Habakkuk 2:2-3
And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it for vision is yet an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Man, what God is saying here is something else. The prophet Habakkuk has a complaint against God, He has a complaint like many of us might have a complaint today and he’s asking God why are the wicked prospering? Why does injustice and unrighteousness, wickedness go unpunished? Why are you quite, O God ? Why are you so quite? it’s the theme of the book of Habakkuk. This book differs from many other prophetic book, because in the book of Habakkuk the dialogue is not started by God but the prophet. If Habakkuk did not have a problem, we might not have had the book of Habakkuk. So now, we have the book of Habakkuk because the prophet had a problem with God, The prophet had a complaint with God. So the book starts on that note, The prophet has a complaint against God! And he complaints he has is that why are you delaying? Why have you done nothing? Why, O God? It’s the theme of what’s happening in Chapter 1 as I’m paraphrasing it, Chapter 2 God responds to the issues of the prophet, that’s why he(Habakkuk) says “I will stand upon my watch,… and wait what He shall say to me when I am reproved” cause he knows definitely that God has an answer, And he knows that maybe he might have been out of order so he waits to hear say to me when he’s reproved. Listen to what the LORD says to him, “Write the vision down, make plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time,… though it tarry wait for it; it shall surely come and not tarry” What a contradiction, if it tarry, wait, it will surely come, it will not tarry. This is God speaking in response to the complaint of a prophet, He says “write the vision and make it plain upon tables so that whoever reads it, can run with it”
The context is deep, a lot of thing were happening here, I don’t want to allude to them, but I wanna draw something from this text. From this text God says actually I’m gonna come, actually I’m gonna punish injustice, actually I’m gonna use a wicked nation, write this vision down, make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. Why do you need to run? Bablyon is coming. Why do you need to run? Captivity is coming? That he can run that reads it. So God is saying, I’m sending an evil nation to come and punish a righteous nation. You are complaining about injustice, God says, punishment is coming, correction is coming, so you better right this thing down and whoever reads it let him run.
So the Vision will surely come, though it tarry, wait for it. There are a number of interesting things we see from this portion of scripture, a number of interesting things. What is the first thing we see? We see something about vision, He says write the vision down, make it plain on tables, so that he can run that reads it. We learn a number of things, We learning a new testament order, that when God gives a vision, He gives it to the writer of the vision, and the person that has received the vision has to got the duty to make it plain upon tables, so a vision needs to be clear, unambiguous, specific, reachable, achievable. When you write a vision, you must be smart.
SMART
Number one, you must be Specific, when you are writing down a vision. It must be specific.
Number two, it must be Measurable.
Number three, it must be Achievable, not too lofty and doesn’t make sense, when you’re speaking in terms of cooperate governance of course, but we are now in the kingdom of God and we know that with God all things are possible.
He said write the vision down. Make it plain upon tables, that he ca run that reads it. The bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” we’ve read that in proverbs, that where there is no vision, the people perish. We learn that there is sustaining power to a vision, that vision has power to sustain things. For where there is no vision the people perish, but the contrary is also true, where there are no runners, the vision will also perish. “write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it” So the vision needs runners. When a vision from God is spoken, we need people who will run, people who are ready to run, this where we stop reading it, It says “that he may run that reads it” The vision in not just meant to be read so we can know the vision, the vision is there for a reason, so that we can run with it, and then the bible says, “his soul that is lifted up is not right in him: the just shall live by faith.”
That verse Paul quotes it three times in the new testament. Assuming that Paul is the writer of Hebrews, He quotes it in romans, He quotes it in Hebrews, He quotes it in Galatians. Three times he quotes this particular verse, that “The just shall lie by faith”. So what exactly is the vision? The just shall live by faith. Write it down, make it plain upon tables. This principle trickles down in the new testament church, in terms of the governance of the local house, we have the senior elder, we have the sent man or woman, writer of the vision. We have the beard, the eldership, leaders who reads the vision and then we have the congregation, the runners, the skirts of the garments, who are running with the vision, so when we are looking at Psalm 133, The anointing upon the head, the beard and the garment, we are seeing Habakkuk 2, The writer-The head, The reader-The beards, and the runners-The garment. So every vision needs runners.
