Through the Bible - Habakkuk 3 - Zephaniah 2, Revelation 15
Good morning,
I recently signed up for "facebook" on the internet. It is a simple and effective way to communicate with friends over the internet. One of the features of facebook is "the wall" where you can post comments and ask questions. You then sit back and wait for a response.
Today's verse comes from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk where the prophet is standing on the wall, the rampart of the city and posing questions to God, waiting for His response.
Hab 2:1-2
What's God going to say to my questions? I'm braced for the worst.
I'll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon.
I'll wait to see what God says,
how he'll answer my complaint. (from THE MESSAGE)
The prophet, like many of us today, was troubled by what he saw going on in the world around him. He wondered where is God in all of this? Will He do something about the oppression, pain and suffering, injustice, wars and diseases that are destroying humanity and the world he lived in? If He is there and is all powerful, why doesn't he speak, why doesn't he act? If He is loving why doesn't He do something about it?
Today's verses are God's response, His post on the wall.
Hab 2:2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
"Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
4 "Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith. NKJV
The prophet is basically told that God will reveal Himself, His will in His time, and that he is to wait for it, no matter how long it takes. Searching, asking the tough questions is not wrong, but those who have regard for God will seek for answers in Him and in His Word, learning to live by faith until those answers are revealed.
The Babylonians had no regard for God, they were proud of themselves and ridiculed those who believed in and called on God. A proud person relies on self, power, position, status and his own accomplishments and lauds himself over others. You can see this time and time again through the Old Testament in the kings who defied the God of Israel and Judah, only to be crushed by Him.
The NKJV commentary states that "Habakkuk probably had little idea of the explosive truth contained in God's statement. It came as part of a prelude to a taunting song that the prophet was instructed to give against Babylon (2:1-6). The Lord was explaining why the Babylonians would be judged. Fundamentally they were a "proud" people in the sense that they had no fear of God. By contrast the just person, - the individual deserving of God's favor and blessing- would find favor because of His faith in God.".
This statement "the just shall live by faith" would have, and continues to have a far reaching impact. It impacted the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:17, a verse which became pivotal in the life of Martin Luther instrumental in the Protestant Reformation. Paul referred to it again in the book of Galatians (3:11,12) in combating the legalistic tendencies in that church. It impacted the writer of the book of Hebrews who used it as a leading to Hebrews 11 and the "Hall of Faith".
We may not have, we never find all the answers, but our call is to press on in faith. What will you post on "the wall"? Will you wait for His response? How will you go about waiting?
The prophet summed it all up in his benediction, which is part of today's O.T. reading in the read through the Bible plan above:
A Hymn of Faith
Hab 3:17 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. NKJV
In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
Hab 2:1-3:1
2:1 I will stand my watchAnd set myself on the rampart,And watch to see what He will say to me,And what I will answer when I am corrected.
The Just Live by Faith
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
"Write the visionAnd make it plain on tablets,That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.Though it tarries, wait for it;Because it will surely come,It will not tarry.
4 "Behold the proud,His soul is not upright in him;But the just shall live by his faith.
Woe to the Wicked
5 "Indeed, because he transgresses by wine,He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home.Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples.
6 "Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say,'Woe to him who increases What is not his — how long?And to him who loads himself with many pledges'? 7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. 8 Because you have plundered many nations,All the remnant of the people shall plunder you,Because of men's bloodAnd the violence of the land and the city,And of all who dwell in it.
9 "Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house,That he may set his nest on high,That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! 10 You give shameful counsel to your house,Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it.
12 "Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hostsThat the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain? 14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
15 "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! 16 You are filled with shame instead of glory.You also — drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you, And utter shame will be on your glory. 17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you,And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, Because of men's bloodAnd the violence of the land and the city,And of all who dwell in it.
18 "What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it,The molded image, a teacher of lies,That the maker of its mold should trust in it,To make mute idols? 19 Woe to him who says to wood, 'Awake!'To silent stone, 'Arise! It shall teach!'Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,Yet in it there is no breath at all.
20 "But the Lord is in His holy temple.Let all the earth keep silence before Him."
NKJV
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