November 2017
Habbakuk had many questions to ask God. How will he
approach God? How could he know the mind of God?
Habbakuk made some special efforts to get close to God.
Let's see the setting in which Habbakuk wrote. “I
will stand at my watch and set myself on the rampart, and
watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will
answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me
and said: 'Write the Vision and make it plain on tablets, so
that he may run who reads it'” (Hab 2:1,2). “Watch”
literally means to look and wait expectantly, mentally
alert, in anticipation. Habbakuk was standing still, lest he
miss anything. He climbed up the rampart or tower in an
attempt to be on higher grounds where he could listen to
God clearly, undisturbed.
Another window opens into a writer's life in Psalm
45. It is a prophetic psalm about the Lord Jesus Christ and
His bride, the church. The writer received the theme in his
heart. “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I
recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is
the pen of a ready writer” (v1). He knew it was a message
for the Lord, because when the thought or the theme
sparked in his heart, his heart was stirred. An anointed
writer will experience this 'heart-stirring' before he writes.
It is an unexplainable feeling, a feeling of your heart
jumping in your chest case. The NKJV calls the
experience as an 'overflowing.' The writer could not keep
it to himself. He started singing it to the King of kings and
then for the sake of the future generations, put it down on
paper. He had his 'writing kit at his side' so that he could
quickly note down his thoughts before they faded away
from his memory (Eze 9:11). “Moses then wrote down
everything the Lord had said” (Ex 24:4).
Why Write?: Till the time of Moses, human history
was passed on from generation to generation through
word-of-mouth transmission. It was Moses who first
wrote down in all accuracy, the history from creation. If
today we have to depend on what somebody teaches us
from what he heard from someone about Creation, Kings,
Prophets, life of Christ and the Apostles' teachings, just
imagine the utter chaos we'll be in! Today it is all in black
and white giving no place to dispute. Memory canno t
replace records.
A writer who has dedicated himself to reveal God's
mind to people must live close to God. He must have a
dedicated mind. He must “stand” before God, alert, and
not be at ease, casually listening to God, half-heartedly.
His ears must be cocked to hear God and not let any word
drop out of his concentration. He waits for God's message
for 'him.' It is not some message he writes. He writes down
the message that God personally entrusts to him. 'The
Word of the Lord' must come to the writer, or else he will
feel empty. He may keep getting heart-sparks like blips on
a video screen, now and then as he is eating or lolling, as
he is reading or in travel. He immediately jots them down
or else they may drop off his brain.
Moses' writing was put to immediate use. “Keep
this book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it
day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything
written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful”
(Josh 1:8). What would Joshua have done without this
ready reference? When Joshua wanted to build an altar, he
quickly turned the pages of Moses (Josh 8:31). Now do
you understand why God urged Moses to write? Jesus
used Scripture to defeat the devil (Mt 4:4). It was useful
for the Jews to recognize John the Baptist and Jesus when
they arrived on the scene (Mt 11:10; Jn 1:45). If not
written, how would they have recognized them? Moses
set the example, emphasizing the importance of writing
500th Issue
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