Habakkuk 1-3 -- Waiting On God And Seeing Him Respond

I loved these conversations Habakkuk had with God.  He’d been waiting for an answer to his questions, and it seems that when he finally wrote them down, he received his answers.

He first complained about the sinful culture in Judah.  How long was God going to allow it to continue?  It sounds just like our cries today.  He asked and God answered:  “Watch and be amazed and shocked.   I will do something in YOUR lifetime that you won’t believe even when you are told about it!”

How was God going to get rid of that evil?  By bringing an even bigger evil in – Babylon.  My commentary said that Judah was actually sinning more because they were sinning against a greater light (knowledge of God).  But God’s choice of remedies seemed crazy to Habakkuk!  How could God punish Judah with a nation that was worse than they were?  Habakkuk said, “Your eyes are too good to look at evil.”  I wonder about this, since God knew who to go get, and God knew what the people of Judah were already doing.  Would this mean that, because He is all-knowing that He has to look at evil in order to see His children?

Given the seeming juxtaposition of all this, Habakkuk decides:  “I will wait to see what He will say to me.  I will WAIT to learn how God will answer my complaint.”  So often, we can’t see a way out of trouble, but God has already got an answer on the way, and we simply have to wait for His timing.

Habakkuk expresses the hope that God isn’t done working miracles – “Lord, I have heard the news about You.  I am amazed at what You have done.  Lord, do great things once again in our time; Make those things happen again in our own days.”

God fills Habakkuk with confidence in His watchcare, to the point where Habakkuk can pray that even though there are no crops in the field (Texas today) and no cattle in the barns (Texas today, since there is nothing for them to eat and they have to be sold), I will still be glad in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Savior.  The Lord God is my strength!”

Father, as Job described, You give and You take away, but You are sovereign and You know what You are doing.  Still we can dare to ask, as Habakkuk did, for You to do great things again in our own times.  Bring our nation back to You, heal our land, and remove sin from our lives, God our Savior!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford