The Wait of Repetition

I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

And the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads 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. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright within him; but the just shall live by his faith”. – Habakkuk 2:1-4

Fuzzy, ephemeral mental images sometimes lose their glow when they have to be organized into coherent sentences and reduced to combinations of twenty-six letters, ten digits, and a handful of symbols -- I like my dashes. When you climb the tower and gaze out to the horizon, much is in view but not all is focused and clear. The unevenness of the ground may hide something of importance even from the watchtower; we may lose perspective, not realize the immensity of what we see, imagining it to be closer to us than it is in reality. Prophecy is a tricky business.

Walking in the Spirit is a matter of careful balance. As John said in his first epistle, we do not know exactly what we will be, but we know when Christ appears to us we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is. We cannot get ahead of the revelation -- though it tarry, wait for it. How often we act in the manner of Abraham, knowing that something must come to pass, we seek a shortcut and produce Ishmael instead of Isaac.

Every vision has its appointed time. All we can do is ready ourselves, cultivating purity, prayer, and patience. We have eternal life, the life of Christ now through faith in Him, but it may not be in full bloom – for each of us the time and season varies when we produce the broad, open, glorious flower of the saint, when our lives unfold in all of the shocking, rich beauty they possess in potential. Though it tarry, wait for it.

It will surely come. It is impossible for God to fail or deceive. He is not a trickster, giving you something evil because you did not word your request precisely enough. Rest upon the word of God, upon His promises. Notice that the sentence opens encouraging us to wait even if it tarries then closes telling us that it will not tarry. It will not tarry beyond its appointed time, and that timing is never wrong, never too late, and never too early. I have many times wished God operated ahead of schedule and delivered what we need early, but He does not. He always gets it to us precisely when it is needed, when it is most effective in carrying us to the summit, lifting us out of the pit, or transforming us.

There is no room in faith for pride or self-exaltation. No one who is living by faith should ever say, “Look how great is my faith and what it has accomplished.” We are reminded again that all virtue lies not in the one who believes but in the One who is believed in. Even our trust does not “earn” the grace or favor of God. Trust is the child of humility.

If the Lord says something once it is important. How much more if He repeats it as He does Habakkuk’s cry: the just shall live by his faith. It echoes word for word in Romans 1:17, in Galatians 3:11, and in Hebrews 10:38. John 3:36 says: He that believes in the Son has everlasting life. In First John 5:4 we read: This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

Believe, and live.