Commentaries on the Book of Habakkuk
Blue Letter Bible Commentary by Ray Stedman
The Just Shall Live by Faith by John Piper
When God Doesn't Make Sense by Mike Leake
A few verses that jumped out at me...
Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. Habakkuk 1:5
Habakkuk had asked God why and how long evil would prevail, and God starts His answer by saying Habakkuk was not going to understand it. God works in ways that are beyond our comprehension. So many times we are actually watching God's answer unveil before our very eyes and we don't recognize it because it's not what we asked for, it's not what we expected, it's not what we would've done.
I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Habakkuk 2:1
God's answer was that He was going to destroy the Assyrians (Ninevites) by raising up the Babylonians. Yep, God was right - Habakkuk didn't understand this. How was replacing the Assyrians with the Babylonians going to solve the problem - it just didn't make sense! But Habakkuk showed his faith in God, he was going to wait for him. He knew that God was good. He knew that God was all-powerful. He knew that God was and is and always will be. And he would wait for God.
So often that is what we need to do. We aren't going to necessarily get an answer to our questions. God is not always going to reveal His reasons to us. And when He does, we are not always going to understand them. And so we need to rely on the God that has been revealed to us in the scriptures and by His Holy Spirit and we need to trust in Him, and wait on Him.
The righteous will live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4b
These words are quoted in the New Testament in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. This is the word that lit a fire in the heart of Martin Luther, "The righteous shall live by faith." Not by circumstances or by observations or by reasoning, but by faith in what God has said will happen.
In these words the prophet is shown that there are only two possible outlooks on life. There are only two attitudes by which we can face life. Either we face it in faith depending upon God, or we face it in unbelief depending upon our own ability to reason out everything. These are the two fundamental attitudes, and they are the only two. You can only have one or the other. If you look around you will see that every human being on the face of the earth can be put into one of these two categories. Either they are trusting in the wisdom of the human mind to study events and arrange solutions, and they try to analyze the writings of clever men and come to conclusions about human events based on these sources, or they take what God has said and believe that when he has said a thing will happen, it will happen and that all of history converges into and hinges on that promise....
[Habakkuk's prayer] is one of the most remarkably beautiful, poetic passages in all the Scriptures. Read it and see how the prophet is doing nothing more or less than going back and remembering what God has done in the past. That is what convinces Habakkuk that God can be trusted. He rests upon events that have already occurred, events which cannot be questioned or taken away or shaken in any way; the great fact that God has already moved in human history. And this is where faith must rest. We do not live by blind faith. We live with a God who has acted in time and space, who has done something, who has indelibly recorded his will in the progress of human events. The prophet looks back to God's action in Egypt when Israel was in trouble and remembers here how God moved. (Ray Stedman from the Blue Letter Bible commentary above)
And then we have one of my favourite passages....
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18
Have you discovered that? That though the problem remains and the pressure is still there, there can be a strengthening of the inner man that makes the heart rejoice and be glad even in the midst of the difficulty. That is what Habakkuk discovered. "The Lord himself," he says, "is my strength." And that is New Testament truth. That is the great secret of a Christian. Not that God takes the problem away. The world is desperately trying to find a way to get rid of the problem. But God has ordained that the problems shall remain. "In the world you have tribulation," Jesus said, "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (Jn. 16:33) 1 love the title of a book by Dr. Edman, former president of Wheaton College. It so gloriously sums up what a Christians' attitude should be in the midst of difficult times. Do you know what it is? "Not Somehow, But Triumphantly." Not just getting through it somehow, but triumphantly. (Ray Stedman, emphasis mine)
Tomorrow's passage: Zephaniah 2:8-3:20, 2 Chronicles 35:20-27, 2 Kings 23:29-30, Jeremiah 47-48
2 comments:
I love those last few verses in Habakkuk, too! I need to remember those more often when it feels like life isn't going my way.
One of the things that I admire about Conrad is his deep rooted and unshakeable faith. I tend to worry, stress out, cry, and be generally unpleasant when things don't go my way or I am not sure exactly what the future holds. However, Conrad is secure and confident that God has it under control. When I was worried about my job situation a few months ago, Conrad constantly reminded me that God had so graciously opened the doors this far and He would not close them unless He had another plan waiting. It turned out that this was absolutely true and while I wrestled with uncertainty, God taught me that He always knows what He is doing. Life lessons are so hard!
Post a Comment