Rejoice with Fear and Trembling

Habakkuk fills chapter 3 with the awe of God. He shows his fear of God’s power, evidenced through His wrath, and God’s mercy. Habakkuk does this through a prayer. Through the chapter, he gives a historical account about who God is, what He’s done, and what He will do. Verse two of this chapter is the thematic statement; while verses 18-19 are the ultimate expression of Habakkuk’s praise and worship of God for who He is. Through all the things God did in the past, Habakkuk could say the Lord is his strength.

What had God done and what will He do according to history and this prophet? First, Habakkuk reminded the Judeans of God’s presence in their history. God was with their forefather, Abraham, and He chose them as His people. Habakkuk said this in verse 3 when he said God comes from Teman and from Mount Paran. Abraham came through Teman and the Israelites, in their exodus wandering, camped or visited at Paran several times.

Habakkuk continued to remind the Judeans who God is by His presence in nature. He said God’s splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise. Even His created world will proclaim and praise Him.

Next Habakkuk reminded the Judeans of what God had done. This reminded them of His presence in power. God brought pestilence and plague to the Egyptians. He startled the nations and made them tremble. Before the watching nations, God shattered mountains on which cities relied for defense. The people of Cush and Midian knew God and trembled. Even other nations realized who God is, and that He is eternal.

Habakkuk then used rhetorical questions to make his point. Was God angry against the rivers or sea? Was He concerned about the salvation of the waters or of people? This made sense to the listener. This prayer of Habakkuk’s was for them to attune to and return to God.

Habakkuk said the power of God’s love would bring them salvation and/or chastisement. God tried to give salvation to His people, but then, as the loving Father, He had to resort to chastisement. The bows of other nations God would use to correct them. Habakkuk paused and let the people think about this.

God’s kindness leads us to repentance and salvation (Romans 2:4).

With verses 9-11, Habakkuk returned to God’s influence on nature. Before he wrote about God’s power in nature. This time Habakkuk personified nature as writhing in fear and raising its voice and hands in proclaiming God. Even the sun and moon acknowledged God’s majesty. Their light dimmed when God’s great splendor shone. God’s glorious light outshone the stars and moon, so they were unseen.

With verses 12-15, Habakkuk showed God’s power in chastisement would be fearful, but it would cause salvation. He showed God’s power over all things for His purposes. God was indignant because the Judeans (and all Israelites), though God showed His love and care for them, showed by their lives how little God meant to them. He was angry because of their disobedience. Habakkuk said God marched through the earth and trampled the nations. God would destroy all the people counted on to give them what they needed or wanted. Still, God did not do this because of His anger. He based His anger upon His love for all the people of Israel. God would march and trample because of His love for them to save the people. He was angry at the Israelites and the people who caused them pain and destroyed them. God would chastise the Judeans and their subjugators. He would kill their subjugator’s leader with his own spear. Though the Judeans’ enemy would exult in Judah’s destruction, God would go far and wide to chastise them with His might, knowledge, and anger. He would cross lands and seas to accomplish it.

Habakkuk recognized God’s power, influence, salvation, love, and continual presence. He feared with awe His God and he trembled with fear at God’s prophecy of Judah’s destruction. Habakkuk’s fear was so great he shivered with it and his bones melted.

With Habakkuk’s final three verses, he proclaimed his certainty in God’s word and His love. He praised God because he recognized that though Judah’s enemies would loot and destroy them, God was their salvation. God would not permanently remove His hand from His chosen people. Habakkuk rejoiced triumphantly because God is mighty. God was his strength. He believed God would lead him and make him steady even during rocky or shaky, fearful times.

Though God takes us through difficult times, we can trust Him. We can proclaim God when we experience trials because we realize He is our salvation. His salvation comes from His love for us as does His chastisement. Everything God does is because of His love for us. Recognize God’s greatness, His power, influence, love, and continual presence, just as Habakkuk did.

Join Habakkuk and the great cloud of witnesses exulting and rejoicing in the Lord, the God of our salvation!

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!” Psalm 4:4

Though my days are dark, oh Lord, I will remember Your splendorous light and the rays of power coming from Your hands. I will not be afraid. I will wait upon and exult in You now knowing You are in control and this time is for my growth because of Your love. You, God, will provide the way of escape, and I will be able to endure through this trial with Your strength and guidance, too. Amen.

