Verse by verse teaching - Daniel 5:10-12 "When Queens Speak"

Daniel chapter 5, God willing, we'll be expounding verses 10 through 12 this morning as we go through this wonderful book, verse by verse. The title of the message this morning is When Queens Speak. When Queens Speak. God willing, we'll be expounding verses ten through twelve. In our verses last week, we learned that it takes spiritual men. To explain spiritual things. God had written King Belshazzar's judgment upon the wall of the banquet house. And the king called in the false teachers to try to read and explain the handwriting, but they could not read it. So the king and his rulers under him were very troubled at the writing. Remember, a hand appeared on the wall and began writing out. Belshazzar's judgment, they did not know that's what it was, but they knew something was intended for them, and it was not good. It was very ominous So they were troubled at the writing and not knowing what it meant, they must have known that it come from some God, some power above them. Couldn't have been the agency of a man having a hand on the wall like that. And not knowing what the message said, neither they nor their experts knew what to do. So the situation at the time to them appeared hopeless, and they were greatly perplexed and afraid. Have you ever been in a situation like that before? situation where something traumatic comes upon you suddenly leaving you perplexed stunned and not knowing who to turn to or what to do. Ever happened to any of y'all? Yeah. And if it hasn't, it will one day, you wait, it'll happen. And you'll feel stunned, perplexed. Thinking, I can't believe this is happening. But it is. So take heed to the lesson in our verses today, for they are full of wisdom. for troubled times like these. Now while the king and his rulers are stunned and afraid, the Bible now turns our attention from the the the chaos in the banquet hall It turns our attention from there onto an unlikely character that comes into the room. A character who suddenly takes control of the chaotic situation. Daniel chapter 5 verse 10 says, look in your text, now the queen. Now the queen. And we must not let these words slip by our ears without giving them our full attention. Remember, the atmosphere in the banquet house is one of fear and chaos. When the leaders are terrified and the experts don't know what to do, and again this chaos and this panic has set into the room. Now these were the mighty men of Babylon. These were the top leaders in the nation And they were filled with fear, panic, and disorientation. And here walks in a woman, the queen. These men are used to taking charge. These men are used to battles. These men are used to ruling the world. This was a world empire at the time. The Babylonian Empire. And these men who are used to taking charge don't know what to do. And now steps in. This woman, the king's wife And queens during this period of time, they didn't run empires in those days, not during the Babylonian times, not during the Persian times. Either. Well, the queen here wasn't a ruler. She was the king's wife, and she was as subservient to the king as any other person. And the queen, however, she heard about the handwriting on the wall, and she knew that her husband needed some help. So she, look in your text, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, or his noblemen, came in to the banquet house. Now notice that she came into the banquet house. What does that mean? She wasn't there in the beginning She wasn't in there celebrating. She wasn't in there having her person in there as some of the big leaders, some of the top brass. No, she wasn't invited to that party. And when she heard the king and his noblemen were in trouble, she came to help. And when she walked into that banquet house, she saw these big, tough, smart, battle-hardened, and otherwise fearless leaders. Looking like a bunch of confused and helpless children. Quite a sight. You know, it's tough for men when you get married and you uh you have a family and you're young. And you're used to being able to take charge, make decisions, make things happen, solve problems. Used to doing that for a while. Feeling confident about life. And then suddenly, boom, life happens. And suddenly you find yourself weak, not knowing what to do, unstable, unsure. That's the position these men were in. They weren't used to being in a position like this The Bible makes it clear that these men were very afraid, so much so in our in our previous verses we read that the king's knees smote together. He began shaking in his boots, literally. Several years ago, I watched a video of a police officer. It may have been a school I was in, I can't remember, but I I remember watching the video and the police officer was completely overcome by panic. He was in a uh a situation where he was in a standoff with a man, and the policeman had his gun out And the policeman got so afraid he began hyperventilating and just got completely disoriented, so much so that a medical technician, an ambulance driver Who was also at the scene had to take charge of the situation? And I watched that ambulance driver Go up to the police when the policeman was going just completely out of it. And that ambulance driver real gently lag Reaches up, touches the man's hand, didn't want him to get spooked and shoot him or something. And he takes the gun out of the police officer's hand, and then he holds that bad guy at gunpoint. And the police officer sitting there still with no gun in his hand. Just like that. It was really hard to watch. But he was astonished. That's the word used in Daniel that we saw a few weeks back. The word astonied Petrified is how we would say today, frozen stolid, unable to do