Things couldn’t have been darker from Habakkuk’s perspective. In fact, the prophet could not understand God and what He was allowing. After some spiritual recovery in his country of Judah, things took a steep nosedive. Violence and corruption and evil prevailed. “How long am I going to have to cry to You for help,” he asks the Lord. If you read the opening verses, Habakkuk is basically saying: “Lord, I get the sense my cries to You are falling on deaf ears. You are not listening. You are not responding. You are not intervening. You are doing nothing to stop the evil. You tolerate it. Why Lord?”
Notice that Habakkuk was not talking to others about the sins of Judah. He was speaking directly into the ear of God. Love protects and does not broadcast failure and sin. Love is not anxious to share the news of failure – in fact, has not even the slightest desire to share such news. In our families, when a loved one has committed a wrong, we keep the grief and hurt and sadness to ourselves. They are known as family secrets. It is not the thought of a cover-up but rather information that is too painful to share. Habakkuk ’embraced’ His God – but he also loved God’s failing people. He took the matter to God
Do you ever have heart-to-heart communications with the Lord? Is your relationship deep enough with God that you can ask Him the hard questions that plague your soul?
When your heart is so utterly burdened and heavy, have you fallen to your knees and cried out to God and asked Him the tough questions? Habakkuk did. The Lord responded and said: “I am going to do something in your day that you could not believe would ever happen even if you were told.” Did Habakkuk get excited for a moment? Then the Lord told him that he would punish Judah’s horrible evil by allowing the even more cruel and godless Babylonians to swoop down into their land to create their destructive havoc.
Habakkuk learned that God was still alert up in the Heavens. He wasn’t oblivious to what was happening down here and that God did, in fact, have a plan. But Habakkuk was flabbergasted at God’s plan. He lodged a formal complaint with Him. He couldn’t believe that God would use an even more wicked nation to bring judgment on the sins of Judah. In the vernacular, Habakkuk basically said: “This makes no sense to me, Lord. I’m shocked at Your approach. But I will wait to see how You respond to my latest concern.”
The Lord graciously and kindly got back to him. God assured him that all sin would be punished – Judah’s as well as wicked Babylon’s. Nothing would be missed by God. God tells Habakkuk, “It may not all happen the way you think it should unfold or according to your timeframes. You might think it is slow in coming. But even if it lingers, wait for it. It will come. Trust Me.”
How would Habakkuk or other God-fearing people ever navigate and stay afloat through all of this? In contrast to proud, self-reliant people who trust in themselves for victory, the Lord introduces the statement that is repeated three times in the New Testament:
But the righteous will live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4
Faith in God, confidence in God, trust in God equals survival – even thrival. “Habakkuk, trust Me. I’m not up here trying to figure it all out. I do have a plan and a schedule. Even when it seems like the sky is falling, look to Me. Keep your eyes on Me. I can do it. I will do it. If you just keep on looking to Me, you will make it through even the darkest days of your life. Righteous ones will live by their faith in Me.”
How kind of God to respond to Habakkuk’s anxiety attacks and despondency over all that was going on. The little book starts off with Habakkuk telling God how to run His universe but it ends with renewed confidence and a beautiful song of trust and confidence in God. Habakkuk ends with this ‘faith-in-God’ lyrics that were to be accompanied by an orchestra:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. Habakkuk 3:17-19
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.
Warmly in Christ,
Peter Ramsay
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