Daniel & The Writing on The Wall

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Previously on the chosen people. 00:00:03 Speaker 2: The tree, great King is you? What don't act surprised? Feigned ignorance is unbecoming of you. 00:00:14 Speaker 3: Then my fate is that of the tree, to be stripped away. 00:00:20 Speaker 2: Your greatness has grown. It reaches the heavens, and your dominion to the end of the earth. 00:00:27 Speaker 3: As is my destiny. 00:00:29 Speaker 4: I am the King of Babylon. 00:00:32 Speaker 2: You are too great in your own eyes and in the eyes of men. 00:00:38 Speaker 3: Who else matters? 00:00:40 Speaker 2: The Lord matters, and he has seen you for what you are? 00:00:44 Speaker 3: And what am I? 00:00:46 Speaker 2: A beast? 00:00:48 Speaker 5: What is. 00:00:52 Speaker 3: Happening? 00:00:54 Speaker 1: He tore the road from his body. He belonged more to the beast than to man. 00:01:02 Speaker 2: Never can her Those sentences almost served. The God who judged you is also the god who restores. Lift your eyes to heaven. 00:01:12 Speaker 5: O King. 00:01:13 Speaker 1: The beast came crawling on all fours, stood on his hind legs, and turned his cheek towards the sunlight peeking through the clouds now. 00:01:24 Speaker 3: I never could be her. Praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, for all his works are right and his ways just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. 00:01:52 Speaker 6: Shallo, my friends from here in the holy land of Israel, i'm y l Extein with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and welcome to the Chosen People. Each day we'll hear a dramatic story inspired by the Bible, stories filled with timeless lessons of faith, love, and the meaning of life. Through Israel story, we will find this truth that we are all chosen for something great. So take a moment today to follow the podcast. If you're feeling extra grateful for these stories, we would love it if you left us a review. I read every single one of them, and if you're interested in hearing more about the prophetic, life saving work of the Fellowship, you can visit IFCJ dot Org. 00:02:38 Speaker 7: Let's begin. 00:02:42 Speaker 1: The palace reeked of wine and sweat. Music swelled from the banquet hall, not in elegant courtly strains, but in a pounding, frenzied beat meant to drive the blood faster. The air was moist with a heavy incense, cloying and meant to mask the scent of too many bodies pressed together. Silks were strewn across the floor, goblets overturned, roasted meats torn apart and left half eaten where they fell on the central dais, sprawled across cushions. King Belshazzar held court like a man determined to defecate on his father's legacy. He raised his cup, belched, and laughed. 00:03:35 Speaker 5: More wine. 00:03:37 Speaker 8: If the Persians are counted our gates, let them hear our. 00:03:41 Speaker 4: Laughter over their wardrums. 00:03:46 Speaker 1: The guests roared approval. He leaned in toward a pair of young women reclining beside him, whispering something that made them cover their mouths and giggle. Their bracelets clinked as they draped themselves over his shoulders. Bell Chazar's gaze swept the whole. He gestured to the moor, the satraps with their perfumed beards, the generals who laughed a little too hard at his jokes, the priests of marduk Fat with his father's gold. 00:04:20 Speaker 8: Eh Ah, let us toast to my late father, the great and feared efficandness her. Excuse me, may he rest in the arms of me well, whatever God he happened to be groveling before the time. 00:04:49 Speaker 1: King bell Chazar was nothing like his father. He was indulgent, out of control, and too spoiled to see how fragile his fortunes were. Even with the threat of Persia and King Darius howling from the north, King Belshazzar wouldn't cease his dancing. He drowned every conviction and sense of duty to his country With another gulp of wine. He forced a servant girl onto his lap and played with her hair, ignorant to the look of disgust on her face. 00:05:24 Speaker 8: You know, my father made almas due for a god run before he. 00:05:30 Speaker 4: Died, the same God that. 00:05:34 Speaker 8: Had damned him to the forest. 00:05:37 Speaker 3: Can you believe that? 00:05:39 Speaker 8: You know what I think? We still had some chalices in other kind, treasures from that in that God's temple. 00:05:46 Speaker 4: Shall we ever, shall I ever look see? Bring me the treasures my father sat from Jerusalem. 