Scripture Daily

Context No. 1508 of 4322 · Habakkuk

Context · Reflection

Habakkuk 2:1-5: in context

1I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 2The LORD answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. 3For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won’t delay. 4Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. 5Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous: an arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol; he is like death and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations and heaps to himself all peoples.

The prophet Habakkuk, troubled by the injustice he sees, takes his stand at his watchpost to wait for God's answer. And God answers: write the vision, make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end and will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. The proud are not upright, God says, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

God's answer to the waiting prophet is not to hurry the vision but to promise it: though it tarries, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. There is a tension in that promise that anyone who has waited on God will feel. The vision tarries, it seems slow, it has an appointed time that is not yet; and in the meantime God says, wait for it, it will surely come. The delay is real, but so is the certainty; the appointed time is fixed, and the promise will not fail, however long it seems to take. And into that waiting God speaks the great word that Paul would take up as the heart of the gospel: the righteous shall live by his faith. This is how the one who waits is to live in the meantime, not by sight, not by seeing the promise already fulfilled, but by faith, trusting that what God has promised will surely come at its appointed time. The waiting itself is the arena of faith; it is precisely in the gap between the promise and its fulfillment that the righteous live by trusting God. We want the vision now; God says wait for it, and live by faith while you wait. That is a hard word and a steadying one. The promise is certain; its timing is God's; and the way to live in the interval, however long, is by faith, trusting the God who has said it will surely come and will not delay beyond its appointed time.

As I wait for what God has promised, and it seems slow, can I hold both halves of his answer, that though it tarries it will surely come at its appointed time, and that the way to live in the waiting is by faith, trusting the promise rather than demanding to see it now?

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