Belshazzar The Fool: Daniel 5:24-30
Good leaders know when they’ve chosen poorly and acknowledge the accountability they have with their constituents. Good leaders don’t abandon their people when they are in need. Good leaders don’t think of themselves first. Good leaders attempt to work for what will benefit the people over whom they exercise power.
Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall. That very night the prophecy comes true. Belshazzar is killed. The Babylonian Empire is over.
Consider what this means for the greater context of this passage. If Belshazzar was killed and the Persians took over the very night of the feast, the Persian army must have been coming for Babylon for some time. Extrapolating this backwards in time, we get an even greater perspective for this whole story. The reason Belshazzar is called king in this story is because Nabonidus has already been defeated by the Persians and Belshazzar is the only ruler who remains. Furthermore, when Belshazzar throws this feast, the army of the Persians already has Babylon surrounded. Thus, either Belshazzar thought the city was impenetrable or he had given up to turn a blind eye to the inevitable. While his nation crumbles and people look to their leadership for clues, Belshazzar throws a grand party for the nobility.
Can there be any doubt God found Belshazzar wanting? No wonder God determined that day to be the end of the number of days the Babylonian Empire would exist. No wonder God weighed Belshazzar in the scales of judgment and found him wanting. No wonder God found a new leader of a new people to shepherd His people in their exile.
This also explains why Belshazzar made Daniel third in the kingdom after giving such horrible news to the king. Belshazzar knew the war was over. If he had already given up and threw a party to go out with a bang, why not promote Daniel? The kingdom was destroyed, what would it matter? From Belshazzar’s perspective, all Daniel did was add another spectacular element to his swan song in leadership.
This also explains why Daniel seemed to have little patience for Belshazzar in the earlier verses. Belshazzar is a poor leader. Instead of acting shrewdly, Belshazzar throws a party. Instead of suing for peace from the invading Persians, he resigns himself to defeat and takes his people down with him. Belshazzar is a leader who cares not for his people but only for himself. There is nothing here worth praising, and neither God nor Daniel sees any point in prolonging his leadership.
No leadership is perfect. All leaders will make their fair share of poor decisions. The mark of good leadership is how the leader responds to a poor decision. Good leaders know when they’ve chosen poorly and acknowledge the accountability they have with their constituents.
Historical Aside, continued: Cyrus takes over the kingdom and adds the land of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire). I use the name Cyrus because that is the historical name of the Persian king who conquered Babylon. Why does Daniel use the name Darius?
It was not uncommon for kings to have different names in the different languages of their constituents, and Darius may well have been an alternate name for Cyrus among the Hebrews. As another example of this, King Ahasuerus, whom we meet in the book of Esther, is likely King Xerxes I, who is most famous for his army’s participation against Sparta at the battle of Thermopylae.
It is also possible that Darius is the Hebrew name for the local commander of Cyrus’ army, whom the Persians called Ugbaru. In this sense, while Cyrus ruled the Achaemenid Empire, Darius temporarily ruled Babylon as a military commander.
Another popular possibility is that Darius refers to Gubaru, who is also a general under Cyrus. When Ugbaru died, Cyrus installed Gubaru into the leadership of Babylon. Gubaru was sixty-two when he took over the leadership of Babylon under Cyrus and he was a Mede.
In any case, the mention of Darius the Mede should not be confused with Darius the Great.
