What does Daniel 5:15 mean?
During a profane, drunken celebration, Babylon's king, Belshazzar, saw a supernatural hand writing on the wall (Daniel 5:1–5). In terror, he tried to learn what this meant, eventually summoning Daniel at the urging of the queen (Daniel 5:6–13). Belshazzar admitted that his wise men had failed to read the handwriting on the wall and had not been able to interpret it. In fact, they had not even been able to read it (Daniel 5:8).The king's admission comments on the emptiness of Babylon's wisdom. As it pertains to spiritual truth, worldly wisdom is woefully lacking. Just as Babylon's wise men could not discern the message God sent (Daniel 5:23–24) to Belshazzar, so the wisdom of even the best educated men and women today fails to discern the message God has written in the Bible. Intellect is important, but to truly grasp spiritual truth, a person must know God's Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). The apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthian 4:3–4: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case [the Devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."