OPENING THOUGHT:
What do crowded restaurants, traffic jams, and long lines have in common? To get through them, you will be required to wait! And most of us are not very good at waiting!

In this sermon series, we have seen how Daniel's faith was tested when he was kidnapped from his home and taken away to a foreign land. Daniel remained faithful to God's Word and even led others, including King Nebuchadnezzar, to know God despite living in a "wilderness."

But what we have not talked about until today... Is how Daniel waited for God in the wilderness. Daniel waited upon the Lord even when the wilderness around him must have been pushing his patience to the limit. How did Daniel wait so well even when his life was stuck in the wilderness?

MAIN THOUGHT:
Waiting is something that you will experience every day. You might not have noticed this at first in the above verses, but Daniel was in a long season of waiting in chapter five. Verse one opens with King Belshazzar hosting a large banquet for 1000 of his nobles. It was no longer Nebuchadnezzar on the scene. In fact Nebuchadnezzar had died in 562 BC, and was followed by four separate kings before the reign of Belshazzar. Belshazzar's reign ended in 539 BC. If we do the math from 605 BC to 539 BC, we see that 66 years had transpired by the time that we get to this moment in chapter five!

And this was not like waiting in line at Six Flags. This was waiting in a foreign land with a foreign king who was worshiping foreign gods. By this time, Daniel may have given up hope of ever getting back to his homeland or experiencing life the way he used to in Jerusalem. There was very little he could do about it. By the time that Belshazzar was in command, Daniel was no longer in a position of control. He was living basically in obscurity...

Daniel 5:11
11There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your “father” he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your “father” – your “father” the king, I say – appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. 12This man Daniel…

Once was in a position of control and influence, but that had all changed over the years. With the passing of time and the changing of the kings, by the time of King Belshazzar, some 66 years later, Daniel was relatively unknown! Yet, he was still waiting, perhaps still hoping while his life remained in the wilderness!

Some of you know what it is like to wait in a time of wilderness…
Waiting for a loved one who is overseas in the military
Waiting for a medical cure
Waiting to find a job or for that next job promotion
Waiting to start your own family
Waiting during a long stay in the hospital
Waiting for Jesus to come back!
Waiting for God to answer that prayer request!

Daniel was in that long season of waiting in chapter five. And there are several principles that we can take away from what Daniel was experiencing in chapter five…

Some Truths about Waiting:

1. Waiting is normal
From the time that God created all things and set them into motion, waiting has been a normal process of life. Remember that God took 6 days to give arrangement to His creation… He waited. Abraham had to wait until he was 86 before he had his first son. Joseph waited for several years in an Egyptian prison. David waited even longer before he became king of Israel. And even Jesus waited around 30 years before beginning his ministry. In all of these things, for real people like Daniel and you… Waiting is normal. In fact, most good things take time. If it is something important to you and worthwhile to you… Then it will be worth the time for you. For Daniel, learning how to live well in a foreign land, meant taking the time to be patient and trust that waiting was a necessary part of God’s plan for his life.

2. Waiting is difficult
There will be things that trigger you to be impatient while you are waiting. For Daniel, I wonder if his waiting was made even harder by what was going on inside the banquet hall?

Daniel 5:2
While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his “father” had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

So his servants brought in these special treasures from Daniel’s hometown, to have this big party with his friends, wives, and prostitutes. And notice what they did…

Daniel 5:4
As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

As if waiting all those years wasn't hard enough, Daniel had to wait knowing that some of his most precious treasures from back home were being used to worship a bunch of false gods! This must have been incredibly frustrating for Daniel, like something pushing his buttons and making him even more impatient during his season of waiting. Waiting is very difficult, especially when the place you are waiting is uncomfortable or difficult, and especially when other things are happening at the same time that threaten to push you over the edge. And you can count on those things happening! But as difficult as waiting might be, you must also remember…

3. Waiting doesn't mean that God is not working

Daniel 5:5–6
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way!

The writing was on the wall for the king, because God was still at work. And these were the four Aramaic words that God put on that wall (from 5:25): Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin = Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided. His days were numbered, he was not measuring up, and so his kingdom would be divided up!

Only a man of God could interpret this meaning because this had been written by the hand of God, because God was still at work… Even though Daniel was still in a season of waiting! If only you and I could see the hand of God at work while we are waiting. Waiting does not mean that God is not working and…

4. Waiting does not mean never
If you are praying and still waiting, it does not mean that God is not answering. His answer could be not yet or not now. His answer could be just trust me and be patient. If Daniel was still praying for the door to open so that he could return to Jerusalem, God’s answer was very simply… Be patient, not yet, it is not your time. But that does not always mean not ever…

Daniel 5:30
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

And the amazing thing to know about Darius the Mede is that he would soon be working under the Persian King Cyrus, who would be the one, led by God, to let the exiles return to their homeland!

Ezra 1:1–2
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved in the heart of Cyrus the king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: 2This is what Cyrus king of Persia says… ["It is now time to go home!"].

So that even with all of that waiting (70 years!)… The waiting did not mean never! The question we might ask is whether Daniel ever got to go home. We really don’t know for sure if he was included in the return. His name is not included in the list in Ezra chapter two. But we do know this, and we will see this more next Sunday, that Daniel prayed with all his heart for the return. He knew from God’s Word that it would happen, and I believe that Daniel was a major influence in helping King Cyrus also know that it should happen and would happen... Because once again Daniel was faithful to God and led King Cyrus to know about God!

We have every reason to believe that Daniel let God work through him to answer that prayer for the return, whether Daniel got to go with them or not!
Because by that time, no matter how God answered his prayer, Daniel still had God! And he remained close to God even while he was waiting!

CLOSING REFLECTION:
1. Practice more patience
2. Pray more often
3. Picture God at work
4. Picture the Big picture