Habakkuk's Patience

We can find wisdom through Habakkuk’s posture and words to his Lord most high:

“I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint” (Habakuk 2:1)

We came to the conclusion that Habakkuk was referring to stepping out of worldly wisdom and worldly reason when he refers to the watch tower. For God calls us to look at our life with truth and wisdom, not with our reason as the primary director of our life. Even though God has justified us in his son, all of us including our reason, we are still fallen and have to make the daily decision to follow our Lord and Savior. Our nature doesn’t innately do what is right. Through Christ however we can see truth and see the right in our decisions, but it doesn’t mean we will always make the right one. In fact as Christians any decision made apart from seeking the truth in our Lord first is sin, for whatever does not proceed from faith and a firm trust in our Lord is sin. So we must seek truth and direction as the Lord would have it, by knowing Him deeply and having his Word always on our tongue.

In light of finding our direction and guidance for everything rooted in our relationship with our Lord, Habakkuk, after retreating from his own wisdom and reason to the tower, then calls us to “look out to see what he will say to me.” How weird? Do our eyes have anything to do with our ears? For Habakkuk uses the word ‘look’ to refer to hearing what the Lord will ‘say’ to him! Our eyes would not hear what the Lord would say to us. But our eyes are metaphorically used for that which we have fixed our gaze upon. Habakkuk has his gaze firmly set upon a fervent expectation of hearing the Lord answer him. He I sitting upon his tower, forsaking his own wisdom, and fixating his whole being upon the Lord’s answer. Habakkuk teaches us that patience and trust that God will answer is a must for anyone seeking a firm relationship with God. He shows us that we must be watching, eyes firmly gazing upon him, for what he might tell us, by whatever medium that might be.

Habakkuk has a true relationship with God. He watches to see what the lord will reveal to him in order that he might also ‘answer’ concerning his complaint. When we meet with someone for coffee we both talk and listen. Habakkuk teaches us that it is good to communicate with God! We must be listening for his direction by means of fixating our entire being upon him, for where our eyes are fixated our body follows. For we walk where our eyes gaze. But we also seek our part in his answer. We must communicate with our Lord. What a man of prayer Habakkuk must have been. Let us take the call to wait expectantly for a word from the Lord, and the wisdom to respond to our God with a grateful heart, whatever he might be telling us. Watch and Listen for our God communicates to us every day!