Write The Vision

God answered a prophet's complaint by telling him to write.

Habakkuk had gone up to his watchtower to see what God would say to him, and this was the answer: "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Tables are tablets. The message was to be written so plainly that someone hurrying past could read it on the run. The command also came with a warning about waiting: "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 all of that. He answers. He puts His answer where anyone passing can read it, instead of leaving one man to hold it alone. He sets the time, and the time belongs to Him. And He tells the truth about the delay before it comes.

At the centre of the answer is the line the rest of the Bible keeps coming back to: "the just shall live by his faith." The Hebrew word behind faith speaks of steadiness, like something firm enough to hang a weight on. Romans quotes this line, and so does Galatians. Hebrews quotes it too, from the Greek form of Habakkuk, and keeps a line we tend to skip: "but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."

The chapter keeps on praising: "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." That is where everything is heading, with the whole earth soaked through with the knowledge of God and no dry place left. Then the chapter closes in a hush: "But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."

The vision is still written plainly for you. Read it at whatever speed your life is moving, and live by it steadily, because what God has promised will surely come.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 175 is Righteousness and Judgment (Psalm 103:6).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two