When I was a kid, I was obsessed with aviation. Well, one evening, when I was about ten-years-old, I was outside walking on the family farm; and off in the distance, I saw a hot air balloon about a mile away. I had high hopes that it would move towards the farm and land, but that was wishful thinking – maybe even childish thinking. The wind kept blowing it farther and farther away. And for a few years after that event, I kept looking to the sky, hoping I would see another balloon; but it seemed like it would never happen again. Over time, I let go of that dream.
Well, about ten years later, when I was home from college for the summer, something amazing happened! On a Friday evening, I looked towards the east and saw twenty-six hot air balloons in the sky! The dream was alive again! Why? Because they were headed straight towards the farm! However, one-by-one, they started landing off in the distance. Finally, they were all out of sight, and my heart sank. But then, I saw that last balloon pop up again, and it came straight over the treetops and landed on the farm! A childhood dream had come true at last!
I found out later, that the balloon that landed on the family farm had actually first set down on my uncle’s farm, which was about a half-a-mile away; but he wouldn’t allow it to land in his precious hay field. But here’s my point. I had a childhood dream that I didn’t think would ever come true; and so, I quit dreaming. But one day, it came true and caught me unaware. This morning, we’re not going to be looking at delayed dreams. We’re going to be focusing on delayed visions, and try to discover why it might be taking so long for a vision to manifest itself.
Visions That Are From the Lord (vv. 1-3)
1 I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. 2 Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
Here, “the prophet [Habakkuk] saw himself as a watchman on the walls of Jerusalem, waiting for a message [or vision] from God that he could share with the people.”(1) The historical context of this prophecy is placed before the Babylonian exile, at around 608-598 B.C. It is an admonition to those who would one day become captive in the siege of Jerusalem, stating that when the people fell into captivity by Babylon that they should not give up hope on the vision of returning to their homeland, for the return would surely arrive at an appointed time. But, it would be difficult to maintain hope when the Babylonians would be seen thriving before their eyes.
In verse 1, we see that God will sometimes reveal His plans slowly. Habakkuk said, “I will stand my watch” (v. 1), which means that he would continue watching and waiting until he heard from the Lord. You see, we sometimes have to wait. Perhaps, it’s so we will continue relying on God; being diligent in seeking His face and being faithful in our devotion. We should “keep watch” at all times, in order to hear what the Lord will say; and we should also keep an eye out for the manifestation of what He has spoken, once we do hear from Him. If a vision is indeed from God, then it will one day become a reality, but only at His appointed time.
So, what does God ask us to do once we hear from Him? In verse 2, He says that our vision must be written down on “tablets” and displayed in public. The King James Version says, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables” (v. 2). Now, the word “tables” is not referring to a piece of furniture on which we eat our dinner. Another definition of “table” is a “written list,” as in a form that displays facts and figures. For example, we have “times-tables” to help us with our multiplication. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary says that this word refers to “boxwood tables covered with wax, on which national affairs were engraved with an iron pen, and then hung up in public, at the prophets own house, or at the temple, that those who passed might read them.”(2) It is a “writing table; that is, a tablet” – a wooden tablet or sign.(3)
God says to write it down on a wooden tablet and make our vision so plain that it may be seen by everyone. It should be as a highway sign that is so clear that even a passing runner can see it and understand it immediately.(4) The modern equivalent would be to say that it should be as visible as a billboard, so that speeding drivers going down the highway can’t miss it. We are to take note, mark it, and remember it for future reference. It might be like the college student aspiring to be a nurse. She might hang up photos of prestigious hospitals where she would like to work, in order to keep herself motivated in her studies. It’s also a declaration to her friends and family of her goals, allowing them to encourage her and hold her accountable.
But “the vision is yet for an appointed time” (v. 3), and not yet. If we feel called or compelled to do something for the Lord, and we have a desire to see that vision become a reality, it will eventually happen. But if the vision is not fulfilled immediately, we need to keep in mind that it is only delayed, not deleted. The Lord says “wait for it,” and it will come to pass in His perfect timing (v. 3). “At the end it will speak” (v. 3). When it’s time, all will be revealed. If the Lord were to show us everything right now, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. We would be so overwhelmed that we would probably die right on the spot.
When We Think We Know It All (vv. 4-5)
4 “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith. 5 Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, he gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples.”
