“Blessed Is He That Waiteth”
By F. D. Starr
OFTENTIMES there comes a blessing to those who are willing to wait for some expected benefit, and who do not get impatient at apparent delay. But the case under consideration is one of no ordinary interest and importance. This statement is made in Dan. 12:12, 13: “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt have rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” In the Greek text of the Septuagint Version, the word for “wait” is the same as that rendered “endure” in Matt. 24:13, and “patience” in Rev. 14:12, and it would seem that the waiting, endurance, and patience of these three passages have allusion to the same thing. The word “stand” in Dan. 12:13 is the one generally translated arise, often in reference to the arising or resurrection of the dead. This passage in Daniel would be thus translated from the Septuagint: “Blessed is he that endureth, and cometh unto the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. But go thou, and rest; for there are yet days and seasons to the fulfillment of the end, and thou shalt arise in thy lot at the end of the days.” In fact, the words rendered “cometh to” are from the identical Greek word that we find in 1 Thess. 4:15, and there rendered “prevent,” meaning, as rendered by most other versions, “precede.” Instead of the living getting before the sleeping saints, the apostle rather gives the departed ones this prerogative, in that he states that “the dead in Christ shall rise first.” The blessing and assurance of Dan. 12:12, 13, and that of Rev. 14:13, are so similar that one can hardly refrain from considering them identical when reading them in the language (Greek) employed by the seer of Patmos. The blessings apply at the same epoch in this world's history, or at least the blessing of the apocalyptic vision takes up and extends the blessing from the point to which the closing benediction of the angel in Daniel 12 brings us. Who are they who receive this special blessing?—Those who come to a certain point in their experience and in this world's history,—the point of view from which they can see the unmistakable dawn of the coming day. Having reached that epoch, though, like Simeon of old, they go down in death, yet it is with supreme gratitude to God that they have been permitted to experience the indescribably thrilling emotions of those who are permitted to listen to and heed the celestial sound of the three angels' messages, and they can say, like that saint of old: “Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; . . . for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” Luke 2:29, 30. In what does this peculiar blessing consist?—Certainly not in dying; no, but in arising from the dead, as seen in Dan. 12:13, and as shown by the second verse of this chapter, where the same partial resurrection as that implied in Rev. 14:13 is clearly mentioned. Thou shalt rest, thou shalt arise. They rest from their labors, and are blessed; But their works follow them. It would seem that these notable words of Dan. 12:12, 13, had furnished the germ thought for the promise of our Lord in Matt. 24:13, the comforting words of Paul in 1 Thess. 4:15, and the prediction and benediction of Rev. 14:12, 13. Surely those who have assimilated the living principles of the first and following angels' messages, from William Miller down, have followed no cunningly devised fables, but are destined to share in a blessing inferior to none that man has known since Adam left the gates of paradise. Blessed indeed are they.