Episode 5: Yes, But Wait (2:2-5)
We’re discussing the heartbeat of the Christian faith over tea and a biscuit in this episode.
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How do these verses help us understand the whats, whens and whys of God in action?
If you have time, look at Romans 1, Galatians 3 and Hebrews 10 to see 2:4 quoted in the NT. How can we, this side of the cross, be encouraged and have hope through what is being said in 2:4?
How does understanding these verses impact our willingness to wait on God for justice and for mercy?
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Sarah: This podcast is sponsored by 10ofthose.com. 10ofthose handpick, the best Christian books that point to genius and sell them at discounted prices. Check them out after the episode at 10ofthose.com. Hello, everyone.
Felicity: Welcome to word fuelled hearts. I'm Felicity and I'm in the USA. And this is Sarah.
Sarah: Hi.
Felicity: And she's in the UK. And I mean, I'm going to cut the small chat and just I have to tell you what I'm holding in my hand at the moment. I have a biscuit triumph. In my hand. I have a cup of old Gray, actually, but next to it, I have a chocolate hobnob.
Sarah: Where did you get that from? You've been longing for one of these. Where did you get it from?
Felicity: So good. Some very kind friends sent us a box of Joy and a centerpiece to the Joy. It's a chocolate hobnob for our American friends. Sarah, do you want to just kind of have a go at describing a hobnob for American biscuits?
Sarah: Yeah, it is a great biscuit, it has to be said. It's definitely in my top ten. Only your top ten? I know. It's like an oat biscuit. It's made of oats in it. Oats and sugar, probably, and it's got a nice layer. Have you gone for the milk chocolate variety? Oh, yes, milk chocolate layer on top. It's good, it's round. It's just what you want with your cup of tea, really, isn't it? I think I've got a strong contender today. I have gone for the Jammy Dodger.
Felicity: Oh, fantastic. Good one. That definitely needs explanation.
Sarah: Yes. Jamie Dodger is well, to be honest, I think this might be a fake Jammy Dodger because it's from Aldi. Can you tell where I do hold?
Felicity: Yeah, I was going to say, like.
Sarah: Surely an Albi budget biscuit aisle of my choice. This is around biscuit again, but it's got Jan in the middle between two layers and it should have a layer of cream in it as well. But I'm looking at this, I'm thinking this is definitely a fake, because I can see no cream. It should be the same kind of cream as the custom cream and I can't see it, which is a bit disappointing. I'm just going to take a bite and have a seat.
Felicity: Let me just say, for the Americans, it's jelly that's in a jam. We call jelly jam. Is it a high quality?
Sarah: No, this is not very nice. Anyway, we were going to talk today, we've got an exciting bit of have a cook to get into later, but we just wanted to chat a bit about how we've got into, I guess, teaching a bit of the Bible as well as reading it ourselves. So we said a couple of times that we're not experts, but at the same time, we have always looked for opportunities to grow in reading the Bible, haven't we? And certainly for me, I've been really thankful for women who have come alongside me and invested in me, read the Bible with me, disciples me, and helped me to know not only more about my Bible, but ultimately to know the Lord Jesus better, because that's what we're wanting to do as we open the Bible. What does it look like for you over the last few years, but maybe even now in America, what kind of opportunities have you had?
Felicity: Yes, I think similarly, really grateful for people along the way who have opened up the Bible for me and actually showing me how to read it. So I think one thing that really happened as I was kind of growing in my faith was realizing it's not just I need to know a lot of stuff about Jesus, actually. How do I read the Bible so that I can learn more of him, know him or love him more. And actually over the years, then, and I think this is true for both of us, we are eager to share that with others as much as possible. I love to teach the Bible. As we say, we're not experts. It's not we haven't been to theological college or anything like that, but we do love to open up the Bible and share what God is saying as much as possible. And currently I'm doing that for our church in America, so I'm leading the Women's Bible study and we're currently teaching through Mark's gospel. And so that is a joy. And really, I guess I've done that on different levels on a one to one basis or group basis, whatever, whenever I can, actually. That's true for me. Sarah, I know you have similarly taught the Bible I'm just going to blow Sarah trumpet here because Sarah actually has recently been teaching the Bible in a slightly different medium. She has written a book last year here's last year, isn't it? We're in 23 one.
