The following was to be just a preface but it has turned out to be a post in itself.....followed by a post from November of 2018!
From Jonah to Micah To Nahum and now to Habakkuk....God is laying out for us to see....not only what happened to Israel and Nineveh and Judah and Babylon....but what is happening to us today. We do not want to hear this! We are not into judgment if it concerns us! We shut our ears.
Ten minutes ago....about 8:30 in the morning....I listened in for a few minutes....Donald Trump being interviewed by his flagship radio station....Breitbart. I had been a talk radio listener for roughly fifty-five years....up until about three years ago. I remember one show in early 2017....it was Mark Levin's. He had up till then been increasingly critical of Donald Trump since taking office....as was I....with good reason....and then something happened....it was so obvious.....even Levin could not hide it. He had....for whatever reason.....decided that he would from then on forget the criticisms and defend the man.
To listen to this interview this morning was surreal....it was the same horrid deception from a demented psyche that had bewitched people beginning eight years ago. There is only one possible explanation for republicans and conservatives and many evangelicals....not telling this man to leave....and to never return....and that reason is that this is judgment....a blindness....from God....to us.... who have had mountains of evidence....for many years now....that this man was everything that God's Word has told us to stay away from....but we would not listen.
Habakkuk was like you....if you truly are vexed at what has happened to America....and if in your confusion your concern is that we have departed as a nation from God. The difference may be in that Habakkuk listened to what God said. It was as if God was pointing to a man like Trump who...."enlarges his desires as hell"....who...."covets evil gain for his house"....who leads others astray....as if giving them drink....but the prophecy continues..."Woe to him"....for surely a "proverb" will be said about him.....a "riddle"....and is that not what has happened to Trump today? Is he not as a proverb....of the judgment that will follow a man who through pride and injustice gathers all about him?
What is very interesting here....as mentioned in the following post....is that in amongst all this prophecy are seven words that exploded upon the mind of Martin Luther....and then upon the world...."the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4) The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ precedes it...."the vision [that] is yet for an appointed time; But the end of it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Hab 2:3)
Chapter three is the Tribulation and the return of Jesus in power and glory....the mountains are moved....(we see this description in other prophets....possibly plate tectonics....Micah and Nahum for example)....rivers are apparently formed or moved. Chapter 3 verse 5 mentions....depending on the translation....pestilence and plague....(literally fever or heat. This prophetic book is essentially a psalm....a poem....worship...."yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will take joy in the God of my salvation." (Hab 3:18)
"Yet I Will Exalt In The LORD"......November of 2018
The prophet Habakkuk speaks to us today....but will we listen? Hidden away in a slew of other prophets that we ignore....books labelled 'minor prophets' because of the short length....it gives us a glimpse of Habakkuk's extreme frustration as his beloved Judah was destructive and violent....full of strife and contention....where law is ignored and justice is never upheld. Does that description sound familiar?The prophet begins by venting to God his frustrations. Why isn't God doing something about this? Why has the LORD not intervened? The answer that God gave Habakkuk was not the answer that he wanted to hear. God was going to bring judgment upon Judah.....and he was raising up the Chaldeans to do that!
Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Nineveh was about to fall....and Babylon about to rise. Nahum had just prophesied impending doom to Nineveh. Habakkuk was now....after God's answer to his question....even more frustrated in that God would use a more violent nation....Babylon.....to punish Judah. It's as if he then stood there and defiantly said.....'explain that God'.....and then waited to hear God's rebuke....but God didn't rebuke him....he calmly told Habakkuk to record the vision that he was about to see.
Martin Luther would be transformed by part of what God told Habakkuk...."Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith." God was showing Habakkuk what would happen in the future...."at the appointed time." He was pointing to the Messiah. Yes Babylon would bring judgment upon Judah....but God then quickly taunted Babylon.....five times! Their turn for God's wrath would be next.
So what would Habakkuk do now....offer a third challenge to God? No...even though his "inward parts trembled" and his lips "quivered" in acknowledgment of what was about to happen to Judah....God gave him a quiet and a calm....and a prayer that Judah would utter and sing even as Babylon approached.
Habakkuk....like Jeremiah and Daniel......had to give their messages....but none of them would see the final fulfillment of their prophecies....both judgment and redemption....while in their mortal bodies. Habakkuk's inner parts did tremble and his lips did quiver after realizing what was going to happen to Judah....but his final words were....and they should be our words....as we have witnessed our nation rebel in ways eerily similar to Judah's...."Yet I will exalt in the LORD. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds feet, and makes me walk on my high places."
Christians should know by now that judgment is coming to the nations of the West that once acknowledged and even reverenced God....but now violently oppose His mere presence even in tradition. In many of us....our inward parts tremble....and our lips quiver....but as Habakkuk's final prayer proclaimed the power and "everlasting ways" of Almighty God.....we for our part know very well....and should proclaim....the glorious return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....in the midst of judgment not totally unlike in its terror what Judah experienced with Babylon.
