Daniel 12:12 “Waiting”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²Blessed [is] the one waiting and he will arrive at days of one thousand three hundred thirty and five.” 

The NIV translates this “Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.” What a delicious little cordial is this verse! It’s one to pop in your mouth and just let it swirl around while it slowly releases its delectable sweetness!

“Blessed is the one…” Perhaps we read those words so often in the Bible, we lose sight of their enormity? They are recorded again and again from cover to cover and, remember, perhaps the most famous sermon of all, the “Sermon on the Mount,” begins with Jesus telling us over and over, “Blessed are the…”

Our God is a God of blessing! Our faith is not about slavish rituals, worshiping a far-away god you’re not sure you can trust. It’s about blessing. It’s no mistake, one of the most basic songs of the Christian faith is “Jesus loves me; this I know…” Jesus loves me. And what’s another one? How about, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one…”

Blessing. Our God is about blessing. Even as I sit here typing, these thoughts just swirl in my head and I find I don’t want to leave them! I’m hearing Steven Tyler singing, “I just wanna hold you close, feel your heart so close to mine; And just stay here in this moment, For all the rest of time…!” Where are the words? How can I say what it means to literally swim in this love-life we call “knowing God?” Sitting here in this glow, enjoying this inexpressible sweetness, nothing else really matters.

David exclaimed, “Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee!” “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

Blessing. And then…in what do we find all this blessing? “Blessed is the one who waits…” Waits. Waiting. As I’ve been pondering on this little verse, I’ve been thinking a lot about this “waiting” business. “Blessed is the one who waits…” If we back up a second, I think we’d all have to admit, we don’t like waiting. Maybe that is primarily an American problem? We always want everything right now. We pray, “Lord, give me patience,” then add, “And I want it NOW!”

However, with the Lord, as is so often the case, we find ourselves waiting. Someone once said, “Whatever the Lord does, He seems to do it slowly.” There in the Garden, He told Adam and Eve He would send “the seed of the woman” to “crush the head of the serpent.” If the two of them were anything like us, they probably thought their firstborn son would be that Messiah to save their now broken world. Little could they have imagined that some 6,000 years later, we would still be praying, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!” We’re still waiting!

How many times have we each prayed urgently for things, only to find ourselves having to remember Jesus told us, “Men ought always to pray, and not give up!” Probably like anyone else readying these words, I have prayers I’ve been praying for 40 years and still waiting for God’s answer. It’s wonderful when we pray for things and see the Lord answer almost immediately. He does do that…just not usually.

But notice – the blessing is in the waiting. “Blessed is the one who waits…” I even like the fact that, in Hebrew, “the one who waits” is an articular Qal participle. You could translate it “the waiting one.” I need to ask myself, am I a “waiting one?” As the Lord watches me and listens to my prayers, does He see a “waiting one,” or does He see an impatient, discontent man who, in truth, will not be happy until he gets what he wants?

Even concerning things I see as urgent, can I simply content myself to express those matters to God, then wait for Him to answer – as the song says, “In His time”? What this verse in Daniel would teach us is that the real blessing is not always having our prayers answered, but rather in the waiting for it! Daniel has been teaching us throughout His book that “the Most High rules in the nations of men.” Even as I sit here typing, it is making perfect sense. If, as we’re waiting, we’re also trusting (and learning to trust), we are in reality finding one of the greatest blessings of all – just to be confident in God and leave it all in His infinitely wise and loving hands. We’re learning to be still.

All of these thoughts even flow right into the rest of the verse. In this specific case, what are we “waiting” for? To reach the end of the “1,335 days.” What on earth is that? We don’t know. So, not only are we waiting for something from the Lord…we don’t even know what we’re waiting for! Now that’s TRUST. And what does that trust mean for us? Back to the start of the verse – blessing. It is the blessing of that wonderful, quiet, joyful confidence that our Father has it all under control. We can just sit in His big, loving lap and watch our world go by. The faith of a child.

Blessing in waiting. Daniel learned it, then wrote it down in hopes you and I might learn it too! God give us hearts to hear.

Daniel 12:11,12 “When They Happen…”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹And from the time the regular [sacrifice] is caused to be taken away and [the] abomination of desolating [is] given, [there will be] one thousand two hundred and ninety days. ¹²Blessed [is] the one waiting and he will arrive at days of one thousand three hundred thirty and five.” 

As I approach the end of this wonderful book, my mind is swirling with thoughts I’d like to record. I’m not sure even where to begin – so I think I’ll just do that -- begin.

Cryptic. One of the things which has deeply impressed me from this study through Daniel is how much of Bible prophecy is exactly that: cryptic. Notice above in my “fairly literal” translation, all of the places where I’ve included the [-----] words. Those are places where there simply are no Hebrew words to translate. I’m “adding” those words, attempting to render the sentences at least somewhat intelligible.

Sometimes that is simply Hebrew. It honestly is about like Chinese to our American minds. I’ve said before, to me, Hebrew is like a short-hand language where you “had to be there.” To us, it takes a LOT of “reading between the lines.” It is a picture language which just doesn’t say enough to satisfy our technically precise American English brains.

So that presents a very real problem when we resolve to totally understand prophecies and turn them into our rigid systems and timelines. The very language itself is one of our biggest obstacles. Then there are so many passages like the one before us. Several times we’ve run into the timeline of 3½ years or 42 months or 1,260 days. Now, all of a sudden, we’re told something about 1,290 days and then another reference to 1,335 days. For what?

We’re not told. All we know is that the Lord promises a blessing on those who “wait for and reach” the end of those 1,335 days. We’re not told. Let me say it one more time: We’re not told. I’m belaboring this particular point because, for the last 2,600 years since Daniel, theologians and “scholars” have been proffering their opinions what these “days” are about. If you read what they say, after a while it is almost laughable. Time itself has rendered most of those opinions laughable.

If those “scholars” had simply (humbly) offered their opinions and ideas what it was about, we could easily dismiss what they wrote. The problem is, so many of them wrote (and still do) with an iron-clad certainty. If we read our “scholars” of today, their “iron-clad” assertions often sound quite reasonable and believable. What I believe the Lord has taught me is to try to keep a measure of humility in my own prophetical opinions.

My heart has been deeply blessed to study Daniel’s prophecies and then especially to see how it all plays into the book of Revelation. The two books really are Daniel Volumes I & II! I feel far more aware of the Lord’s plans for the ages. If anything, I’m even more convinced our traditional “Pre-Trib/Pre-Mill” understanding is correct. However, I’m now far more keenly aware how wrong we might be. Once again, our commitment needs to be to those prophetic Scriptures themselves, not to our “neat and tidy” little system with it’s timelines and interpretations.

Daniel 12:11,12 are case in point. We can be absolutely confident of a blessing on those who “wait for and reach” the end of the 1,335 days.” Even in Hebrew, that is very clear. What exactly will happen in those days, the truth is we simply don’t know. We’re not told. Just so it’s said, I like the interpretations of men like Roy Beacham and John Whitcomb. They suggest that, after Jesus returns, ending the Great Tribulation, the world will be such a mess, it will take time to clean it up and get things organized for the Millennial Kingdom and Jesus’ 1,000 year reign. The “1,290” will be some sort of significant 30 days, then the “1,335” will add an additional 45.

Makes perfect sense to me. Seems very reasonable. My “system” says I think they’re right. However, the humility that I hope Daniel has taught me would remind me to hold those opinions and my “system” with open hands. It will all play out exactly the way the Lord intends, not necessarily the way I think. As Jesus said, “I’ve told you these things beforehand, so that, when they happen, then you’ll believe, then you’ll know…”

I’m intrigued by the Lord’s promised blessing on those who “wait,” but I think I’ll turn off my spinning head for this morning and take up those thoughts in another post.