In 2015, I jumped out of an airplane.

There are plenty of people who have done more scary things than skydiving, but in my life, this was a big deal.

It all started when my brother gave his girlfriend at the time (now my sister in law) the gift of a tandem skydiving ticket, complete with a photography session and everything. What a guy.

The rest of the family heard and we all thought, “why wouldn’t we go too?”

Sure enough, all of us kids, my dad, even some family friends, all decided to suit up and give skydiving a chance.

It was an incredible experience, but I can tell you one thing without a doubt. When you are up at 10,000+ feet standing at the edge of an airplane, looking down at the clouds, you don’t tend to remember that you’re strapped to both a parachute and another person operating all of the equipment. You tend to forget that skydiving is actually less risky than most of the things we do every single day. For example, statistics support skydiving being safer than scuba diving, bicycling, canoeing, and even driving a car. Yet there’s something about standing at the edge of the airplane strapped to a random dude you don’t know that makes you feel like this leap’s going to be a big one.

We ended our study last time with Habakkuk 2:1, discussing the watchman, who was eagerly awaiting God’s response. And, sure enough, God answered. We’ll get to his answer soon enough, but as I was reading this, I thought it was interesting that He didn’t actually start with the answer. Instead, he started with the equivalent of my tandem skydiving instructor strapped to my back saying to me as I was hanging out the door of an airplane at 10,000+ feet, “It’s going to be okay, trust me.”

Let’s take a look at the passage.

Habakkuk 2:2-5

2 The Lord answered me:

Write down this vision;

Clearly inscribe it on tablets

So one may easily read it.

3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

It testifies about the end and will not lie.

Though it delays, wait for it,

Since it will certainly come and not be late.

4 Look, his ego is inflated;

He is without integrity.

But the righteous one will live by his faith.

5 Moreover, wine betrays;

An arrogant man is never at rest.

He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,

And like Death he is never satisfied.

He gathers all the nations to himself;

He collects all the peoples for himself.

I think it’s interesting that, right from the get go, God is like, “write this down” in verse 2. He not only instructs Habakkuk to write it down, but to write it down clearly, so all can hear it. God is not hiding anything from his people, and clearly Habakkuk is not the only one who needs this message. Not only do they need it at that time, but it is to be read for generations to come.

In verse 3, God is asking something that seems so simple, yet can be beyond challenging at times.

“Trust me”.

I think back to my skydiving experience. When I was at the edge of a plane at 10,000 feet, I was fully aware that I was strapped to another person. The clips and harnesses that they used were built to withstand far more force than was necessary. The dude who jumped with me had taken thousands of jumps, and he was standing at the edge waiting to guide me to a safe landing. Yet, looking at the clouds below me, none of that seemed significant anymore. I think of Habakkuk at this time, who knew the Lord and knew Him well. As we talked about in previous posts, Habakkuk knew the Lord so much that he was able to identify things that didn’t seem consistent with His character. At the time, Babylon was in power and Judah and Jerusalem were on the brink of an attack that would destroy the temple and send the nation into exile. I couldn’t imagine looking back on the promises that God had given the nation up until that point, then looking at the present circumstances that make absolutely no sense with the promises given before, and thinking that this all just makes sense. If I were in Habakkuk’s shoes, you bet I would be worried too.

“Trust me.”

God responds beautifully. He gives a vision to Habakkuk, and He lets us know that it is truthful and they are to trust it. He lets us them know that, even though they might feel it is “late” or “delayed”, He is actually sending this vision at exactly the right time.

“Trust me.”

Verse 4 is a fun little contrast thrown in there – God compares two groups of people: a righteous people who lives by his faith, compared to a prideful people who lack integrity. At the time, Babylon was powerful and their empire was huge. It would have been very easy to look at Babylon and think defeat was imminent. Yet in verse 5, it discusses how those who are prideful and arrogant can never have enough. They are greedy, never having contentment, and there’s always a need for more. We’ll discuss this later, but this pride will ultimately lead to their downfall. Difficult times were ahead for Habakkuk and these people, yet their trust in the Lord will pull them through. This brings us back to Habakkuk 1:5 – “Look at the nations and observe – be utterly astounded! For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it.”.

There’s plenty more to the book of Habakkuk and, *spoiler alert*, God pulls through for them yet again. But let’s just take a minute to consider how God’s instructions to Habakkuk and this nation are simple, yet so challenging. God tells them to reference the tablets that His words are written on and to read them. He calls them to wait for Him to act, because He will.

I think about this in today’s world, as I’m in a completely different set of circumstances than Habakkuk was. Even though the circumstances might be different, I truly think our response should be the same. Followers of God are instructed stand at the foot of their circumstances and trust. They are instructed to seek the Lord’s instructions, reference the word of God which has been given to us, and lean into the promises that God has given to us. The righteous one will live by his faith. At times, through God’s word and in prayer, we don’t really know exactly what to do. The Bible would be impossibly large if it gave guidance to every one of our circumstances. I do not think there could possibly be a thread long enough to bind the pages of an “all inclusive” book of instructions that will go through every possible circumstance in life and tell us exactly what to do. Who would really want to carry that humungous book?

In Habakkuk’s day, they didn’t have what we had today. Today, we have the Bible, which we are told is inspired by God, profitable for teaching and training, and able to equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3: 16-17). We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and our body is a temple for this Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We have a direct line through Jesus to the Father in prayer, knowing that He hears very single one of our prayers (1 John 5:14-15). We may not have a set of tablets with God’s literal words inscribed into them, yet we have God’s word, prayer, and God’s spirit literally dwelling within us so that we don’t have to blindly trust. We can stand firmly and trust in the Lord, because we can have confidence in Him and Him alone.