Habakkuk 2:1-3: Waiting
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
I will stand at the guard post and station myself upon the rampart, and keep watch to see what the Lord will say to me, and what answer he will give to my complaint.
I love these verses. They speak to us of fidelity, constancy, and patience. They call us to commit ourselves for eternity. They ask us to be reliable as God is reliable. They are difficult words to follow but they are a life-giving and sustaining command. They also give us permission to deliver our grievances to God, asking for intercession and deliverance.
If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.
We live in an “instant” world. I have just read that video gaming causes us to expect reward every 10 to 15 seconds and I find this to be sad. Our insistence on immediate gratification cheats us of the exquisite anticipation of God’s intervention and reply. Our denial that God is responding in God’s time erases the opportunity to arrive at a deep knowing that God hears us and is considering the best reply. Our impatience leads us to believe that God does not love us, that God is off tending to some other business far more important, or that we are too insignificant for God to even notice that we exist. We are a people who do not wait well.
If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.
By deciding that God is “late” when we do not receive instant messages to all of our requests we admit to the belief that God is a puppet to be manipulated . . . or they we are puppets who merely respond to God’s string pulling. We refuse to see that we are in conversation with God and that the creator is giving us a bit of space to grow and learn. These words speak to us of hope. They tell us how to suffer well. They remind us that we survive best when we rely on God.
If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.
The message of Habakkuk is one that any human being who has suffered can comprehend. He wrote his prophecy in the face of intense corruption and desperate circumstances. The notes in the NAB tell us that “there was political intrigue and idolatry widespread in the small kingdom”.
On a personal level, many of us are aware of intrigue and idolatry, either as an interior, personal flaw or as something we experience in a work or family group. It seems that no matter where we go we will not escape plotting, conniving and deceit; but the one with integrity will wait on the Lord. We often hear these verses read out to us when we touch on the theme of waiting.
How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
And this life that we will live is foreshadowed in the closing verses of the prophet Zephaniah, the book following Habakkuk.
At that time I will bring you home, and at that time I will gather you; For I will give you renown and praise, among all the peoples of the earth, When I bring about your restoration before your very eyes, says the Lord.
This is surely something worth waiting for. This is surely the life we have been promised. It is the life we can expect . . . if only we might wait.
A re-post from May 15, 2012.
Images from: http://reachforencouragement.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html and http://kingdomnewtestament.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/acts-1-waiting-in-prayer/
For more on this prophecy see the page Habakkuk – Keeping Faith, Trusting in God on this blog at: https://thenoontimes.com/the-book-of-our-life/habakkuk-keeping-faith-trusting-in-god/
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