God’s Restraining Hand Removed

In that last night of insane folly Belshazzar and his lords had filled up the measure of the Chaldean kingdom’s guilt. No longer could God’s restraining hand hold off the impending evil. “We would have healed Babylon,” God declared of those whose judgment was now reaching unto heaven, “but she is not healed.” Jeremiah 51:9. God had finally found it necessary to pass the irrevocable sentence. Belshazzar’s kingdom was to pass into other hands.RR 188.3

When the prophet stopped speaking, the king commanded that he be awarded the promised honors.RR 188.4

More than a century before, Inspiration had foretold that “the night of ... pleasure” (Isaiah 21:4, KJV), during which king and counselors would blaspheme God, would suddenly be changed into a time of fear and destruction. And now, while still in the festival hall, the king is informed that “his city is taken” by the enemy. Jeremiah 51:31. Even while he and his nobles were drinking from the sacred vessels and praising their gods of silver and gold, the Medes and Persians, having diverted the Euphrates out of its channel, were marching into the heart of the unguarded city. The army of Cyrus now stood under the walls of the palace. The city was filled with the soldiers of the enemy, “like a swarm of locusts” (verse 14, NRSV), and their triumphant shouts could be heard above the despairing cries of the astonished party-goers.RR 188.5

“That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain,” and a foreign king sat on the throne.RR 188.6