Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upsharin
MENE – God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end
TEKEL – you have been weighed … and found wanting
PERES – your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
Rembrandt painted Belshazzar’s Feast in 1638 almost 400 years ago, when large historical paintings were popular in the Netherlands. His source for this painting: the Old Testament Book of Daniel which tells of a banquet Belshazzar, King of Babylon, gave for his nobles. At this banquet Belshazzar blasphemously served wine in the sacred vessels his father Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the Temple in Jerusalem. Suddenly God intervened in their “worship” with a ghostly hand that wrote the words Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upsharin.
That very night he was murdered and Darius the Mede received the kingdom.
Daniel 5: 1-7 “King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. When he tasted the wine, he commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords his wives and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and they all drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared opposite the lampstand. Then the king’s color changed and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way and his knees knocked together.
The King called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans and the astrologers…but all the king’s wise men could not read the writing or make know to the king the interpretation…v. 10 – 12 the queen remembered Daniel. She said, “There is a man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. Your father Nebuchadnezzar made him chief of the magician, enchanters and astrologers.”
Daniel’s reply to the King.
“O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship, greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed and whom he would he kept alive.” (He was the dictator who threw Daniel’s three friends into the fiery furnace because they would not worship him and his commands.) But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind and his mind was made like that of a beast…he was fed grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.” Read on to find out what Daniel told Belshazzar,” (Daniel 5: 22-31).
Yes, the historical narrative in book of Daniel will show you who is in charge of world events and who reigns over all.
When I taught sixth grade, we performed the musical about the book of Daniel. It was called “It’s Cool In the Furnace,” by Weber and Rice (of Jesus Christ Superstar fame). But I did a bit of “revisionist history.” I rewrote the blasphemous lyrics of their last song, Any Plan Will Do. Using the same score, I “revised” the lyrics and called the song, God’s Plan Holds True.
Yes, revisionist history is real and rampant today in the schools and colleges. Sadly words and truth are not being revised by Godly teachers using God’s Word, but they are being revised by the enemy who uses words and The Word to deceive and twist the truth. Remember Satan, the Father of Lies, used God’s Word in every one of the three temptations of Jesus while he walked the earth.
For example, here’s how the enemy uses words. Janaya Khan, Canadian co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, who identifies as black, queer, and gender-non-conforming has a degree from York University in English language and literature. She writes, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” Words like “freedom, equality, and virtuous cause” are to be necessarily manipulated for the Marxist revolution. “We must make our truth/words irresistible.”
The antithetical (anti- against, theos – God ) battle is real.
On July 4th, 2020 while we were still in the middle of understanding this mysteriously leaked virus that was limiting our celebrations of freedom, I decided to confront this battle for truth and words. I attached my water-worn paper shades to an aging 5′ x 8′ canvas bequeathed to me by a former Warehouse Studio tenant. It would work well for a pandemic of global proportions. The intensity of the terrorizing narrative bombarded me daily in the Wall Street Journal and the MSM (main stream media). I was stirred to action.
I used gesso and then beeswax to attach my paper shades and the newspaper’s clippings of the daily narrative of mounting Covid-19 deaths. The vertical dark lines in the shades formed The Tower of Babel to which I stenciled the warning binary code (like the mysterious handwriting on Belshazzar’s palace wall), YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED.
In submission to The Word of God, the tower’s impending fall appropriately warns of the imminent fall of man’s manipulated words and power.
The central white oval shape in the painting has several references: the barley loaf that up-ended the tents of the Midianites who hugely out-numbered Gideon’s 300 men (that true story of God’s rescue in Judges 7); the stone “cut out by no human hands” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that stuck down his powerful statue of iron and clay (Daniel 2); and the most important reference, “the pearl of great price,” (Matthew 13 : 45-46) “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” The Pearl of Great Price is Jesus, the true source of wealth and power, and his eternal kingdom.
Near the tower, birds of prey await the final battle. This is a reference to Revelation 19 when Jesus, “the Faithful and True,” who is “called The Word of God,” returns to judge. The birds of prey are summoned.” Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains,” and at the end of the battle, the “birds were gorged with their flesh.”
The day of judgment on wickedness and unrighteousness is real and is coming. The words “Your days are numbered” should strike fear into ungodly hearts, but for those made righteous by the blood of Christ, these words bring comfort. The glorious God who numbers our days is the victor in this battle for truth and words and life!
The Tower of Babel is a fitting symbol for the antithetical battle for words and truth. God confounded language and the words of man in Genesis 11. But he will bring complete understanding of all languages as he did at Pentecost by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. God’s Word and Spirit will heal and unify the broken words of mankind by his eternal Word, Jesus.
Death is still the enemy. But the God who conquered death grants eternal life and sustains life. Not a hair will fall from your head without his knowing. That is intimate knowledge.
“Your Days Are Numbered.”
I was able to talk about this painting along with others in my exhibit entitled Global City Babel at Cairn University (Langhorne, PA) at the reception on September 3, 2020. ( Exhibits)
This pandemic has been used to bring our republic down and centralize power to a ruling elite. We have lost freedoms including freedom to gather to worship. The totalitarian government of China, that would like to eliminate those who believe the Word of God, is complicit with America’s unrighteous leaders, drug companies, banks, and tech companies. They continues to build their Tower of Babel for greed and power.
The American republic was founded on Biblical principles: the rule of law and individual rights and freedoms where there is equality and justice for all. More now than ever, truthful information and speech are being hidden, and courts of law and justice are being replaced by lawless judges. Words are manipulated for power.
Thankfully, God is in control and confounds speech. He disrupted man’s unifying plan of worship at Babel by sending his Word, Jesus, “the Word made flesh,” He alone is truth and life and makes people equal and free at the foot of the cross. Our hope is not in earthly governments and world health “experts.” It is not in a political party, but in the true Giver of Life whose Word is eternal in the heavens. Freedom and love are found in his true laws. Keep God’s Word open!