Daniel 5:3-4 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, or iron, of wood, and of stone.
Give Credit Where Credit is Due
Daniel 5 records the crowning arrogance of an empire represented by King Belshazzar. It was God that had brought him to power, and it was God Who was about to bring him down. Yet he was so smug that he threw an epic party for 1,000 of his lords. The Bible records that they all drank wine out of the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple of God in Jerusalem. Verse 4 says, “They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.”
This act of crowning arrogance was just hours before the utter fall of this empire. Their arrogance had not only disregarded God, it had also misattributed God’s power to other people and other gods. It wasn’t enough that Belshazzar didn’t recognize God’s role in his empire. It was not enough that he claimed God’s vessels from the temple as his own. It was not enough that he filled God’s vessels with his wine. No, he seemed to be praising the vessels themselves.
At the very best this was naïve of him as arrogance always is. If you look at Daniel 1, the Bible explicitly tells us that it is God Who gave the vessels of gold from the house of God into the hand of the Babylonians.
Now, there’s a lesson to be learned here: your time is very nearly gone when you refuse to give credit where it is due. This act of arrogance immediately preceded the final gasp of the Babylonian empire. Later in Daniel 5 we learn that Belshazzar knew how God had humbled Nebuchadnezzar when he had been lifted up in pride. Belshazzar saw what pride had done to Nebuchadnezzar, but still lifted himself up against the God Who held his very breath.
It’s fascinating that on this night in which this king attributed God’s power to his own gods and filled God’s vessels with his own wine, he asked for the help of another vessel of God, Daniel. Three times in these verses the Babylonians recognized the Spirit of the Holy God that was in Daniel, but even this they misattributed to their gods. Daniel had knowledge, wisdom, and power that all came from the Spirit that was within him. In both cases, the vessels of gold and the vessel of this man of Daniel, the king glorified the vessel, and ignored the God.
We need to be very mindful that whether we seem to be made of gold, silver, or some other element, our value comes not in how we are made, but in Who it is that made us. Our value to others comes when we allow ourselves to be filled with God Himself, to be His vessel and to give Him the credit for all that is good in our life.