The Prophet Habakkuk lived in times like our own. He had
been tormented by the unrighteousness of his nation:
·
LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you
will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make
me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence
are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and
justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice
goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2–4 (ESV)
However, Habakkuk was disturbed by the answer he received
from the Lord. He would bring the Babylonians to punish his nation, Judah:
·
“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that
bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize
dwellings not their own.” (Habakkuk 1:6)
Habakkuk complained against God’s promised judgment and
awaited His response. The Lord answered that He would protect His people during
this coming destruction. Nevertheless, it took Habakkuk a while to resign
himself to this reality. Finally, he was able to conclude:
·
You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his
warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour
the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of
mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly
wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 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 3:14–19)
We can learn from Habakkuk’s conclusions. First, he did not
deny the horror that confronted Judah. However, he would wait patiently for the
inevitable judgment of the Lord against the Babylonians. There is nothing wrong
with desiring justice. Even the martyred saints cried out for the justice of
the Lord:
·
They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign
Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on
those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told
to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their
brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
(Revelation 6:10–11)
God was pleased with their request since He too loves
justice.
Meanwhile, Habakkuk would “rejoice in the Lord.” He would
take joy in the promised salvation of the Lord - “the righteous shall live by
his faith” (2:4). He would also rejoice in God’s promised provisions during the
holocaust. God would enable His Prophet to climb above the agony (3:19).
We too must look in faith, beyond the approaching calamity,
to the eternal:
·
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self
is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light
momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that
are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are
unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)
Only by setting our sights on the things above can we hope
to stand amid the things below.
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