When Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, was king after his father, he made a feast for 1,000 of the men who ruled over the kingdom for him and they drank wine.

 

While Belshazzar was tasting the wine he commanded that the gold and silver cups taken from the Lord’s house in Jerusalem be brought out from their place and the king’s princes and their women drank wine from them making a big party.

They drank lots of wine and said good words and sang songs and bowed down to the gods that aren’t the Lord God who made us, but bad ones, just statues that can’t do anything.

 

When they did this, the fingers of a man’s hand came and wrote on the wall above the candlestick.

When the king saw the hand and watched it writing on the wall he got upset and started to shake all over and his knees were bumping each other. The king yelled really loud to bring the scientists and fortunetellers and smart men of his country.

 

 

When the men got there the king said, Whoever can read what this says and tell me what it means will be given red velvet robes to wear and a gold chain to wear around his neck and will be the third best ruler in my kingdom.

 

 

But none of the king’s best men could read the writing or tell what it meant.

Now the queen came into the party house because she had heard what happened and said to the king, O king live forever. Do not be upset. There is a man in your kingdom who has the Spirit of the holy God in him.

 

In your fathers days this man was found to be very wise and smart like the gods. He understands and can tell hard sayings and tell what dreams means. Send for Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah. He will tell you what these words mean.

 

So the king called Daniel and asked him, Are you Daniel, a Jew from the captives of Judah? I have heard that the Spirit of God is in you, That you are wise and can see and understand things.

My wise men couldn’t tell me what this writing says, but if you can tell me, you will be given red velvet robes to wear and a gold chain for you neck and be the third highest ruler in my kingdom.

 

 

 

Daniel told the king, Keep you presents and give your rewards to someone else, but I will tell you what this says.

O king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor so that all people in the world were scared and shaking in front of him. He killed who he wanted and kept alive who he wanted. He made rulers who he wanted and took down rulers who he wanted.

But when his heart got puffed up and his thinking hard against God he was taken off his king’s throne and his brightness taken from him and chased away to live with the animals. He ate grass like the cows and was wet with the dew on the ground until he knew that the Most High God is in charge over the kingdom of men and sets over it whoever He wants.

 

But you, O Belshazzar, have not bowed down your heart even when you knew about all this. You puffed yourself up against the Lord of heaven and brought the gold and silver cups out of his house for you yourselves to drink wine with.

You drank wine in the Lord’s cups and bowed down to the bad ones who can’t do anything and said they are the best ones, but they are only made of gold and silver and wood and rock and iron. They can’t see or hear or know anything.

 

 

But the God who holds your breath in his hand, who holds everything you do in his hands, you didn’t lift up at all in your heart or say anything good to Him.

 

That’s when the part of the hand came out and wrote these words MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

 

Mene means God has counted your kingdom and stopped it. Tekel means you have been weighed in the scales of heaven and found to be not enough. Peres means God is splitting your kingdom and giving it to the Medes and the Persians.

When Daniel was done saying this king Belshazzar put red robes on Daniel and a gold chain around his neck and made him the third ruler in his kingdom.

Then what Daniel said happened: later that night, Belshazzar was killed and a man named Darius from the country of Media captured the kingdom. Darius was 62 years old.

 

Darius was happy to put over his kingdom 120 princes to rule over the kingdom for him. There were three top men over these 120 men and Daniel was at the very top over these three princes.

This Daniel was picked by Darius to be the very top over all the men of his country because he had the very best Spirit in him, (the Spirit of the Most High God.)

The other princes were wanting to be the very top so they hated Daniel and tried to find a way to get rid of him, but they couldn’t because Daniel did everything right.

So they all got together and asked the king to make a rule that no one could pray to anyone except Darius for 30 days since they knew that Daniel prayed to the Most High God, Maker of heaven and earth three times a day.

 

 

Anyone who broke the rule would be put in the punishment den with the hungry lions.

 

 

The king liked Daniel best and didn’t see the trick until he had already signed the new law and couldn’t change it.

The princes who hated Daniel came to the king and told him, We found Daniel praying to his own God and not to you, O king. Didn’t you sign the law that no one can ask anything of anyone except you?

 

Then the king saw their trap and was real upset with himself and tried to find a way to keep Daniel out of the lions den.

 

But as the sun went down, the princes came and took Daniel to put him in the lion’s den.

 

 

 

The king told Daniel, Your God that you bow down to will save you.

Daniel was put down into the lions pit and a big, big stone put on top of it and the king put his seal on the stone so no one would open the stone to get Daniel out.

That night the king didn’t do the fun things he did every night with music and dancing but he stayed quiet praying and didn’t eat anything, waiting to see what would happen to Daniel.

Very early the next morning the king ran to the lion’s den and called out to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the Living God, was your God able to save you from the lions?

Daniel called back, My God sent His angel who shut the lion’s mouths and they did not hurt me because I don’t follow the bad ones and don’t hurt anyone.

Then the king was so happy and called for his men to take Daniel out of the lion’s den. Then the king had his men throw the men who made the trap for Daniel into the lion’s den and the lions gobbled them up before they even hit the bottom of the pit.

Then the king wrote a new law and sent it all over the world to all the different countries and languages that live on the world, I make this law that in everyplace in My kingdom people bow to and obey the God of Daniel because He is the Living God who is always strongest and never changes.

His kingdom will never be stopped or ruined but will last perfect forever and ever. He saves and rescues and does signs and amazing things in heaven and earth, who saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

 

And so Daniel was still the top prince and very happy and did lots of good things for all the people all the time Darius and Cyrus were kings over the world.