For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
Visions
He whom men style a visionary has for the most part little or no honour among them. But no one can help having visions unless he be devoid of imagination. A vision is an inward view, an image, or series of images, broader, larger, grander, deeper than aught that the bodily eye can see; it is evoked by some outward sign, on which a spiritual force acts. Visions may come from God; they may bring men near to God. There are day visions. It was to be a sign of the latter days, that in them there should be second sight far into hidden things. And a life without visions is not that which an imaginative and sympathetic man or woman would care to live. There are false visions and true; some that never come, and some that will come, and truly. The false visions are those which have this world for their boundary, and the things of this world for their substance. They generally relate to self: to one’s own aggrandisement, to one’s own enjoyment, or to the gratification of some desire of the natural heart. There is a great variety in them, even at that rate. It is sometimes the will of God that men should get the discipline they need, and without which they would be lost for ever, by making the pilgrimage of life with visions before them which for ever fly pursuit. Turn from visions that fade to one which does not fade. That vision is supernatural; it is pure vision, for it is seen by faith, and by faith only. What is that vision of these latter days? Jesus came to earth, lived, disappeared. But with that departure came a vision such as never mortals beheld before. The vision of a ransomed and purified race of men and women; of the destruction of all that is false, and the setting straight all that is wrong; of perfect truth, and a clear view thereof. Then never lose faith, never fear. God’s light will grow brighter and stronger every year as you fight off the powers of darkness and hold faster to Him, and at last you shall see what made the light of your life, and you shall find all truth and all knowledge and full reward in the beatific vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (Morgan Dix.)
Though it tarry, wait for it.
Waiting on God
In these words we have something supposed, and duty prescribed. “Though it tarry.” This implies some degree of impatience, which may be due either to unbelief or strength of desire. “Wait for it.” The vision is at present hid in the Divine purposes, but will at length break forth and be revealed.
I. Inquire what is implied in “waiting.”
1. A firm persuasion of the being and reality of what God has promised. Faith makes unseen things visible, and future things present; and as to things of a spiritual nature, it so demonstrates their excellency as to engage us to choose and give them the preference to all other things, while it excites strong desires after them. Faith therefore enters into the very essence of the duty here enjoined.
2. The deepest humility, joined with reverence and love. In order rightly to wait upon God we must have high apprehensions of Him and low apprehensions of ourselves. The waiting soul is sensible of its own dependence on the Divine all-sufficiency.
3. Fervent and continued desire. For these two are joined together in Isaiah 26:8. Waiting will cease when desire fails; but when everything else in a Christian seems to be gone, this remains. Waiting upon God is opposed to a stupid and lethargic frame of spirit.
4. Patience must be exercised in waiting. Not despairing patience. Not merely natural patience. A truly Christian patience, whereby we bear without murmuring the greatest afflictions, and are not totally discouraged by the longest delays. A patient spirit is neither timorous and distrustful on the one hand, nor rash and hasty on the other. For an apostolic similitude, see James 5:7-8. We expect from God; we must not prescribe to Him.
5. Fixedness and stability, in opposition to a fluctuating and unstable temper of mind; constancy and resolution, in opposition to fickleness and levity. The prophet calls it “standing upon a watch-tower.”
6. Diligence and constancy, in opposition to sloth and weariness. Waiting upon God does not imply indolence, but activity; not neglect of the means, but diligent use of them. Diligence without dependence is the greatest folly; and dependence without diligence is no better than presumption.
II. The reasonableness of the exhortation. Consider--
1. We are but servants; and what should servants do but wait?
2. What God has promised must be worth waiting for. Surely those put a great slight upon the promised blessings who will not earnestly seek and patiently wait for them.
3. God has long waited upon us. He has had great patience with us, and shall we not patiently wait for His mercy?
4. It is one end for which God bestows His grace upon us, that we might be able and willing to wait. It is this which calms the boisterous passions and stills the tumult of the soul.
5. God seldom performs His promises or answers our expectations till we are brought to this state of mind. When we are submissive in the want of blessings we are most likely to enjoy them; whereas fretfulness and discontent will provoke God to withhold them. When we contend with Him, He will contend with us; but when we resign ourselves up to His will, He will gratify us in our wishes.
