Neville Goddard on Daniel 5:1-9 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Daniel 5 in context

Scripture Focus

1Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

2Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.

3Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.

4They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

5In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

6Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

7The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

8Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.

9Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied.

Daniel 5:1-9

Biblical Context

Belshazzar hosts a lavish banquet, using sacred temple vessels to praise external gods. A mysterious hand writes on the wall, signaling a sudden inner judgment that unsettles him.

Neville's Inner Vision

Belshazzar's feast is your mind in revelry with appearances. The golden and silver vessels plucked from the temple are the faculties you once sanctified but have now misused for show. The wine is the tumult of thought; the idols of gold and silver and stone are the fetishes of circumstance you allow to rule you. When the hand writes on the wall, it is the whisper of your own I AM marking your state, calling you to notice. The panic that follows is your inner alarm; the wise men are outward theories you consult instead of turning inward. Daniel, within you, represents inner discernment that can read the writing and reinterpret it. The Kingdom of God is within; judgment is a correction of imagined separations. To practice, assume you are the I AM reading the wall and revising it. See the writing soften into a statement of unity and feel the reality of that revision here and now.

Practice This Now

Close your eyes and declare that you are the I AM, the reader and writer of your inner wall. Revise the wall aloud in your imagination and feel the coherence spreading through you.