“The third ruler in the kingdom” Dan 5:29 – Part 2

Psa 65:8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
Psa 65:9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
Psa 65:10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
Psa 65:11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
Psa 65:12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.
Psa 65:13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

This week’s study will look at some of those “terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us” moments of Psa 65:5 which are spoken throughout the word of God, and see how Christ was working these principles of judgment long before we were born…preparing for us through these examples to see how all things are for our sakes, for our learning, for our edifying so that we might take comfort and consolation in the word of God and the sovereignty of His hand over all of things (2Co 4:15, 2Ti 3:16-17, Rom 15:4-5, Eph 1:11).

2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

2Ti 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Verse 8 of our study will focus on the word “token”H226 as we come to see how the same word “mark”(H226) in Gen 4:15 points to a seven-fold process of complete judgment that all flesh must go through (Mat 12:45, Rev 13:11-13) in order to be purified and enter into the temple of God (Rev 15:7-8).

Gen 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Before we look at verse 8 of Psalm 65, here are four quick examples that help set the tone of the study and speak to this principle found in Mat 12:45 that talks about the process that all humanity will have to go through in order to have the temple of God, which we are, cleansed so we can have a right relationship and know God and his Son Jesus Christ (1Jn 4:17) who alone can deliver us from spiritual bondage (1Co 6:19, Joh 17:3, Tit 2:14, Joh 8:36).

Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Straw taken away

God will ultimately deliver Israel so they can go “three days journey into the desert” to sacrifice, but not until they are sore pressed and come to learn in shadow and type for our sakes how oppressive our lives are when we are in the bondage of sin (Joh 8:34, Rom 6:18). The straw being taken away is surely an example of seven spirits worse coming unto a people who are already sore pressed and having to learn to do the impossible in an already very difficult situation of bondage. Deliverance will come from God alone and in His time and predestined manner.

Exo 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
Exo 5:2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.
Exo 5:3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.
Exo 5:4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.
Exo 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.
Exo 5:6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
Exo 5:7 Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.
Exo 5:8 And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Exo 5:9 Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.

Mat 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Mat 5:26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Solomon and Rehoboam

Here we see the nation of Israel who, according to Rehoboam’s own words, his “father did lade you with a heavy yoke” and yet instead of lightening that yoke, God causes him to be much more severe. The people came to Rehoboam on the third day, a shadow of the Hebrews hoping to go into the desert to find a place to sacrifice unto God after a three day journey. They were denied that exodus, as was this people denied deliverance from the “heavy yoke” of Solomon to only find a greater bondage placed upon them through Rehoboam the taskmaster.

1Ki 12:11 And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
1Ki 12:12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day.
1Ki 12:13 And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him;
1Ki 12:14 And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
1Ki 12:15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar

This third example of this process toward that right relationship which releases us from spiritual bondage is what we will look at more closely in Psa 65:8 later.

Dan 5:1-31 [The handwriting on the wall; Daniel interprets the handwriting]

Rachel, Leah and Jacob

Jacob’s eyes and desire were always set on pleasing and having Rachel to wife (Gen 29:18), however the Lord once again proved the flesh of yet another patriarch to teach us that the kingdom of God is not easily entered into except through much tribulation and seven spirits worse — that proceeded from Laban in type and shadow as he broke the news to Jacob that “It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn”, meaning Jacob would have to “fulfill her week” seven spirits worse if you will before he could have Rachel for seven years more (Gen 29:27).

Gen 29:18 And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
Gen 29:19 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.
Gen 29:20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

There is a pattern in all of God’s word that we are blessed to see unfold, showing us that we are kept humble by the circumstances that God allows so that his spirit can rest upon us and enable us to endure until the end (2Co 12:9-10, Php 3:10-11). It is through this process of being marked by God to have to go through a process, that we can learn to rejoice as He alone can “makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice”.

2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

2Sa 14:14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Psa 65:8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens (H226): thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.

There is nothing hidden from God, and our sins do find us out exactly when the Lord has predetermined (Gal 6:7). He has made both the wicked within us to be revealed in the day of evil (Pro 16:4) and made provision, or devised a means through Christ and his Christ, to redeem the spilled water that all soulishness is represented by and must be judged by while in the earth (Jer 22:29, Deu 6:4). It is the heat of the sun that will draw that water out of the earth and turn it into a cloud of witness (Heb 12:1). We become that cloud of witness through judgment as the following verses will discuss (2Sa 14:14, Luk 12:5, Isa 26:9).

We find the same word ‘token’ being used in Gen 4:15 as ‘mark'(H226).

Gen 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark(H226) upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Vengeance is taken on those who judge a matter in the flesh without the mind of God (Rom 12:19). Our judgment is not just unless it comes from our Father so our Lord tells us in Joh 5:30.