Sarah: Yes, ma'am.
Felicity: Last year. They essentially taught through Colossians with a specific application into when you're expecting a baby. That's right, isn't it?
Sarah: Yeah, that's right. But I do want people to read it. So if you're expecting a baby and you're listening, then please do pick up the book to it later at some point. Yes, I guess similarly to what we're doing in Habakkuk, that's what I did through the Book of Colossians, helping expectant parents to see what it looks like to lift their gaze to Jesus through that extraordinary season of parenthood. So it was an extraordinary privilege to have that opportunity and very thankful for that time. Yeah.
Felicity: So we're saying we're not experts, but we do have some experience of knowing how to read the Bible, but also eager to teach others, to share that with others as well. So that's kind of who we are as we dig into what we have realized are really rich and also kind of they're challenging versus these, aren't they, to kind of get to the heart of them, but also to be able to express that with clarity as well.
Sarah: Absolutely. Trustee, I don't know about you, but I feel quite daunted by this next two verses. So we're doing chapter till just two to five today, so it's not very many versus at all, but in it is what a lot of people say is like the heartbeat of the Christian faith. And it feels fairly daunting to be dwelling on that in conversation, but I hope what we do chat about is helpful to people. Most of all it's helpful just to read the verses and dwell on them, isn't it? So should we do that listing? Would you like to read the last couple of episodes we've been in different translations. We're actually just going to now basically reading from the NIV, just so it's simpler, so everyone can understand exactly that we're on the same page. It doesn't matter if you're reading from a different translation, there's no difference. There's no right or wrong here. But just for the sake of clarity, we thought it would be much more helpful to be reading from the same translation. So do you want to refresh? Absolutely.
Felicity: So chapter two, verses two through to four. Then the Lord replied, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it, for the revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger wait for it, it will certainly come and will not delay. See, he is puffed up. His desires are not upright, but the righteous will live by his faith. Indeed wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied. He gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.
Sarah: Thank you. There's a lot there in there just four verses. There's so much going on, but I don't know about you listed. As I start to look at that first couple of verses, I'm just so struck by how important those two verses are. This is the first time where we get the Lord saying he replied the Lord replied. We know this is God speaking and it's a really important thing that he's saying because he's saying, write it down, make it plain. What he's about to say is crucially important. Yeah.
Felicity: And I love to say that a herald may run with it. I think that suggests that it's not just for habitakuk to hear. This is a herald is someone who's going to take it and run with it and spread the word like God is speaking and this is what he's saying and it is hugely important. Now write down this revelation and make it plain. Have a cook is going to see or at least understand something of what God is going to do.
Sarah: And interestingly, it's something that well, what does he say? He says, for the revelation awaits. It's an appointed time. It speaks at the end and will not prove false. Though it linger wait for it, it will certainly come and will not delay. So you're talking about the truthfulness of God's word, isn't it? The truthfulness of what God will be and the fact that though it feels like you're waiting and lingering wait for it because the timing is all God's heat, there's no delay.
Felicity: Yeah, well, it might feel like there's a delay. It might feel like God's not doing what you should be doing right now, actually. But Stan corrected on that. God's timing is absolutely spot on. There's no mistake in when this is going to happen. You can imagine Habakkut thinking maybe you should have done it before the Babylonians turned up, or maybe you should have just done it before we even had a problem with injustice. But he's saying, no, this is the time. I love the imminence of it. The revelation is coming. This is going to happen. While it's like a weight, this is the right time. But there's also a kind of urgency to it, I think. God is doing something like, this is happening.
Sarah: I love that. Yeah, definitely. It's coming. Back to that initial question, isn't it? Like Lord. Are you listening? Are you acting? Are you saving? And this is reiterating the answer, yes, I am. There is an appointed time. This is completely in control. There's nothing surprising forgot about what's going on here. So what is this big revelation? What is the big verse that kind of gets declared for us?
