Habakkuk's second message came to him after a time of waiting, a time spent on the "watch tower" in looking and listening for guidance and light. So it is with all who wish to know God's plans; it is necessary first that they come to a realisation of man's own folly and sin, that, to quote Paul in Romans 3.12 "there is none that doeth good, no, not one" that men are held in the grip of evil powers and forces. But after there has been a time of quiet contemplation whilst this truth is sinking in there comes the assurance that things will not always be thus, that God is working to destroy the power of evil and that his judgments will certainly come upon the powers that have wrought evil. The theme of Habakkuk's second chapter is his realisation through his "watch tower" experience of the certainty of Divine retribution upon the evil forces of the world.

"I will stand upon my watch" he says, "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"(Hab.2.1)‑more properly "what I shall say concerning my plea". The first requirement of prophetic insight is watchfulness. Those words allude to the watchmen of Israel, stationed on the city walls to perceive in advance the onset of untoward happenings, the approach of travellers, or the coming of dawn. "Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth," the Lord commanded Isaiah (Isa.21.6) and in obedience to that command the watchman looked and listened "diligently with much heed". It was in consequence of his watchfulness that he saw the evidences of the downfall of great Babylon, and—abruptly changing the picture—the merging of earth's long night of sin into the morning of Millennial day. "I have set watchmen upon thy walls. O Jerusalem" says the golden tongued prophet again (Isa.62.6‑7) "which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence...till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth". It was in the inspiration of these words that Habakkuk took up his stand in patient waiting on the Lord for the answer to his "plea", the suit that he had brought before God. And it is important to note that he watched, not so much to learn what God would say "unto" him, in the words of the A.V. verse 1, but rather as in the margin, what God would say "in" him, that is, through him to others. It is the purpose of Divine revelation that it would be passed on, and the prophet who by reason of patient watching has been entrusted with a knowledge of the Divine Plan is thereby obligated to make it known to those who need that knowledge. God will speak to men "in" him.

It was not a literal watch tower upon which Habakkuk took his stand. Like Daniel a little? later, he was waiting upon God in prayer and supplication, perhaps in the silence of the desert, perhaps in the quietness of the Temple sanctuary, and because of his readiness to be the recipient of Divine Revelation, God was able to use him. "And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 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"(Hab.2.2‑3).

This is the first indication that Habakkuk's prophecy reaches beyond his own people and time, and touches the end of this Age and the beginning of the next. The prophet is bidden to write down the vision for the benefit of later readers, for its fulfilment is not wholly in his own day but is also in the "appointed time", an expression with which we are familiar in Daniel as betokening the day of Divine intervention for the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom. The message certainly did have a direct application in the prophet's own day and was without doubt delivered orally to Israel at that time, but the writing down was equally evidently for the benefit of a future generation. "Now go" says the Lord to Isaiah (Isa.30.8 KJV margin) "write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the latter day…". In these few words of God to Habakkuk we have evidence that a substantial part at least of the subsequent message is intended to apply to the day when God rises up to overthrow evil, and this conviction is heightened by the expression, later in the second chapter, to the effect that the earth is to be filled with Divine glory just as the waters fill the sea. That will not be fulfilled until the Kingdom is established.

The phrase "that he may run that readeth it" has to do with the ease or rapidity with which the enquirer may read that which has been written. Rotherham has it "that one may swiftly read it" and Leeser "that everyone may read it fluently". The "tables" (luach) were clay tablets, used in Babylonia for writing material. The soft clay, inscribed, by means of a stylus, with characters known as "cuneiform" (arrow-shaped) was baked until hard, and was thereby rendered practically indestructible. It may not have been without design that Habakkuk was told to write on "luach", imperishable tablets, instead of "sepher", the usual Hebrew term for book; for "sepher" in Habakkuk's day referred to parchments written with ink, and perishable. No such parchments have survived to our day, whereas plenty of clay tablets have been recovered. Perhaps this is an indication that Habakkuk's message was, as it were, to be preserved in permanent form, for God had purposed that nearly three thousand years after he had uttered it, there would be readers waiting to "read it fluently".

In verse 3 the prophet is warned that there will be misunderstanding and disappointment over the apparent non‑fulfilment of the prophecy. "The vision is yet for an appointed time." The term is the same as that used in Daniel; "at the time appointed the end shall be" (Daniel 8.19). Further occurrences in the Old Testament indicate that a definite, preordained point of time is meant. Daniel was told several times that the full understanding of the vision could come only at the "time of the end", the time appointed for its fulfilment, and he was counselled to rest in patience for that day. This is the message to Habakkuk also: The two occurrences of "tarry" in verse 3 are two different Hebrew words, each having a distinct significance. The first means to linger or delay in coming, and the second to stay behind as though never to come. Thus the phrase is better rendered "though it linger, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not fail to come". To many in past days the vision has appeared to linger; the word comes to them as it did to those Israelites who complained in the

days of Ezekiel that the days were prolonged and every vision had failed (Ezek.12.22‑23) "thus saith the Lord GOD;...the days are at hand, and the effect of every vision". So it is in these days when the Kingdom is imminent: for the message of the hour is "though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come".

The first clause of verse 4 "his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him" is rather obscure. It breaks the sense of the passage. There is a suggestion that it refers to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian invaders, contrasting him with Habakkuk, the just man who is living by his faith. The Septuagint gives a different thought altogether, one that is more in harmony with the context, and the fact that it is the Septuagint that is quoted by the writer to the Hebrews in Heb.10.37‑38 gives this rendering an added authority. *It runs "though he should tarry, wait for him; for he will surely come, and will not tarry. If he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him; but the just shall live by faith in me. But the arrogant man and the scorner, the boastful man, shall not finish anything.," etc. Here, surely is a picture of the man who, because the vision has apparently "tarried", draws back and walks no more with him (John 6.66), and on account of that failure God no longer has "pleasure" in him. The just man, the one who does not lose faith, goes onward and into life because of that faith and in the strength of that faith. It is his faith in the unseen things that sustains him when there is nothing seen that can give confidence. This understanding of the text is the one adopted in the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, a passage so stirring in its exhortation and so adaptable to this present time in which we live, a time when the vision has apparently tarried and yet is now about to be fulfilled, as to deserve quoting in full:

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have donethe will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." (Heb.10.35‑39)

Those words are redolent of supreme confidence, a confidence so well founded, so unshakeable that it stands in the New Testament as does the prophecy of Habakkuk in the Old, a beacon light shining to dispel the shades of doubt. The hope of the Messianic Age, when Messiah would reign as King over redeemed Israel and through them enlighten the nations, was the hope of every Israelite in the centuries between Habakkuk and Christ, and led many to be "in expectation" at the time of the First Advent. That hope was not fulfilled just as they expected. "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" asked the disciples with rapidly fading hope as they realised that He was about to ascend to heaven and leave them (Acts 1.6). The hope of the Millennial Age, when Christ would reign over all the earth, and through his glorified Church in the heavens as well through restored and purified Israel on earth, not only enlighten but convert and reconcile to God "whosoever will" (Rev.22.17) of all nations was the hope of every member of the early Church from Apostolic times up to the close of the third century. But "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick:" (Prov.13.12) and when the failure of their chronological understanding in the fourth and fifth centuries revealed that the longed for earthly Kingdom was not yet to be, there were many who did cast away their confidence. Although they had "done the will of God" they were not able to wait with patience for the fulfilment of the promise. So it was that the churches of that day began to listen ever more closely to men who belittled the glorious promise of an earthly restitution of all things, men who made light of the Divine calling of this Age to Christian discipleship in preparation for the administrative and missionary work of the next, and degraded the teaching of Jesus to an impassioned exhortation to "flee from the wrath to come". Their highest conception of Christian teaching was a call to escape the terrors of hell and achieve the blessings of heaven, a purely personal salvation.

Today we have come back to the apostolic principles and we know that God is, in this Age, setting a premium upon faith. His purpose stands firm, his promise is sure, and in his own due time this earth will be filled with his glory. It is our part as disciples to hold fast to that conviction and wait in quiet assurance that the tarrying One will surely come. And by that faith men shall live.

The Apostle Paul in the first chapter of Romans shows the intimate connection between faith and the revelation of God's righteousness, and quotes Habakkuk's words to support his argument. The revelation of that righteousness, he says, is "out of" faith, in consequence of faith, and it is "in order to" faith, it leads on to further faith (Rom.1.17) "as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith'". The epistle to the Romans is a progressive enlargement of this dominant theme; THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH! Abraham was justified by faith (Rom.4.3) and so are we, if we believe (4.24). By this avenue we come to a condition of freedom from condemnation and acceptance with God (5.2) leading on by full surrender to Christ, to baptism into his death and a rising to walk with him in newness of life (Chap.6). So the fleshly mind passes away and the spiritual mind takes control and we are joined forever to the company of Christ's brethren (chap.8). From that position Paul goes on to show that Israel after the flesh must also tread the same path, leading to full acceptance with God, and in their turn live, by faith (chap.9 to 11). So comes that great crisis in the outworking of God's Plan when "all Israel" has been saved through faith, and is ready to embark upon its pre‑destined mission of enlightening the nations, who in their turn, during the Millennial Age, are also to be saved through faith. And it is precisely that climax in the affairs of Israel to which Habakkuk's prophecy also points. Where Paul perceived the culmination by means of theological reasoning, his predecessor saw it in prophetic vision.

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Now even at this point Habakkuk was not quite ready to have the vision of the future revealed to him. God must now acquaint his mind with the inflexibility of Divine judgment upon evil. What a man soweth, that shall he reap. Consequently the remainder of chapter 2 is taken up by a "song of taunting", to use the Hebrew expression, in which the sin of Babylon and the corresponding retribution is set out in five‑fold form. That is the theme of our next instalment; and after that comes the great prophecy of the Last Days

AOH