Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 175 · June 24
Write The Vision
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”
God answered a prophet's complaint by telling him to get a pen.
Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Cut it deep enough that a man passing at speed can take it in. And the instruction comes with a warning about the wait: 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.
Praise him for the whole of that. He answers. He has the answer published where anyone can read it going past instead of leaving one man holding it. He fixes a time, and the time is his. He tells the truth about the delay in advance.
At the centre of the answer sits the line the rest of the Bible keeps picking up: the just shall live by his faith. The word behind faith is a steadiness word, the sort of thing a weight hangs from. Romans quotes it. Galatians quotes it. Hebrews quotes it and prints the half we skip: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
And the chapter is not finished praising. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. That is the end of it: everything, everywhere, saturated, with no dry part left. It closes on a hush. But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
The tables are still standing where he put them. Go and read what is cut into them at whatever speed you happen to be moving.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 175 is Righteousness and Judgment (Psalm 103:6).