We will all initially judge matters after the flesh with the law and not with the mind of Christ until we are given to judge righteous judgment by Christ working within us to accomplish the will of our Father (Joh 7:24, Php 2:13).

God is showing us through this story of Cain that the only judgment that will redeem Cain will ultimately come from God and not from the hearts of men, unless those men have the mind of Christ because they have been judged already and are seeking the mind of Christ and his judgment as Christ did his Father’s.

An important connection to understanding the process of how we are redeemed by a seven times passing over is to be found in the life of Nebuchadnezzar and how after he died Belshazzar had to die as well at the judgment of God that only Daniel was able to interpret, who was a type of God’s elect given the gift and ability to judge this world.

“Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold” reminds us of the seven last trumpets that fill up God’s judgment on Cain within us which is also shadowed in the life of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:16, Dan 3:19), and no man can enter into the temple of God until those judgments are poured out.

Dan 4:16 Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.

Dan 3:19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Notice in verse one of Daniel chapter five that the feast which Belshazzar the king, who is ‘within us’, was made to a “thousand of his lords”, which is a symbol for the judgment that will come upon our flesh in this story seeing the three tens represent a process of judgment on our flesh 10X10X10=1000 lords (Jer 22:29). This again reminds us that without the process of judgment upon the earth, we will not hear the word of the Lord. Eventually all the world will hear the word of the Lord, and that hearing will come about as a result of God’s goodness leading people to repentance and causing those judgments in the earth, earth, earth to give the much needed increase that comes from God alone (Rom 2:4, 1Co 3:7).

Dan 5:1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

I mention all of this because the word “token“(H226) that we’re looking at was something that was used to instill fear on anyone who understood what this mark meant on Cain.

Belshazzar was terrified of the fact that “God hath numbered thy kingdom” (“mene” H4484), which is what was written on the wall which is symbolic of our beastly hearts of stone that are marked with the number of a man 6-6-6 (Rev 13:18). Only God is able to write on our hearts as He mercifully leads us unto repentance in this age so that we can put this “token” or “mene” numbered life into proper perspective as it is judged of God (Psa 139:16 ASV).

Dan 5:25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE(H4484), MENE, TEKEL(H8625), UPHARSIN(H6537).
Dan 5:26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom [6-6-6], and finished it.

H4484
מנא
menê’
men-ay’
(Chaldee); passive participle of H4483; numbered: – Mene.

We live by every word of God so we are both Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar. However, it is interesting to note that there is no shadow of conversion in the conversation of these lords or Belshazzar as they try to figure out what this writing on the wall represents after having discussed how “They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone” of verse four and were now going to call upon “…the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers….” of verse seven, none of whom were going to be worthy to be “clothed with scarlet” and “have a chain of gold about his neck” and to “be the third ruler in the kingdom”.

All of this is reminding us that our high calling is a process that we are pressing toward (Php 3:14) as our old man represented by ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ dies, then the deadly wound is healed and Belshazzar, who is worse still than his father (Dan 5:22, Rev 13:12), must meet the prophet Daniel who interprets the dream and brings understanding to Belshazzar that he is going to die (Joh 12:24).

Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Once again we see that in order for God to “thou…makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice” which is found in Psa 65:8, it must be preceeded with judgment that begins upon the body of Christ which is what these words point to [tokens H226, mark H226].

In this instance, Daniel is the messenger revealing God’s judgment, like Nathan did with David and Christ’s body will do with the world. We will judge the thousand lords who have misappropriated the vessels (the words of God) of the temple of God and place the ‘token’ or ‘mark’ upon this world by showing them that they are beasts just as we were, but by the grace and faith of God we are blessed to go onto perfection in this age (Dan 5:3-4, Rev 18:10).

The glorious outcome of judgment being upon us first in this age is to come to realize that “the third ruler in the kingdom” (Dan 5:29) is symbolic of the elect who are found to have Christ in them. We are this third ruler if Christ is in us (Joh 17:3, Joh 14:20, Rev 5:10), and as that third ruler, we will be able to bring lasting peace that will “stilleth the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples” as these following verses bare witness to (Psa 65:7, Isa 9:7).

Luk 15:22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

Dan 5:29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Psa 65:9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
Psa 65:10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
Psa 65:11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
Psa 65:12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.
Psa 65:13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

The last five verses of this Psalm express the fruit of our life as a result of God visiting “the earth”. We are enriched with living waters through Christ (Joh 7:38), and given spiritual food (corn) that He prepares for us through the church (Eph 3:10).

The end result of God’s abundance being bestowed upon his people is expressed in type and shadow in verse 13 as “The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing”, which reminds us that whatever we have to go through to get to this blessed placed, it is all worth it and something to rejoice in always, and again I say rejoice (Rom 8:16-18, Php 4:4-5).

Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Php 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
Php 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.