Habakkuk 2:1-5
Habakkuk 2:1
(KJB)
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower,
and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I
am reproved.
Habakkuk is not going to hide out somewhere or run away,
instead he uses the metaphor of a sentinel who watches for the oncoming enemy.
He intends to stay strong and watch upon the towers which would be the
strongholds. After he has asked the
questions of the Lord, he will now wait for the answers from God and then he
will rehearse what he will respond to the Lord.
He believed he would be reproved for asking all those questions.
To be reproved was to be “chided, chastised, or to be charged with a
fault.”
Habakkuk 2:2
(KJB)
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and
make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Then the Lord did answer Habakkuk and told him to write
the vision because many times if we try to remember things we will forget.
God did not want one iota of the vision to be omitted.
Then he was to write in such a way that the common, uneducated person
could read and understand the vision as he would write them on tables and not
parchments which could be easily destroyed.
It was to be plain and easily readable by those who are on the run, or a
runner who may run throughout the people and bring the message, or may point to
the fact that they read the vision and can continue their lives as is.
Isaiah 40:31 (KJV) But they that
wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Habakkuk 2:3
(KJB)
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the
end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will
surely come, it will not tarry.
Here the Lord is assuring Habakkuk that the vision he saw
was for an appointed time, that is, in the fullness of time God will bring about
the removal of Judah to Babylon. In
other words, God has already fixed a time when this invasion will take place.
It is just like judgment day which also has an appointed time and that
will be after the last one becomes saved that God has written in the Lamb’s Book
of Life.
Acts 17:31 (KJV) Because he hath
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that
he hath raised him from the dead.
The vision will also be complete with nothing omitted when it actually
happens. Sometimes when God makes a
declaration of something that will happen, it does not mean that it will happen
that very day, but it will happen in the timing of God even though it is far
off. When Luke penned the above
verse, he did it almost 2000 years ago, while we are much closer to judgment
day, it still may be a ways off but the fact is that Luke made a declaration of
judgment day for thousands of years in the future, so not all of God’s
prophecies come to pass immediately and that is what he wants Habakkuk to know
but he also wants him to know that it will come and he is to wait for it because
even though it seems like it is tarrying, it is not because the time was not
yet. This is why the phrase “If the
Lord tarries” is very unbiblical because the Lord is not tarrying but waiting
for the appointed time to return.
Habakkuk 2:4
(KJB)
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in
him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Here God makes two contrasting statements in this verse.
The first part refers to the Babylonians whose arrogance has elevated
their own pride which goes against living a godly life.
The word “upright” carries with it the meaning of “straight or right.”
The second part of that verse is directed at Habakkuk and to the rest of
us. Habakkuk was to have faith in
God that at the appointed time the invasion would occur.
He was to have faith that the whole situation was under God’s control.
The last part of this verse is repeated in Romans 1:17 which became the
verse that ignited the Reformation when Martin Luther read it.
Romans 1:17 (KJV) For therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The
just shall live by faith. In
1517 much superstition surrounded religion and Rome was the one who placed the
people in this religious bondage but when Martin Luther saw that the Just shall
live by faith and not councils, statues, mass, confession, and priest craft, it
was like the light of Heaven shown through on a dark and cloudy day.
Once we trust the Lord in faith for our lives, then we too will walk in
the light.
1 John 1:7 (KJV) But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Habakkuk 2:5
(KJB)
Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud
man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death,
and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto
him all people: