It was decades after Nebuchadnezzar before the Babylonian Empire fell, but it eventually fell. This evil world system will eventually fall.

Tim Moore: It will eventually fall. We know that theme runs all throughout Scripture. It was Habakkuk who said in 2:4, “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by faith.” In Isaiah 13:11, “I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.”

I only think of Jonah going up to Nineveh to give them a warning. “You’re about to be punished. God is going to judge you.” But what did they do in response? Unlike Belshazzar who was resigned to his fate, the king all the way down to the lowest citizen in the whole realm humbled themselves. They put on sackcloth and ashes. They even made the animals wear sackcloth and ashes.

And I think it moved the heart of God to relent of His judgment, at least for a generation, because that society humbled themselves. God has not changed. He never changes. If we will just humble ourselves and come before Him with a repentant heart, then the heart of God is moved, and He has already offered us a way of salvation. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Nathan Jones: No, because we see that nationally throughout the Bible, whenever the nation would humble themself, and it happened to be very rarely did it happen, but they listened to the God’s words, the prophets, and they would humble themselves like they did in Joel’s time period, for instance, then the Lord blessed them and He pushed future judgment back, like you said, with the Assyrians and Nineveh. 150 years before Nahum’s time.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: …before God said…

Tim Moore: …enough.

Nathan Jones: Now what’s scary is if the wound is incurable, if the nation could become so evil and so rebellious against God and so hard hearted that’s where, you could send any more prophets, he could send the Son of God, huh?

Tim Moore: Uh, huh.

Nathan Jones: And they reject them, too.

Tim Moore: Oh, wow.

Nathan Jones: Then that’s the end. And we know eventually now. What’s interesting is that judgment was very swift with Belshazzar. It happened that night. The party was over, the Medo-Persians poured in, they killed everybody including Belshazzar. But when the Jewish people rejected, and all people I say, rejected Jesus in 30-ish AD, it was another 40 years before the Lord brought judgment upon. So God’s judgments we learn through this can be immediate, or they can sometimes be postponed.

Tim Moore: They can be postponed. We also understand from the word tekel, that every person, let alone nations, is still destined to stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and have their lives, which means every deed, every utterance, every motive of our heart weighed by the supreme judge. And there will be no hiding from His omnipotent and omniscient understanding of everything that we’ve ever done or everything that we’ve ever thought.
And when that occurs, everyone who has rejected Jesus Christ will be found deficient. And Isaiah tells us that even our righteous deeds will be considered as filthy rags compared to the righteousness, the holiness of God Almighty.

Nathan Jones: Yes, it’s wonderful as a Christian that the only work that matters in history is the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross for our sins and us accepting it. Therefore, our works no longer become filthy rags. Our works are done in the Holy Spirit, and we look forward, as 2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us to stand before the judgment seat, the Bema Seat of Christ, not a judgment for salvation, but a judgment for the works we allowed the Holy Spirit to do through us.
It’s a report card time, it’s time to get the gold stars, the rewards, the crowns and the new name and the eternal rewards that we so long for. But for those who’ve rejected the Lord, they will be resurrected and face the Great White Throne Judgment.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: And when the books are open, they will still look at the books that deal with works. But the work they’re missing is the only work that matters, the work Jesus Christ did on the cross. And because they don’t have that John 3:36, “the wrath of God remains on them,” and they will be sent to the lake of fire.

Tim Moore: They certainly will. You know, when all of our works are judged, I always point back to the fact that even our works themselves are not righteous. We are credited with righteousness by God Himself, of Jesus Christ Himself. So even our so-called righteous works are merely credited with His own righteousness.

That brings us to the final word, peres. Those whose sins, as you say, are not covered by the blood of Christ will stand condemned just as Belshazzar was, your kingdom divided, given over to the Medes and Persians, our lives given over to an eternity without God. And here’s where we look at the fact that even that which we might have if we reject Christ, I don’t say we, if a person rejects Christ, even what they have will be given over to someone else.

That’s what Matthew 25:29 says. “The one who does not have, even what he does shall be taken away.” Same thing in Mark 4. And so if we have not been credited with righteousness, we are, as you said, without hope, and therefore, “the wrath of God still abides on us,” (John 3:36).

Well, Nathan, I absolutely believe that in addition to the judgment that awaits individual men and women who reject the salvation that Christ offers in their arrogance and pride, sometimes treating with contempt the things of God that there will also be a judgment for nations, whole collectives of people from around the world.

Nathan Jones: And the Bible prophesies that. That is the Tribulation time period, where we go back in Daniel 2 where we learned the success of empires. We knew that all the way back from Nebuchadnezzar, he knew that the Medo-Persian empire or an empire of silver would overcome his empire. The Babylonian Empire would not last forever.

And that replaced by the Greek Empire, and that would be replaced by the Roman Empire, with the final phase of the world divided into 10 regions with an antichrist ruling over it. So those nations, the Gentile nations, the time of the Gentiles will end, and we look forward to it because what do we call it in Christian vernacular, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Tim Moore: Exactly!

Nathan Jones: When He returns with His saints to conquer evil and set up His kingdom of peace, righteousness and judgment. That will be a judgment on the nations. And it even ends the Tribulation with the sheep goat judgment of Matthew 25, where those who survived the Tribulation are separated. Those who rejected the Lord and took the mark of the beast are sent to Hades to await judgment. And those who are called the sheep, they accepted Jesus, even though many were martyred will live on into His kingdom.

Tim Moore: You know, I have to get, I guess, an understanding from Daniel 5:22-23 when Daniel speaking to Belshazzar says this, “Yet you,” he gives, has given the recount of Nebuchadnezzar’s humbling himself before the Lord.

And then he says, “Yet you, his son,” we know his descendant Belshazzar, “have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. But you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven and have brought the vessels of his house before you. You and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.”

I think the Lord holds out special anger at those individuals and those nations who should have known better. That’s exactly what is conveyed in Matthew 25:31-33. The nations that should know better, and certainly ours as a formerly Christian nation, should have known better. And so with all the end times, signs bearing down on us, Nathan, it is imperative that we collectively, let alone individually recognize that the message of Belshazzar still resonates today.

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Closing

Tim Moore: In the eyes of God, every man and woman who has ever lived would be found deficient. Weighed against the righteousness of Christ, we all come up short.

Nathan Jones: Citing Psalm 14:1-3, Paul wrote, “There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God, all have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.”

Tim Moore: Although none of us knows the number of our days on this earth, God does. If Jesus tarries, this life will come to an end, and all that we have amassed will be given over to others. The only way to live forever, in the presence of God, is through belief in Jesus Christ. If you will confess your sins, repent, and believe on Him today, He has promised that He will prepare a place for you in His father’s house.

Nathan Jones: Our prayer is that you have trusted in Jesus Christ already or that you will choose to do so today. Paul affirms that if you have believed in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess before men that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

Tim Moore: Belshazzar seemed resigned to his own fate. He rewarded Daniel for interpreting the handwriting on the wall, but did not humble himself and yield his heart to the warning God had provided.

We pray that you are wiser than Belshazzar, and before it is too late, you will heed the warning and seize the opportunity God is still offering today. Godspeed!

End of Program