00:05:55 Speaker 1: A ripple passed through the whole, part thrilled, part on. He servants exchanged glances, hesitating until his voice cracked like a whip. Now they went and soon returned bearing gold and silver vessels. The sacred cups taken by Nebukudneza from the Temple of Jahue decades before. Their surfaces gleamed, chased with Hebrew inscriptions. Belshazzar seized one, turning it in his hands as though examining an exotic toy. Oh, look at work. 00:06:35 Speaker 4: H yeah, so fine, it's fit for a god. Ah, well, tonight that God will serve me. 00:06:49 Speaker 1: He poured wine into the cup until it spilled over, running down his arms, staining the hem of his robe. Then he raised it. 00:06:58 Speaker 8: High to Monoch, to a shtar to the gods, who's face and take that fill? 00:07:08 Speaker 2: Not the one who hide and scrolls and stole chains. 00:07:14 Speaker 1: Laughter, cheers. Guests snatched the temple vessels from the servants hands, slopped wine into them, and passed them from mouth to mouth. The gold, once used for sacrifice, now caught the sheen of grease from roasted meat and the glisten of wine wet lips. A naked priestess rose from the crowd swaying to the music. She took a gulp from one of the cups and let the wine run down her chest drip into the marble floor. The crowd howled. Belshazzard reclined deeper into his cushions, satisfied until he noticed the torches. The flames were shrinking, no shrinking, bleeding as though heavy. The fire began to fall onto the floor. The red flames slid across the Great Hall until they arrived at a singular bare wall. The laughter faltered, then all went dark. Bel Shazar pushed himself up, his eyes narrowing toward the wall. Something was emerging out of the dark cold wall. A hand, pale, sharp, ghastly. It had no body, just the hand, long fingers, the skin unnaturally smooth, the movement slowly and deliberately moving. The first fingertip touched the plaster. Black lines bloomed under it, each stroke burning like hot iron into the wall. The musicians stopped. The priestess froze, midsteads, what is happening? The hand was writing something. The letters formed in a language he did not know, yet something in them felt like a verdict. The hand finished, lingered as though savoring the silence, and then gone. Only the words remained, glowing faintly. Mena mena, tekeo hufarsin. Bel Chazar's legs gave way. He stumbled forward. 00:09:38 Speaker 8: Get someone, I don't care, who, give me someone who can read it? 00:09:46 Speaker 3: Somebody fetched my mother. 00:09:55 Speaker 1: The silence in the banquet hall was suffocating. The guests dared at the blackened words on the plaster, as if expecting them to shift under their gaze. Bel Shazar stood rigid, gripping the edge of the dais, his knuckles white against the gold. 00:10:15 Speaker 3: Whoever could tell me what this means? 00:10:17 Speaker 2: Should we clothe and purple? 00:10:19 Speaker 4: Yes, I'll make them imported. I'll give him a gold chain around his neck and make him a third ruler in this kingdom. 00:10:26 Speaker 1: Fact that declaration was like a steaming pile of dung to the flies of Babylon. Slimy politicians all brought their own personal sorcerers, priests and priestesses of bel Marduk and Ishta did incantations and dances before the writing, but to no avail. None could interpret the strange carvings mena mena tech el ufarsin. All the while, King bel Shazar was growing more pale with anxiety. All the color had drained from his face, and as the night drew on, he became like a ghost of anxiety and fear. Then came the sound of sandals echoing from the corridor beyond the great doors. The Queen Mother entered without ceremony, her attendants trailing behind like shadows. She did not rush, she did not bow. The music had stopped, but her eyes swept the hall as though she were surveying the aftermath of a battlefield, goblets overturned, grease smeared on sacred vessels, half dressed revelers clinging to cushions. Her lip curled into a snarl. 00:11:48 Speaker 5: What have you done? 00:11:51 Speaker 1: Bel Shazar straightened, trying to pull his robe over his bare chest. 00:11:57 Speaker 5: Mother, do not call me that here, speaking to me like a toddler when you sit on your father's throne. I swear you have no idea how to do. 00:12:08 Speaker 1: Her gaze moved to the gold vessels in the guest's hands, and then to the wall, where the writing glowed faintly. 00:12:16 Speaker 5: I stood beside your father when he commanded armies and built this entire empire from the bones of nations. 00:12:24 Speaker 2: Yes, of course father was Graham. 00:12:26 Speaker 3: He was a monolith in his own right. 