'How long?' is a tip off

"I listen to the scriptures while I'm reading them. You know, you hear yourself in your mind reading it. It is fascinating to listen to the Scripture being read. If you look at the title page of a King James Bible you'll see it says, 'To be read in the churches.'

"One of the things they did when they translated your Bible is they designed it to be read to people; verbal reading of the Scripture. It's one of the last things they did when all those translating committees (47 guys at the end) . . .  the very last editorial process, after the translations had been done and agreed upon and everything, is they had another committee that they just read it to. The last adjustments they made were to make it readable. It's to be read audibly.

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Habakkuk 2:2: [2] And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

"For some reason people read that verse backwards. It's not that he may read that runneth. It's that he may run that readeth," explains Richard Jordan.

"It's not write in real big letters so when you run by you can read it. You remember Billy Sunday? The story is that he would write his sermon notes in letters four inches high and people asked, 'Billy, why do you make your letters that big?' He said, 'So that when I'm at the pulpit I can read them while I run by,' because he did a lot of theatrics and jumping.

"In other words, the verse is saying, 'When you get the message, get on with it. Take the message out. I want it plain so you can spread this stuff everywhere.'

Habakkuk 3 is a prayer of the prophet. This is one of the great single chapters in the Bible about the Second Advent of Christ, looking toward when He puts an end to the satanic program of rebellion, completely and totally.

"In the Bible, God asks people questions to make them think, so what He's doing here is recording the thinking process that the Believing Remnant is having while they're being persecuted.

"The question they have is, 'Why aren't you doing something about this, Lord?' That's one of the ages old questions people ask: 'If there's a God, then why does He let babies suffer? Why does He let evil prosper and the good suffer?' It's the ages old question, 'Why do the righteous suffer?' and, 'How long will it last?'

"In the tribulation, Israel is really going to be taking it in the neck and that's one of the natural questions that's going to come up. 

Habakkuk 1: [1] The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
[2] O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

"When you see that expression 'how long' you know that that's a tip off in prophecy; it's one of those little phrases in prophecy that tells you the doctrinal context of the passage is the tribulation.

Revelation 6: [9] And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

[10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

"This is in the middle of the 70th Week of Daniel, the middle of the time of Jacob's trouble. In the time of the tyranny of the Antichrist, the question is, 'How long is this going to go on?!' 

"God uses the past history to tell you how things are going to be in the future, and so it's important to make the connections. The Psalms are full of this 'How long?' terminology.

David says in Psalm 13: [1] How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

[2] How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
[3] Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
[4] Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

Psalm 74: [9] We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

[10] O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

"The natural question is, 'How long's it going to be before you smite them?' and the question too is, 'Are you really going to do it?' That's what Habakkuk is going to address and when he's talking here. You have to know that doctrinally you're looking into the tribulation period.

"One other thing in Habakkuk 1:2: [2] O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

"That word 'violence' there, if you go down to verse 9, when he's talking about the Babylonians, [9] They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

"When they come, they're going to come for violence. It's interesting that the Hebrew word for 'violence' is the word 'hamas.' That's the very name used by bitter enemies and opponents of the nation Israel today. There it is in your Bible."