Felicity: Yeah, if having looked at verses four to five. So we have this command, c's puffed up. His desires are not appropriate. And he's talking about essentially the Babylonians, but also the nation as a whole. That's the kind of nature of what's going on. But there's a big contrast with that word. But the righteous will live by his faith. And so he kind of saying, this is a puffed up nation. And I think verse five kind of expands on that. It's greedy, they're arrogant, they are never at rest. It's a really ugly site, isn't it? And that is a description of the Babylonians as they take people captain all these things. But in the midst of all of that, the righteous will live by his faith. So the call really to have a cook is like, wait, I am doing something. This is coming, I am going to sort this out. Justice is coming. You need to wait. The righteous person, the one who is right with God, will wait because I the Lord and doing something.
Sarah: That's a really helpful summary. I think it's really striking as well that actually this verse comes bang in the middle of the whole book. As well as being sandwiched between these verses about the anime and about the nation around him, it's sandwiched right at the heart of the book. And this really is the heartbeat of the book of habituk. As it's by the Lord saying, listen to it and listen to what I'm going to say. But I don't know whether anyone listening feels the verse is familiar. It will ring some bells because this verse is actually quoted three times in the New Testament. It's one of the most quoted verses.
Felicity: No, isn't that funny because Habakkuk's such a small book and I was still struggling to find it without using the content page.
Sarah: We get it created in Romans chapter one. We get it created in Galatians, chapter three, and then we get it created in the letters of the Hebrews in chapter ten as well. And they all say slightly different things and we had lots of different chat about how to talk about this because there's so much we go into on this and there's potentially this could be a long chat and we haven't got a long time. So we're going to try and help you listening to get a feel for what is going on here. First of all, remind us of the context again, both for here in Habakkuk and also in the New Testament to try and help us pinpoint this birth. Yeah.
Felicity: Thanks, Sarah. So I think there's a danger at this moment, I'm going to sound like a teacher, but I think it's just a kind of helpful thing to just give us a bit of a context kind of landscape of what's going on. If you just remember that we are this side of the cross. So us here now, the big difference between us and the people that are listening to Habitataq is that the cross has happened, jesus has happened. So back in Habakkuk's day when they are waiting literally for God to sort out the Babylonian injustice and that's a kind of raging injustice, not just in the other nations, but in amongst God's people themselves. And then if you just hop kind of over the cross to where we are, we are also waiting for God to bring justice. But we're not talking about a kind of immediate Babylonian kind of sorting out, we're talking about that the final day of judgment, when Jesus ultimately comes to put everything right and to deal with sin finally and in the midst of that, not just judgment, but actually salvation, so the rescue that anyone would be able to stand on that final day. So there's a difference in our position, but we are still both waiting for God's justice and we're waiting for his salvation. And it's through faith. The nature of the faith doesn't change.
Sarah: That's really helpful, Felicity. Thank you. That's really helpful for me. And I feel like I've been reading this a week and get a bit tangled up and not with it, but really helpful to see that we're both waiting, but in different contexts. So we're not going to read out all the verses in the Testament, but just to kind of give a brief overview, the one in Romans chapter one, Paul is saying the whole book of Romans is about righteousness from God. It's all by faith. There's nothing you can do to earn merit or place with God. There's nothing you can do and to be saved, it is only by faith. So that is kind of the emphasis on the Romans verse. You come to the Galatians verse and he pays to kind of emphasize, but it's not the law that saves you only by faith in the Lord Jesus. That is how you are saved. And then we come to the Hebrews verse and there's slightly different emphasis on the Hebrews verse and I'm just going to read it out for people because I think it's really helpful to just feel the context of it in Hebrew. Hebrews, chapter ten, verse 37 says, for in just a little while he who is coming will come and not delay, but my righteous one will live by faith and I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. He's creating two of those verses from Habakkuk there. Hang on, I've just now lost Habakkicks.
Felicity: And I think you're right in saying that there is a slightly different emphasis there, but in Hebrews, and the book of Hebrews really is about endurance, isn't it? Kind of keeping going by faith. And so I think what we have is Habakkuk, what's the Hebrews writer saying? How does that help kind of expand our view of what's being said in Habakkuk? Well, actually by faith, keep going, keep waiting, keep waiting, because that is what God is asking us to do. Not just because we're supposed to wait, but actually because God is doing something and we need to wait by his grace.