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 [NASB]

Rejoice with fear and trembling; God will break through for you!

Holy Presence

Recall what Habakkuk said in 2:20. He said, “The Lord is in His Holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” This caught my eye as I was reading this chapter. Why is this significant? We know where we can always find the Lord, and be still and hushed in His presence. That place is His sanctuary.

Pieces of wood or stone made by humans into statues have less power than the man who carved them. They were inanimate before the carving and remained that way after the carving. The one who carved them into a shape has more power than the object. No place is holy to these objects because it has no power to make a place holy or sacred. Holiness is imbued by the character and power of a being. The only one who has this kind of power is Yahweh God. He cleanses and makes holy a place for His habitation by His decree. If we each proclaim a place clean that does not mean it actually is clean. We’ve just moved the dirt from one place to another or missed something. We do not have the power to declare something, someone, or some place clean or holy because we ourselves are sinful and unholy. We cannot even make something that is holy because of our sinfulness.

When we search for and find this place of holiness, the temple of God, we may enter. We must remember we will be in the presence of almighty, holy God. What right do we have to bring our filthy selves before Him? None, but He made a way for us to be cleansed and made holy through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus. Once accepting Jesus as your Savior and repenting of all your sins, you are clean. God sets you apart as His child. This setting apart is the act of “making holy.” God set apart and made His temple holy, sacred. Can you imagine the release and relief of a person who feels the weight of their dirtiness removed from their heart, mind, and soul? God’s “making holy” provides release and relief. It’s like a huge cleansing breath after being in the basement of a dank building. The sky is clean; the sun shines; the darkness departs.

Even though we tasted this cleansing, this deep breath of release and relief, why do we choose to go back to our old ways? Why do we choose to chase idols of the heart, mind, and flesh? Who would purposely choose to carry a weight on his chest bearing him down as he tried to rise from the floor every moment of the day? That is what we do when we tell our idols to awake or arise as Habakkuk said in verse 19. If we must wake our gods, they are no gods at all. They are products of our minds and hands. If they come from our hands, they have no power - no power over our present situation or our future. They cannot cleanse and make a person holy or sacred. They cannot declare a place holy. The person who made the thing is the only voice heard.

If we must wake our gods, they are no gods at all.

This then brings us back to what Habakkuk said in verse 20. The Lord is in His holy temple. We can find Him there. Always. He has breath. He is alive and doesn’t need to be awakened. The Lord created the holy temple. He has the ability and desire to make you His holy child, too. He is awake. He is aware. He is Holy and love. God wants to make you clean so you can enter His temple and come to Him.

“Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” [Matthew 11:28] Only God can say that. Only He has the power do it. Only He loves you enough to offer it with no attachments, no tricks, and no requirements.

Come to God with your heavy hearts.

Come to Him with your pain.

Come to God with your broken hearts and spirit.

Come to Him with defeat and exhaustion.

Come to Holy God and find rest, cleansing, love, and hope.

Nothing created by the hands of people can give this. They have less power than the person who made them. We humans cannot make ourselves holy, give ourselves soul peace, heal pain, broken hearts, and spirit, or give refreshing rest. Human-made idols cannot give you this.  

God leaves it at that – COME.

Lord, I come to You exhausted, broken, sinful, hopeless, unloved, and filled with pain. I ask to come into Your presence. I seek your Holiness and to be in Your presence. Please cleanse me, calm and restore my soul, heal my broken heart, and give me your sweet rest. Show me my sins against you so I may repent and enter into Your presence.

Contentment Is...

“You will be filled with shame and contempt instead of glory. Drink also and be like an uncircumcised heathen. The cup of wrath in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and foul shame shall be upon your own glory.” [Habakkuk 2:16]

This is us. When we read Habakkuk, we read about the Babylonians and the Judeans. God proclaimed who He would use to bring his judgment upon the Israelites. But, we need to look closer at this. We deserve God’s judgment, too.

I must be honest, I wanted to see God take the Chaldeans down. I mean, hey, they destroyed Judea and the whole area. They overthrew the most horrific army of the time, the Assyrians. In our minds, they deserve judgment, right? 

