Monthly Archives: February 2025

HABAKKUK’S FIRST REDPONSE – 5

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Habakkuk 3:1-2 NLT
[1] “This prayer was sung by the prophet Habakkuk: [2] I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy.”

Habukkuk’s first response to these astonishing disclosures is an expression of wonder at God’s works. His accusation, born of ignorance, has turned to amazement and agreement. God is right, after all. Thinking back to his nation’s history, the prophet remembers what God did to the Egyptian army when they tried to destroy God’s people. Yes, God used them for His purposes but… He also destroyed them in a spectacular way for their wickedness.

Second, the prophet pleads for his own people. The history of God’s intervention that saved His people gives the prophet the courage to ask the Lord to do it again. After all, as God revealed to Moses, mercy is the bedrock of His character.

Exodus 34:6 NLT
[6] “The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.”

Habakkuk knew he was on solid ground when he prayed for mercy. In His earthly ministry, Jesus revealed the nature of the Father who never ignores the bleat of a lost lamb.

Mark 10:46-47, 49, 51-52 NLT
[46]”Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road. [47] When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”…
[49] When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.” So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!”…
[51]“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “My Rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!” [52] And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.”

A well-loved gospel story speaks of this instant response to a blind man’s cry. So, Habakkuk, too, asked the Lord for mercy for his people. Only God’s mercy could temper His judgment in the face of His wrath against their rebellion.

From verse 3 to 13 of chapter 3. Habakkuk describes, in magnificent poetic language, the progress of God as a mighty cosmic warrior, sweeping through enemy territory to subdue armies and rescue His people from their assailants. Even natural boundaries were no obstacle to the Lord as He marched across land and sea to set His people free.

Habakkuk 3:4-12, 12-14 NIV
[4] His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden. [5] Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps. [6] He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed— but he marches on forever. [7] I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. [8] Were you angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory? [9] You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; [10] the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. [11] Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. [12] In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations.
[12] You marched across the land in anger and trampled the nations in your fury. [13] You went out to rescue your chosen people, to save your anointed ones. You crushed the heads of the wicked and stripped their bones from head to toe. [14] With his own weapons, you destroyed the chief of those who rushed out like a whirlwind, thinking Israel would be easy prey.”

These verses reveal the prophet’s radical change of perspective. No longer did he view God as a weakling or an inadequate God who could do nothing about His people’s defiance.

Now his view of God reached the magnificent heights of the mighty sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth. In His wrath against the nations that had oppressed His people, God had mobilised the powers of heaven and earth to crush the enemy. If God had done that for Israel in the past, He could do it again.

To be continued…

HABAKKUK – GOD’S SECOND DISCLOSURE – 4

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Habakkuk 2:1 NLT
[1] “I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.”

Habakkuk declares his determination to get a satisfactory answer from the Lord. If God has chosen to use such a godless nation to discipline His own wayward people, and who knows how far He will allow the Babylonians to go, what about them? Will God let the Babylonians get away with their cruelty?

Habakkuk settles down to wait for God’s reply. However long it might take, he is determined to stay at his post until the answer comes.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 NLT
[2] “Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. [3] This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.”

Finally, God speaks. So important and imperative is His answer that He instructs His prophet to write His reply on clay tablets to be delivered to the entire nation.

God pronounces so fundamental a principle that its truth applies to the end of time. What God had to tell His prophet was not only for the Jews but for all people, revealing the heart of the gospel and the vehicle by which God delivers all His mercy and grace to those He rescues from eternal destruction.

Habakkuk 2:4 NLT
[4] “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”

All humanity is divided into two groups, the proud and the righteous who trust in God.

“Aphal”, translated “proud” means “puffed up, inflated” with empty air. Such were the Babylonians who relied on their own military skill and might and were empty of any reliance on God. Such is any individual who has no need of God.

” Tsaddiq”, meaning just, lawful, or righteous, translated “righteous”, conveys the idea that they abide by God’s laws.

” Emunah”, meaning steadfastness, stability, fidelity, translated “faithfulness”, has the idea of a steadfastly righteous person who is faithful to God’s ways.

What is God saying? From groups of people…the Babylonian army, the nation of Israel, He narrows His attention to the individual. Yes, He treats people as nations but every nation is made up of individuals who are accountable to Him. Each individual belongs to one of God’s two groups, puffed up or faithful.

Every individual is either puffed up with the empty air of self or indwelt, guided and empowered by the Spirit of God. Those who are empty will perish. Those who are full of God will live…and this happens through faith in God.

This disclosute would surely reassure the prophet that God has everything under control. Yes, God will use drastic measures to discipline His people. Yes, difficult times are coming. No, God has not lost the plot. No, God is not sitting on His hands. As messy as things seem to be, from God’s perspective, everything is on track to purify His people from ungodly distractions, to prepare them for their eternal, heavenly existence. As for the rest, they have chosen their path to destruction and no amount of divine intervention will rescue them from their stubborn rebellion against their Creator.

God has finally brought His prophet to a personal assessment, “Habakkuk, are you full of air or full of God?”

For the rest of chapter 2, God says two things…first, the path of the ungodly, clearly described by their choices and actions, is a futile attempt to defy God. However, every evil action has a consequence. What they try to achieve in their arrogance and greed will backfire but… second, whether they like it or not, the knowledge of God’s glory will cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:5, 13-14 NLT
[5] Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied. In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples…
[13] Has not the Lord of Heaven’s Armies promised that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes? They work so hard, but all in vain! [14] For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.”

Finally, Habakkuk has the whole picture. For man, it’s all about money. For God, it’s all about His glory. Who wins in a no-brainer. Man’s wealth will perish with him but God’s glory will spread from shore to shore, covering the whole earth with the knowledge of the splendour of His being and His doings. That’s what it’s all about and no one can stop the process, not even the idols they live to worship.

Habakkuk ends this section with a solemn declaration…

Habakkuk 2:20 NLT
[20] “But the Lord is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”

God is where He is supposed to be, in His throne room, the temple, in the place from which He rules and where He is worshipped. Despite appearances, no one has dethroned Him and no one ever will. The whole earth, every nation and every individual, is both “in His face” in their stubborn rebellion and disobedience, but also in His face “before Him” in His perfect knowledge of every individual. The whole earth, therefore, had better shut up and listen to Him. No one has anything to say in defense of his behaviour. Excuses don’t cut it with God. He has provided a way out of every determined path to destruction. He has provided forgiveness and new life through the death of His Son. If we don’t accept His salvation by faith in Jesus, we have nothing to say.

To be continued…

HABAKKUK’S SECOND DILEMMA-3

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Habakkuk 1:12-15 NLT
[12] “O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. [13] But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they? [14] Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader? [15] Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?”

Poor Habakkuk! He just couldn’t keep up with God. First, he had to process God’s incomprehensible plan to raise up and permit a godless nation to overrun his people. Now he has to come to terms with a contradiction in the very nature of God. If God is holy, how can He use ungodly idolators to fulfill His purposes?

Since God patiently responded to Habakkuk’s questions, it seems that He didn’t consider Habakkuk’s questions arrogant or impertinent. He had something important to teach His distressed prophet about the wisdom of His ways. He responded to Habakkuk’s honesty by taking him step by step through His actions to a place of understanding and personal faith.

Let’s consider Habakkuk’s second question. How can a holy God use ungodly instruments for His purposes? God’s answer, which we will see in our next meditation, opens up a new perspective on God’s sovereignty.

For the moment, we must consider God’s relationship with evil. Evil people with their evil deeds impact our lives every day. Some of us live with them; we work with them; we bump into them in the course of our day; they are around us everywhere. They govern our nation and are bent on inflicting their ungodly decisions on all the people. Where is God in all this?

The story of Job will help us gain a true perspective of God’s use of evil. First, God never tolerates the evil in people. He has no part in it. He is holy, utterly separated from evil people’s thoughts, actions and behaviour. God never tempts us to do wrong.

James 1:13-15 NLT
[13] “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. [14] Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. [15] These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

Our sinful behaviour comes out of our sinful nature…our desires, our choices, our actions but…

Evil has inescapable consequences and evil people will reap them…and the consequences we suffer are not God’s fault.

However, God uses what evil people do, either to us or by us, to corall us into thinking and learning differently about sin. In His wisdom, God works, IN ALL THINGS, for our good.

What an astonishing revelation! How riveting to realise that not even our sin, heinous as it might be, is wasted in our lives. We learn more from what we have done wrong than what we have done right. God weaves our sinful behaviour and its consequences into the tapestry of our lives, the dark threads forming a contrast and revealing the magnitude of His mercy and grace.

Can you see the difference between God causing sin and God using sin in the lives of people? Since He is holy…utterly separate from sin, and demands holiness on us if we are ever to approach Him and be acceptable to Him, He took action to ensure that unholy humans would be transformed by His grace from sinners to saints.

No, Habakkuk, God’s action by raising up and using the ruthless Babylonian army was never a denial of His stance against sin but rather the evidence of His sovereign mercy. Without His drastic intervention to turn His people from their idolatrous ways, the Jews would have perished in their sin. He was preparing them for the moment when He Himself would break into history in the form of a tiny human baby to deal with sin though never part of it.

God’s reassurances regarding the mystery of His ways would lead Habakkuk, step by step, into a new perspective and a new way of handling life’s seemingly insoluble dilemmas.

To be continued…

HABAKKUK – GOD’S FIRST DISCLOSURE – 2

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Habakkuk 1:5-6 NLT
[5] “The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. [6] I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.”

Well now, God, how is that for a solution!

“If you think things are bad now,” God said, “they are going to get a whole lot worse!” God’s answer to Habakkuk’s accusation was as startling as it was terrifying. An army well trained, relentless, and ruthless, was on its way to decimate the nations including Judah, the little, non-descript remainder of what was once David’s mighty Israel.

Habakkuk 1:7-11 NLT
[7] They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. [8] Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey. [9] On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. [10] They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! [11] They sweep past like the wind and are gone”…

God takes pains to describe to Habakkuk the nature of this tool He is about to use to refashion His people. So powerful a military force was coming that nothing and no one would be able to resist them. They would sweep over the surrounding nations like locusts, devouring everything in their path.

Imagine Habakkuk’s horror at this disclosure. Was this God talking or some sadistic impersonation of the God he knew and served? Why would God resort to this means of confronting His people?

Let’s stop and examine the background to this extreme situation. Although God had claimed them as His own, from its inception as a nation Israel was bent on rebellion. They rejected God’s rule over them. They opted for idol worship to be like the surrounding nations. They chose human kings to rule over them in place of God despite the evil influence many of these kings had on them.

God had warned them of the consequences. Their own history bore witness to God’s anger at idolatry. Their ancestors were God’s tool to destroy the Canaanite idolators under Joshua so that they could possess the land, a bit of land they now precariously clung to after the Assyrians had conquered and overrun the northern kingdom of Israel.

Their stubborn rebellion against God was lodged deep in their hearts. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them but no amount of preaching, teaching, or warning shifted them from their chosen path.

A few of their God-fearing kings led the people of God back to a temporary semblance of obedience but, come another rebel king on the throne, they were soon back to their idolatrous ways.

God knew that it would take very drastic action to shift them from rebellion to obedience. The consequences He warned them about didn’t scare them until He did what He said He would do if they refused to repent and change their ways. He had to dispossess them of their beloved land, and send them into exile to live among the idolators they do loved to follow. This was the only way to change their minds about the God they had chosen to abandon.

You see, God never treats anyone as a puppet. He gave the whole human race the gift of self-determination and did not remove it when Adam fell. Adam chose to go it alone and God let him go, despite the consequences because he had made the choice.

Jesus honoured people’s right to choose in His dealings with them. If anyone chose against Him, He did not force His will on that person. He let the rich young ruler go when he chose his wealth over following Jesus.

God’s way of leading people to the right way is by allowing them to feel the pain of their disobedience so that they will repent and choose His way. They must change on the inside by their own choice.

God never forces His will on anyone. He wants people to love and serve Him by their own free will. He uses and guides through circumstances so that people will recognise and be convinced that His way is the right way.

He knew that the only solution was to apply pressure on His people so drastic that they would begin to loathe the rebellion that got them into the situation.

Within the disclosure of His plan to Habakkuk, God inserted an ominous warning concerning the perpetrators of Judah’s punishment,

“But they (the Babylonians) are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”

The destructive power of the Babylonian army would be temporary because God would not tolerate their idolatry either. He would use them to achieve His purpose with the people of Judah and then discard them as worthless because they failed to honour Him.

God’s disclosure of His plan made Habakkuk’s head spin. God’s response was so puzzling that it aroused a new dilemma.

To be continued…

HABAKKUK’S FIRST DILEMMA-1

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Habakkuk 1:1-4 NLT
[1] “This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision. [2] How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. [3] Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. [4] The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.”

This little, seemingly insignificant prophecy from the pen of an unknown prophet, has huge implications for God’s people. if we look into it carefully, we can draw lessons and principles that will guide us through the same dilemma we face in our world today.

The first few verses reveal a scenario that is eerily similar to the reports in our daily newspapers. Violence, evil, misery, destruction, conflict, lawlessness, failure of the courts, injustice…all so evident in our own society! The only difference is that Habukkuk almost lays the blame for the escalation of wickedness at God’s door. “Things have got so bad because you, God, are doing nothing!” he accused.

Now that’s a bold claim! God had every right to swat His angry prophet…but He didn’t. He was patient and kind in His explanation of the real situation. You see, God is painting on a different canvas from the one we think we see. We see the effects of the hearts of people, and God seems indifferent. Unrestrained wickedness, rebellion, lawless…it all began in the garden of Eden.

So why should we be surprised? The same things have been going on since Adam’s decision to go it alone. When people kick God out of their lives, the rest is history…and history tells the story.

Habakkuk’s problem wasn’t so much what was happening but that God was letting it happen. After all, wasn’t God in charge? Isn’t He still in charge? Then why has He allowed things to become so bad, so unrestrained and out of hand? Has he lost His grip on humanity? Is He going anywhere with this mess? Can He turn things around, pull us out of it? Can He, will He put us back on even keel? Is He even interested or concerned about what’s happening to us? Will He eventually shut things down by obliterating the whole planet? After all, He owes us nothing!

In our world, history is repeating itself every day. God’s people are appalled at the level of wickedness and rebellion in the world around us. How and why have things got so bad?

To be continued…