As we can expect from anything God is involved with (which is everything), the seeming paradox of evil triumphing over good changes quickly and dramatically. Habakkuk opens his prophecy with the cry, “How Long O' Lord?” or ''O Lord, how long shall I cry and Thou wilt not hear?'' He is looking around at a nation (Judah) engulfed by wickedness. This is not unlike what we see today in America and other nations.
Habakkuk
1:2-4 ~ How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or
cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at
injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are
before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is
paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that
justice is perverted.
The Lord's answer is succinct and absolute. He is about to bring a brutal punishment upon Judah in the form of a devastating Chaldean invasion.
Their cavalry was furious and infamous:
The Lord's answer is succinct and absolute. He is about to bring a brutal punishment upon Judah in the form of a devastating Chaldean invasion.
Their cavalry was furious and infamous:
Habakkuk
1:8 ~ Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at
dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly
like an eagle swooping to devour…
They were known for demeaning conquered kings:
Habakkuk
1:10 ~ They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by
building earthen ramps they capture them.
Having seen, in a horrifying vision the destruction
of his people, Habakkuk again brings his questionings to God.
Habakkuk
1:13 ~ Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate
wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent
while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
In other words: Habakkuk's question is, how is it
that God, who is literally too holy to behold iniquity, will execute vengeance upon Judah by a people even worse than Judah themselves? God of
course answers again and tells Habakkuk that essentially, ''the just shall live by faith.'' It is here in Habakkuk that God speaks of an immediate
vision, but he is also looking on to the end as the words “(v.4) the just shall live by faith,'' is
preceded by, ''(v.3) For the revelation
awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though
it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. ''
God would use the very people that didn’t even
believe in Him to carry out His own will, then they themselves would fall under
divine judgment that would obliterate them. There would be a day when Babylon would
become desolate (Jeremiah 50:23). What we see here is God's sovereignty over all peoples and all nations...even those that do not believe in Him. It is the old adage: You may not know of God but He certianly knows of you. Whether or not you believe in Him is irrelevant. You will be judged by Him all the same. If you know not Christ Jesus, nor will you know eternal life in His presence. Ignorance is no excuse and wanton rebellion once you know of Him is even worse.
Habakkuk then prays in chapter 3. His description,
of God’s glory and grandeur is second to none in the entire Bible. Habakkuk describes
the faithful and continued dealings of God with His people. How He brought them
into the land of Canaan as they promised. This of course is a foreshadowing of
Jesus and how He will ring us into the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom that He has
already initiated with His first coming and will complete upon His second
coming. We see a type or shadow of a greater salvation yet to come in Christ…and a greater
promised land which is Heaven. A time and place we can only get a glimpse of now but will see
in full when Christ comes to reign in full.
Habakkuk uses the word “Selah” in this prayer (v.3,
9 & 13). It is an appeal to silence or for one to pause from what they are
doing. This is done because, “the Lord is
in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” as Habakkuk
2:20 had told us. This silence is to wait and see, “what he will say to me” ~ Habakkuk 2:1
Do we have this silence with God as Habakkuk did?
Can we hear if He calls on us and beckons us to do His will? Has the world
cluttered and drowned Him out? Do we still make the time for God to enlighten
us and illuminate our paths…or do we walk in darkness? It often takes a
Biblically fine-tuned mind, eyes and ears to hear and see what God wants of us.
It is not our will that need be done…it is His. If we are not paying attention
we end up doing our own will by default. This is the will of a fallen person. It takes biblical and spiritual focus to
stay on God’s task rather than our own selfish ones.
As with Habakkuk, so too with us: The righteous will
live by faith alone. Sola Fide. Even in the prophets lament and the "shock and
awe" effect of being in the presence of a holy God, the Lord Himself comforts
Habakkuk. He can and will do the same for us.
No one said being a man of God was going to be easy. As a matter of fact the Bible states just the opposite.
No one said being a man of God was going to be easy. As a matter of fact the Bible states just the opposite.
Luke
9:23 ~ “…whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their
cross daily and follow me.”
Matthew
10:34 ~ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not
come to bring peace, but a sword.”
In the face of abject failure and inability to get
anything accomplished for God or the Kingdom because of the evil that confronts and resists us, we’re exhorted and encouraged by
the little book of Habakkuk. When all hope is well-nigh deader than a door nail
we read a prophet that is willing to lift of God’s name aloft even in the face
of his consternation and confusion—in total
faith (as he had nothing else to rely on).
We see Habakkuk lift up God’s glory in the face of
failure and what appears to be desolation:
Habakkuk
3:17-19 ~ “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the
vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there
are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the
heights.
The words “God my savior” are interesting. They are
more properly understood as: “The God of my Salvation.” It is in this compact
term for Habakkuk’s God that we see Jesus most clearly. It is stating בֵּאלֹהֵ֥י
יִשְׁעִֽי “Elohim-of my salvation”, “Jehovah-salvation”
or “Jehovah is Salvation”: The modern rendering of this phrase is very familiar to Christians. It is Jesus! Praise God!
Hebrews
5:9~ “…and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation
for all who obey him”
Just thought you’d like to know.
No comments:
Post a Comment