Hab 2:1 | KingComments | STEP | After Habakkuk’s second complaint it remains quiet for a while. There does not come, like the first time, an immediate answer from the LORD. That does not bring Habakkuk to despair, but he goes to stand on his guard post. He speaks of “my guard post”, by which he indicates that it is a place he personally occupies. A guard post is an elevation from where the surroundings can be searched for danger. For us this means that we must be elevated above the circumstances, close to God, so that we can see things from His perspective and understand His work. Habakkuk takes that elevated place in order to look forward expectantly to the answer God is going to give. This is the appropriate attitude when we have asked for something. Hurried as we are often, we take little or no time and make little or no effort to climb on the guard post and wait for God’s answer. But perseverance must have a perfect result. If we do not get the answer, then we keep looking forward to it. Otherwise God’s answer may come and we do not see it. Let us look up and see, as Habakkuk does. He is waiting for the dawn of a new day in which God will work. He looks forward to light in the dark circumstances in which he is. God does not so much take away our worries and difficulties, but He adds something to our lives. He brings light into our lives in the Person of the Lord Jesus. He comes in our circumstances. Then the problems do not disappear, but they will look different. We, too, have to be open to God’s voice to notice what He is going to say to us personally in connection with all the questions that His ways raise in us. And to God’s answer, in which a correction may lie, a reaction will come from our side, a reaction that God also expects. When that attitude is there, God continues speaking in . There will be more communications. It is not about a literal guard post, but about standing at a height through which someone is lifted up above earthly events and brought into connection with heaven and Him Who thrones there. Prophets are more often called guardians ( ; ; ). They must look at the unrighteousness among the people and warn of the doom that is to come. In this spirit of attentiveness, the prophet is ready to receive the answer. We must learn to wait. Our impatience counts time we have to wait as lost time. This is not the case with Habakkuk. “What He would speak to [or: in] me” means that the speaking of God to the prophet is done by an inner, not externally audible, voice. With the answer God gives him, the prophet can reply to his reproof ( ) for himself and that he can also communicate to others.

‏ Habakkuk 2:1

Habakkuk Goes to Stand on His Guard Post

After Habakkuk’s second complaint it remains quiet for a while. There does not come, like the first time, an immediate answer from the LORD. That does not bring Habakkuk to despair, but he goes to stand on his guard post. He speaks of “my guard post”, by which he indicates that it is a place he personally occupies. A guard post is an elevation from where the surroundings can be searched for danger. For us this means that we must be elevated above the circumstances, close to God, so that we can see things from His perspective and understand His work.

Habakkuk takes that elevated place in order to look forward expectantly to the answer God is going to give. This is the appropriate attitude when we have asked for something. Hurried as we are often, we take little or no time and make little or no effort to climb on the guard post and wait for God’s answer. But perseverance must have a perfect result. If we do not get the answer, then we keep looking forward to it. Otherwise God’s answer may come and we do not see it. Let us look up and see, as Habakkuk does. He is waiting for the dawn of a new day in which God will work. He looks forward to light in the dark circumstances in which he is.

God does not so much take away our worries and difficulties, but He adds something to our lives. He brings light into our lives in the Person of the Lord Jesus. He comes in our circumstances. Then the problems do not disappear, but they will look different. We, too, have to be open to God’s voice to notice what He is going to say to us personally in connection with all the questions that His ways raise in us. And to God’s answer, in which a correction may lie, a reaction will come from our side, a reaction that God also expects. When that attitude is there, God continues speaking in Hab 2:2. There will be more communications.

It is not about a literal guard post, but about standing at a height through which someone is lifted up above earthly events and brought into connection with heaven and Him Who thrones there. Prophets are more often called guardians (Isa 21:8 ; 11; Jer 6:17; Eze 3:17 ; Eze 33:2-3). They must look at the unrighteousness among the people and warn of the doom that is to come. In this spirit of attentiveness, the prophet is ready to receive the answer.

We must learn to wait. Our impatience counts time we have to wait as lost time. This is not the case with Habakkuk. “What He would speak to [or: in] me” means that the speaking of God to the prophet is done by an inner, not externally audible, voice. With the answer God gives him, the prophet can reply to his reproof (Hab 1:13-17) for himself and that he can also communicate to others.