When the Waiting Comes
Habakkuk 2:1-20
1
I will take my stand at my watchpost 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.
The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith
2 And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
3 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.
4
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not
upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
5
“Moreover,
wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as
wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all
nations and collects as his own all peoples.”
Woe to the Chaldeans
6Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and
riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his
own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!”
7Will not your
debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be spoil for them.
8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the
peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
9
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to
be safe from the reach of harm!
10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
11For the stone will cry out from the wall, and
the beam from the woodwork respond.
12
“Woe to him who builds a town
with blood and founds a city on iniquity!
13Behold, is it not from the Lord
of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves
for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory
of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
15
“Woe to him who makes his
neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in
order to gaze at their nakedness!
16You will have your fill of shame
instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup
in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will
come upon your glory!
17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm
you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood
of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.
18
“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a
teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes
speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a
silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and
silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the Lord is in his holy
temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” ESV
Main Idea: God is at work even in our waiting.
1. We wait with ________________ and _________________.
2. God _____________ about what we ___________________.
a. He was _____________ _____________, ______________, and
___________________. (Matthew 27:28-31)
b. He drank the ____________ ____________ of _________
_____________ in our place (Matthew 26:42)
c. He endured ________ _________, _______________ its
_________________. (Hebrews 12:2)
d. He _______________ himself of his ______________ for us.
(Philippians 2:7)
3. God is in ____________, and He asks us to ___________ in His
_______________.
Romans 12:19
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for
it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ESV
Romans 3:9–12
No One Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have
already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is
written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one
seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become
worthless; no one does good, not even one.” ESV
