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Daily Reader for Day 386: Habakkuk 2 - 2


by Matt Carter

The story we find in Habakkuk is an old one, but it has a contemporary feel. While Habakkuk was written a long time ago, it could easily have been written today. While some details would change, the basic story would remain the same.

 

Bad people succeed. The proud and corrupt take power. Humble people suffer. It feels like life isn’t fair. Yet we know that God’s creation is good. The problem of course is sin and the evil that spirals out from sin, spewing struggle across all of life.

 

The faithful prophets of God are rightly frustrated by this injustice. Some of us like Habakkuk start marching up to the ramparts, shaking our fed up fists at God. “Life isn’t fair God! Good people don’t deserve this! Why do you let the selfish take all the power?! How can you expect us to live like this?! We need you to answer and to act!”

 

God answers Habakkuk, and He answers us. He will set things right. He will bring justice, rescue, and restoration. Wait for it, God says, for it will come. The restoration and renewal of all things comes through Jesus Christ. During this advent season of waiting, we wait not just for the annual celebration of His birth but also for His return. Our job while we wait is to stand up at that watchpost and call others to Him.

 

The Lord is in His holy temple, and the whole creation will be silent before Him.

Habakkuk 2 - 2

I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. Jehovah answered me, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won't prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won't delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous: an arrogant man who doesn't stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol; he is like death and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations and heaps to himself all peoples. Won't all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?' Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it. Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! You have devised shame to your house by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your soul. For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it. Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity! Behold, isn't it from Jehovah of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah's glory, as the waters cover the sea. "Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies! You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink and be exposed! The cup of Jehovah's right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals will terrify you, because of men's blood and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them. "What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it. But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!"

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