Waiting for an Answer
Habakkuk 1:12–2:1
I will take my stand at my watchpost. Habakkuk 2:1

Habakkuk has gone as far in his reasoning as he can. Now he needs to know more if he is to make progress. So he waits to see what God will say to him.

This is worth looking at in detail, for it answers the question: How do we leave a problem with God? What should our frame of mind be?

First, we should detach ourselves from the problem. Habakkuk suggests this when he says he will go to a watchtower. A tower is something set apart from or detached from the common press of life. So Habakkuk is saying, “I have been down in the valley with my problem and have not been able to solve it. Now I am going to draw apart for a while and leave it with God. I am going to detach myself from the difficulty.”

Second, we should expect God’s answer. Just because we have left something with God and have ceased worrying about it does not mean that we should forget about it entirely. Here again Habakkuk’s image of the watchtower is helpful. The tower is detached from the crowds of people below, but the person who enters it does so in order to keep an eye on the landscape. He has work to do, and that work is to watch to see what will happen. Habakkuk says that he “will stand at” his watch and “look to see” what God will say to him.

How do we look for God’s answer? How does God speak? The primary way is through Scripture. Sometimes God directs us by what used to be called “intimations,” deep personal feelings concerning the way we should go. He frequently directs us by what we call “open or closed doors.” That is, God provides an opportunity for service or takes it away. Still, the primary way of knowing God’s direction or answer to our perplexities is through Scripture. Anyone who has made a habit of reading the Word of God regularly knows how that happens. We have a problem, have been unable to solve it, and have left it with God. It may be that we have even forgotten about it temporarily. But one day we are reading a passage of the Bible and suddenly a verse leaps out at us and we recognize at once that it contains the solution to what has troubled us. It is God’s answer to the problem we previously left with him.

The final point is that we should be persistent in our expectation. Habakkuk also implies this by his image. He says that he is going to stay in his watchtower until God answers his question. God likes that kind of tenacity. I think that is the kind of persevering attitude God honors.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.