I Thought I Had No Vision.... Part III

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Now, let’s get back to what Habakkuk 2:2-3 said in The Message Bible. We’ve chewed on the thoughts about why I think God is speaking personally to me (and you) in these verses. Let’s cut off another bite to chew on.

“And then God answered: “Write this.
    Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
    so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
    pointing to what’s coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
    And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
    It’s on its way. It will come right on time.”

If God wants me to write out what I see, I need to make time to allow Him to show me what He wants me to see. It’s looking now like we’ll be chewing on these verses for a while. It’s not that they’re like tough meat that we chew on just to get it down. But I want to enjoy chewing on this bit, I want to enjoy the morsel and savor what He’s telling us here.

Before God told us to write, this scripture tells us that God is replying to Habakkuk. What had he asked him that prompted God to give him this answer? I went back to chapter one to see what the whole conversation is about. THAT is rather eye-opening. 

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In chapter one we read,

“The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it:

God, how long do I have to cry out for help
    before you listen?
How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!”
    before you come to the rescue?
Why do you force me to look at evil,
    stare trouble in the face day after day?
Anarchy and violence break out,
    quarrels and fights all over the place.
Law and order fall to pieces.
    Justice is a joke.
The wicked have the righteous hamstrung
    and stand justice on its head.”

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Well, Habakkuk, welcome to the year 2025! That’s the same thing WE’RE asking God! Perfect.

So, let’s take a look at THEIR dialog. God’s response to him shocked me! I thought to myself, “God, I don’t want to share THAT part with people! We’re not living in Old Testament times, what does this have to do with us?” Not that history is repeating itself exactly as it happened in Old Testament days, because now we have covenant with Jesus, through the blood He shed for our redemption from sin. 

But, seriously, have people and our thoughts and actions changed all that much? Have us Christians made the impact on culture that Jesus told us to? He told us to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel (the good news of the new covenant we can have with God) to all creatures.” Have we done this? Have we reached everyone with the good news that we CAN live in love? That God WILL love and forgive through us? If we had, life as we know it would look completely different.

God’s response that I DIDN”T want to share with you here, because I felt unqualified to expound on it reads:

““Look around at the godless nations.
    Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock.
Something’s about to take place
    and you’re going to find it hard to believe.
I’m about to raise up Babylonians to punish you….”

Habakkuk 1:5-6

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God instructs Habakkuk to look at the condition the world is in around us. We think we already see the condition of the world around us. We have news on our electronic devices, it’s constantly thrown in our faces, and STILL – WE DON’T SEE IT! We see the crime and the wars and the evil that man perpetrates against man. But look behind it all, what do you see? I see a world that’s lost and going to hell – and God wants us to do our part to do something about it. Jesus suffered and went to the cross for us, because of the joy that was set before Him! He didn’t enjoy the torment man put Him through, He dreaded it. In the Garden of Gethsemane as He prepared to go to the cross, He asked His Father in heaven if He could pass on this, He pushed through and obeyed, saying, “Not my will but Yours be done.”  (Luke 22:42) He and His Father had already agreed on this plan since before mankind brought sin into the world. The JOY He saw set before Him was seeing us enjoying freedom, freedom from the rule of sin and death. His joy was in setting us free! He went through hell to give us freedom and to give us back the authority God first gave to us in the Garden of Eden, authority that Adam and Eve gave to Satan through their disobedience.

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We can have that freedom and that authority today, Jesus died to give it to us. We simply need to believe God’s Word; we just need to accept that Jesus paid the cost FOR us. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” -Romans 6:23 KJV  Jesus died in our place – for us.

After God shows us the condition of the heart of the world, we might ask Him, as Habakkuk did, “What do you want ME to do about it?”

And that’s what this is all about. I’ll continue in part four….