Daniel 5

Daniel is brought in; the king names him as that exile from Judah whom “my father” brought. Wesley writes no note on this verse. The queen has already named him; the king now faces the man he had passed by.

God can still speak through a neglected servant if the king will hear. Being fetched as a captive does not empty Daniel’s office. The Most High is not a court brand; the exile is the one who can read. Pride still talks down while it asks for help.

Calvin: the king does not acknowledge his own folly, but interrogates Daniel as a captive—Art thou that Daniel, of the captives of Judah, whom my father led away? He seems to speak contemptuously, to keep Daniel in servile obedience. He had heard before and said nothing.

Forgotten light is still light. God had already signalized Daniel; Belshazzar will use him only when terror has closed every other door. The exile stands because the Most High sent him, not because the throne has grown humble.

I have heard: the spirit of the gods is in you; light, understanding, and excellent wisdom are found in you. Rumor now does the work the king would not do in peace.

He repeats the queen’s report as if it were news. Light already shown in the grandfather’s day is still available. Wisdom is God’s gift in a servant, not a trick to be hired. The king can still honor what he has heard; hearing is not yet a humbled heart.

Calvin: I have heard of thee that the spirit of the gods is in thee. The profane ascribe excellence to heaven, yet mingle God and angels. This sentence shows how Belshazzar depends on reports and displays his slothfulness. He ought to have known the Prophet by personal experience.

Rumor is a poor substitute for the light God already placed in the kingdom. Pagan wording cannot hide the gift, and it cannot excuse the years of neglect. God extracts even this praise from a proud mouth.

The wise men and enchanters have been brought in; they could not show the interpretation. Babylon’s readers stop at plaster again.

For the hearer: failure here is severe kindness. It clears the floor for a servant of the Most High. Hired wisdom cannot buy what God has not given; the king still has a chance to hear the reading without paying for a softer word.

Calvin: all the wise men were brought, and they could not do it. God punished him by showing how profitless were all the Chaldeans in whom he trusted at the moment of his extremity. He preferred magi and soothsayers and rejected the holy Prophet.

In practice: light refused becomes light withheld. The sealed line is itself judgment. God can address one man and blind a room of magi until the interpreter he ordained is fetched.

If you can read, purple, gold, and third place. Panic still shops with gifts. Wesley is silent here; on the vessels he had already said the king was triumphing over God.

Rewards cannot buy what only the living God gives. The offer is loud; the heart is still proud. Daniel may tell the truth whether the court likes it or not. Grace still calls the proud to humble themselves; this king tries to purchase a reading instead.

Calvin: this shows him not sincerely touched by the fear of God. Hidden pride breaks forth in the promise. God had already deprived him of his royal dignity, yet he still wishes to raise others on high in defiance of God. The end of his reign was close, yet in security he offers this dignity.

Terror without repentance still hires rank. The wicked dread judgments, yet the pride of their hearts is not corrected. The Most High has already numbered the kingdom; the chain of gold cannot lengthen it.

Nevertheless, I will read and make known the interpretation. The word is not for sale.

Daniel refuses to be paid for the reading and still tells the truth. He is not bargaining with a tyrant; he is serving the Most High. Courage here is an act of a will kept by God—not a pose. The interpretation will be true whether the gifts stay or go.

Calvin: Daniel rejects the proffered gifts. He treats this impious and desperate king with greater asperity than Nebuchadnezzar, because he had arrived at his last extremity. Let thy gifts remain with thee: he wished to display unconquered greatness of mind and to lay prostrate the king’s foolish arrogance.

The kingdom’s end is at hand; purple is already worthless. God’s prophet will speak, but as a witness. The refusal is itself part of the verdict.

The Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar kingship, greatness, glory, and majesty. Wesley on that history: the great God will make all men know he rules all in earth too, and sets up at his pleasure whom he will, and plucks them down again.

The gift was not imaginary; it was never a license to forget the Giver. Sovereignty here is shared confession, not a party slogan. The Most High gave; the king remained accountable. Belshazzar is about to hear what his house already knew.

Calvin: God gave him an empire and magnificence. Empires are bestowed on men by divine power and not by chance; there is no power but of God. His singular providence shines forth in kingdoms. Earthly kings are exalted by the hand of God, not by the chances of fortune.

