Habacuque 2
Leon Morris · Citado em PreceptAustin
Habacuque 2
Morris - This common saying carried two implications. First, it was to be written so large and clear that even a person hurrying by could not fail to understand. Second, it was so urgent that the reader would hasten to spread the word to others. Both should, of course, characterize our witness for God. Ronald Blue - This phrase has been mistaken by some to signify that the messenger should be able to read the tablet on the run. On the contrary, the point is that the messenger would read it and then run to spread the news to others. (Bible Knowledge Commentary) Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.: vision: Jer 27:7 Da 8:19 Da 9:24-27 Da 10:1,14 Da 11:27,35 Ac 1:7 17:26 Gal 4:2 2Th 2:6-8 but (KJV): Ex 12:41 Ps 102:13 Jer 25:12-14 Heb 10:36 Though it tarries, wait for it: 2Ki 6:33 Ps 27:14 Ps 130:5,6 Isa 30:18 La 3:25,26 Mic 7:7 Lk 2:25 Jas 5:7,8 it will certainly: Lk 18:7,8 2Pe 2:3 Habakkuk 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries NET For the message is a witness to what is decreed; it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. Even if the message is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; for it will certainly come to pass– it will not arrive late. ESV For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end--it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. NIV For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. NKJ For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. LXE (English of Septuagint) For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain (kenos - empty, without content): though He should tarry, wait for Him; for He will surely come, and will not tarry. Comment: Note how the Jewish translators of the Septuagint (Lxx) rendered this verse! They changed the impersonal pronoun IT to the personal pronoun HE. The significance of this change is discussed in more detail below. The writer of Hebrews quotes this passage and converts the "it" of Habakkuk into the "He" Who is the King of kings, Christ Jesus, Who is coming quickly (Rev 22:12) For - When you encounter this term of explanation, it is always an opportunity to pause and ponder ask 5W/H questions and one you can always ask is what is being explained. In this case for assigning the cause why the vision should be committed to writing. The answer is because its fulfilment belongs to the future. Though the time appointed by God for the fulfilment be yet future, it should be enough for your faith that God has spoken it (cp La 3:26). The vision is yet for the appointed time - When is the "appointed time?" The NET note feels that the appointed time "refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in Hab 2:6-20 will be realized." That is certainly a reasonable conclusion, but see the following discussion. Note that God knows when the appointed time will come to fruition. That truth should comfort us. The One Who is "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" (Rev 21:6) sets the "appointment" schedule of world history (Gal 4:4, cp Mk 1:15, Eph 1:10 = Messiah's First Coming) and only He knows when the final act will be played out (Mt 24:36, 37, Mk 13:32 = Messiah's Second Coming). There is a similar phrase in the prophecy in Daniel 8:19 (note) And he said, “Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation (See note on "The Final Period of Indignation"), for it pertains to the appointed time (See note on "The Appointed Time") of the end. Comment: While there is not a clear consensus on this passage in Daniel, the historical subject is clearly Antiochus Epiphanes. I interpret this evil dictator as an anti-Semitic ruler who foreshadows an even more horrible anti-Semitic ruler, the Antichrist, who will arise at the appointed time of the end. For more detail see discussion on the "time phrases" in Daniel 8. It is not unreasonable to see the appointed time in Habakkuk as referring not only to the historical defeat of Babylon (past tense), but also foreshadowing an final and complete destruction of Babylon at the end of the age (future tense). (See more discussion of this topic below) It hastens toward the goal - The word hastens (puwach/puah - 06315) is literally "puffs" or "pants" which draws a great word picture, personifying God's fulfillment as a runner racing to the finish line, the final goal! The NIV says "it speaks of the end and will not prove false." For those in Judah about to experience the terrifying Babylonian invasion and Seventy Years of Captivity, this assurance of fulfillment should have been a great comfort (which is why is recorded for all to read - Hab 2:2). Their barbaric captors would