There is something that we are running with in this local house, there is something we are running with, we are running towards a particular target, we are running trying to achieve about three hundred thousands for our future church project, and so far so good, we running towards something, meaning there are targets we ae trying to reach, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. This verse is telling us something, that it is difficult for the people of God to run with something which is not plain, to run with something which is not clear, it is difficult for the people of God to follow something when they don’t know where it is that they are going, So there is a challenge on those leading the flock of God to make it clear. So a vision can be a smart one, There are a number of specifics we are looking at. Specifics, What are the specifics ? We are looking at, if each and every person can but atleast give with two hundred rands, we are sure to reach this goal, those are the specifics of this goal. We are saying these things because there is somewhere were we are going. The bible in the book of Hebrews says, “every house is built by some man, but He that built all things is God” What is the principle ? God is the one who built all things but he uses man every house is built by some man, but He that built all things is God. Psalm 127 “Unless the Lord builds a house, they labour in vain that build it, so every house is built by some man. Nehemiah 8 “The people had a mind to build”
We don’t see the walls of Jerusalem being erected a luck, the people had a mind to build, Let this mind be in you, have a mind to build, think long term, think generations beyond us, plant tree which will never give you shade, have a mind to build, leave a legacy of faith. Participate in something that God is doing, participate in a greater thing, participate in a noble thing. This is an invitation to your participation, We require that you participate in something noble, we require that you participate in something greater than us, and we are certain that collectively we shall make an indelible mark, that collectively we shall live an indelible print, right here in our own city. Deuteronomy says “one shall chase a thousand, two shall chase, ten thousand” Just look at the power that God gives us, that even one can chase a thousand, look, under no normal circumstances one can chase a thousand, people focus on the two they miss the entire verse, it says that “unless the Lord is their rock” So there is a rock upon which we are standing and because the lord is our rock, because if we look at that verse in Deuteronomy, it’s an enigma, it’s a riddle. How can one chase a thousand? And two ten thousands, unless the lord is their rock ? So how is it possible that one person chase a thousand, So there is an ability we have from God, that because of who the Lord our rock is, we can do great things, one can chase a thousand and two ten thousand. One person can fill the shoes of thousand people, one can chase a thousand but when we are two, ten thousands. There is a compound effect, there is a multiply effect, something happens when there is unity of vision, that verse tell us about two things, divine enablement, one can chase a thousand, God enables us, but not only that it speaks about the power of the unity of the vision, two, ten thousands. Not two thousand or three thousand, ten thousand!
Brethren, if we all resolve it in our self, man, there is not telling what we can do. In the book of Genesis the bible says, “These people have one mind, they’re of one heart, they’re of one language” You see, we must speak the same things, they were of one language, there was not one speaking Chinesse, one speaking Venda, they were all of one language. One of the problems of unity is that we are not speaking the same thing, we are not saying the same things, we need to speak the same thing, Paul emphasis the same thing as well. So we need the get to a place where the language is the same, and that language is future church, that we are rallying people around one common vision, around one common assignment, and we are calling on the affections of man, to give their all to ensure that this vision becomes a reality.
So with number two hundred we being specific, but we are also trying to be inclusive but in our inclusivity it does not mean we should not exercise your strength. R200 buys strawberry frullato or Cappuccinos, you drink four before your main meal. “They wanted to build a tower that reaches the heavens and nothing shall be impossible to them because they are of one mind and God came and confused their language” There’s an important principle there, that when you want to unite people, fix their language, fix the speech. Let us speak the same thing, if we wanna unite them, cause when God brought confusion, they were scattered, Amen
Let us rally behind this vision. The main emphasis is that they may run with it. It is not enough to have a vision. you must run with it, let us run brethren. Notice it says “run” not walk or move with it, run! Take it and run. Now how many of you know that when you run, you don’t focus on people, Look at Usain Bolt, when he runs, he doesn’t look at the other sides, he focus on where he is going because of the speed. Let us run with this thing, hold it close to your heart and let us run with it.