So, keeping in context, who does this proud person represent? Commentator Warren Wiersbe says that the proud person here represents Babylon, the nation that would invade Jerusalem. He states, “The Babylonians were ‘puffed up’ with pride over their military might and their great achievements . . . but Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians aren’t the only ones puffed up with pride and self-sufficiency. This is the condition of most of the people in today’s society who belong to the world and live for the world.”(5) Being that this description of the proud person can be tied to people today, we can apply it to waiting on the Lord.
You see, the Lord wants us to wait on Him and His timing, but unfortunately there are people who are arrogant, trying to live without the Lord’s help. They feel that if God won’t reveal His plan immediately, or if He’s delayed in fulfilling a vision, that they can come up with their own plan. They believe they can figure it all out for themselves. But, they can’t! Such people are proud. That’s all there is to it! Their heart is not right with the Lord; and if we’re not careful, this same individualistic, maverick attitude could manifest itself in any one of us!
Here’s the thing. Many times we think we’re Mr. or Mrs. Know-It-All. We believe we’ve got it all figured out; and so, we go out and try to do it by ourselves. And, there isn’t anyone who’s going to stop us when we get our mind set on something! Right? But, when we do this, we start messing with God’s will, and He’s going to try to speak to us and remind us to trust Him. The thing is, we can get so caught up in our vision and trying to force it to happen, and we can become so obsessed with our own plans, that we forget who’s at the heart of the vision. We can forget who’s really in charge, and refuse to slow down and listen to what God has to say. We start listening to our own feelings instead of the Lord, but we shouldn’t do that!
No one knows our feelings better than the Lord; and no one knows our future better than He does. God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. We read in Psalm 139:1-6, “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”
If the Lord knows more about us than we do ourselves, it’s foolish to rely on our own knowledge. We need to ask God for guidance, and He wants us to ask Him. Do you know what an acronym is? It’s a word formed from the first letter of a series of words. Take the word S.C.U.B.A. for example. It stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Well, the Lord placed an acronym in the Bible. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
What’s the Lord telling us to do in Matthew 7:7? There are three key words: Ask; Seek; and Knock. The first letters of these three words form the acronym A.S.K. You see, God is telling us to “ask.” He wants us to ask Him for His help, because He is our Father and we are His children. He loves us and wants to provide for us. Immediately after telling us to ask, Jesus went on to say in Matthew 7:11, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
How the Lord Gets Our Attention
Allow me to share an illustration: One day a mother was out shopping with her son. Every time she took him shopping with her she couldn’t keep him by her side. As soon as she would turn her back, the boy would wander off somewhere, though keeping his mother in sight the entire time. She would then have to go and retrieve him. Her son had a pride problem. He was disobedient and thought he had his mother wrapped around his little finger. He was also overly confident in his own ability to venture out, and to know where his mother was at all times.
Well, again the boy departed from his mother and just assumed that she would be there. His mother then decided that she would get sneaky, and when he wasn’t looking she hid from him behind a clothes rack. When the child realized that his mother was missing, he frantically began searching for her. His mother then decided that he had had enough, and she came out from her hiding place. When the boy saw her, he dashed to her and clung to her; and from that time forward, he stayed right by his mother’s side, and never let her out of his sight again.
As in this illustration, we too can become prideful and overconfident in our own abilities, thinking we can do it all on our own (which is sin); and similar to this illustration of the mother and her son, God will hide from us. Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” The Lord will seem to stop speaking to us, or stop revealing things to us, in order to gain our attention and cause us to turn back to Him. I do need to point out, however, that it is not always God who has turned His face from us; it is we who have turned away from Him.
The Lord can’t reach us through our pride and conceit, so He may choose to humble us through disappointment or a wounded heart. In doing so, the Lord is forcing us into the wilderness of our own self to come face-to-face with our own incompetency and weakness. We read in Mark 1:12-13, “Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.” Jesus had done no wrong; but He was still driven into the wilderness where the devil tempted Him, in order to see who He would ultimately rely on for help in time of need.
What is about the wilderness that seems to beckon us? For example, Jack London wrote a book entitled The Call of the Wild. The singer John Denver said in one of his songs, “Does the call of the wild ever sing through the midst of your dreams?” In reference to animals, these writers are talking about the inherent drive that can lead a domestic creature to abandon its life among people to trek wildly in the wilderness. But what about human beings? What is it that draws “us” to the wilderness?