00:12:27 Speaker 5: I know. Do you know? If you know, then you certainly don't show it. Your father knew how to rule, but he also knew when to yield. I saw him kneel when the God of Israel tore his mind from him and made him crawl like a beast. And you you think you can mark that guard and escape judgment. 00:12:54 Speaker 1: Foolish boy, bel Chazar opened his mouth, but she cut him off with a raised hand. 00:13:01 Speaker 5: Look at you, drunk when the Persians prepare their battering rams on the yards away from our gates, You shameless thrill, you shame the house of your father. 00:13:13 Speaker 1: Her voice was carrying, now slicing through the air. The guests lowered their eyes and look at this. She gestured to the chalices of the lord's temple, the ones he defiled moments before the hand appeared. 00:13:30 Speaker 5: You dare to drink from the vessels of the god who humbled the greatest king this world has ever known. You are a child playing king. No wonder, Persia is going to sack this place and place your head on a pike. 00:13:44 Speaker 4: Not that's enough, Oh I'm king. You mind how you staking me? 00:13:48 Speaker 5: Oh? Once you'll imprison me. I'll be better off there than being dragged out of my chambers by King. 00:13:56 Speaker 1: Darius Bell Shazar's throat strained to answer, but nothing came out. The Queen Mother took a step closer to the Dais, her shadow falling over him. She locked eyes with her son, then pointed to the words behind her. 00:14:13 Speaker 5: You want answers to this ghastly warning written in stone. Don't look at these fools in your court. A third of them are as drunk as you are. The other two thirds are either scared of you are hoping you'll make them rich. They won't tell. 00:14:29 Speaker 2: You the truth. 00:14:32 Speaker 5: When we should call upon. There is a man an exile from Judah. Your father called for him when his own gods were silent. He told your father things. No make is no diviner, no priest dared to speak. He walks with a spirit not. 00:14:49 Speaker 2: Of this world. 00:14:51 Speaker 1: She glanced at the wall again, then back at her son. 00:14:55 Speaker 5: If there is a man alive who can tell you what those words mean, it is Daniel of Jewe. Your father named him Belchazar. He saw Daniel as a shield from the wrath of the god you've angered, And if you have any hope, any hope, you were sent for him. 00:15:13 Speaker 1: Belchazzar swallowed hard, his eyes darting from the queen mother to the writing, then to the silent, watchful guests. 00:15:24 Speaker 3: Bring him. 00:15:25 Speaker 1: The queen mother stepped back, her expression unreadable, and turned on her heel to leave. 00:15:33 Speaker 5: I won't be around to greet him. I have a character waiting me to take me to the farm lands. Best of luck with the Persians. 00:15:48 Speaker 1: The closer Daniel walked toward the King's hall the more the air changed. Gone was the cool, dry stillness of the archives. Here the corridors reeked of wine, sweat and the clawing, disgusting ripeness of debauchery. Two guards swung the bronze plated doors wide. Daniel stepped in. The smell hid first a heady sour blend of spilled drink and overripe fruit. Then the sight. The once gleaming hall was littered with overturned cups and broken platters, draped on couches and leaning against pillars. The king's companions, princes concubines, sat traps, stared wide eyed at the far wall, their faces pale and slack. At the center, half slumped on his throne was bel Chazarh, His crown sat crooked, his tunic half loosened, his eyes wide and glassy with terror. He was staring at the wall opposite him, staring at the words mena mena teko ufarsin. They blazed faintly, as though written in fresh lamp oil, each letter scored deep into the stone. Daniel took in the scene slowly, his gaze resting briefly on the golden vessels strewn across the floor. The sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem, now stained with Babylonian wine offered to idols. Daniel felt a slow, cold anger beneath his ribs, and yet when his eyes came back to Belshazzar, pity surfaced. The King's lips worked soundlessly for a moment before his voice broke free, hoarse and ragged. 00:17:51 Speaker 4: You, the one they call blt Shazar, Daniel, one of the exhiles. I'll I've heard the spirit of the gods is in you. Tell me you can give interpretations, solve mysteries. 00:18:10 Speaker 2: I can but tell me, Great King, why do these words disturb you? 00:18:15 Speaker 4: So? 00:18:17 Speaker 2: What are a few rooms to the man who owns the world? 00:18:20 Speaker 1: Belshazzar swallowed hard, his eyes flicking towards the glowing letters. 00:18:27 Speaker 4: Because because there was a hand and of a ghost, he was here. He Wrot's words. 00:18:34 Speaker 5: Right before my eyes. I can't read it, none of my much and none of the and charters. No, I'm good. 00:18:44 Speaker 1: Daniel's gaze drifted again to the wall, then back to the king. He stepped forward slowly until they were close enough to speak without the whole court hearing. 00:18:56 Speaker 2: Great King, the most High God gave you Father Nebukanezzer's sovereignty, greatness, glory and splendor. All nations trembled before him. But when his heart grew proud, he was brought low. He lived with the wild donkeys until he acknowledged that the most High rules over the kingdoms of men. 00:19:21 Speaker 1: Bel Shazzar's jaw worked. Daniel could tell he was expecting a rebuke. But Daniel saw the scared boy underneath the crown and fine robes. 00:19:32 Speaker 2: You knew all this about your father and the God that I serve, and yet you still did this. Why I I h. 00:19:46 Speaker 3: The Persians knock at our door. 00:19:50 Speaker 2: I feel powerless, and your god he defeated my father. 00:19:58 Speaker 1: The king looked away, but Daniel leaned in just slightly, his tone almost fatherly. 00:20:04 Speaker 9: Now, And you thought you would grasp a power by shaming the god who shamed your father's. 00:20:11 Speaker 1: Belshazar's breathing was shallow. He gestured to the wall. 00:20:15 Speaker 5: Tell me, Daniel, tell. 00:20:18 Speaker 2: Me what would say. 00:20:20 Speaker 1: Daniel turned to the wall, the glowing words casting faint shadows across his lined face. He read them aloud, each syllable crisp as a chisel strike. 00:20:33 Speaker 2: Babylon burns so much of our scrolls. The true wisdom is found in the heart of our God cannot be consumed by flame. Your father learned that the hard way. 00:20:46 Speaker 1: Daniel pressed his palm against the wall and traced his fingers against the carvings. He expected them to be hot to the touch, but instead they were ice cold. 00:20:58 Speaker 2: Many God, God has numbered the days of your reign and brought. 00:21:03 Speaker 1: It to an end. The first hammer struck bel Shazar's chest. 00:21:08 Speaker 9: Tackle you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting, Daniel sighed, lingering on the last word, Paris, your kingenom. 00:21:22 Speaker 2: Is divided and given to the Meads and Persians. 00:21:26 Speaker 1: The final word hung in the air like a drawn blade. Bel Shazar's mouth opened, but no sound came. His eyes darted to the letters, then to Daniel's face, as if searching for some reprieve. But Daniel's gaze held steady, not in cruelty, but in the sorrow of a man who knows the sentences already passed. Somewhere far off, a faint tremor passed through the floor. It could have been the tread of soldiers, or the shifting of walls, or the first distant rumble of an Empire's four. 00:22:14 Speaker 6: If your faith has been kindled by this podcast and it has affected your life, we'd love it if you left her of youew we read them, and me personally, I cherish them as you venture forth boldly and faithfully. 00:22:28 Speaker 7: I leave you with the biblical blessing from numbers six IV. Hashem vishmerechra yeah heir hashempanave ele y sa hashempanavelera shalon. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. May he be gracious to you. Made the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen. 00:22:57 Speaker 1: You can listen to The Chosen People with the Eel Eckstein ad free by downloading and subscribing to the prey dot Com app today. This Prey dog comproduction is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Shellabarger and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of the Chosen People with Yaiel Eckstein, edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Coltofianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvado, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc, Thomas Copeland Junior, Rosanna Pilcher, and Mitch Leshinsky. And the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore, music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Aaron Salvato, bre Rosalie and Chris Baig. Special thanks to Bishop Paul Lanier, Robin van Ettin, kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, Rabbi Edward Abramson, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey doc Co productions on the Prey dot com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yile Egstein, please rate and leave a review.