themselves in God’s appointed time suffer divine judgment! A C Gaebelein writes… we hear of the certainty of the vision. It is for the appointed time. It hastens toward the end, and "shall not lie (fail)". The prophet is commanded to wait for it, though it tarry, and then receives the assurance that it will surely come and not tarry. These are important instructions by which many a believer might profit. God has an appointed time for all His purposes and their fulfillment. He cannot be hastened, for His schedule was made before the foundation of the world. When the appointed time comes all visions will be accomplished. It hastens toward the end. That end is the end of the times of the Gentiles, which began with the rising of the Babylonians, and the first great king, Nebuchadnezzar, the golden head in the prophetic image of Daniel 2. When the end of the times of the Gentiles comes, the world-power then, final Babylon as revealed in the last Book of the Bible, will be judged and the Lord will be manifested in all His glory. The prophet’s business is, as well as that of every believer, to wait for it and not to be disturbed if there is delay, for the assurance is given that it will surely come and not tarry. And here faith can rest. It will not fail - "Fail" is Hebrew kazab which means to speak what is untrue, false and so more literally (as in the KJV) it reads "It will not lie!" Why not? Because the source of the message is the "non-lying God" (Nu 23:19a, Titus 1:2). Beloved, let us not miss the broader personal application of this statement that every single word of God's Book, the Bible, will come to pass exactly as He has declared and decreed! So wait patiently for His fulfillment. His perfect plan will happen in His perfect time. You may be suffering for Him now, but one day, He will right all wrongs. This prophecy in Habakkuk is absolute proof of that declaration. You can stake your life on it! This reminds me of the parting words of Joshua to the Israel… Now behold ("Listen Up", "Pay attention!" is the idea), today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. (Joshua 23:14) Comment: Notice that three times Joshua underscores the truth that every single word spoken by God is absolutely trustworthy! Dear follower of Christ, if you are wrestling with God like Habakkuk was in chapter 1, May the Holy Spirit take the truths of Habakkuk 2 (and the affirmation by Joshua) and literally renew your mind and transform your thinking from doubting into trusting, for the sake of the Name of Jesus. Amen. Though it tarries, wait (command in Hebrew) for it - Patience is a virtue that carries a lot of wait! Isaiah 64:4 reminds of why it is always worthwhile to wait on the Lord and His promises… For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, Neither has the eye seen a God besides Thee, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
Habacuque 2
Morris writes… Despite the Nebuchadnezzars of the world (and the Napoleons and Hitlers and other would-be world rulers), God will establish His own Kingdom on earth at His appointed time (Habakkuk 2:3). Habakkuk here repeats the promise of Isaiah 11:9 (Ed: In other words at Messiah's Second Coming He will set up His Kingdom on earth - See Millennium 2). Knowledge (03045) (yada') in Hebrew thought means more than information. Knowledge is seen in fundamentally relational terms so that to know God is to be in a right relationship with Him, with characteristics of love, trust, respect, and open communication.” Knowing involves intimacy and experience, as in the marriage relationship. So when God declares the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord He is saying that is related to the inhabitants of the world knowing God not just knowing about God. Jeremiah also pictured a knowledge of the Lord that transcended geographical borders in his announcement of the New Covenant in Jer 31:31-34. Ezekiel used the phrase "you will know that I am Jehovah" 76 times indicating that His heart was that He be known relationally, intimately. Glory (03519) (kabod) had the basic meaning to be heavy or weighty from which derives the idea of a "weighty" person, one who is honorable, impressive, worthy of respect. Kabod is used 189x in the OT and more than 50% of uses convey the figurative sense. In the OT kabod or glory is a technical term for God’s manifest presence (see Ex 16:7), often connected with the Shekinah glory cloud (Ex 16:10) and with the Ark of the Covenant. It can also be represented as a consuming fire (Ex 24:17). Glory also involves “honor” or position of power. The Glory of the LORD reveals His person and dignity, and the proper response to such a revelation is to give