Robes of Righteousness
The wine flowed, rivalling the Euphrates’ roar. “Keep those sparklers coming,” said more modern poets. It’s October 12th, 539 BC and Belshazzar, king of the known universe is poppin’ bottles. History tells us he invited a “thousand of the kingdom’s lords and their concubines”[1] — your wildest night in Ibiza is a drop in the bucket. Between the tempestuous tunes and tempered toasts, they praised the gods of gold and silver;[2] mocking the One who holds hade’s key.[3]
“Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.”[4]
The writing was on the wall.
Literally.[5]
Like hail on a beach day, God showed up with vengeance. The hand that summons the dawn, pierced the debauchery and wrote for all to see, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” The writing was on the wall and terror consumed hearts like a plague. Sober minds seemed just a day too far away.
Friend, what do you know of fear? Have you been confronted with the One who calls forth the morning?[6] The One who says to the ocean, “this far you may come and no further?” Have you crossed the One who holds the storehouses of snow? Who humbles Himself to see constellations?[7] Do you know Him? Belshazzar’s knees knocked, limbs failed and colour changed.
He met the Lion from the tribe of Judah.
The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.[8]
It is in these moments of inextricable fear that we long for cooler heads and sober minds. There was a faint recollection amongst the Babylonian astrologers of a Judaean man who presumably silenced the lion’s roar. Daniel, the man who prayed, the man who fasted, the man who was pulled up from the pit. Daniel, the man who maybe, just maybe could interpret the writing on the wall.
In an act of desperation, Daniel is brought before the king and offered — in exchange for an interpretation — a purple robe, a chain of gold and the position of, “third highest ruler in the kingdom.” Daniel’s response?
Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation… 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.[9]
Daniel knew the kingdom was finished. History records that while the banquet raged, the Medes and the Persians were already at the gate. Daniel knew the temporal debauchery before him was finished and that a new kingdom was underway.
Today, do we know?
“This world in its present form is passing away.”[10]
How incredulous Daniel must have felt as Belshazzar gave the command and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
What a joke.
Did Belshazzar not hear him? Daniel receives power in a kingdom that is passing away. How superficial. If only Jesus’ words had been written, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding”[11]
I often wonder if the story of Achan came to Daniel’s mind: Upon the Israelites entry to Cannan — their acquisition of the Promise Land — they were met with resistance at Jericho. The city would surely fall but the booty was the LORD’s. The men received specific instructions to leave the spoils of war.[12] “But when Achan saw in the plunder, a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, he coveted them and took them and hid his sin in the ground inside his tent.”[13]
You have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.[14]
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord. Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.” Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.[15]
As the Israelites dragged Achan out into the Valley of Achor — the valley of the dejected — his sin was laid out for all to see. Rejected, guilty, and ashamed before Joshua, justice was served and Achan was stoned.
I am Achan. We are Achan.
The Roman Emperors used to say, “panem et circenses” a Latin phrase meaning, “bread and circus.” This phrase was a public policy of diversion meant to distract the general populace from their civic duty. It manifested through feasts and sport that thoroughly saturated Roman culture. Early emperors were made aware of the Olympic fanaticism that had captivated their Hellenistic predecessors and sought to leverage the distraction. We should not be so quick to dismiss this policy as pertaining solely to the ancient Roman world. We are fed and we are entertained. The ruler of this age holds out a Babylonian robe and taunts, “did God really say?”[16]
Did God really say?
I am the Alpha and Omega.[17]
I am coming soon.[18]
Did God really say?
The answer is an emphatic, YES! God did really say and His promises’ are still yes in Christ and through Him, the Amen is spoken![19] He is coming soon. The question is, are you still wearing your purple robe, or have you exchanged it for the better offer?
There is another Joshua in Scripture:
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.” Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by. The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here. “ ‘Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the Stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.[20]
We must not confuse the Joshua of Zechariah with the Joshua that crossed the Jordan. They are two different Joshuas. However, they both point to a true and better Joshua.
Joshua — saviour — the man who led the Israelites into the Promise Land, the man who oversaw the just capital punishment of Achan, this Joshua is a picture of the true and better Joshua. Jesus — Saviour — the Last Adam who leads His people into the Eternal Promise. The One who is both the Lion who brings justice and the Lamb who pays the price. We who are caught guilty in the desert of our own sin — red-handed with purple robes — are invited to receive the rich garments — robes of righteousness. It is through Jesus, our true and better High Priest that we’re able to receive full atonement. Through Him, our Valley of Achor becomes the door of hope.
Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. “In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master’. I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.[21]
May we be a people who walk through the Door[22] of hope. For our hope is not only faith and the assurance of what we do not see[23] but our very Bridegroom. It is written that “He will betroth us forever.” History is barreling towards the greatest wedding the world has ever known. The deceptive robes of Babylon will be destroyed and we will be united with our King forever:
They will weep and mourn and cry out: “ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’[24]
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”[25]
As Daniel stood on the brink of another kingdom, certain of things to come, may we find our solidarity. May we recognize the hour at which we stand and not settle for the rejected purple robes of a fading kingdom. We have been offered the garment of salvation in Christ Jesus; we have been robed in righteousness.
Isaiah might have said it best:
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the young plant come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.[26]
Let it be so.
- Daniel 5:1
- Daniel 5:4
- Daniel 5:3; Revelation 1:18
- Galatians 6:7
- Daniel 5:5
- Job 38:12
- Psalm 113:6
- Daniel 5:16–17
- Daniel 5:26–28
- 1 Corinthians 7:31
- Mark 4:12
- Joshua 6:19
- Joshua 7:21
- Numbers 32:23
- Joshua 7:22–26
- Genesis 3:1
- Revelation 22:12
- Revelation 22:12
- 2 Corinthians 1:20
- Zechariah 3:1–9
- Hosea 2:14–20
- John 10:9
- Hebrews 11:1
- Revelation 18:15–17
- Revelation 19:6–8
- Isaiah 61:10–11
