The sermon opens with a reading of Daniel 5, the account of King Belshazzar's great feast, the mysterious hand that writes on the palace wall, and the fall of Babylon to the Medo-Persian Empire that same night. The sermon argues that the chapter is not merely an ancient political drama but a demonstration that God rules above the rise and fall of nations, and that this truth confronts every hearer with the reality of divine judgment.

The sermon first untangles the historical identity of Belshazzar, since his name does not appear among the official king-lists of Babylon. It traces the succession from Nebuchadnezzar through his son Amel-Marduk, the usurper Neriglissar, a short-lived boy-king, and finally Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, who spent most of his reign away from the capital fighting the advancing Persians and left his son Belshazzar as co-regent over the city itself. This explains why Belshazzar is called "king" in the text even though he never held the full title, and why Nebuchadnezzar is repeatedly called his "father" — the sermon notes that Aramaic has no separate word for grandfather, and that Belshazzar's father had married Nebuchadnezzar's daughter to legitimize his own claim to the throne.

The sermon then sets the feast in its military context: the Persian army under Cyrus had already routed Nabonidus and stood encamped just ten miles from Babylon's walls, unable to breach the city's famous fortifications. Belshazzar's banquet, the sermon contends, is not innocent revelry but a calculated display of defiance — a show of military, economic, and supernatural confidence in the face of a real siege. That defiance climaxes when Belshazzar orders the golden and silver vessels plundered from the Jerusalem temple to be brought out so the assembled nobles can drink from them while praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. The sermon highlights the irony that Belshazzar, so eager to associate himself with his illustrious grandfather, ignored Nebuchadnezzar's own hard-won confession — recorded in the previous chapter — that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and humbles the proud. Belshazzar repeats his grandfather's pride without his grandfather's humbling lesson.

The party halts when a disembodied hand writes "Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin" on the plaster wall. Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, collapses in terror rather than merely being troubled, and none of his wise men can read the inscription. At the queen mother's urging, Daniel is summoned. Before interpreting, Daniel rehearses Nebuchadnezzar's God-given greatness and his subsequent humbling, then contrasts it pointedly with Belshazzar, who has achieved nothing but a coup and a party, and who has used the temple vessels to mock the very God who disciplined his grandfather. Daniel's interpretation turns the cryptic nouns into verbs: God has numbered Belshazzar's days and brought them to an end; God has weighed him in the balances and found him lacking; his kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The sermon explains that God raises up rulers to execute justice, and that when a government exhausts its legitimacy through pride and evil, God removes it and raises another, just as he did with the Canaanites in Genesis 15 and, ultimately, with Babylon itself. That very night, Cyrus's forces exploit a weakness created by the queen mother's earlier river-diversion project to wade into the city through the Euphrates canals, and Belshazzar is killed.

The sermon draws two movements of application from the story. First, nations, achievements, and earthly securities are sandcastles beside the sea; nothing built on wealth, power, knowledge, or reputation can withstand God's weighing. Second, and more urgently, everyone faces a "second weighing" beyond the historical judgment that fell on Belshazzar — the final judgment of God, in which even those who could pass ordinary human standards of goodness will be found wanting, because God's holiness admits no exception. The only one who has ever stood on that scale and not been found lacking is Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life sinners cannot live and bore, in his death, the judgment sinners cannot bear. The sermon closes by urging hearers not to trust in temporal glory or personal merit but to cling to Christ alone, tying this appeal to the hymn "Rock of Ages" sung in the service, and closes in prayer that God would draw the doubting and the seeking to himself through Jesus.

Bible Verses Used

• Daniel 5:1-30: The primary text — Belshazzar's feast, the writing on the wall, Daniel's interpretation, and the fall of Babylon, expounded verse by verse throughout the sermon.

• Daniel 4:17: Cited to show Nebuchadnezzar's own confession that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he wills, the lesson Belshazzar failed to learn.

• Daniel 4:37: Cited as Nebuchadnezzar's final testimony that God is able to humble those who walk in pride, contrasted with Belshazzar's unhumbled pride.

• Romans 13: Referenced to explain that God grants governing authorities the power of the sword to execute justice, and withdraws that legitimacy when they do evil instead.

• Genesis 15: Referenced as a parallel case of God's patient timing in judgment, waiting until "the iniquity of the Amorites is complete" before giving Canaan to Israel.