Yes, it’s true the Chaldeans deserved judgment. Still, when you read closer, you will find the Judeans did, too. In Habakkuk 2:5 & 8, the prophet records the sins of the Chaldeans. He said they were proud, restless, greedy, and they plundered nations. From historical records, we come to learn this plundering meant they utterly destroyed nations. They killed the people and animals, destroyed the farmlands, and took the resources of the people-gold, silver, wine, grain, oil, etc. Besides this, the Chaldeans took captives. These actions deserve punishment, yet God would use them to exact His judgment against the Judeans.

Why would God allow such a heinous and horrific army to invade and overthrow them? Consider the sins of the Judeans according to God’s judgment in verses 6-7 & 8b-19. The overarching sin of the Judeans according to God was their greed. He spoke of this in verses 6-7. God said their debtors will rise against them and they will taunt them with derision. They amassed wicked gain and lived on a higher plane of existence than people around them (vs 9). God further stated the Judeans shamed their own people and made them destitute without caring for them (vs 10). They worked for futility, falsity, and emptiness trying to satisfy their burning greed (vs 13). This futile work would end up destroying what they had done. Their work amounted to nothing. They worked for perishable things instead of things that mattered (vs 14). These Judeans even encouraged and made their people drunk to disgrace them and bring shame upon themselves (vs 15) to make themselves look better than the other Judeans.

When we compare the Chaldeans with the Judeans, not much difference exists between them. They each were greedy. Both people groups willingly destroyed other people to get what they wanted. The Chaldeans did it with physical violence and destruction. The Judeans did it by taking more money than necessary for services and loans to make themselves wealthy. If that wasn’t enough shame, they caused their fellow countrymen to get drunk. This made the rich seem more glorious and the drunkard, the one they made drunk, lose his or her glory and cause shame. Both nations caused people to be shamed because of their greed. Both people chose to step on people to make themselves appear bigger to other people and nations. They did not care about the physical and/or spiritual destruction they caused the people.

Surely, we don’t do that, do we? “We work hard for what we have; we deserve it,” you say. “That beggar on the corner can go get a job and work like I did,” you think. “I want to be able to go to the spa each week.” This attitude can go on and on. There is always something else you can buy or that you want. Advertising marketers hungrily gain your attention and help create a desire in you for something so you are never satisfied completely. The greed this breeds in your heart can lead you to be stingy with the money God gave you. It can make you have a “better than thou” attitude as you compare yourself to someone else. This attitude and desire to want more than you need comes from discontentment with what God has given you. You want what someone else has so you can be as good or better than them. Maybe you want to buy a flashier car than your frenemy across town. Possibly you want to move into “that” neighborhood because people consider you wealthy if you live there. You can’t help someone else by giving them a loan because you might need that money to fulfill one of these desires. Hoarding money for your own use and not considering the plight of someone else is greed and harmful. You do this to draw more attention to yourself as if you are a god. It is setting yourself up to be higher than someone else. This then puts the other person in their place, below yourself.

This grasping and hoarding of resources God calls covetousness. If you will remember, covetousness is a sin spoken against in the Ten Commandments. It makes you put your desires over God’s. You end up thinking of yourself as your own god, not caring that you don’t know everything, you’re not perfect, and you are mortal.  The things you buy or do with your hoarded money become your idols, your gods. They are more important to you than almighty, eternal God. In verses eighteen and nineteen, God proclaimed woe on the Judeans. He said the Judeans made an image from something God created. The Judeans trusted in these things to give them satisfaction and fulfillment, but forgot all manmade things fade away. They rust and are destructible. These idols cannot help their owners when God’s judgment comes upon them. There is not one breath in them. They are not alive, nor powerful.

We each hoard our possessions and won’t share at times in our lives. We get a promotion and an increase in pay. Instead of living with enough and having resources left over to help people, we move up the chain to a higher plane of living. This allows us to show other people we are wealthier than them, to gain notoriety, or it allows us to have a beach house. Possibly we can go on ocean cruises each year while we pass the same person on the street who wants a job we could afford to give them or help them get training to have a marketable skill. Perhaps with our hoarded money we buy a boat or plane or fourth car or motor home instead of asking God for what use did He give you the raise, bonus, or gift. Each of these and many unmentioned examples are like how the Judeans. They had enough. All good things come from God. He provides for our needs. Sometimes, God provides for someone else’s needs through the gifts He gives us.