The throne was a trust. Common ground with Wesley: the Most High gave the majesty. Calvin presses the source: no sword remains unless God props it up. This is the doctrine Daniel recites before a proud grandson.

Because of the greatness God gave him, peoples trembled. Whom he would, he killed, kept alive, raised, or humbled. The king’s will looked absolute; the sword was still borrowed.

Borrowed power can still shed blood. Wesley: how hard it is for lofty princes to learn this lesson. The nations’ fear does not make a man God. The Most High will be known; the grandson who knew this story is without excuse if he will not bow.

Calvin: all mortals trembled at the sight of him because God conferred that majesty. Kings are divinely armed with authority. Daniel describes the greatness of royal power, not as lawful cruelty, but as the sword God had entrusted. They must hereafter render an account to the Supreme King.

The tremble of nations is God’s inscription on a throne, not proof that the man is unaccountable. Wesley agrees: God gave the greatness. The same hand that armed Nebuchadnezzar will judge Belshazzar.

Heart lifted up, spirit hardened, he dealt proudly; he was brought down, and his glory taken. Wesley: those that walk in pride he is able to abase; thus can the Lord make the stoutest hearts to stoop.

Pastorally: pride is the king’s; the fall is the Lord’s. Hardening here is a man dealing proudly, not a fate-story that erases guilt. God can still abase the lofty; the lesson was given so this grandson might humble himself. He did not.

Calvin: when his heart was exalted and his spirit strengthened in pride, he was cast down from the throne of his kingdom, and they deprived him of his majesty. God never endures to the end the pride of those who forget him when they have obtained the summit of power.

For the hearer: a sudden change proved the point. Shared judgment: pride is judged by the Most High. Calvin names the Giver who also takes glory away. Sovereignty here is pastoral warning, not a weapon against neighbors.

Driven from mankind, mind like a beast, dwelling with wild donkeys, grass like an ox, dew of the sky, until he knew that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whomever he will. Wesley: being bereft of his understanding he fled to the woods; till thou know—how hard for lofty princes to learn this lesson. God shined upon his soul and gave him understanding again.

The end of the stroke is to know, not merely to be crushed. The Most High rules and appoints; the man is meant to confess it. Belshazzar is hearing a family mercy he has treated as a tale.

Calvin: God set forth a memorable example in despoiling this king of his reason and intelligence. His body was moistened by the dews of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men and appoints over it whomsoever he will. In Nebuchadnezzar we see the drunken confidence of kings who think they stand by their own power.

The lesson is the same sentence Daniel now recites. Common ground with Wesley: until he knew the Most High rules and sets up whom he will. God humbles so that his reign on earth is confessed. The grandson who forgot this is not uninformed; he is proud.

You his son have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this. Wesley: from that God whom thou hast despised; thou hast made light of God, and the Lord makes light of thee.

Knowledge without a humbled heart is still guilt. He had the story in the house and would not bow. Grace had given light; the refusal is his. This is not a slogan about enemies; it is a call to any heart that knows and will not stoop.

Calvin: thou didst know this. Those who sin knowingly and willfully are without the slightest excuse. You have provoked God’s anger on purpose. He ought to have been so affected by that domestic example as to submit himself to God. The example did not profit him.

Light in the family became a witness against him. Shared with Wesley: he despised the God he knew. Calvin names the obstinacy: he knew, and he would not humble his heart. Judgment on pride is just.

Lifted up against the Lord of heaven: vessels brought, wine drunk, idols praised, the God in whose hand is his breath not honored. Wesley: triumphing thereby over God and his people; insulting the great God of heaven and earth.

For the hearer: breath is in God’s hand; the toast was still the king’s choice. Dead things that cannot see were sung; the living God was not glorified. Shared judgment on pride and sacrilege. It is a man using holy cups to mock the One who keeps him alive.

Calvin: thou hast raised thyself against the Lord of heaven. He used the vessels for luxury and foul debauchery, and praised gods of silver and gold who neither see, nor hear, nor understand; but the living God, in whose hand is thy life and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not honored. This ingratitude was both base and shameful.

Pastorally: the Most High holds his breath while he toasts stone. Wesley reads it the same way: the vessels were an insult to God. Calvin adds that he defrauded the God on whom he depends. Judgment is not random; pride has come to full term.