Read Habakkuk 2:1-5.
For many centuries, we humans have built fortresses (or ramparts, or watchtowers, or whatever else your version says) with the anticipation that there is something beyond them that we must keep watch for. As Habakkuk takes his post and keeps watch for God’s answer to him, he is looking out not only with the hope that God will answer, but the defiant expectation that They will; to borrow from Dr. William P. Brown’s commentary, Habakkuk is “dar[ing] God to be God.”1 And in the words that follow, this dare is not only acknowledged by God, but rewarded. They say to Habakkuk about Their message: “If it delays, wait for it; for it is surely coming; it will not be late,” and They say the same to us today. As the greedy and arrogant continue to gather all that they can to themselves, this is the promise God offers to us: our watch will not be in vain. The answer has come in the form of Jesus. The answer comes everyday in the work we do to care for our siblings and our home here on earth. And the answer will come again.
Pray
Loving God, we give thanks for the promises You have made to us, the promises that You are still keeping, even when it feels like we stand on less-than-steady ground. Help us to not grow discouraged in our waiting and watching; open our eyes to the work there is for us to do where we are. We pray all this and more in the name of Your Son, the Living Word. Amen.
Feagin Hardy Student, UKirk Ole Miss