For the Judeans who had received God’s mercy continually for their repeated sins over the centuries, the time of God’s judgment was upon them. Habakkuk wrote this prophecy sometime between 626 and 605 BC. The Chaldeans/Babylonians invaded and destroyed the Judeans in 586 BC, just 19-40 years later. God said in 2:3, though the prophesied judgment of God seemed to tarry, it would occur at the right time. “Wait for it because it will surely come,” God said.

God’s judgment against the Judeans and Chaldeans was right and due. We recognized that from the start, didn’t we, when we read they devoured whole nations, shamed the people, destroyed livelihoods, plundered people? Our using every cent of money we receive for ourselves also deserves God’s judgment. We have more than we need. God means for each person to be a channel of His blessing, not to hoard everything for him or herself. You say, “I only have two loaves of bread in my house. That is barely surviving.” Still, a person lives down the road or in another neighborhood with no loaf of bread. That person is not surviving. For others of us, we say, “Someone needs to take care of that.” It could be that “someone” who should be you taking care of it is you. God provides each person with skills, time, and His plan and purpose for his or her life. Seek God asking if He wants you to fill that need with your time or physical resources. Jesus told His followers in Matthew 7:7 to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking for those who ask receive, those who seek find, and for those who knock the door will be opened. We take that to heart and do those three things for ourselves. God answers and provides physical, spiritual, and mental things. We love it when He answers our prayers. Other people ask, seek, and knock, but you are holding on to the things God wanted to use to answer that other person’s prayers. That is hoarding. That is greed. That is destroying other people just as the Chaldeans and Judeans did.

Just as God judged the Chaldeans and Judeans, He still judges today. We are the Judeans and Chaldeans of this age. When our neighbor goes hungry, homeless, thirsty, or naked, we did not show love to God (Matthew 25:35-40). But, when we feed, house, quench thirst, or clothe someone, we show God we love Him and our neighbor (the person in need). To these people, God will give rewards. To those who hoard and harm other people, God will judge just like He did the Judeans and Chaldeans. We should search our own heart to determine if we are hoarding and greedy, or helping and generous.

Lord, please show me where I have failed and sought my own will. Show me where I have harmed people by not helping and through that have not loved you. Forgive me of my selfishness and lead me to Your path again. Please lead me to know where and when to give or help someone else. Amen.

Bolting by the Billboard

“Then the LORD answered me and said, ‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run.’” Habakkuk 2:2 [NASB]

When we come to this verse in Habakkuk, the first part of God’s command makes sense, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets.” It’s a command He gave to Habakkuk, His prophet. Remember, Habakkuk said in verse one he would go to his guard tower above the noise of the city and wait expectantly to hear from God. In verse two, we read God answered Habakkuk’s heart’s desire to meet with Him.

From the first part of God’s command in this verse, we understand recording God’s vision. Anyone of the time who wanted people to listen to an edict from a King or a message from the LORD wrote the message for people to read or a “crier” to declare loudly. This verse is no different. God wanted all the people of Judea to know about His judgment of their destruction. What may seem different about this prophecy is the last phrase. God said He wanted His prophecy of judgment written, “So that the one who reads it may run.” First reaction would be, “Why read and run?” Does it make the person run faster? Is it so urgent a message people must act upon it at once? Or, is it so insignificant that people can pay little attention to it and so expect just to skim it?

God told Habakkuk write this prophecy on tablets so it would endure. Remember, as the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, God told each tribe leader to place a stone in the middle of the river as a reminder of His leading them across safely into the Promised Land. Jacob placed stones where he wrestled with God one night. These stones were a spiritual marker. Stones last a long time. They are the perfect object by which to mark a place in location and in memory. They remind people of a time or event that was significant and should inform them of who God had been for them and what He had done. These tablets Habakkuk would inscribe would remind the Judeans of the original tablets on which God had Moses inscribe His Ten Commandments. It would hearken them back to one of the most often repeated parts of their history. These new tablets would receive great attention from the Judeans because of their history as a people of God.

