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The Scriptorium

Blessed is He Who Waits

We must learn to wait for the Lord to do His work in His time.

Daniel 12 (5)

Introduction
What do these verses assert? (1) Daily sacrifices will cease. (2) The temple will be desecrated. (3) All this will take some time. (4) Blessing will redound to those who wait. These are two of the most difficult verses in the book of Daniel. Ancient commentators differ on how to understand them, as do commentators in our day. Let’s try to stay focused on what is clear, and to think about what these verses would have meant to Daniel and those who would read his words upon returning to Jerusalem. But we’ll also try to understand them in the light of the larger and more complete revelation of God’s redemptive plan.

Read 1 Samuel 13.1-15; Acts 1.7-14.

Read Daniel 12.11, 12.

Think it through.

1.  The daily sacrifice – the morning and evening offerings of the Jews – was stopped three times after the Jews returned to Jerusalem. The first, as we have seen, was under Antiochus, in the second century BC. The last was when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. The most significant stoppage of sacrifices is referenced in Hebrews 10.1-10. Explain. Do you suppose the Messenger could have had all three of these episodes in mind? For the Jews returning to Jerusalem, knowing that the sovereign God would allow this stoppage, how would this have led them to think about the real value of the sacrifices? Did the writer of Hebrews have the attitude toward these sacrifices that Daniel’s Messenger intended? The “abomination of desolation” also has three occurrences, one under Antiochus, and one under the Romans. To the Jews, Jesus was the supreme “abomination of desolations.” How can you see this (cf. Mk. 15.55-64)? 

2.  With respect to the mention of many days here, and elsewhere in Daniel, I am inclined to agree with Calvin, who taught that the days stand for years, implying a time “immeasurably prolonged”. The divine plan for the redemption of His people and the restoration of the world unfolds over a long period of time. We may become impatient with the Lord, and think, like Saul, to take matters into our own hands – whether to try to peer into details of revelation that are deliberately being kept vague (cf. Acts 1.7), or to act presumptuously as if we knew better than God what we should be doing (cf. Jn. 18.10, 11). The Messenger promised that they will be blessedwho wait. The word blessed here refers to the condition of righteousness, peace, and joy which comes from faithfully abiding in the Law and Word of God (cf. Ps. 1, where blessed is the first word of the psalm). Thus, blessed has Kingdom overtones (cf. Rom. 14.17, 18; Dan. 7.18-27). Can you see how this word points to the coming of the Kingdom of God? How do we wait for this coming promise from God (cf. Acts 1.4, 12-14)? Does such waiting involve other forms of seeking (Matt. 6.33)?

Meditate.
“These days make up three years and a half. I have no hesitation in supposing the angel to speak metaphorically. As he previously put one year, or two years, and half a year, for long duration of time, and a happy issue, so he now puts 1290 days. And for what reason? To shew us what must happen when anxieties and troubles oppress us. If a man should fall sick, he will not say, Here I have already been one month, but I have a year before me ― he will not say, Here I have been three days, but now I languish wretchedly for thirty or sixty. The angel, then, purposely puts days for years, implying ― although that time may seem immeasurably prolonged, and may frighten us by its duration, and completely prostrate the spirits of the pious, yet it must be endured.” John Calvin, Commentary on Daniel 11.11, 12

…then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.”He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.Hebrews 10.9, 10

I am not good at waiting, Lord. Help me to rest in Your Word, to be filled with Your Spirit, to take one day and one situation at a time, and at all times to…

Pray Psalm 27.1-13.
How will you waiton the Lord, persevere in His grace, and abidein His Word today?

Psalm 27.1-14 (Joanna: Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise)
Lord, You are our Light and our Savior most dear!
You guard us with might; therefore, whom shall we fear?
Though evil surround us, our enemies fall;
No harm shall confound us when on You we call.

One thing we request but to dwell with You, Lord.
Your beauty to test and to think on Your Word.
In trouble You hide us secure in Your grace;
No foe may o’erride us: We sing of Your praise!

Hear, Lord, when we cry and be gracious, we pray!
Lord, do not deny us Your favor this day!
Our help, our salvation, though others may fall,
Preserve our good station when on You we call.

Lord, teach us; Lord, lead us because of our foes!
Hear, Lord, when we plead for release from their woes.
Had we not believed all Your goodness to see,
Our heart sorely grieved and in turmoil would be.

Wait, wait on the Lord; persevere in His grace.
Hold fast to His Word; seek His radiant face.
Be strong, set your heart to abide in His Word;
His grace He imparts; therefore, wait on the Lord.

T. M Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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