Habakkuk: 5:1, “I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”

 
The other day I was in Texas preparing to share with a group of Christians some ideas on using the Hebrew to enhance their personal study of the Word of God. I knew I was invited to provide some concrete instructions in the use of the Hebrew language to aid in one’s personal study yet deep in my spirit I felt a sense of unsettledness. I felt God wanted a moment to say something on His heart to these people or to someone who deeply love Him.

 

 I found this deeply troubling for I did not know what or how to share.   I was alone, parked in my rental car fumbling with my I Pad when I accidental hit the start button on my ITunes and a song began to play. It was the piano rendition of Alley Cat, by Bent Fabric.  You would have to check it out on You Tube if you don’t remember it, but the song is made up of a short musical rift with a marching beat that keeps repeating.  At that moment, I looked out my window and a pigeon had just landed by my car and began marching back and forth. His head was bobbing to the beat and in perfect sync with each rift.  At the end of each rift he would turn around and begin his march again with that little head bobbing to the beat of Alley Cat. When the song finished my little entertainer just flew off.

 
I would have laughed this off and tucked this away in my memory to share later as a cute story to tell when I had nothing else to say. Yet, I was immediately struck with the words of Habakkuk 2:1: “I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me.”  I pondered the word see in see what he will say.  It is the word ra’ah in Hebrew which means both a physical and spiritual seeing.  How do you see what someone says?  God rarely speak to us in an audible voice, how do we know what He is saying?

 

 Perhaps Habakkuk actually did look out through a watchtower and search for something physical.   The first word for watch inI will stand upon my watch is the word mishemarethi  from the root word shamar which means to keep a watch or observe, but this is in a Piel participle form so it has the idea of keeping a close guarding watch.  This is like a body guard, or secret service agent whose entire attention and focus is on observing things that everyone around him are not observing.  He is looking for any little subtle hint or movement which may signal a threat to his mission of protection.   Anyone else watching my little friend march to the tune of Alley Cat would think: “How cute.”  However, if I am on a shamar I am looking for something more than a good laugh.

 
Habakkuk continues by saying he will set himself upon a tower and watch to see what he will say unto me.  This second word for watch is tsapah which in a noun form means a watchtower, but in its verbal form means a focused watch.  You are not in a watchtower to enjoy the scenery or the view, but to watch for something very specific in order to see what He will say.  The word say is the word debar which is God speaking his heart cry.  God gave us his creation, all its beauty and majesty and all its creatures, even that little pigeon to express His heart.   Many times I will go to His creation to hear His heart.   I knew and understood that this little bird dancing before me to the tune of Alley Cat was showing me just what I was to do in the next few hours.  I was simply to let go of all my anxiety over what and how to speak and just enter into the heart of God and speak as I felt His heart speaking through me.  When I stood before those who would be so eager to hear something that would draw them closer to the God they loved, I was simply to sit in my watchtower, my tsapah, and tell them what I was seeing in God’s heart.

 

 I don’t remember what I shared that day, but I do remember hearing some very flattering things about myself.  I was feeling pretty smug about it all as I was on the train heading home.  In the midst of my self-glorification I looked out the window and found the train had stopped at a station.  I don’t remember how long we were at this station but it was at least ten or fifteen minutes.  The station was like a little museum and there was an old red caboose just outside my window.  On top of that caboose I saw another pigeon who was just staring at me as if he were trying to tell me something.  For the full ten to fifteen minutes he just sat on top of that caboose looking in my direction and bending his head in a side to side motion unlike the back to forward motion his cousin did during his dance the day before.  It was like he was signaling me.

 
I thought how in ancient times a watchtower was usually a free standing tower located many miles from a city.   A city usually had a number of these towers built that were just in eye shot of each other.   So if someone in one of the furthest watch towers saw an approaching threat he could signal the person in the next watch tower who would pass the signal onto another person in a tower closer to the city.  This person would signal a watchman in the city who would pass the warning on to the city leaders to prepare for the threat.  

 

 I felt my little friend was a watchman on his watchtower signaling me of a threat.  I stepped into my tsapah (watchtower) and observed him for the ten or fifteen minutes.  He did not leave his perch until my train pulled away.  I could not figure out the message he was trying to send to me but as we pulled away I noticed his tsapah (watchtower) and realized it was a caboose. You don’t see cabooses anymore except in museums.  The caboose was always the last car on a train.   I realized that I wasseeing God’s heart.   He was using my little watchman friend to remind me that I was the last car on that freight train.  The caboose was a place for the engineer to rest, eat or sleep when he was not driving the engine.   When a train goes by what do you see? You see the engine and the caboose; no one pays attention to the box cars.  When you serve God, you put yourself into a position to be seen, but you are not the engine that powers the train, only the caboose which services the one powering the train.  The caboose has no power in itself, it is no different than any other box car, and it too is pulled by the engine. 

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