anything. So the medical technician, he takes that gun out of his hand, and it was not that EMT's job. Wasn't what he was trained for. He was supposed to drive the ambulance. The policeman was supposed to catch the bad guys. But when panic ensues, When order breaks down, then somebody with a cool head has to take control of the situation. They have to. Or things will just run out of control. Eventually the when the police officer calmed down and got his His wits back, the ambulance driver gave him his gun back, and he took control again. And that was the right thing to do as well. It wasn't right for the ambulance driver to keep the gun and police officer get on the ambulance. He handed him his gun back. And I would imagine that that must have been a very awkward situation for that ambulance driver. And I would imagine that must have been a very embarrassing experience for the policeman. But somebody had to take charge in a time like that. And in our text this morning, it was somewhat like that that Panic had taken over the leaders in that Babylonian banquet hall. And like the medical technician, the queen recognized it. So she keeping a cool head took charge of the situation. Wasn't her place It must have been very awkward for her, but she took charge of the situation. For that moment in time. The follower became the leader. And the leaders had to follow. Have y'all ever been in a situation like that? Have y'all ever seen a situation like that? That happens. It was an awkward roll reversal. Look back in your text. And the queen spake. It wasn't her place to speak authoritatively to these men, but it had to be done And I want you to understand that one day you may find yourself in a situation just like this. You may find yourself in a situation where a leader, or leaders. But where a leader has broken down, and you must take control of the situation You may find yourself in an awkward but necessary role reversal. That happened to my wife several years ago. When a former pastor that she knew had gone through a very difficult time and she had to give that former pastor the same counsel that he had once given her. When my wife graciously did that, the queen spake. That's what happened. Everything in the Bible is given to us For the situations that we come across. My wife didn't have to counsel that pastor because he was a bad pastor. She had to counsel him because although he was a seasoned pastor, he, like the powerful king of Belshazzar, was still just a man A man like all of us, who was capable of hurting, capable of failing. Just like any other man. How many of y'all ever watched a leader break down before? Anybody? Actually quite a few hands. Quite a few hands. If you see a king breaking down, and I'm using the word king metaphorically, if you see a king breaking down, then have some compassion and speak to him like a queen. Perhaps you're thinking, oh, Brother Richard, I'm afraid I wouldn't know what to do or what to say in that situation. I'm not very good when things get out of control. Well, you just watch what the queen does here in this text, and then you'll see what to do. She spake, look back in your text, and said, O King. Live forever. Let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. The countenance meaning He went from being happy and celebrating to suddenly absolutely terrified, the countenance meaning to look on his face. So, King, don't let your heart be troubled. Don't sit there with a perplexed and frightened look on your face. Don't let your countenance be changed. You see what she's doing? She spoke with respect. The first thing she did was maintain the king's dignity. She said, O king, live forever. And that back in those days was as something that was commonly said to a royal whenever you were speaking to them. You would begin your words by saying. I hope you never die. I wish you to live forever. It was a token of respect paid back to kings in those days. So she didn't talk down to the king. She didn't walk in and say, what are y'all a bunch of men or mice? She didn't do that. She said, O king, live forever. She maintained his dignity as a king and spoke to him graciously, being respectful to him for the position he held If the roles ever get reversed, and if you ever have to lead a leader, then always do so graciously. Giving the person the honor and the respect that's due to them. The second thing that she did was not only respect him, the second thing she did was reassure him. Reassure him. She spoke with reassurance. She said, Let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed, which is another way of saying, Don't worry, sir. Everything's going to be okay. When you find yourself in a position of role reversal, respect. Reassure And then refer. Refer. She told the king, look in verse 11. There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. Now remember these are pagan people. This is not a church meeting here They didn't understand the doctrine of the Trinity. They didn't understand that there was only one God But they pay very close attention here. The Queen found herself in a position of an awkward roll reversal. Not just with the king, but also with his noblemen as well. The experts. The leaders in the land. And it could be that if you're if you're if you're ever in this position, it could be that you Find yourself feeling completely unqualified to give the proper counsel. I think that is the number one thing when it comes to counseling someone. is that they feel they're going to have the wrong words to say. I've had so many people tell me, I just hope I don't mess up when I talk to them. I've had so many people say, I'm going to be visiting with so-and-so. They're having this problem. It needs to be addressed. I'm afraid that I'm going to say the wrong things. Would you please pray that God will give me the right words to say? And after all, you may not be the expert in the role reversal, you're not. But I want you to see this morning that the queen didn't have to know all the answers. She only had to know where the answers could be found And that is the most wonderful truth of all when you find yourself in this situation. A friend of mine. works in the hospital as a respiratory therapist up in the Metroplex. And he told me one day he he he marveled as he watched The doctors. They would come up on some situation. I marvel the same way, uh, me with a law enforcement background. I was in, uh, I'm not skipping my story, but it popped in my head, so I'm gonna say it. I was in a trial one day. And we came up on a tricky legal situation. We had the district attorney there. We had the defense attorney attorneys there. It was more than one defendant in the trial, so we had more than one defense attorney. We're trying several people at the same time. And then there's the judge. Everybody completely seasoned. Veterans of the court. And we came upon this legal situation, and I absolutely marveled at what happened. The judge dismissed the jury. When the jury goes back to the jury room and the door closes behind them, the judge and those other lawyers, do you know what they did? They got out the law book. They got out the law book. They started flipping through, trying to read to find their answer. What do we do now? It was amazing. The judge asked the prosecutor for his advice. The prosecutor didn't know. And so all of a sudden the courtroom got quiet. And you could see those men pulling out the law book. You know what I thought, Brother Shepherd, when I saw that? I thought that's what we do with God's word. We you don't have to know all the answers. The people in the courtroom didn't know all the answers. But they knew where the answers could be found. And when you find yourself in a position of a role reversal, you don't have to know all the answers, you just have to know where the answers can be found. My friend at the hospital. He marveled. Because a doctor there in the emergency room told him He said, he said, there's one thing I've learned. He said, I don't have to know everything As a doctor, I just have to know where to go look to find what I need to know. He had medical resources. He could go and look things up. to type the symptoms in, to try to get something back, some kind of data back. And that's what the Queen's doing. She's not giving the counsel. She's giving the king a referral to where the answers can be found That is the smartest thing you can ever do in a role reversal as a pastor, as a leader In any situation, it's the smartest thing you can do is to always counsel people by sending them back to the authority. Where the answers of life can be found, and it's in God's word. The queen said, There is a man in the kingdom. You see that? She's not speaking about herself. She's not saying, oh king, live forever. Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let your countenance change. I'll tell you what to do. Here's what I would do in your situation. That's not what the Queen's doing. She's immediately deferring. To the source where the answers can be found. She referred the king to the man of God. When you're speaking to a troubled person, you don't have the answers, respect them, reassure them, and then you refer them to God's word. She said, there's a man, look back in your text, and in the days of thy father, talking about King Nebuchadnezzar, from whom he descended. In the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him. Whom the king Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, the king I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. Put them over all of them. She respected. She reassured. She referred. Watch what else she's doing here. She reminded. She reminded. She reminded the king of a time when the hard lessons of life had already been learned from Belshazzar's grandfather. Lessons that the generations after him had forgotten. You know how they say study history, it'll repeat itself, right? That's why Belshazzar did not do. What made that nation successful? What Caused Belshazzar to finally learn his lesson and get a solid footing and have this man, Daniel, the man of God, giving the counsel for the kingdom. She reminded the king of the lessons that they had forgotten. She reminded him of a time when the kingdom was on track for success. And what happened to throw it off. Speaking of God's prophet Daniel, she said, look in verse 12. for as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding and interpret interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving doubts were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation. King, here's what you do. Your grandfather named him Beltashazzar. His name's really Daniel. And he had dissolved all of these difficult things for your grandfather. He gave him light and understanding. Call him in. Get back to the time when the kingdom was standing on solid ground. The man still alive, the man still in the kingdom. Call him in. Call him in. No matter how far you get off track in life, and boy, sometimes we get off track Sometimes we can be living for the Lord, doing what's right. Sometimes everything seems to be going well. And the next thing you know, we find ourselves off over here in the ditch. We're thinking, how did I get here? If you find someone like that and they were in a leadership role or over you or something like that, then respect them. Reassure them. Refer them. Remind them. Remind them how they walked before they fell in the ditch. If they retrace their steps, then get themselves