6. The sweetness of blessings is generally proportioned to the time we have waited for them, and the longer they have tarried the more welcome they are when they come. Learn from hence that when grace has reached the heart there is still much for the Christian to do. Our present state is oftentimes a state of sore and pressing want, and always of imperfect enjoyment; and therefore we should wait, and our waiting should be accompanied with cheerfulness; and to secure this we should regard promises more than appearances. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
A three-fold tarrying
Three different Hebrew words are in English rendered by the one word “tarry.” One means, to tarry for a reason, because constrained to do so by some rational necessity exterior to the actor. One signifies to tarry for shame, to remain in a place because ashamed to leave it. One word has in it the idea of choice, and means to remain behind willingly. Illustrate by Genesis 24:56; Deuteronomy 7:10; Genesis 19:16. Habakkuk is speaking of the second advent of Christ. To the yearning inquiry of the Church, spiritually heard by the prophet, “Lord, when wilt Thou come in Thy glory?” the answer comes--“The time for His coming is appointed, though He tarry for some reason”; such reasons there are in the conditions of this wicked world which delay His coming; still, wait for Him; because it (He) will surely come; it (He) will not tarry freely, willingly, upon His own account, of His own arbitrary choice. (Alex. Mrywwitz, A. M.)
God’s delays
There is nothing so painful or mysterious in the experience of the children of God as the Lord’s frequently long delay in coming to their help in answer to their cry. This experience is not only painful in itself, but it often implies much spiritual conflict. It tends to shake faith to its foundations. Yet this is often God’s way. And since it is His way, our first source of comfort under this trial is--
1. To be still, and know that He is God. In all extremities we must fall back upon this, the sovereignty of God.
2. However dark be our path, we have no reason to doubt His love.
3. We can sometimes discern reasons why the Lord delays His coming. The expression, “the fulness of time,” reveals to us much of the secret of God’s delays. The waiting time is usually a time of growth. The suppliant sees things very differently at the close of his struggle from what he did at the outset; and the blessing so ardently sought becomes now a real blessing from his being thus prepared to receive it.
4. It will follow from this that when our prayers are offered up for blessings for others they too, at that time, may be unfitted to receive them.
5. As it is with human souls, who cannot, without a miracle, be in a moment transformed from childhood to maturity, there must be in all mental and spiritual processes, first, the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. So it is with the constitution of things. Sometimes before prayer can be answered many things must happen. (Evangelical Advocate.)
The Divine slowness
This word is the one word which the Divine wisdom often seems to utter in rebuke of human impatience. God is never in haste.
I. The Divine proceedings are slow.
1. The history of the earth illustrates this principle. Creation was the work of long eras.
2. There is something in the movement of the seasons tending to remind us of this great law. How silently and slowly winter retires before spring, and spring gives place to summer and autumn. To the Divine mind that orders it all there is a majesty in slowness.
3. The history of all life conveys the same lesson. Life, whether in plants or animals, is everywhere a growth; and all growth is silent, gradual,--so gradual as not to be perceived. The education of an individual is slow; the education of a people must be very slow.
II. Guard against impatience in judging the ways of God, and know how to wait. Religion, revealed religion, includes much in harmony with these facts of nature and providence.
1. Note the long interval which was to pass between the promise of a Saviour and His advent.
2. So, when the Saviour did come, the manner of His coming was not such as the thoughts of men would have anticipated. The kingdom of heaven was to come without observation.
3. It is not without mystery to many minds that the history of revealed religion since the advent should have been such as it has been. We might have anticipated that the doctrine of Christ would be retained in its purity, and that its subduing power would be everywhere felt. But on reflection we find analogy suggesting that this was by no means probable.
4. If we descend from the general life of the Church to the spiritual history of the individual believer, we may find much there to remind us that the experience of the Church at large, and the Christian taken separately, are regulated by the same intelligence. With regard to much of our Personal history, we are expected to wait for the revelations of God. (Robert Vaughan, D. D.)