In Matthew 3:3, John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. According to Luke 5:16, Jesus “often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed,” and sometimes He even prayed on top of a mountain (Matthew 14:23). Psalm 55:6-7 envisions the wilderness as a place of rest, saying this: “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.” There are some spiritual benefits to the wilderness, and there is a romanticism that surrounds the idea of journeying into the wilderness. But the wilderness is not always the perfect getaway that we imagine!
Two Scripture references tell us exactly what God uses the wilderness for. Matthew 4:1 says, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,” and Luke 3:2 says, “The word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” So, what does the Lord use the wilderness for? 1.) He uses it to test us, and 2.) He uses it to reveal things to us.
The wilderness is a purging ground; a place of spiritual cleansing. The Lord will allow us to experience a wilderness of our own making; one born out of our own independent choices, where we are tested in our character. Allow me to share a quote by Cecil B. DeMille from his movie “The Ten Commandments.” He said, “Into the blistering wilderness of Shur, the man who walked with kings now walks alone . . . He is driven onward through the burning crucible of desert, where holy men and prophets are cleansed and purged for God’s great purpose. Until at last, at the end of human strength, beaten into the dust from which he came, the metal is ready for the Maker’s hand.”(6)
When we are lost in the wilderness and seeking a way home, exhausted from trying to fix everything by ourselves; if we will call out to the Lord, then He will speak to us in the wilderness. Often, it is when we are all alone that He speaks to us and reveals what we need to do, in order to get back on track; or it’s when He reveals more pieces of the puzzle. We see this in “how” and “when” Jesus spoke with His disciples. In Mark 4:34, we read, “But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” Jesus shared “all things” when they were alone; and sometimes, that’s how the Lord works in “our” life. But all of this heartache, and all of this hassle, could be avoided if we would walk by faith.
Going back to verse 5, we read that “the just shall live by his faith.” The New Testament teaches that the just shall also “receive the reward” and “see the vision fulfilled” by his faith. Listen, as I read Hebrews 10:35-38: “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” In case you missed that, the writer of Hebrews was referencing Habakkuk.
Here's the thing. It would take faith for the people of Judah to live in God’s way and to abide by His timing. It would take faith to continue hoping in the vision of returning to their homeland, and to wait for the appointed time. Warren Wiersbe says, “Faith is a lifestyle that is just the opposite of being puffed up and depending on our own resources. Habakkuk knew that difficult times were coming to the people of Judah, and their resource was to trust God’s Word and rest in His will . . . To live by faith means to believe God’s Word and obey it no matter how we feel, what we see, or what the consequences may be.”(7)
Time of Reflection
So, what have we learned from this passage? We have seen that if we have a vision to serve the Lord, that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to become impatient and try to take things into our own hands. If we do, the Lord will allow us to go our own way. He will seemingly hide His face from us, in order to hopefully draw us back unto Him, so that we will see that He is the one who is ultimately in control. If we acknowledge that He’s in charge and be patient and trust in Him, then He will once again speak to us and guide us. But, we could avoid all of this heartache by constantly keeping the vision in the forefront of our mind, and by walking in faith each step of the way.
“The just shall live by his faith” (v. 5). The same thing is true about salvation – we live eternally by our faith. You see, we often try to take matters into our own hands when it comes to eternal life. Perhaps, we try to save ourselves through good works. Wiersbe tells us, “The ‘just’ person isn’t someone who has met all of God’s requirements by means of good works, ‘For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified’ (Romans 3:20)” He says, “We cannot justify ourselves before God . . . All we can do us put saving faith in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, because that is the only way to be saved.”(8) So, in closing, my question to each of you gathered here today is this: “Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord?”(9)
NOTES
(1) Warren Wiersbe, p.1472.
(2) “Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary,” Power BibleCD (Bronson, MI: Online Publishing, Inc., 2007).
(3) Ibid.
(4) Wiersbe, p. 1473.
(5) Ibid., p. 1473.
(6) “Narrator (Cecil B. DeMille) Quotes,” MovieQuoteDB: https://www.moviequotedb.com/movies/ten-commandments-the-1956/character_10792.html (Accessed March 21, 2022).
(7) Wiersbe, p. 1473.
(8) Ibid., p. 1473.
(9) This sermon was originally written on December 24, 1994, and was preached while I was still in the ministerial program in college. This message has not been delivered since that time, until this recent revision on March 21, 2022.