out. But if you ever fall in the ditch, and there's no one there to remind you, to reassure you, Then you remember this. No matter how far off track you get in life, God wants you to remember that His Word has the answers you need. It has the answers. You know what we do on Sundays? We read the answers preemptively. Sometimes we read them correctively. But we try to study and learn the answers preemptively so that we know them ahead of time when these occurrences happen. Since Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Babylon had left the Word of God, and all they had to do was remember where they had gone wrong to make things right again. And maybe you're in that situation this morning. You have left the Word of God. Yes, maybe you've been coming to church. Maybe you've been watching online. Maybe you've been uh uh going through the the habits of of Christianity. But your life has gotten off in the ditch. You find yourself perplexed. Let me remind you this morning. Let me reassure you this morning. God's word still has the answers. It still has the answers Jesus told the church of Ephesus, as we close, in Revelation chapter 2, verse 5a Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works You know what that means? He's doing the same thing. Remember. Remember from where you fell. That means remember where you were. Remember what took place to cause you to fall. How did you go from here to here? What happened at that time? And if you trace it back, you're going to find that you fell from the Word of God. You departed from God's word, and that caused you to fall. You know, there was never a time, never a time in the history of Israel. When they followed God's word, that God did not bless them. That they did not succeed. Never a time. Likewise, there was never a time in the history of Israel in God's Word when they left the Word of God without failing without falling. And as Israel learned those lessons, as Belshazzar had to learn these lessons So Jesus writing to the church in the book of the Revelation reminds us these same truths apply to us today. to the believers, to the individuals, to the church. Remember from where you've fallen and repent. That means change your mind. When things were going well and God was blessing you and you were walking in the Word of God, something happened in your mind to change your mind, and now you are not walking in the Word of God. And you have fallen from that position, remember where you fell. Change your thinking. That's what the word repent means. Think right again and do the first works. In other words, get back to what you were doing when you were succeeding I've watched our nation go through some ups and downs. in my lifetime. Those of you who are older than me, you've watched a whole lot more than I have. But I'll tell you what We have suffered our worst blows since we have left the Word of God. There's a Democrat running for Senate here in Texas. Can't remember his name. James Talerico. Who? James Talerico. Talerico. He's a goofy little fella. But I was listening to him talk about how many different genders there were talking as if he's an expert on it. He's probably maybe he's a biologist, I don't know. But he's talking about that and and I listen to this And I'm thinking, how do we get to this level of nonsense? In our nation, it's dangerous. These people are crazy. How do we get there? We got there when years ago, when I was in school. They started shoving God out of the school system. They started teaching kids that they were a product of some explosion that happened. Now, y'all pay attention. Because here lately we've got to watch lots of videos of explosions with this conflict in the Middle East. Things blow up over there. Been a bunch of bangs over there. And out of all those explosions, everyone resulted in disdestruction. Right? Injury and death. Every single one of them Never will you see an explosion that produces construction, improvement, and gives life. Never. It's never happened. It's never happened. It's never happened. And they put this in the schools And they taught this garbage to our children. And the next thing you know Few generations later, we go from having a standard of the book of Genesis where God made them male and female to where finally we get over here. To where God didn't make them at all, and there is no male or female. There's whatever it wants you want it to be. And they just keep adding to the alphabet people. They just keep adding to them. Nothing solid anymore. And then you watch those same people that embrace that ideology, that godless foolishness Those same people, you then watch them vote in Congress You watch what they stand and don't stand for. And you suddenly realize that they are the true enemy of the state. Not who they are as a person, but what they believe that's caused our nation. to begin to crumble from the inside out. And unless our nation remembers from where we've fallen, and unless our nation repents, changes its mind And unless our nation gets back to doing what we were doing before, it's only a matter of time. before this crazy doctrine spreads across our land, and we will fall as Babylon is about to. With that, we'll close with a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your precious word Thank you, Father, for giving us such clear instruction, such wonderful light and insight through your scriptures. Oh God, if only those men would have done what Jesus said for the Church of Ephesus to do. That nation could have turned around, but instead it fell. And God, I pray in each and every heart here this morning, I pray that we too, Father, will remember that will return and will do the first works. Thank you for this wise counsel in Jesus' precious name. Amen.