Delayed But Not Denied

Philippians 1:6 KJV

6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Psalms 138:8 ESV

8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Isaiah 40:31 KJV

31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Habakkuk 2:3 ESV

3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Habakkuk was a prophet of God who lived during the final decades of Israel’s southern kingdom. Babylon was a rising empire. The entire book is addressed to God. The book is a series of lamenting poems. The first two chapters are a back-and-forth argument between him and God where he complains about two things.

(1) He complains that people are neglecting God’s laws, and people have given into their own sinful desires, and Israel’s leaders are doing nothing about it. God responds that because of Israel’s evil, He is going to use Babylon to destroy them.

(2) Next, he complains that Babylon is even more corrupt and sacrilegious than Israel. They destroy other nations while building their own. Habakkuk asks how God can use people like this as instruments of correction. God tells Habakkuk to get out some tablets and record what he sees and hears in a vision God shows him about an appointed time in the future. God shows Habakkuk that at an appointed time, the righteous will live by faith and hope. It may seem like it is slow in coming, but it will come.

2 Peter 3:8 KJV

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Joel 2:25 KJV

25 ”And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.“

Romans 8:28-30 KJV

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Justify: to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be, to declare worthy

Jeremiah 3:14-16 KJV

14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.