What is the Meaning of “Write the Vision” in Habakkuk 2:2?

Recently, while scrolling through Instagram, I discovered some posts sharing encouragement from Habakkuk 2:2-3. One particular post featured a video of Steve Harvey speaking about Habakkuk 2:2. Harvey says, “Everything you write on paper that God puts in your mind and imagination, he puts it in your imagination because that’s a sign of things to come… If you write it down and keep the faith, you’ll get everything on that paper.” According to Harvey, this is a biblical principle based on Habakkuk 2:2 for success. 

Steve Harvey is not the only one who sees Habakkuk 2:2 as a verse about setting goals. Other posts mention that if you write down your vision and goals, God will allow them to come to pass. After all, isn’t that what Habakkuk 2:2 is about? It’s not.

Through this article, I hope to help you discover the true meaning of Habakkuk 2:2. In order to do this, I will provide some general background information about the book of Habakkuk and then walk you through the passage in context so that we can arrive at its proper meaning together. I will conclude the article by sharing suggestions on how the passage can be applied faithfully. 

What is the Book of Habakkuk About?

The book of Habakkuk is a short book in scripture between Nahum and Zephaniah. It was written by Habakkuk, a Temple prophet, during the reign of King Jehoiakim between 608 and 598 BC. 

The book of Habakkuk is about the Babylonian invasion of Judah. It gives us a glimpse into Habakkuk’s heart for his people who were struggling with sin and injustice and it recounts his prayers requesting that God intervene on behalf of his people. 

God intervened but not in the way Habakkuk expected. He intervened by sending the Babylonians to judge Judah for their sinfulness. Though the book discusses a lot of pain and turmoil, it ends in hope: the Babylonian invasion was not the end for Judah. After judgment, God would restore them. While Habakkuk did not live to see this day, it was sure to come. 

Judah would be set free from their captivity to the Babylonians and their own sin. Despite their sins, God still loved them and was deeply committed to their rescue. 

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What does Habakkuk 2:2 Mean? 

If we want to understand the meaning of Habakkuk 2:2, we need to ask ourselves, “Who is the speaker and audience of the passage?”

Concerning the speaker, the text lets us know clearly that the Lord is speaking. But, who is the Lord speaking to? We know that the Lord is speaking to Habakkuk because the entire book is a dialogue between God and the prophet. 

Now that we know this, we’ll want to ask ourselves, “Why does the vision need to be written down?”

Well, the Lord told Habakkuk to write down the vision “so that a herald may run with it.” (Habakkuk 2:2 NIV)

Some versions render the text as follows: “so one may easily read it.” (CSB)

Habakkuk was to write down the vision clearly enough so that someone reading or announcing the message to others could easily discern what it was saying. 

In other words, this was a message that God wanted many people to receive. 

What is the “Vision” in Habakkuk 2:2? 

We know that the vision in Habakkuk 2:2 was a message that God wanted many people in Judah to receive. But, what exactly was this message?

In a nutshell, the vision contained the message of God’s plan for Judah. They would be invaded by Babylon because of the rampant sin and injustice in their community. However, God would not abandon them. Babylon, the same group of people sent to judge Judah, would eventually be judged themselves. God would not allow Judah’s punishment to last forever. He would redeem them and set them free from their sin and from the oppressive rule of foreign nations.

The vision had to be written down so that everyone in Judah would know how God intended to deal with their sin. 

We don’t know exactly why God wanted Habakkuk to send this message to the people of Judah. But from our knowledge of other books of scripture, we can make a good educated guess. In other books in the Bible, God warned his people through a prophet that if they continue in their sin, they would be judged. This warning was so that they would repent. 

Perhaps, God had Habakkuk write down the vision so that his people might repent and be spared from judgment. Unfortunately, they did not repent. While under the Babylonian rule, the vision may have served as a reminder that although God was punishing them for their sins, he had not abandoned them and would not leave them in their current state. 

The vision was a message of judgment and hope. 

Related: What to Do When God Says No: A Lesson from Habakkuk

Can Habakkuk 2:2 Be Applied to Goal Setting? 

Setting goals and making plans is good. In fact, the Bible does talk about this. 

Proverbs 15:22 says:

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

Psalm 20:4 is a prayer:

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

Proverbs 21:5 speaks about how the plans of the diligent lead to profit:

The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

Proverbs 16:3 recommends that we:

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

The Bible does encourage planning and setting goals. But, Habakkuk 2:2 is not about writing down our plans or goals. Additionally, scripture never suggests that if we write down our plans then God will make them happen. We can make plans but they might not always work out how we hope they will. God does not guarantee that all our plans will work out. This is just a part of life.

Set goals and make plans but don’t base your goal setting on Habakkuk 2:2. The “vision” is not something we write down and expect God to fulfill. Instead, the vision is a specific plan of God for the people of Judah. 

Related: 4 Reasons to Study Book of Habakkuk as a Christian Woman

How Can We Apply Habakkuk 2:2 Faithfully?

While we cannot apply Habakkuk 2:2 to goal setting, we can faithfully apply its message to our Christian lives. While the vision was originally for the people of Judah living before the Babylonian invasion, as scripture, it applies to us today too.

But, instead of reading a passage in scripture and starting with application, we have to make sure we understand its background first. If we read it as if it’s just a message for us today without considering the original audience, we will end up misapplying the passage. In order to grow in our faith we need to know what scripture actually teaches so we can live it out properly. 

So, here’s how I would apply this passage 

I would first consider that all of scripture tells of God’s love for humanity and his plan to redeem us from sin. Habakkuk 2:2 specifically deals with the sin, judgment, and redemption of Judah but all of humanity has dealt with bondage to sin and has experienced the judgment of God. All of humanity is in need of redemption. Thankfully, God has sent Jesus Christ, his Son, to rescue us from our fallen state. Through him, we have hope and freedom from sin. 

While we have hope in Christ, we still experience the fallenness of this world. However, the world will not be broken forever. Christ will bring renewal. 

If you are dealing with heartache, illnesses, pain, or brokenness, this passage can encourage you that Christ will bring restoration and healing from these things: if not in this life, then the next. 

Because of what Christ has done, the experience of the world’s brokenness does not have to overwhelm us. Christ has dispelled the darkness and has brought us joy. 

We can hold onto Habakkuk 2:2, not as a goal setting passage, but as something greater: we’ve experienced sin and have faced its consequences — it seems to linger but redemption is coming. We have hope; this is not the end. 

Conclusion

Learning how to study the Bible properly can be life-changing. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar or theologian to draw rich, biblically-based applications from scripture. You do need to know how to read and interpret it, though. Having a guide or resource for biblical interpretation can make all the difference. I have a Master’s of Arts in Biblical Studies and I wrote a study of Habakkuk that guides you through the book with carefully researched commentary, thought-provoking questions, meaningful reflections, and prayers. Instead of missing the richness of the book of Habakkuk, you can go deeper with a resource like this. Anyone who purchases the study after reading this article can use the code HABAKKUKARTICLE10 for 10% off the study.