That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

DAY 26: Write the Vision

1. Running Readers

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

Habakkuk 2:2.

It is the fundamental principle of communication, irrespective of the theoretical perspective, that information should successfully pass from sender to receiver; only then is communication said to have been effective.  Effective communication is not merely the generation and transmission of information; it is the realization of an intended response from the receiver.  It may otherwise be measured also by the deliberate reaction against the information in an attempt to frustrate its potential or intended result.  At one time, Jesus preached so well that the people applauded, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46).  At a different time, the outcry was, “Crucify him!” (Mark 15:13-14).  In either case, there was a reaction resulting from the message.  Communication had been effective.

            When a letter is written, posted, and received, it may be thought that communication has been achieved because the message has gone from sender to receiver.  Not necessarily.  What if the letter was written in a language and in a script that the receiver cannot read, let alone understand; for example, a message in Swahili written in Chinese script, or a message in Korean written in Arabic script, meant for an English speaker?  The receiver will remain uninformed, unable to carry out the instructions intended by the letter.  The letter may have been intended to make the recipient move a table from one place to the other, or to change his or her attitude to prayer.  If things remain unchanged, because the message was not understood (rather than because the recipient was averse to the message), communication has not been effective. 

            The situation is well illustrated by the rhetorical question in 1 Corinthians 14:8: “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?”  The hearing of the sound of the trumpet is not the aim of the sound.  If the sound is produced, heard, but not understood, and if therefore an army is not mobilised, the trumpet has failed.

            When we celebrate the beauty of voice or grammar of a preacher, rather than consider whether or not that preacher's message has been able to move us into meaningful and corresponding action, we are recording entertaining sounds, not preparing for war.

            If someone buys a book but is not literate enough to read it, or cannot read it because the fonts are very tiny and the pages are blotched with ink, should the author rejoice that his or her book has reached an audience?  No.  If I picked up the microphone to speak, and listeners can hear my sounds but are not able to make out my words, have they heard me?  No.  I might have said, “Please, stand up, everybody.” So long as they remain seated, in spite of having heard my sounds (even though they could have stood up), communication has not been effective. 

            Not how loud the trumpet sounds; not how long; not what great and anointed trumpeter has been blowing the trumpet, or who manufactured it.  So long as the hearers are unable to respond to its fanciful codes, because they do not understand its call, that trumpet has failed.  For all the trouble, it could have been a noisy disturbance, or at best, a 'trumpetic' entertainment. 

            God said to Moses, “And thou shalt write …this law very plainly” (Deuteronomy 27:8).  How?  Not just plainly but “very plainly.”  Why?  Because the law is not for entertainment.  It is supposed to be understood and to elicit a predetermined response of obedience from its readers. 

            Hundreds of years later, another writing prophet was instructed by God to “Write the vision, and make it plain” (Habakkuk 2:2).  That instruction was specific not to the content of the message, not to the rightness or wrongness of it, but to its style, its delivery; to how the message should be communicated, with a view to achieving a specifically intended result: “that he may run that readeth it.”  In other words, if the message did not succeed to make the reader run, it would have failed, no matter how eloquently delivered; no matter how applauded.  We should therefore measure a book not necessarily by the beauty of its pages; not by the grandeur of its eloquence and intelligence, but by how it is able to make runners of its readers.  Same for sermons.  If the “very good” preacher's sermons, Sunday after Sunday, result in no significant change in the lives of the hearers, that preacher, perhaps, had been entertaining them.  If they laugh and they dance but show no significant change in attitude arising from the “good sermon” or the “great book,” they have learned little.