God honor or glory” (cp. Ex 33:18). God's glory is essentially the profound, glowing, visible, confluent expression of the attributes of Deity which bears witness to a still more profound and incomprehensible reality of His essence. In His character and essence, He is "Spirit," and thus invisible to man (Jn 4:24), but He has made Himself known to man through revelation by His many names and titles, by His attributes, by His written Word, and finally by His living Word, Jesus Christ (Jn 1:14). In the OT, God revealed His “GLORY” at Sinai (Ex 24:16, 17), in the tabernacle (Ex 40:34-38), and in the Jerusalem temple (1Ki 8:10, 11). OH GLORIOUS DAY A SURE WORD OF PROPHECY! HOW LONG GOD? WHY GOD? Habakkuk was deeply distressed by the evil and injustice that surrounded him and cried out to Jehovah Who answered in part in chapter 2 with one of the most beautiful prophecies in the Bible, a prophecy giving all of God's children the promise of a future GLORIOUS DAY when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the GLORY of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab 2:14) What a Word of Promise and Hope this prophecy from Jehovah (Hab 2:14) must have been to the heart and soul of the perplexed prophet, who had been given an oracle (Hab 1:1, 5, 6) of the fierce Chaldean's (Babylonian's) coming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, a destruction he knew would include the Holy Temple where the ("Shekinah") GLORY of God was manifest! Indeed, not many years later, the prophet Ezekiel watched in his vision of the final destruction of the Temple as "the GLORY of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been (on the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies), to the threshold of the Temple" (Ezekiel 9:3) and finally "the GLORY of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city" (Ezekiel 11:23). The Glory of God had departed the Temple. But God in the midst of wrath remembered mercy (Hab 3:2) and so He sent His GLORIOUS ONE (Jesus) Who returned to the Temple some 500 years later, John recording that "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us and we beheld His GLORY, GLORY as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (Jn 1:1, 14) "He (Jesus) came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him" (Jn 1:11). Paul added that "none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the LORD OF GLORY." (1Cor 2:8). Then Jesus "ascended far above all the heavens." (Eph 4:10) Once again the GLORY had departed. But centuries earlier God had promised Habakkuk that a GLORIOUS DAY was coming, a day when all wrongs will be made right, all evils will be perfectly vindicated (Ro 12:19, Dt 32:35), all suffering will become GLORY (2Cor 4:17, Ro 8:18), for in that GLORIOUS DAY "the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and GREAT GLORY" (Mt 24:30), the GLORIOUS DAY when all "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the GLORY of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." In light of such soul satisfying and heart encouraging truth, such "a sure word of prophecy, (we) do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the (GLORIOUS) DAY dawns and the Morning (Day) Star arises in (our) hearts." (2Peter 1:19). Until that GLORIOUS DAY, may He find us daily LOOKING for Him, our LOOKING motivating us to be LIVING for Him (enabled by His Spirit). In the meantime, may our Father grant that His Spirit enable us to pray without ceasing - "Blessed be His glorious Name forever and MAY THE WHOLE EARTH BE FILLED WITH HIS GLORY. AMEN AND AMEN." (Ps 72:19) Take a moment to praise and worship the King of GLORY (Ps 24:7-10) as you sing GLORIOUS DAY… GLORIOUS DAY See Related Resource: Glory of God As the waters cover the sea - This term of comparison (simile) gives us a clear picture of the pervasive nature of Jehovah in this great (glorious) future day. How futile for fallen men and nations to labor in vain to fill the world with their fame and power! Indeed, the day is on its way when God's glory will fill this earth, not the glory of the Chaldeans, nor any other man or nation! Maranatha, Jesus Christ! (1Cor 16:22) Isaiah records a parallel description… They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for (explaining why they will not hurt or destroy) the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 10 Then it will come about in that day that the nations (Gentiles) will resort to the root of Jesse (Messiah), Who will stand as a signal (a "Banner") for the peoples (Gentiles); And His resting place will be glorious (His glorious throne in Jerusalem). 11 Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. (Isaiah 11:9-11-note)