August 18, 2024 - Habakkuk 1-3

Habakkuk is real.  The man is honest.  The man is bold.  His circumstances were horrible (Jerusalem was falling and being burned right before his eyes).  The man was overwhelmed with what he was witnessing.  Finding it hard to believe what he was seeing, he questioned God and wrestled with God.  We need always to note, though, that the prophets’ questions were not against God but to him; they were sincerely seeking answers, and so it was with Habakkuk.  He thought God was blind to what was going on or, maybe even worse, that God was indifferent, just didn’t care.  His first question to God:  “Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?” (1:3)  The prophet asks, again:  “Why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallow up the man more righteous than he?” (1:13)

Habakkuk took a stand at his watch post and on the tower, and he waited to see how the Lord would answer him (2:1).  The Lord encouraged him to wait for his answer, and even if it seemed slow in coming, to continue to wait; indeed, the answer would come (2:3).  And, of course, the prophet shows his trust in the Lord in that wonderful testimony at the end of the book:  “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” (3:17-19).  Even in the midst of the most horrible circumstances, Habakkuk, and we, can trust God.

Sometimes a light surprises

the Christian while he sings;

it is the Lord who rises

with healing in His wings;

when comforts are declining,

He grants the soul again

a season of clear shining,

to cheer it after rain.   -- William Cowper (1779)