This method of relaying messages to people was common to the time. The size of stone tablets with writings etched on them was very large. Etching in stone requires chiseling tools because of this, the letters would be large. To include the whole prophecy of God as Habakkuk heard it would require multiple tablets, like a frieze. God’s word through Habakkuk would be very noticeable because of the number of tablets and their size. People may have said, “Have you seen the new work? You can’t miss it.” What the tablets said would cause an uproar because it declared their doom. People would speak of these tablets often for more than one reason.

Why is it important that a person can “read it while they run”? First, because the tablets are so big, you can’t miss them. You can’t say, “I was too busy; I didn’t realize.” The Judeans had no excuse for not knowing God’s judgment of their sin. Second, the writing on the tablets would be big since chisels etched the stone. The people can’t say, “I didn’t see it because I was too far away or I had to move too fast past it and couldn’t note it.” People would either read the tablets intentionally or not, or they would hear about them. These tablets would have been like our roadside billboards today. You can’t miss them. Companies pay lots of money to make sure no one misses their messages. The advertising agencies makes sure people read the messages. God made His judgment of Judea clear. He had it declared to them by the prophet and had it written on a frieze of stone tablets. The people would face their sin and resultant judgment from God even if they tried to avoid it.

God had these tablets written plainly, in large letters, and on large tablets as was the custom for Judeans to receive notices from their priests and prophets. He had them put in a place the people regularly saw notices. The tablets were so big people could hurry past them and still get the message. None of them could say they didn’t realize they were sinning, God saw them, and His judgment was coming upon them. Everyone would understand, even the foreigners who lived among them.

God made sure the Judeans heard His message. He commanded Habakkuk to tell His message. God still makes sure we know His message. He wants us to know Him, His love, and the love sacrifice He made to ensure we each can have an eternal relationship with Him.

Did you hear the message?

God loves you so much, He sent His Son, Jesus, to die in your place for your sin so you can have eternal life, a relationship with Him, and victory over sin and death.

Are you ignoring the Message?

Don’t be like the Judeans who ran past the prophecy tablets saying they didn’t know. God makes sure you recognize who He is and His great love for you.

Stop.

Listen to Him.

Hear of His great sacrificial love and forgiveness.

Repent of your sin.

Accept Him and receive victory over sin and death.

This one billboard from God you pass by today tells you the one Message you need to know. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the Message.

Take heed.

Lord, show me yourself. Reveal to me the Message. Let me see You and heed Your word. Take me to Yourself and use me for Your will. Help me not to run past You.

Expectant at the Rampart

(Author:Keirn OConnor Source:https://www.flickr.com/photos/keirn/77876813/) 

“I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved.”

In chapter one, Habakkuk cried out as the voice of Judea aghast at God’s devastating judgment of the them by using the Chaldeans to correct and reprove them. In chapter two verse one, Habakkuk determined and expected to hear from God. He wanted a chance to hear from God more, to understand better, to receive more instructions, and, possibly, to complain. Habakkuk, as the trained priest of the temple or a prophet, knew to wait for and listen to God, and how to do that.

What did Habakkuk say in verse one? He made one statement and reiterated it to emphasize how important it was to him. He said, “I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart.” A guard is a person who is a servant of another, a commander. His job is to do what the boss tells him to do. For the commander to speak to him, the guard must be in his assigned place, on guard watching and waiting expectantly. A guard’s job at his post on the rampart was to watch for incoming enemies or couriers bringing news. The rampart was a place on the wall away from the noise of the city. It was high enough to see far and wide from the wall so couriers or enemies would not catch the citizens unaware. If the guard was at ground level, he would have no advance notice of anyone approaching the gates. The guard and citizens would be caught off-guard when news or enemies arrived. The guard’s job was to watch and wait expectantly, then report what he sees and hears to the commander and people.

Habakkuk made the analogy he is the guard. He would stand on guard at his post on the rampart waiting with expectancy and patience for God to meet with him. Habakkuk was the guard, the watchman, for the Judeans waiting for revelations from God. His job was to be the mouth for God’s pronouncements to the Judeans and for anyone else to whom God wanted to speak. Habakkuk expected God to speak and so prepared and positioned himself to wait expectantly and patiently for Him.

