Habakkuk asked God a question most believers have asked, but few have stayed long enough to ask twice. “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!” (Habakkuk 1:2). He had watched violence spread unchecked, justice collapse in the courts, and heaven remain silent through all of it.
“I will stand upon my watch, 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. 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.”
Habakkuk 2:1-3, KJV
Then God answered him, and the answer was harder to bear than the silence had been. He was raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, to march through the very land Habakkuk was praying for (Habakkuk 1:6). The remedy for his nation was an invading army, and he could not reconcile that with anything he knew about the character of God. So he took the matter back a second time.
He did not walk away from the conversation. He climbed.
He set himself upon the tower to watch for God’s reply, and he went up expecting correction rather than vindication. God met him there, and what came first was not an explanation. It was something to carry: write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Plain enough to be read by a man in a hurry, and strong enough to be carried by a man who would have to wait.
Most of us keep believing long after we have stopped expecting, and the second thing is much harder to notice. We go on praying for the request after we have privately buried the hope of receiving it. Our lips keep asking; our hearts have already moved on.
We leave the tower long before we stop praying.
Habakkuk’s waiting was furnished. He had a vision, a promise, and an appointed time, and none of them came from his own optimism. Waiting in Scripture is rarely empty. It is filled with what God has already spoken.
Look again at the man who received that vision. A prophet who had complained twice, who could not reconcile God’s answer with God’s character, and who climbed the tower expecting to be reproved. God did not wait for steadier faith before He spoke.
The writer to the Hebrews reaches back to this very passage. “Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:36-37).
Obedience, then patience, then the promise. God never asks you to manufacture hope while you wait. He gives you His own word to carry until the appointed time arrives, and Hebrews reads what Habakkuk wrote down as pointing past Babylon and past his own lifetime to a Person who will not be late.
Write it down today. Take the promise you are standing on and put it into one clear sentence, with today’s date beside it. Then carry it back to the tower tomorrow morning, and the morning after that.
God gave Habakkuk a word to carry because He never meant him to wait with empty hands. He does not mean that for you either.
God never asks you to wait empty-handed.
Prayer
Father, You know the prayers I have prayed and the questions I have carried before You. Forgive me for the times I have mistaken waiting for abandonment.
Teach me to remain where Your voice can find me. Give me grace to hold fast to what You have spoken while I wait for what You have promised, and keep me at the tower until the appointed time.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s Challenge
Read these three passages prayerfully. As you read, watch for:
- Habakkuk 1:1-2:4: what does Habakkuk do after God’s answer proves harder than the silence?
- Hebrews 10:35-39: what does the writer say comes after doing the will of God?
- Psalm 130: what is the watchman waiting for, and why does he keep watching?
Then ask yourself:
- What have you stopped expecting from God while still praying about it?
What promise has God already given you to carry while you wait?
Key Takeaway
God never asks you to wait empty-handed.
Start your morning with God.
Daily Breakthrough Bread delivered to your inbox every day. Free.
Missed a day?
Browse the full Daily Breakthrough Bread archive and catch up at your own pace.