Sarah: Yes, I think that's helpful, isn't it? Just realizing that actually you've got these three big verses in the New Testament that are kind of really running home. The heart of the Gospel, the heart of the Gospel being by faith in the Lord Jesus, in God's righteousness being revealed and waiting by faith. And actually those three verses give a fuller expression. They kind of flesh out what we then read in Habakkuk, doesn't it? Yes, you read Habakkuk and you go to the New Testament and that helps you to read the New Testament verses. But likewise you read the New Testament verses and they flesh out and kind of deepen and broaden and widen your understanding of habitat. Do you think that's the case with how you've read these verses this week?
Felicity: I think that's right. I think that the impact of realizing what the Romans writer is saying. So that's kind of a persuasion. I definitely want to wait because righteousness only comes by faith and Romans kind of persuades me of that. And then Galatians righteousness doesn't come through the law, okay? So I really don't want to depend upon the law. And then the Hebrew is saying keep waiting. And I think it's kind of persuaded me that this really is what God is doing. The righteous really will live by faith. And I feel like from the New Testament position, or even just from our position of being that side of the cross, this side of the cross, then we're in such a privileged position that we have clarity and knowledge and we know what God is doing and even what he's done. So as we look at the cross, we know the reality of judgment, and we know the reality of salvation, of rescue through that cross. And so I think as a result, as I rehabbuk, I'm thinking, yeah, let's wait. I'm going to wait not because I've just got amazing faith or like, you know, I'm just going to muster up the faith to wait, but actually, by God's grace, all throughout the Bible, we hear that, don't we? By God's grace, I have faith to wait on the Lord.
Sarah: Yeah, you're right, Christie. I think what it does is it really amplifies Jesus, doesn't it? Because actually what we have the privilege of seeing is we have the object of that faith in full view.
Felicity: Yeah.
Sarah: Habakkuk was seeing dimly and waiting in faith. We see by sight. In the Lord Jesus, we see the object of God's righteousness being revealed, the absolute pinnacle of his salvation, and what it looks like to rescue anyone who will it's by faith. And I think for me, that really is striking, that as I look to have a fish and I go, wow, he's patiently waiting by faith, and he doesn't know the half of what we know he doesn't know. And yet we have the extraordinary privilege of being able to see clearly what God has done in Jesus. And so how much more should we be encouraged as we read these words in Habakuk, to patiently endure and to wait and to be? I don't know. For me, I don't know about you, but just that reminder of it's only by Jesus. It's only by Jesus righteous. It's only by Jesus that I can confidently trust in God's words here. I really need to hear that every day.
Felicity: Yeah.
Sarah: And conversely on that, it's saying, okay, this week, there are so many times where I felt unrighteous, where I felt like, oh, just tangled up in My own sin and grumbling. And actually, I come back to this verse and I'm reminded, okay, by faith, I remember that I am righteous by Jesus. Or I come to the end of this week, and I'm super weary by lockdown and just this continual awaiting game that we're all in and this limbaugh. And I come to this verse and I go, okay, Lord, you have an appointed time. You know how much you're waiting? How much should this waiting force My gaze to the bigger waiting. The biggest thing we're waiting for, not just for vaccine, not just for lockdown to end, but for you to come back and make things right again in each way I think it's really helpful to let our hearts just be fueled by what this word says to our hearts in the moment.
Felicity: We've actually run out of time on that very apt use of the Word fueled heart. Shall I pray as we finish? And then, Father, we praise you so much that you give us such clarity on what it is to wait by faith, to live by faith. And we praise you so much for Jesus. We thank you that as we sit this side of the cross, we, along with Habakkuk, can wait all the more, certainly on what you are doing. And we pray that you lift our eyes to that. Please, would we love to wait on you. Give us grow us in faith so that we might wait all the more for your justice and your salvation. Amen. Thanks so much, Sarah. This has been meaty whistlestop. I know.
Sarah: I feel like we've only just scratched the surface and I hope it hasn't been confusing for people. I hope there's been something in there that people can take away today. And thanks so much, everyone, for listening along again. But we'll see you next time.
Felicity: Yeah, they'll hear us next time.
Sarah: Oh, yes.
Felicity: Thanks for listening.
Sarah: Bye bye. Thanks so much for listening to Word fueled Hearts today. This podcast has been sponsored by Tenovave.com, an online retailer of the best Christian books at discounted prices. Check them out now at 100 of those.com.
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