Stuff Michael Meeks is doing
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- Up late; breakfast with David, off to NCC -
Jim preaching, spoke to Hannah, Martin afterwards. H.
made good crawling headway across the kitchen floor and
tried to pull herself up my leg.
- Gordon sermon on
Daniel 5 The Handwriting on the Wall:
- All men are like grass and their glory
like the flowers of the field ...
- King Belshazzar gave a party for 1000 of his
friends; focus shift - 23 years ahead, who is this man ?
5 times Nebuchadnezzar called his father, once he is the
son. Standard proceedure in 19th Centuary to just write it off
as so much imaginary invention - that Belshazzar was deemed to
be some entirely fictional character, 'entirely the result of some
figment of the Jewish writer's imagination'. Then in 1854, a
british counsel digging in ruins in southern Iraq on behalf of
the Birish museum, stumbled upon the ancient city of Ur - and
found 3 small clay cylinders; soon thereafter translated now
Akadian was begginning to be understood - and sure enough, there
was the explicit mention of Belshazzar as the oldest son of the
king Nabonitus, and the crown prince.
- All of a sudden with at least some egg on their face:
Another problem - the details all off; the son of Nabonitus - the
last king of the Babylonian empire; before it falls - before Cyrus
the Persian (also known as Darius the Mede) came and took it over.
Was Belshazzar King as Daniel insists, or was his father ? assumed
to be further evidence of a massive historical blunder, until 1924
a Persian verse account of the reign of Nabonitus was discovered:
The King Nabonitus left Babylon to spend the last 10 years of his
reign in an Oasis in Arabia - and left in his place to reign as
Regent his Son - Belshazzar; entrusted the kingship to him. This
explains another puzzle in the chapter: the greatest honour he can
give to Daniel is you will be made the 3rd highest ruler in
the Kingdom - why 3rd ? because he himself was the 2nd.
- Was Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar ? Nabonitus
married the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar as a bid for legitimacy -
so he is the grandson; and as is typical in Aramaic / Hebrew a
grandson is called a Son. Similarly the 'Queen' is the daughter of
Nebuchadnezzar - not present when it says Belshazzar had all his
wives present.
- Chapters are not in chronological order; but
a chiasm; chapter 1 & 7 mirror each other - overthrow
of kingdoms, chapter 3 & 6 correspond - threats of
martrdom. Chapters 4 & 5 correspond to each other -
the lesson God taught Nebuchadnezzar is brought to bear on
Belshazzar. The parallels underscore the reprehensible
character of Belshazzar.
- What's the banquet all about ? tons of
historical evidence for such banquets - but only a few
reasons for it: celebrating a victory, or a time of national
emergency; [ a parody of the communion meal ] - an opportunity
for everyone to re-swear allegiance to the King, and kingdom,
bolstering and fortifying the people in their confidence against
the threat pressing in on them.
- In the discovered cuniform tablets - we read,
already Cyrus had achieved a decisive victory against Belshazzar's
army in Opus (Baghdad) - until virtually the same day the massive
city on the Euphrates fell to the advancing armies of the
Persians.
- The drinking party - an attempt to drown your
sorrows in 'Baghdad Bob' style; the speeches: how well things
are going; we have killed most of the infidels and I think
we will finish off the rest soon etc.
Righteous people can be confident - but the wicked have
to pretend as best they can
- People often say - if only God could reveal
himself clearly - that would be the answer to all my problems;
if only I could see him. What punctured Belshazzar's baloon:
the uninvinted apperance of God's hand. When he saw it - he might
have said - 'I always wondered if there was a God, how nice to
know, what an encouragement' - but instead; his face turns
pale - 'together his legs gave-way': the knots of his
loins were loosed - he lost control of his bodily functions.
- Written in Aramaic script - but could be read in
many ways - only constonants; the names of several weights - a
list of weights. Really does fit with the things which Babylonias
were obsessed; 1000 years before Pythagorus, had worked out his
theorem - pleased by weights / lexical lists etc. this is why the text
is so filled with somewhat tedious lists: enchanters, astrologers,
diviners, wise man or insight, intelligence, wisdom or
horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, ....
- Indeed - the Israelites learned this love of counting,
and preseve the text by categorising nouns / verbs / etc. in the
marginal notes. Counting every verse having the word 'and' in it
more than 4 times. In the Pentatuch - figured out what the middle
verse / word was; what the middle letter was: lev 11, vs 42; 'w' in
hebrew word for belly - not a meaningful word or letter - but used
to verify the copy for perfection; CRCs for beginners. They had
numbered the 26 verses that include the whole alphabet. Thus
scriptures preserved so excellently.
- The Queen mother summons Daniel from retirement at
(approximately) the age of 81; You can keep your gifts for
yourself, and give your rewards to someone else; what's the
problem ? Daniel interprets the situation before the writing;
the sacrilege and affront to God. The presence of the treasure
from the temple - was proof of God's holiness, not his weakness:
God was judging his own people, for the same kind of sacrilege that
Belshazzar was guilty of now.
- Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin
- Mene - God has numbered the days of your life.
Americans on average overestimate their life
span by (typically) 10 years. Teach us to number our days
aright, so we might gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:1).
- Tekel - weighed - our lives will be examined,
and judged - not just according to what we have done, but what
we have left undone, and not what we have done, but the motives.
- Peres - divided, given to the Medes and the Persians;
God
said to to rich fool: you fool, this very night your life
will be demanded of you, then who will get what you have prepared
for yourself. Belshazzar, thinking himself in the impregnable
fortress of Babylon, 2 walls, 25 feet wide, 40 feet inbetween the
walls - 360 watch-towers, 90 feet high etc. surrounded by an impassable
moat - the mighty river Euphrates went around and through the city.
They boasted that it could withstand a 70 year siege - since they
could grow the crops they wanted in the city.
- Cyrus diverted the river - up-stream. And the armies were already
making their way down a shallow river bed - into the city, and took
Belshazzar's life that very night.
- What do we take from it ? God views us as he viewed Belshazzar
unimpressed by his achievements. A famous preacher's series of diagnostic
questions; he would ask instead of 'are you a christian?':
- Imagine that in the next second, we'd be killed, and be
translated from this life into the presence of God; standing before the
holy God; and were he to say to us: what right do you have to enter
my heaven ? - people would respond in one of a couple of ways;
- I attend Park-Street church, sing in the choir,
teach the christian formation class; I don't mean to boast - but we
took the parents in when they were sick and ailing until their
dying day. Seems like you want God to be fair ? - the well
earned wages - unfortunately the wages of sin is death.
- Many people have a clear concience, because they have
a bad memory; but if we claim to be without sin, we decieve ourselves
and the truth is not in us
- Jesus in the
parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, I thank you God, that I'm not like
other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector ...
But the tax collector stood at a distance, and would not even look up to
heaven, and said "God, have mercy on me a sinner", and this man went home
justified before God.
- Belshazzar still had moments left, that instead of heaping
accolades on Daniel, could have been spent instead saying God have mercy
on me a sinner - he did not.
My content in this blog and associated images / data under
images/ and data/ directories are (usually)
created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under
the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0
license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for
themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes /
improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my
own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE,
Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International),
or anyone else.
It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy.
Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences
or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com)
