ACTIVE LISTENING
Opening Prayer
Loving Father, wherever you lead me today, help me to follow with discernment, love, and conviction – determined to bring you glory each moment.
Read HABAKKUK 2
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
2 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.[a]
The Lord’s Answer
2 Then the Lord replied:
“Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald[b] may run with it.
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it[c] will certainly come
and will not delay.
4 “See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness[d]—
5 indeed, wine betrays him;
he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
and takes captive all the peoples.
6 “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,
“‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
How long must this go on?’
7 Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
Then you will become their prey.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
the peoples who are left will plunder you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
9 “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
setting his nest on high
to escape the clutches of ruin!
10 You have plotted the ruin of many peoples,
shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
11 The stones of the wall will cry out,
and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.
12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
and establishes a town by injustice!
13 Has not the Lord Almighty determined
that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors,
pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed[e]!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.
17 The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
18 “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman?
Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
he makes idols that cannot speak.
19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it.”
20 The Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 2:1 Or and what to answer when I am rebuked
- Habakkuk 2:2 Or so that whoever reads it
- Habakkuk 2:3 Or Though he linger, wait for him; / he
- Habakkuk 2:4 Or faith
- Habakkuk 2:16 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls, Aquila, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Septuagint) and stagger
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘I enter your house; here I am, prostrate in your inner sanctum, waiting for directions to get me safely through enemy lines.’1
In a watchtower high on the city wall, sentinels of old stood day and night, alert to signs of danger. Stationed on the spiritual ramparts, Habakkuk gazes God-ward, alert for hints of hope (v. 1).
In Habakkuk 1, God’s scales of justice seemed imbalanced; in Habakkuk 2, God’s clock seems to be running slow! In God’s economy, however, justice delayed does not mean justice denied. God’s appointed time may ‘linger,’ but it will not ‘delay’ (v. 3). The apparent delay does not signify indifference to human suffering or inability to save but stems from God’s long-suffering love that does not want anyone to perish.2 God’s message encourages those who pursue righteousness to remain faithful (v. 4) but contains grim warnings to all who persist in unrighteousness. The mighty Babylonians, despite being God’s instrument of judgment, would not escape punishment. The five ‘woe’s (vv. 6–19) are chilling reminders that ‘Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.’3 God’s patience is not weakness, but strength under control; his grace is never a license to sin but always a gracious invitation to repent. The command to ‘Write down the revelation’ (v. 2) shows that this message is not just for Habakkuk’s time but for all people and all times.
The chapter began with the prophet waiting for God to break the silence and provide some answers (v. 1); it concludes with a call to humanity to fall silent before the Lord (v. 20). Only a heavenly perspective can help us make sense of events on Earth; only as we give God his rightful place are we enabled to discern his design and decipher his directions.
Apply
‘How often God’s answers come, and find us gone!’4 Are you, like Habakkuk, confident that God will respond to prayer? Are you committed to keep on actively listening for God?
Closing prayer
Help me come to you with a heart that is persistent, Father, to listen to you with a heart that is open. Help me to wait for you with a heart that is patient and expectant.
1 Ps 5:7, 8, The Message 2 2 Pet 3:9 3 HW Longfellow, ‘Retribution’, 1846 4 Meyer, quoted by David Guzik, blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide2017-Hab/Hab-1.cfm
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