Habakkuk chose to hear from God. He intentionally stationed himself on the rampart because he listened to God’s judgment of the Judeans in chapter one. Habakkuk recognized the sins of his people and understood they deserved God’s judgment. He also realized when he told the Judeans about their judgment from God, anger, confusion, fear, and questions would arise. Habakkuk, as a Judean, wanted to understand better. That’s what the word “see” means in Hebrew. It means to hear, perceive, consider, and understand. As a priest of Yahweh God, Habakkuk wanted to know God better and understand His heart more. As a priest to the Judeans, he wanted to understand well so he could give the Judeans reasons for their judgment from God.

Habakkuk sought God because he knew God; he had a personal relationship with Him. He sought Him because it was a discipline that became a habit in his life. Habakkuk sought God because he had a relationship with him of love and servanthood. He devoted himself to God. Habakkuk’s determined seeking of God-waiting patiently and expectantly knowing God wanted to be with Him-was his devotion time, his quiet time, with God.

A guard on the rampart is an analogy for being a child of God who seeks Him through devotion and quiet times. So often people say, “Well I am open to God to talk to me all day. He can speak to me as I work or drive, so I don’t need, nor do I have time for a quiet time each day. God understands that.” Yes, God understands you are busy, and you put your busy-ness before Him. Your devotion to God is not absolute like Habakkuk’s when your schedule is more important than your time with Him each day. A quiet time is a time you expectantly and patiently wait for God to speak to you externally through His Word and internally through the whispers of His Spirit. It would be hard to hear God over conversations with other people, music in your car, busy-ness in your office, or the roar of the vacuum. That’s not saying God can’t break into your day, if He wants. By living this way, it says God is not important enough in your life. You are not devoted totally to Him and so set aside a time to wait and expect Him to meet with you.

Why do we have quiet times and devotionals?

Ø  To deepen our relationship with God through communing together.

Ø  To hear a word of encouragement, love, correction, or instruction.

Ø  To draw strength and peace from His Spirit.

Ø  To find calm during your busy-ness.

God knows how to fill the needs of our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits. Quiet times with Him do this.

Why do we have quiet times? Because as a child of God, we naturally yearn to be close to Abba, Daddy.

Don’t neglect yourself by chasing butterflies. Go to God, the butterfly Maker.

Dragged Away With a Net

The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore, they rejoice and are glad. Habakkuk. 1:15 [NASB]

“God, where are you?” we ask at times. “Don’t you see me? Don’t you hear my cries for help? Why aren’t you saving me?” These were basically Habakkuk’s words in verse one. He knew he was God’s appointed prophet to the Judeans. God told Habakkuk to tell the people His judgment would come upon them for their wickedness and injustice (vs. 4).

First Habakkuk cried out for the people to God, then he spoke to the Judeans for God. With verses five through eleven, God continued to proclaim through Habakkuk. He explained His judgment of Judea would come through the dreaded and feared Chaldeans (Babylonians). The Chaldean nation was particularly barbaric in warfare. They defeated the Assyrian warriors who themselves had a reputation for ruthlessness and savagery in battle. Since the Chaldeans beat the Assyrians, they were more feared, and Habakkuk and the Judeans were afraid.

With verses twelve through seventeen, Habakkuk returned to speaking to God. He questioned how God could watch and seemingly approve of the evil He allowed upon the Judeans through the Chaldeans. He said, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” (vs. 13) Was Habakkuk questioning God’s decision as Judge of Judea? Or, was he asking a rhetorical question in the midst of the prophecy to help the Judeans understand better why God would use the Chaldeans as His tool to enact His judgment? I would prefer it be the latter.

Rhetorical questions were, and still are, often used as a teaching tool. The knee-jerk answer would be what we wanted to be true. Yet, when pondering the question longer, we must agree the opposite answer is the truth. I would prefer Habakkuk be a man of God so strong in his faith that he would never deign to question God. Still, he was human, one who lived in Judea. He personally cared if his life and the lives of people he cared about would be destroyed. Habakkuk, being human like us, could easily have questioned God’s judgment. He, in essence, said in verse thirteen, “God, you are too good to see and approve evil. Why are you letting our enemies come and destroy us? You are supposed to be our God, our Protector. Where are you?” Was Habakkuk questioning the reality or God? Was he questioning the goodness and faithfulness of God? Was Habakkuk challenging God? Or was he using a teaching tool bringing the reality of the truth of the Judean’s sinfulness against God to the forefront of their minds? It could be all of them. I trust, as a man of God who was either a professional prophet or as a priest in the temple, Habakkuk asked a rhetorical question.

