Habakkuk 2:3 – The Vision Awaits

What has been is what will be,

    and what has been done is what will be done,

    and there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

The truth of what Solomon said in his day is evident more than ever in these trying times.  As the world moves inevitably forward to its destruction, the circular nature of history rears its ugly head.

Ecclesiastes 1:11 also accurately tells us:

There is no remembrance of former things,

    nor will there be any remembrance

of later things yet to be

    among those who come after.

We see this truth as the dusk turns toward the blackness of the night.  The past is being erased.  The ones who rule the world don’t want those who are subservient to know history.  If they did, they might realize that all these rules, laws, and regulations in one form or another have been imposed in other times and places and brought nothing but bondage and death.

Yet, there are some of us who see.  Like the prophet in Habakkuk 1:2-4 we lift our voices to the heavens::

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

    and you will not hear?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

    and you will not save?

Why do you make me see iniquity,

    and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

    strife and contention arise.

So the law is paralyzed,

    and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

    so justice goes forth perverted.

We say to God, “Father, don’t You see what’s going on?  How long must we endure the indignities of the wicked who decree their unjust ways?”

Just like in the past, the Lord responds as in Habakkuk 1:5:

“Look among the nations, and see;

    wonder and be astounded.

For I am doing a work in your days

    that you would not believe if told.”

Yahweh was working then to bring about the right combination of events so that the timing would be right for Him to move.  So it is today.

We in our doubt wonder, because the hand of the Lord is invisible to us.  Like in Habakkuk 1:13, we ask again:

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

    and cannot look at wrong,

why do you idly look at traitors

    and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

    the man more righteous than he?

We complain that the evil cabal continues to press on and do what it intends.  There seems to be nothing that can stop the wicked from achieving their objectives.  As they move forward, good and righteous people are caught in their snares and suffer.

But God has a Word for us, just as He did for the prophet in Habakkuk 2:2-3:

And the Lord answered me:

“Write the vision;

    make it plain on tablets,

    so he may run who reads it.

For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

    it will surely come; it will not delay.

The Lord assures us: “I have given you My prophetic Word.  What I will do comes in My own time.  But fear not, it will happen just as I have said.  Be patient.  Wait for Me.”

But why, Lord?  How?

Because, as He declares in Habakkuk 2:4:

“… the righteous shall live by his faith.”

We who call Jesus Savior and Lord must persevere.  We are to walk in the righteousness of Christ through the faith that He has graciously given us.

God has more to tell us through Habakkuk.  He shows us His displeasure at the evil men who surround us and carry out their plans with seeming impunity.  He declares woe upon them in Habakkuk 2.  As the resource at Got Questions informs us: Woe means “grief, anguish, affliction, wretchedness, calamity, or trouble.”

(https://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-woe.html)

Those who act as though God doesn’t see will be unpleasantly surprised on the day of His reckoning.

In the meantime, while we wait on the Lord, life may not be pleasant for us, as Habakkuk 3:17 notes:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

    nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

    and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

    and there be no herd in the stalls…

Things may be tough for us as they were in the day of this prophecy.  But, again, we’re shown in Habakkuk 3:18-19 how to respond in faith and what the Lord does for us when we do.

… yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the deer’s;

    he makes me tread on my high places.

Father, we exalt You, and You alone, because You are with us in all our trials and temptations.  You will deliver us!  All glory to You!

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