Habakkuk:
"I will stand at my post..."

I will watch to learn what GOD will say THROUGH me....
Then the LORD made answer: "WRITE down the vision....
INSCRIBE it on TABLETS, made for a HERALD to carry, with SPEED."

Selected from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
( http://www.terrific-tabs.com )
by John N. Todd III, M. D. (link to "About the author of this website")


The web-link to this "tablet" is: http://www.terrific-tabs.com/print_habakkuk.htm
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Habakkuk 2 (NEB) 1 I will stand at my post. I will take up my position on the watch-tower. I will watch to learn what He will say through me -- and what I shall reply when I am challenged. 2 Then the LORD made answer: "Write down the VISION -- INSCRIBE it on TABLETS.... made for a herald to carry, with speed. For there is still a VISION for the appointed time. At the DESTINED hour, it will come in breathless haste. It WILL NOT fail. If it delays.... WAIT for it.... for when it comes will be NO TIME to linger."

To me, personally, the above Biblical reference is another splendid message from God, to God's people (link).... everywhere.

Read it again.... and "parse" the words and the phrases that are stated.... then decide how YOU perceive this Biblical message to apply to you.... and to the rest of us humans.... all of us who hope that we have been included by God, among His "accepted" individuals. (See link CHOSEN by God.)

My personal feelings are as follows. I find myself, at times, wondering (and asking myself) whether or not I am "doing" what God wants and expects me to do. (Haven't we all felt that way, periodically?) Sometimes, within me, there seems to be a "lull" in spiritual attraction..... and in "attention" to God. At those times, I wonder if it is just myself, experiencing "normal" psychological variations.... or whether, indeed, God Himself has instilled these "restive" feelings into me.... perhaps as His mechanism to awaken me, or to change me.... or to re-direct me.

A basic part of my spiritual understanding is that each of God's people performs and achieves precisely what God has planned.... and that each of us "succeeds".... in the eyes of God, based on God's intention for each of us. My perception is that when we "Godspeople" sag in our zeal, or in our accomplishments in the ministry (link) which God has assigned to each of us, individually.... then God steps in, in ways that He chooses.... and allows us to have these feelings of dissatisfaction, and spiritual "malaise".... and "wondering". It is in this context that the above scripture from Habakkuk takes on especial meaning.... to me.

At certain appropriate times, we Godspeople do indeed "stand at our (assigned) posts", and "watch to learn what God will say", through us. It is at these times, I believe, that God responds to our bewilderment; and awakens us, on God's schedule.... with instructions ("visions"), and guidance, and energy.... for the duties that we are being directed to undertake. This kind of "advice" from God, in my opinion, is very personal.... and varies in intensity with one's own "spiritual maturity".... and with the intention of God that is being imposed upon us.... each of us, individually.

I feel that these sensations of encouragement, and/or discouragement.... caused by "circumstances", or by comments from friends and family, or by "advice" from preachers and churches.... may all be a part of the mechanism that God uses for changing and re-directing us. (See link: Stepping-stones, laid out by God.)

At this point, let me interject a few other scriptures that bear on this same point, about God's guiding and directing us. Read these out loud, so that you may "hear" the words of God:

Isaiah 30: 20 (NRSV) Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction -- yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more; but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And when you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left..... your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

John 3: 6 Jesus speaking: "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it; but you do not know where it comes from.... or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Proverbs 20: 24 (NRSV) ALL our STEPS are ORDERED by the LORD. How then can we understand our own ways?

Job 42: 1 (NIV) Then Job replied to the LORD: 2 "I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. 3 You (God) asked, `Who is this that obscures my counsel, without knowledge?' Surely I (Job) spoke of things I did not understand -- things too wonderful for me to know...... 5 My ears had heard of you -- but now my eyes have seen you.

Now, here below, I want to "paste" a copy of a few other personal remarks about this Habakkuk reference. These remarks were "borrowed" from another page in this website. These thoughts parallel some of the comments made above :

I strongly relate to this quotation from the "Old Testament" prophet Habakkuk. I have always enjoyed the thought of how we humans -- those of us who consider ourselves to be God's people (link) -- "stand at our posts on the watch-tower", as we await the directions we will receive from God. Many times, in our lives, as we watch and wait, we are indeed already actively serving and responding (link) to God -- even when we don't realize it.... as we touch and influence those who are placed into our lives -- and as we, ourselves, are being "re-directed". Then.... at other times, we consciously (perhaps strongly) feel ourselves to be under the immediate influence of God.... fulfilling a special "assignment", or "vision", or mission.

In addition, I enjoy, in this scripture from Habakkuk, the reference to "YOUR TABLETS" (in the Moffatt translation, shown below).... especially when I remember my naming this website.... with the DUAL intention of referring not only to my having PRESCRIBED "medicinal tablets" for my patients (when I was active in the practice of Internal Mediine).... but also to my purpose, in the writing of this website, of INSCRIBING "spiritual tablets".... which are intended to bear a message to the readers. (Naturally, I would never be so "assuming" as to refer to my personal writings as a "vision" -- the term that is used in this reference from Habakkuk.)

Furthermore, in these verses from Habakkuk, it is a fun thought for me to consider that the words (in the NEB translation, at the top of this page): "made for a herald to carry with speed", could refer (in today's world) to my use of the INTERNET as a "herald" to deliver with speed the written "tablets" of this website.... wherever these tablets may "spread".... and be read, and contemplated.


Same reference from Habakkuk 2: 1, from the "Moffatt" translation. Compare this translation with the New English Bible (NEB) translation, shown at the top of this page.

(Moffatt).... On my watch-tower I will stand at my post upon the turret, watching to see what He will say to me.... what answer He will offer to my plea. 2 Then answered the Eternal, "Take down this oracle on YOUR TABLETS, plainly, that one may read it at a glance. 3 The vision has its own appointed hour. It ripens.... it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure.... and it will NOT be late.
1/12/07