Habakuk 2:3 says “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. By this Scripture, we are taught a valuable lesson about God’s character. Indeed His promises are true (2 Corinthians 1:20 ) yet they do not manifest randomly. They only come to pass at the time He has set. We cannot make them come to pass a day faster than the appointed time God has set, but we can surely delay them (Neville Johnson) or prevent ourselves from ever possessing them through unbelief and disobedience to God. If you understand that you have no control over the exact time a promise of God is supposed to manifest, why worry about what hasn’t yet shown up if you are walking in obedience to God? This is a place where the genuineness of your faith is tested.
It was said of Zechariah and Elizabeth that “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years (Luke 1:6-7). It wasn’t because of Zechariah’s or Elizabeth’s sin that they had no child then. We were told as far as God was concerned they were righteous and blameless before Him. Neither are we told they were under the devil’s curse or bondage. Rather, by the words of the angel Gabriel who appeared to Zechariah, we are told his prayer had actually been heard, and God had prepared for him a son with the name with which he was to be called (Luke 1:8-17), and the words of the promise “will be fulfilled in their proper time”(Luke 1:19-20). By now, both Zechariah and Elizabeth were advanced in years, and it is possible that they had been praying since their youthful days for a child. We can also learn a principle in the Bible that when we are walking with God, the longer it takes for us to inherit His promise may be because of the greatness of what God is preparing for us (e.g. Romans 1:13). We can see this play out in the life of Zechariah and his wife. The child they were to give birth to was to be great in the sight of God, and will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15), an experience not common to all men. The child was going to be a national asset to the whole of Israel to turn many of them back to the Lord their God (Luke 1:16). He was to go as a forerunner before the Messiah, Jesus, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). In the words of Jesus Christ, “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John… (Luke 7:28)”.
Zechariah knew none of these although they were walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord until they were well advanced in age and naturally impossible for them to have any issue. But we have their experience for our learning, as the Scriptures say, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4). If they made it, then we have no excuse. Again we are given this counsel, “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:11-12).
Had Zechariah and his wife chosen to doubt God all those years and thereby walk in hopelessness and complain or grumble against God, they would have only prolonged the timing of their blessing or would never have inherited it (see Numbers 14, Hebrews 3:16- 19). This is also a lesson for us. So Jesus has taught us this way, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24). At the time we pray and ask God for what we need, we are to believe at that very moment that we have received what have asked from God. This is the part we have to play. And God’s part is to make sure that we have the manifestation of what we believe that we have received from Him. If we will be faithful to play our part, He is all the more faithful to play His part because He CANNOT lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18, Isaiah 55:11).
If we truly believe, then our period of waiting until we see the physical manifestation of our promise will be filled with praise to God for what we believe that we have received, which will be manifested in its proper time. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay (Habakuk 2:3).
Kwadwo Omari, PhD
April 28, 2019