impinged

These last two verses of Habakkuk’s prayer are the most beautiful and inspiring of this book. He basically says that he knows there are going to be hard times ahead; he knows the road isn’t going to be easy, but even so, he can trust in God. In this affirmation of faith he is saying that in the hard times God will provide the strength to persevere. The picture of the deer is a beautiful illustration of his confidence in God.

17 Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

Habakkuk responds to God with a song of faith. It is a beautiful picture of how to see God’s hand in the midst of our suffering - look at all he has done in the past. Here Habakkuk remembers how the Lord delivered Israel from her enemies so many times before. Habakkuk also reminds himself who God is: how mighty, merciful, and just the Creator is. These reminders are enough to renew his spirit, refresh his hope, and strengthen his faith.

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“But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
Habukkuk 2:20

False idols, the worship of money, the pursuit of personal gain at anothers expense - all these things God was warning the people of Judah against through the vision given to Habakkuk. It seems he is still warning us against these things today. We look for God in all the wrong places. We make things to be our God. But they hold no power but the power to destroy. If we just listen, God tells us where he is. In the days of Habakkuk the temple was a physical place. Today, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are His temple. We need only to open the door to let him into our hearts and he will dwell in us. Be still and know that he is God.

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The Lord answers Habakkuk’s complaint. He tells him to write it down and to send it out among the people. The answer: Justice will be done, evil will not go unpunished, God is in control. He also answers the question of when - “Later”. The Lord says these things will happen and they need only to have patience. This is the lesson I’ve had to learn in my own life. I can’t always see what God is doing because I can only see what is happening right in front of me right now. I need to have patience not because God moves so slow or because God likes to torture me, but because God is doing a great work and I’m the one who learns so slowly.

It took me many years and many heartaches to get to where I am today. I believe this is where he wanted me to be all along. But I have been a slow learner. I had to continually repeat the same pain, learning a little more each time, until I finally learned the lesson. And what was that lesson? Trust God with everything and in everything.

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I read these verses a few days ago, the day after we learned of Trisha (Bosman) Zylstra’s death and the death of her son who was born that day. She leaves behind a husband and twins not even two years old. And we don’t understand. How does a good and loving God allow this to happen? If he is God, then all things are in his hands, right? Then it is Him who took her and is allowing these babies to grow up without a mother. There are a lot of people with a lot of questions and really questioning God right now.

The prophet Habakkuk saw the terrible things happening to God’s people; he saw evil people prosper while the righteous were persecuted. And he asked God why? Many times in the bible we see God questioned as to why he is allowing bad things to happen to good people. From this we know it is ok to humbly question God. Habukkuk shows us how how. He humbly and respectfully lays his case before God. Then he does the most important thing - he takes the step we most often forget: he waits for God’s answer.

I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the Lord will say to me and how he will answer my complaint.
Habukkuk 2:1

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God is doing a great work though no one can see it. Our view is so myopic. God was raising up an evil people, the Babylonians, to punish the Jews for turning their back on God. This was true and obvious so why does God say in verse 5, “… I am doing something in your day, something you wouldn’t believe”? Because the uncompromising faith of a few believers (Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Obednego) who are currently living a few hundred miles away, is about to turn these people, who’s strength is their god, into believers of the God of Israel. So what is the point? Simple, God is in control even when we can’t see what he is doing.

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I’m back…

I’ve been doing my devotions in the book of Habakkuk lately. I’m trying something different in that I’ve read through the book several times and now I’m going through it piece by piece and writing my thoughts about each section. It is an interesting process. When I start I have no idea where I’m going but it seems the Holy Spirit begins to reveal to me deeper meanings as I write. Here I’ll be sharing my thoughts.

What really stood out to me in the first 4 verses of this book is the line, “Therefore the law has become powerless.” These were Jews living under the law and being punished for turning from God - turning from following his law. Because they strayed from the law God punished them by raising up the Babylonians (or Chaldeans depending upon your translation) to conquer them. This plunged their society into a lawlessness. The social structure they were used to was gone. Rape, violence, plundering, theft, and injustices of every kind ran rampant; no one felt safe. Their sons were stolen and marched back to Babylon to serve the king. It was a society without any of the protection that laws afford. And then the parallel becomes clear. This was a result of them leaving the protection afforded by following God’s law. So often we seen Christianity as confining, a list of rules and regulations instead of a life of freedom. A lawless society is a society enslaved. Living without God is a life enslaved. We only find true freedom in Christ.

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