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.