God's Plan vs. Man's Experience

The Arrogance of Man

Habakkuk 2:1 NIV

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

Habakkuk has lined out his response to the Lord. He has manipulated God and now awaits to see the fruit of his labor. Will God relent and respond to the clever workings of his argument against God?

Man is limited. We are limited in our foresight, in our emotional maturity and in the width of our perspective. Man is limited in time. We are here for but a moment. Man is limited in scope. We have no idea what is happening beyond our limited line of sight. These limitations are present even with all of the technological advances that we have developed. As a result of these limitations, we have an inability to solve the problems that are around us. Whenever we seek to fix a problem that we see today, we create new problems that have even greater possible problems. Man can not solve his greatest problems.

We say with our lips that God is eternal, everlasting, all-knowing and yet we demand that He bends to our will, wants and desires because we know what is better.

The Grace of the Lord

Habakkuk 2:2–5 NIV

Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness— indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

God’s response to Habakkuk is “Hey, get ready to write this down, it is coming.” God’s response to Habakkuk is to show how vastly different God is from man. God’s wording puts on display his limitlessness.

Write this down for the revelations awaits an appointed time. God is the opposite of man. He has endless time. Time is a non-factor for the Lord. God has limitless scope. He hems us in behind and before.

God tells habakkuk to write this down because when he crushes the Babylonians, then the people of Israel may know that He is who He says He is and His plan for Israel would have been made full.

Habakkuk heard God’s plan and he saw nothing but destruction. God lined out His plan and all He saw was redemption and reconciliation.

It was the Israelites who had caused the gap between them and the Lord. God’s plan was to reconcile that brokenness.

Genesis 15:1–7 NIV

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

Genesis 15:12–16 NIV

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”