With this question, Habakkuk precisely pointed out for the Judeans God does not approve evil. He is too pure for that. God does not look upon wickedness with favor. Yet, He was silent as to the Chaldeans overtaking the Judeans because He used them to exact His equitable judgment against them for their repeated wickedness and injustice, their turning away from Him.

God through Habakkuk ensured the Judeans understood they continually sinned even after He repeatedly sent prophets to call them to return to Him. Because of their stubborn and willful hearts, God’s judgment would be enacted against them to correct them. He said in verse twelve, “Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge (be the judgment); And You, O Rock, have established them (the Chaldeans) to correct.” The Chaldeans had not gained favor in God’s sight. He had allowed them unhindered access to His children to punish and correct them. Without God’s permission, the Chaldeans would have failed against the Judeans in 586 BC. With this judgment enacted, the Judeans remembered the God who called them His, made them a nation, and provided all things.

Sometimes life gets very hard and we wonder where God is. Isn’t He big enough and strong enough to take care of this, we ask? Other times when bad things happen, we know why. It’s obvious we made a bad decision. Why is it humans most often want to cast blame on another when difficult times arrive? Why do we want to blame God or consider Him small and insignificant? At those times, we think of Him like the Judeans. We think of God as not caring and not as strong as we thought when actually the difficult times come because He cares for us and is strong. Sometimes He allows bad things to grow us, to refine us. Other times God allows problems to arise against us as judgment and correction. We shouldn’t question God’s judgment and heart; He is faithful.

We are the unfaithful ones.

How long will it take for you to recognize rightly why difficult times are happening? How long will you blame God for them? Will it take you being utterly broken before you recognize God? Let’s not wait until it’s too late, and we are dragged away as a sacrifice to our troubles.

We can choose to learn from our difficulties or we can be bitter.

What we choose shows our faith and faithfulness to God.

O, Lord, help us to see You in all our circumstances, to see Your love and care in all our situations. Help us to learn to trust Your heart and to grow as Your children in relationship with You.

Who's the Boss?

“Their justice and authority originate with themselves.”

-Habakkuk 1:7b [NASB]

In Habakkuk 1:1-4, Habakkuk, a prophet of God, spoke about God’s judgment on the Judeans-why it occurred and when it would end. He explained God’s reason for judging the Judeans in verse four. The Judeans ignored the Law, never upheld justice, and the wicked surrounded the righteous.

With Habakkuk 1:5-12, He proclaimed God’s judgment on the Judeans. Habakkuk said through which nation judgment would come. He described the Chaldeans (Babylonians) so the Judeans would understand how intense the coming judgment would be. He used words like fierce, impetuous, dreaded, and feared. Habakkuk described them as having horses swifter than leopards and keener than wolves. He said the Chaldeans fly like eagles swooping to devour. They arrive in hordes of violence. The Chaldeans have no fear, Habakkuk said. They laugh at kings and fortresses. These warriors sweep through like the wind. With this description of an oncoming enemy, any person would tremble in fear for their lives and the lives of their children. They would lose all hope.

The thing we must remember about the Chaldeans is God was the One who used them. They were powerless without Him to overtake His chosen people. In verse five, Habakkuktold the Judeans, “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing things in your days; you would not believe if you were told.” God was the one who brought this judgment on the Chaldeans. Without His permission, the Chaldeans would not have defeated the Judeans. God used them as His judgment because the people of Judah turned their backs on Him, cast off His Laws, and worshiped other Gods. The people whom God chose, brought out of captivity, and to whom He provided land, provision, and protection determined to forget and not follow God.

When we read verse seven, we get a deeper understanding, with the Judeans, of who the Chaldeans were. He said, “Their justice and authority originate with themselves.” Wow, the Chaldeans decided they knew best and could govern themselves best without God. They made up their own truths of morality; it came from nowhere else. The Chaldeans were their own gods.

