29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
This part, just after Daniel gives the bad news from that ultimate divine grafitti, is one I don't recall focusing on before. Daniel is made something akin to deputy PM, but only for a few hours before Belshazzar assumes ambient temperature.
It almost seems like a joke, like the part in the Passion story where Jesus gets a royal robe put on him for a mocking photo-op (yes, they didn't have cameras then, but give me some poetic licence) before heading up Golgotha. The ship of state is heading for the rocks, and the messnager of the bad news gets named Lt. Commander.
Titles don't last. God does.
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