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The opening verses of chapter 1: will give us the setting and the occasion of the
words under consideration. The setting is a period of distress, and as we read, many will
doubtless find an echo in their own experiences.
"O LORD, HOW LONG SHALL I CRY,
AND THOU WILT NOT HEAR!
EVEN CRY OUT UNTO THEE OF VIOLENCE,
AND THOU WILT NOT SAVE."
"How long?" How much agony of mind is summarized in these small words? This
was Isaiah's only answer when sent upon his awful commission (Isa. 6: 11).
We shall find, when considering the Lord's answer in chapter 2:, that this question is
dealt with. The prophet had cried, and there was no evidence that the Lord had heard; he
had cried out unto the Lord, making particular reference to "violence", and yet the Lord
had not saved. Job passed this way, for he said:--
"Behold, I cry out of wrong (see margin, `violence')
But I am not heard:
I cry aloud,
But there is no judgment" (Job 19: 7).
and we shall find that Job's remedy was Habakkuk's too. He next tells us that the
distressing condition of the times he lived in were brought prominently before his eyes by
the Lord Himself. "Why dost Thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold
oppression, for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and
contention". Chapter 2: gives the Lord's answer to the prophet's cries. Habakkuk had
prayed, but to watch and pray; this Habakkuk did. "I will stand upon my watch, and set
me upon my tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall
answer when I am reproved" (Hab. 2: 1). "And the Lord answered me" (Hab. 2: 2). The
Lord then had heard, though no sign had been given; the prophet had said "How long?"
The Lord's answer is, "The vision is 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".
Unbelief questions God's wisdom, or His faithfulness, or His love, or His power,
when placed in a position similar to Habakkuk, Faith waits. Faith is instructed to know:--
1.
There is "a time to every purpose under heaven."
2.
There will be no tarrying on the part of God when His appointed time comes, at the end
of that limitation the silence shall be broken by the God of truth, "It shall speak."
3.
The tarrying is only apparently so from our limited standpoint, "It will not tarry" must
ever be faith's watchword.
4.
Faith's attitude under the trial of unanswered cries and unchecked violence is that of
waiting, "Wait for it."
All this the Lord puts into one sentence, "Behold his soul which is lifted up is not
upright in him:
BUT THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH."