You’ve probably all heard the expression “the writing on the wall.” We use it when something is inevitable, when the outcome of a situation is clear. “Well, I saw the writing on the wall. It was time to move on from that job.” Or, “The writing was on the wall—we weren’t going to make the playoffs.”

That phrase comes straight from Daniel 5. This is the original story. And even though Christianity has lost much of its cultural influence, it’s still deeply embedded in Western culture in ways like this.

So, what does the writing on the wall mean? That’s what we’re going to find out this morning.

If you’re new here, we’ve been preaching through the Old Testament book of Daniel since early September. Daniel, written around 500 BC, tells the story of God’s people living in exile in Babylon. The Babylonians knew the best way to influence the Jewish people was by indoctrinating their young leaders. So they singled out Daniel and his three friends for special treatment. The book tells us how that turned out—usually well for Daniel and his friends, but not so well for the Babylonians.

This week we see another example of that. But first, you need to know that there’s a jump in time between chapters 4 and 5—about 25 years. It’s like when you’re watching a show and suddenly the next episode is a flash-forward. Daniel is still alive, but now he’s an old man in his 80s.

Why the flash-forward? Because these two stories are linked.

Last week we saw God’s sovereignty: He rules over the kingdoms of men. But we also saw that God humbles the proud. Daniel 4 ends with these words:

“For all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
(Daniel 4:37)

This week we see that truth again. God humbles the proud. But this time, it’s a different king—Belshazzar—and the outcome is far worse.

Our main theme today is this: Our God will humble the proud. Pride shows up in all of our lives, and God opposes it. This passage shows us three things:

1. What pride does.

2. How God responds.

3. Where pride leads.

What Pride Does (vv. 1–4)

The Aramaic word for “proud” in this passage means “high” or “lifted up.” Pride is when you think you’re above others—even above God. One Bible dictionary defines it as:

“A fundamental attitude of self-sufficiency, because of which a person throws off humility and pursues selfish desires.”

Pride says, “I did this. I don’t need God.”

Daniel 5 opens like this:

“King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels…and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.”
(Daniel 5:1–4)

Belshazzar deliberately desecrates the holy vessels from God’s temple. Even in a polytheistic culture, this was shocking—other kings would have thought, That’s going too far.

That’s what pride does: it goes too far. Sin never stays small; it grows and overreaches.

How Pride Shows Up in Our Lives

Maybe you’re not openly daring God, but pride shows up in more subtle ways:

• Prayerlessness: acting as if you don’t need God.

• Ingratitude: taking God’s gifts without thanksgiving.

• Conflict: touchiness, impatience, defensiveness.

• Lack of expectation: living as though God can’t change you or your circumstances.

• Independence: trying to do the Christian life on your own terms.

Pride always ends up putting self above God.

How God Responds (vv. 5–28)

Verse 5 says:

“Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.”

Immediately. God wastes no time responding to Belshazzar’s arrogance.

The king panics. None of his wise men can interpret the writing. But the queen mother remembers Daniel. He is summoned, now in his 80s, and offered wealth and power if he can explain the words. Daniel refuses the rewards but delivers the truth:

“You have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven… the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.”
(Daniel 5:22–23)

Then comes the verdict:

“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN… Mene: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres: your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
(Daniel 5:25–28)

The writing on the wall is God’s warning.

How Does God Warn Us Today?

• Through His Word—read, preached, and applied.

• Through the examples of others.

• Through our conscience when it pricks us.

• Through patterns of conflict and pain points of sin that repeat in our lives.

• Through confrontation from brothers or sisters in Christ.

• Through promptings or deep convictions we resist.

• Even through strong emotions like fear or anger, which reveal idols.

God still writes warnings on the wall for us.

Where Pride Leads (vv. 29–30)

Daniel 5 ends like this:

“Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple…that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom.”
(Daniel 5:29–31)

Belshazzar ignored God’s warning. He carried on as though nothing had happened—and that very night he died.

Pride leads to destruction. Proverbs says:

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
(Proverbs 16:18)

Sometimes the consequences are swift, as with Belshazzar. Other times they unfold slowly. But eventually, pride brings ruin.

The Gospel: A Way Out

Daniel told Belshazzar:

“You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”

That’s true of all of us. Our sins pile up on the scales, and no amount of good deeds can tip them back. Even our “righteous acts” fall short.

But God has made a way. Jesus took the crushing weight of our sin on Himself at the cross. He bore our punishment so that His perfect righteousness could be credited to us.

Through faith in Christ, the scale tips forever. Our sin is forgiven; His righteousness is given to us.

Conclusion

Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross, so that those who humble themselves before Him may be lifted up to eternal life.

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Matthew 23:12)

Friends, hear the writing on the wall. Pride leads to destruction, but God offers mercy through Christ. Humble yourself, repent, and trust in Him—and you will be lifted up.