H is for HABAKKUK 2:2 (#8 of 312)

Context is important; often it’s missing (See: C is for CONTEXT #3 of 312). And when context is missing, our understanding can be patchy, incomplete, or way off (See: E is for ELEPHANT #5 of 312). This is true of everything, and certainly the Bible.

Habakkuk is a book of prophecy in the Old Testament. It’s short, and the structure is simple enough. Read it, but know that H is also for HERMENEUTICS, and if this sentence doesn’t make sense, pause for a minute and consider the difficulties of understanding in reading something written around 600 BC and translated and read in English in 2018.

Habakkuk makes two complaints to God. God answers with a command. And Habakkuk prays. Complaint, complaint, command, prayer. And it’s all very poetic in a style that make sense (if y0u understand the context). If I was going to get a tattoo, I think it would be HK 2:2. This is how the ESV translates it:

Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

Wouldn’t it be nice to read something that shares a vision so clearly that you know what to do, and where to go, and you can just start running?