「将这默示明明地写在版上」（哈二2），表示神准备向哈巴谷启示一些将来要发生的事情，而这就是我们所说的「预言」。

预言在圣经里面占据了重要的地位，事实上，圣经超过一半是用来预测将来的事情。我深信没有甚么比明白预言的性质，能够给基督徒带来更大的安慰和慰藉。预言是神与人类关系的基础，正因为这样，那些质疑「神对人的关心」的人总是集中攻击预言这个主题。钟马田（Martyn Lloyd-Jones）博士说：「不信神的人总是批评圣经的预言。」

今天教会里经常有人会告诉我们说，所谓旧约的预言，只不过是那些有政治天份的人自认为对某些境况有清晰的诠释。他们不认同那是神向旧约人物的启示。今天的经文在《阐释版圣经》（Amplified Bible）是这样说的：「没有任何预言是因为人的意愿而产生──它从来都不是因人的冲动而出现──而是人与神说话，被圣灵带领（推动和驱使）的结果。」我在想，要是圣经所包含的全都是人的思想，那么我们从今天的经文可以得到一些甚么呢？我敢说，不会比阅读吉卜林（Kipling）或莎士比亚（Shakespeare）的著作会有更多的领受。我的写作数年后就会有江郎才尽的情况出现，但神的启示永无止境。神从启示中出来，因为祂曾经先走进启示中。

The words "write down the revelation and make it plain" (Hab. 2:2) show that God was about to reveal to Habakkuk something that was going to take place at a future time and, as you know, that is what we call "prophecy".

Prophecy occupies a large place in Scripture - in fact, over half the Bible is devoted to predicting future events. It is my conviction that nothing brings greater comfort and consolation to a Christian than to understand the nature of a prophecy. It is something that is basic to God's relationship with human beings and that is why those who have doubts about God's concern over humankind concentrate their attacks on the subject of prophecy. "Unbelief," said Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "is always critical of Bible prophecy."

In today's Church, we have teachers who tell us that the Old Testament prophets were simply men of political genius who had clear insight into situations. They take exception to the view that God revealed things to them. Our text for today in the Amplified Bible reads: "No prophecy ever originated because some man willed it to do so - it never came by human impulse - but as men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit." What would we get out of our Bible reading today, I wonder, if all it contained were the thoughts of men? I venture to say, no more than we would get out of reading the thoughts of Kipling or of Shakespeare. My writings are exhausted of meaning after a few years but you will never exhaust the meaning of divine revelation. God comes out of it because God has gone into it.