If we each will stop here and digest this fact about the Chaldeans, then reflect on it, we will realize we each do the same thing. Each day we decide we want something or want to do something so much, that we forgo the moral conscience with which God created us and which is stirred within each Christian by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We know the right things we are supposed to do, but choose to do wrong because of our human nature, our freewill. We make ourselves our own gods. Whoa! Did you get that? We become like the Chaldeans and the Judeans. Our justice and authority, at that time, originates with our own selves. We are sinners, just like the Judeans and Chaldeans, and we deserve the judgment of God.

(Paul wrote,) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. [Romans 7:15-20]

This fact hits each of us hard when we stop as we read this and consider our sinfulness. We have two options once this occurs. We can regret and repent being amoral. God says He will forgive every person who repents and calls upon His name. John said in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess out sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [NASB] God waits for us to repent, though He calls out to us continually.

The other option when we recognize our sin is to remain turned away from God. This is willfulness, seeking what you want while not caring about the cost-to other people, to yourself, and to God. You see, God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to take the penalty, that’s the judgment, for each of our sins so we don’t have to pay this judgment, the price for our sins. What penalty is there for sin? Sin totally separates a person and all people from God. It creates a wall between us and Him. Jesus suffered persecution, torture, and death because He loves us even while we are sinners. Jesus loves us so much that He experienced the torture, persecution, and being nailed to a cross of wood. He felt the agony of the nails being pounded into his flesh, and gasping and drowning in His last breaths. Jesus did this in our place so we wouldn’t have to live that experience. If you decide not to repent, you choose not to accept Jesus paying your penalty. You embrace death instead of life. This choice means you elect to be permanently separated from God and His love.

Each of us, if we are honest with ourselves, think we know what is best for “me.” We say, “You’re not the boss of me!” That’s when we become like the Judeans, Israelites, Chaldeans-like all people. We become sinners in need of saving. It’s either that or God’s judgment.

Truthfully, which would you rather have? Now, what must you do to have that?

                        *Keep doing what you want and be separated from God eternally.

                                                                        or

                        *Repent, believe in Jesus Christ as God’s Son, and receive salvation from

                        your sins and death.

You must choose. God won’t make that decision for you. Your parents and grandparents can’t make that decision for you. You must make the choice for yourself for salvation and eternal life. Just like each of us decides to do what we want even if it is wrong, each of us must choose to repent and accept God’s gift of mercy and salvation.

Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. - Joshua 24:14-15 [NASB]

Injustice Prevails?!

“The law is ignored and justice is never upheld.” Habakkuk 1:4 [NASB]

People cry out to God for the same thing about which Habakkuk cried out to Him. Wicked people appear to prevail. Corruption and crime are rife. Justice is perverted.

Habakkuk’s prophecy proclaimed God’s pronouncement against Judah. They sinned. God saw and would judge. Their enemy, Babylon, would overpower them. Still, God would save His people. The Judeans experienced defeat, but God would deliver them. He would be their mighty Warrior and judge their captors.

Babylon became a rising empire in 626 BC. They defeated Assyria outside Babylon. The Babylonians continued to strike the Assyrian empire and overtook the region. When the Assyrian empire fell, Egypt took Judah to be its vassal. By 609 BC, the Babylonians defeated Egypt and Judah’s loyalty switched.

During these changes of power over Judah, the hearts of God’s people cried to Him. They wondered if God still retained control over them and their land. The Judeans saw corrupted justice and abounding crime. The Judeans, as Habakkuk proclaimed for them, questioned where God could be. Was He hiding? Had God judged the Judeans and taken His hand of protection from them?

When evil seems to reign, remember God still controls all things. He’s omniscient and omnipotent. God knows all things and is all powerful. Nothing surprises Him. Nothing can take you permanently from God’s omniscient protection and provision. You’re His child. Once you choose God-believe in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ-nothing can separate you from Him. Laws may be ignored and justice be hidden, but God sees and is in control. Never fear. You’re a precious child of the High King!

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 [NASB]

God, please help us when we are weak and despair. Help us remember You are our Protector and Provider even in dark times.