Who do you think you are dealing with?

Belshazzar threw a party with a thousand guests.  In a bid to impress the nobles, because he was drunk, or simply because the bouquet of the wine demanded superior vessels, he called for the temple ware. Years before when the aging Daniel was a boy, Nebuchadnezzar had looted God's temple when he sacked the city of Jerusalem.  So in a dusty storehouse somewhere the holy vessels of gold and silver sat waiting.  When these sacred artifacts were brought forth and filled with wine, Belshazzar raise his glass and praised the "gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."

What on earth did he think he was doing?

What god can rescue you out of my hand?

Daniel was a fast-talker.  He could effortlessly convince kings, Captians of the King's bodyguards, and chief officials to do everything from let him switch to a vegetarian diet to put off an order of execution.  Daniel was smooth.

And if we read the first two chapters in isolation, we might imagine that quick thinking and a silver tongue can get a servant of God out of any bind.  However the third chapter of Daniel quickly puts that idea to rest. 

Lovers of Money

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. Colossians 3:5-7