James Nisbet Commentary - Habakkuk 2:1 - 2:1

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James Nisbet Commentary - Habakkuk 2:1 - 2:1


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

ON THE WATCH-TOWER

‘I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.’

Hab_2:1

I. The prophet Habakkuk defines for us what the position of that man’s mind must be who would catch the deep, still messages of which everything is full—what it is to be waiting for heavenly signs.—(1) There must be an individuality and solitude; you must be, and feel, alone with God. (2) You must be found in your own proper duty, whatever it be, and in that duty faithful. (3) You must carry on your watch at a high level of thought. (4) In the watch, and on the tower, you must be patient. (5) There must be a confident anticipation that something is coming, that God is going to speak, and that God will speak.

II. There are some occasions on which we should especially wait, and when we may so calculate with an entire confidence on the speaking of God that those passages of life ought to be singled out.—(1) One is, after prayer. How many answers have been missed, simply because we did not follow our petitions with a heavenward eye, and with the calm waitings of expectant faith! Remember, when you pray, go at once from the footstool to the tower. (2) Another time, when we should watch well to see what God will say unto us, is just before we are entering upon any important duty, or work done for God, or undertaking any enterprise. (3) Afflictions are the seasons for very earnest listenings. Depend upon it, whenever a cloud rolls over you, there is a voice in that cloud.

III. Whatever else there may be in the voice, long listened for, when it comes there will certainly be three things.—God will comfort you; God will stimulate you; God will reprove you. He will comfort you that you are His child. He will stimulate you to do a child’s work. And He will reprove you, because it is a child’s portion at a faithful Father’s hand.

—
Rev. Jas. Vaughan.

Illustration

‘The prophet steadies himself, he will be quiet, he will watch and see what God will say to him in his distress (Hab_2:1). The answer comes, the wicked man, though apparently prosperous, is really a ruined man, but the righteous shall live by faith (Hab_2:2-5). Then suddenly the scene changes: Habakkuk becomes the spokesman for those nations that had suffered from the scourge of invading Chaldæans; in their name he pronounces five several woes upon them, ending with the solemn and restful words: “The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.” These woes were aimed at the characteristic sins of the Chaldæan, his cruel spoliation, his proud building of Babel-like palaces, his founding of cities filled with tyrannical misrule, his drunkenness, and his idolatry (Hab_2:6-20).’